Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I seldom hire patent attorneys during due diligence but this was too important. We hired IP specialists to review prior art. We hired OSHA regulatory lawyers. It was impressive.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I consider this trip the anniversary of the company’s starting up, and made the trip 11 years in a row. I never took a business course, never wrote a business plan, and never raised any outside capital. I had to be successful at my new software company. I woke up that next morning with a jolt – literally.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. ” **. Working on it.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. What makes up revenue?

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

We caught up with Ryan (who calls himself an "anti-VC") to hear more about his investment firm, which has invested in such companies as Heal , Elite Daily , Saucey , and FragMob. Tell us a bit of the story on how you started HashtagOne? We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

million in a new round of financing from Peter Thiel, FF Angel , Siemer Ventures , 500 Startups , Andrej Henkler (former Bertelsmann executive), and Alexsis de Raadt-St. Jackson added, “FinTech has traditionally lagged behind the innovation that’s happening in other areas of enterprise software. 25 Years of Writing Code.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. The earlier the round, the less capital you need and the more reasonable your valuation the less time that is needed generally to raise capital.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. But today I want to give you advice on how to decrease your odds of failure in a startup. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Start-up Lessons.&#. My starting line with every entrepreneur is that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned from F’ing it up on my first business. I even put that in the the preamble to my Start-up Lessons outline. That is, until I lost.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

InfoChachkie

MAY 18, 2015

When joining a startup, there are seven important questions you should ask in order to answer the question: “What the heck are my stock options worth?”. You just received a job offer from a startup which includes 50,000 stock options. 2. What is the company’s total capitalization? That is wonderful…or is it?

Startup 100

Startup Software Review Pricing Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. How did you start blogging? “My In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

Rufus Labs is one of a number of hardware startups which have started to proliferate in the community, due to low cost hardware, 3D printing, and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Where they start to fail, is one, they are handheld. Plus, they don't collect data, and use really old, limited software.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? And he was still in the process of raising additional capital, so it was equity only. Was it a case of needing Homework?

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. Value Prop Twitter Style : AngelList is the productization of raising startup funding. 6) Naval, why does the startup world need AngelList and Venture Hacks? . “As We are productizing the raising of capital for startups. ”.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

Josh Kaplan and Dee Murthy, both founder and co-CEO of the Los Angeles–based company, started Ghost in 2021 after previously working together at Four Five Group, a men’s apparel business. Over the past decade, they saw the differences in relationships as brands began to start more online. Syrup Tech bags $6.3M

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

Intellectual Property (IP) is an ugly thing at a startup. However, to a Big Dumb Company (BDC), a startup’s IP is a thing of beauty. How can IP be worthless to a startup yet very worthwhile to a BDC? Patents held by startups generally have a limited ability to reduce competition. Three years is a lifetime at a startup.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. How did Revolution Prep start? We started in 2000. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We started that in 2002, and it's actually our eight year anniversary, on the 20th of September.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

It is code word for “I’m not ready to invest for whatever reason … I need more proof.&#. Tell them about what you’re up to in your business, show them your product or prototype, tell them your strategy, talk about the deals you’re working on and seek feedback. Schedule a follow up meeting.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

of all statistics are made up. I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. Here’s how I learned my lesson: I started my life as a consultant. I had to read each report, synthesis it and then come up with our best estimate of the markets going forward. I say it deadpanned.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

What is it about the content delivery network market which has enabled Santa Monica-based EdgeCast to go from startup to over $100M in revenues in only a few, short years? We caught up with James Segil , the firm's President, to hear the story behind that big growth at the company. We've grown really fast. company.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way). I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. And a great product starts with the founder. Their name alone is enough to get meetings set up. I get that.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. Thus, while we maintain a healthy degree of optimism, we begin each funding discussion knowing that most nascent startups are not worthy of an investment, until we prove them otherwise. Unicornless.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. If a fund has a $25 million fund then you know they aren’t going to be writing $5 million checks!

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. People get too worked up over the word. It’s like people arguing that there’s a beautiful beach house in 2006 that represents great long-term value due to scarcity of similar property. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

Ive not found that much use for LinkedIn to help my blogging, but Im starting to think about this. I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits. Maybe this meme will help.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2010

For our interview today, we caught up with Al Eisaian , CEO of Pasadena-based IconApps (www.iconapps.com), which is developing mobile applications for the iPhone market. We caught up with Al recently to hear about his latest startup. How did you end up in the mobile market from last running an enterprise software firm?

Mobile 168

Mobile .Net Pasadena Software Review 168

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. We had to ramp up our team quickly and ramp we did.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

No one wakes up and says to themselves, “I need to buy that product I have never heard of before.” Google’s market capitalization is in the stratosphere for a reason – keyword search advertising is highly effective. Affiliates invest the up-front marketing expenses required to attract customers. It does not happen.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

They decide to wake up early to read the materials. In town board members also only scan it because they, too, have morning meetings before the board meeting starts. The meeting starts. It probably starts late. If you put up 5 slides on “what should we order for lunch today” the board will spend 30 minutes debating that.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Frank Addante

JULY 30, 2007

► August (1) Stay Positive ▼ July (2) Go Fast, but Don’t Hurry The DNA of an A++ Team ► June (1) Setting up Shop - Picking an Office Space ► May (3) Startup 6.0 - the Rubicon Project: Internet Advert. ► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? Visit StrongMail Website Startup 4.0:

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Too many startup execs place too much emphasis on the big stage launch. I’ve heard many startup CEO’s (and VCs!) It started socially. Robert’s article is worth reading.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I never implied that startups are all great and job hoppers are all at fault. No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. Yes, I know that many employers are bad.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285