Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about. ” So how should you feel about Web Summit, DreamForce, TechCrunch Disrupt, CES, SxSW or any of the myriad of tech events that are put on every year? This is how he gets world-class speakers to travel half way around the world.

Web 150

Web Conference Technical Review Class 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

John gave me the book after I spoke at his entrepreneurship class at UCSB. I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. So how does this apply to you?

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. And that’s real cash that LPs can’t put to work in other asset classes.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

And it’s the latest in a series of investments we’ve made in building out our practice as the LA technology market continues to grow robustly and attract entrepreneurs and investors. I was a proud angel investor in Jody’s company, EcoMom. He founded a company and tried to persuade me to use his product (and invest).

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

How do you take a business you started as your own personal web site, and turn it into an online powerhouse, completely bootstrapped, from the little town of Ojai, California--not exactly known as a technology town? If we had both still be in Los Angeles, we'd been too busy to start a company, and wouldn't have need to start a company.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

Good news: a quick review of TechCrunch’s March 2015 List of Top 20 U.S. Obtaining funding is a key milestone, but equally important is helping fledgling companies build institutional mass once they leave the relatively safe confines of an accelerator. According to Jason, “Every experience is also a learning experience.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. To hear about the company, we spoke with Ramit Varma , co-founder of the company. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. Each of those three companies now work with around 30,000 students a year.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2010

For decades the “layering&# of technology has allowed us to develop IT systems and networks in a specialized way that let’s best-of-breed technology solutions to emerge at each layer of the stack and to allow people with different skill sets to specialize in key areas without having to have competence in every technology arena.

Startup 343

Startup Technical Review S3 Services 343

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Every investor in your startup, even friends and family, normally expects a share of your company (equity), which means your return for all your effort goes down quickly. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. Otherwise find an inexpensive class on grant writing.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? Most VCs fund companies with a degree of traction.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

This has been especially true for angels or seed investors as there is a new thesis that less capital is needed to start Internet companies so more money is being spent at this phase of the funding lifecycle. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

He kicked off the fest with his opening keynote, saying LA is a unique city of mash-ups, where tech, startups and entertainment – plus creativity, cultures, and passion – mix with successful results. RT @OEInnovation #SBF why I live in #LA: intersection of #beach #tech #entrepreneur #entertainment. & Women 2.0:

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I believe a bubble occurs when a market is willing to pay greater than intrinsic value for an asset class. That asset class need not represent the broader market. They are often bound by geographies and asset classes. I believe that. and profits! And so on down then line.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. It is an LA-based company that was recently acquired by Amazon, which you can read more about in this incredibly well-researched article.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

Nearly every company faces its crisis moments and only through the inspiration , focus and dedication of the leadership can you motivate teams to dig in deep and come out the other side stronger. I made an investment in a company with deep domain knowledge. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

InfoChachkie

JUNE 20, 2011

Due to their lack of practical experience, this delegation/efficiency tradeoff is especially acute with respect to hiring Interns. However, many of the characteristics of our Intern Programs were also applicable to non-technical positions, as follows: Meaningful Work – Treat your Interns as adults and magical things will happen.

Startup 244

Startup Software Review Technical Review Class 244

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. This should not be confused with raising too much money as many companies did in 2006-08. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

The competition is set up to award $50,000 to the best team each year, and is also tied to a class on entrepreneurship for engineering students. The reason for that, is in my opinion, the majority of the innovations that have improved our nation in the past 150 years have been due to technology and engineering innovations.

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

If you’re not familiar with the term it’s basically trying to help all of us who are deluged with technology to find ways to cope with the masses of information without having it ruin our lives. They can travel the world, take classes in interesting subjects, spend time with loved ones or start new hobbies.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. He says it basically comes down to three key functions: Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. So things that have to be done early get done early, but only at the last possible moment that the early task is due. I thought through the steps: Get a class of interesting companies. I couldn’t.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I believe that it’s OK for young people to learn and try different roles, companies and geographies. 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. We all learned.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Yet, despite his exceptional courtroom theatrics, you would be foolhardy to hire good old Johnnie to review your software cross-licensing agreement. Such a lawyer will not go out of their way to screw you, but when crafting the investor documents and in future investor-related issues, your lawyer’s allegiance must be to your company.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

We've basically taken advantage of all the new technology out there--especially, the web-based service model. For parents, if you're interested in how your kids are doing, you can find out what their schedule is like, what homework is due when, what their grades are, and how they are progressing, plus you can communicate with their teachers.

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Interesting patterns emerged: Everyone makes the same classes of error. No, the question is: What are doing now knowing that a big company will copy your idea?

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217