Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2016

For a software startup, a patent can be the intellectual property providing the key competitive advantage, or it can be an expensive non-defensible bureaucratic nightmare -- or both. Some argue to simply eliminate software patents, while others put their hopes in U.S. Patent offices can’t keep up with software technology.

Patents 53

Patents Software Review Software Technical Advisors 53

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based web hosting and cloud computing provider DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com) raised a big, $30M funding round for the company--the first in the company''s long history. Simon Anderson: DreamHost offers a web hosting, and now, cloud computing platform and storage. We''ve also managed to grow quite nicely.

Software Review 238

Software Review Cloud Computing Technical Review Platform 238

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

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. My sales tax payments were due in the next few days, and I didn’t have the money. Frank Peters made his money writing software for Wall Street. But there’s more.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Meritech Capital also participated in the funding. Robison reports that the company now has over 400 employees, spread across seven building in a Carpinteria campus, in addition to a web development branch in Calabasas, and sales offices in the UK and Australia. READ MORE>>.

Funding 178

Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0 There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 Cisco and others went out to fill out their Web 2.0

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

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. Have you raised capital? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. What Is This? Are there specs?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

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. Have you raised capital? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. What Is This? Are there specs?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Xconomy

MARCH 20, 2018

Mythic , which last year unveiled its novel computer chip designed for artificial intelligence, announced today that it has raised $40 million in a Series B fundraising round led by the venture capital arm of Japanese telecom and tech giant SoftBank.

Artificial Inteligence 77

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review 77

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Andy Wen was the CTO of Christianity.com, and the CTO of early online education firm VCampus, and he also ran the product and web security for eTrade, as well as started a company called Lighthound deals, like a Groupon. Another guy who is helping is Richard Yen, who is at Saban Capital, and has joined as an advisor.

Startup 271

Startup CTO Coach Activity Software Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0 If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest. Brad’s start in Venture Capital. was starting. So if you are outside the U.S.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Los Angeles-based Signal Sciences (www.signalsciences.com), which develops web application firewall software, just inked a big, $35M series C funding round a few weeks ago, and now has plans to dramatically expand its hiring in Los Angeles. Tell us a little bit about this round? Were excited about both angles.

Startup 113

Startup Funding Technical Review Software Review 113

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

The barriers to entry when it comes to launching a company require less tension and a lot less capital. Still though, when founders are seeking funding, “ 75 percent of the venture capital goes to three states: Massachusetts, New York, and California,” said Steve Case in an interview with Recode.

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

I recall being impressed with Jeff, but I was concerned that he was creating a platform, which often requires a significant amount of capital, takes an extended amount of time to establish and can be subject to margin pressure as the enabling technologies become commoditized. Tech Diligence - Consider The Source.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I provided a whole set of questions that I go through with founders before Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything. What existing systems will we leverage, what programming languages, software development methodologies, web application frameworks, revision control systems, etc.? Accounting?

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

One of the firms launching this week there is Los Angeles-based NativeTung (www.nativetung.com), which is developing tools to help web sites translate and create multilingual versions of their sites. Idris Manley: Essentially, what we do is we create a global layer for web sites, that supports multiple language content channels.

Startup 133

Startup Technical Review Social Network Content 133

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

And he was still in the process of raising additional capital, so it was equity only. In my view, the very fact that they feel that the technical development of a web startup is only worth a couple percent speaks volumes. I thought it was a pretty reasonable dialog with this founder and we quickly arrived at some answers.

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

What I want to answer with this post (long though it may be) is: Why did Web 2.0 Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. Social Networking in Web 1.0.

Social Network 297

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Web 297

socalTECH

JULY 21, 2011

The firm announced a funding round last week, from DFJ Frontier, DFJ JAIC, Gold Hill Capital, and angel investors Gil Elbaz (Factual), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), and Walter Kortschak (Summit Partners), and many others. That, combined with being early on the social web, was the nexus from where MomentFeed came about.

Social Media 248

Social Media Zumbox Media Startup 248

Xconomy

MAY 29, 2018

The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and related technologies are being used to connect ovens, refrigerators, and other kitchen appliances to the Web. When it comes to connected homes, the hottest spot is located in your kitchen. Feeling unsure about cooking that fish dish?

Artificial Inteligence 85

Artificial Inteligence Help Startup Web 85

Xconomy

NOVEMBER 13, 2016

View the Slideshow A little more than a year ago, amid a resurgence in San Diego’s software sector, Xconomy identified a baker’s dozen of local tech companies to watch in 2016. The idea was to feature early stage companies in the region that have not attracted much attention or raised a substantial amount of startup capital.

San Diego 40

San Diego Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Startup 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006). I don’t plan to write the authoritative venture capital blog, just some anecdotes. Thus is venture capital.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2011

The simple answer is that if you want to be found and remembered on the Web, the perfect domain name can easily be worth several thousand dollars. Here's how the master of Web domains built a $300 million empire of over 300,000 domain names. Early on, he wrote software to snag expiring names on the cheap. Need wedding shoes?

Company 81

Company Companies Pricing Web 81

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=FB CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=GOOG CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=I/DRG CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=I/HOM CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=I/ISV CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=I/MED CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=M/TEC CODE=DJII-DJN SYMBOL=MDA.T October 5, 2012.

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 4, 2014

It’s almost been a work week since Techzulu and Gadget Review’s REACH | The Connected Future and we’re still reeling with excitement. “Sustainability is about developing an investment focus around social economic benefits that occur from capital solutions.

UCLA 99

UCLA Technical Review Software Review Incubator 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

SoCal Delicious

AUGUST 28, 2012

Venture capital. With LaunchPad’s help, more than 61 Orange County companies have raised more than $97 million in startup capital, seed, and series A investments — and much of that money comes from Valley investors betting on their neighbors to the south. Backup Software. Blog Software. CRM Software.

Southern California 57

Southern California PHP Technical Review Orange County 57

Xconomy

OCTOBER 3, 2017

3 due to the slow growth of the VR market and a fundraising attempt that fell through. AltspaceVR , one of the forerunners of shared social experiences in virtual reality spaces, has been saved from extinction by Microsoft, which announced Tuesday that it is acquiring the four-year-old company.

Software Review 52

Software Review Startup Services Marketing 52

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

IngBoo is an online marketplace for information updates-where consumers receive timely updates on relevant topics and web publishers compete effectively for consumer attention. enables developers to sell cross-platform web-apps that optimize to your mobile device. You can now switch your phone and take your apps with you.

Social Media 71

Social Media Technical Review Mixergy Tech Coast Angels 71

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. 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.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309