Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

Steve is also a Stanford Professor and noted marketing entrepreneur. Eric (Ries) was a student in one of the very earliest customer development classes at Berkley. Four Steps was essentially my class notes. Large companies write business plans, why of course, that’s the organizing document for a startup.

Startup 229

Startup Class Press Custom Development 229

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

Hint: He was an entrepreneur. A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their friends that they are “a writer”. The same is true of entrepreneurs. These would-be entrepreneurs are best classified as Wantrepreneurs, as discussed in Entrepreneurial Enterviewing.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

Although many are entertaining, most fail to provide entrepreneurs with a sufficient return on their time investment. Unfortunately, most business books do not offer entrepreneurs an adequate payoff. At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.” Fan, Not A Fan Boy. I was not disapointed.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I even plan to use it in my upcoming UC Santa Barbara Entrepreneurial Selling class. I began our discussion by asking Guy, “Why should entrepreneurs read your latest book, Enchantment?”. The reason why an entrepreneur should be interested in this book is because entrepreneurs have to overcome resistance.

Santa Barbara 262

Santa Barbara Technical Review Social Media Startup 262

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%). Much of this historically didn’t matter to entrepreneurs. Why prorata rights are becoming a bigger deal to angels.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 14, 2015

The rise of powerful new tools for automation and management of business tasks is taking the world by storm, because it lets one entrepreneur accomplish much more with their time than they ever could before. Automated mailing tools are a major resource for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is undergoing many technological changes.

Entrepreneur 40

Entrepreneur Technology Email Tool 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. He was in the inaugural class of 500Startups and became chief evangelist as far as I could tell. Jordan Hudson. Kevin Zhang. Sam had different plans.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

He can’t help himself: He’s Dave. I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. How to help his companies. My pal Dave has blogger Tourette’s.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. To be clear – I’m not saying huge successes make a VC less likely to be helpful to you – I’m just saying it’s not a guaranteed predictor. I’m not afraid to help make difficult decisions.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

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. Savvy entrepreneurs - seek out programs which incorporate these post-graduation activities. Convert Graduate-Founders Into Mentors.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 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? But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&# A few reasons.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

At Idealab, we saw many shots on goal with companies who were consumer focused, and we have found the quality of entrepreneurs going to consumer Internet companies has changed dramatically, which represents a real opportunity. It's all about the entrepreneur. You have to help people get better, and not try to fix things.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

So, I ended up writing that first book, and Bruce helped me with the research, and that was one way we got to know each other before we were even dating. We had the idea to rent out a local school over spring break, put up a website ad, and start offering classes. At the time, I got Lynda.com. That's how we really started.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

Bruce, along with his wife Lynda, created a learning company from their garage, initially by holding in-person classes and later selling VHS tapes via mail order. Bruce and Lynda eventually grew their startup into a global powerhouse, offering 5,700 classes and 255,000 video tutorials to over 4 million users.

Sales 113

Sales Education Startup Class 113

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Well, Los Angeles-based KarmaGoat (www.karmagoat.com) has figured out a way to help people get rid of those unwanted items they have--and provide those proceeds to charity. That gift of livestock can help families out of extreme poverty. Did the experience at Anderson help you with starting the company?

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

A critical stage for most first-time entrepreneurs is getting their idea developed into at least a prototype to validate their technology. Experts are available to help, but fees are high. You need to make an ROI assessment of value versus cost on outside help at this stage. Detailed grant accounting requirements.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Here is my summary of some major considerations that every entrepreneur needs to evaluate against the cost and effort to attract equity investors: Completing a grant application is real work. Grant providers may not require a seat on your board to help you make decisions, but your spending processes will be carefully monitored and audited.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Or if you’re pinched on time the summary is below and the time coding can help you watch a brief snippet on topics that interest you. 3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy. 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! 41:00 Transitioning from software to writing.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Stuart Lander has joined Upfront Ventures to help us run operations. Writing a book will be fun. The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. John gave me the book after I spoke at his entrepreneurship class at UCSB. Angels are writing smaller checks so they typically don’t want the overhead of complex analysis in order to make their decision.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2015

One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle. I found some great help in outlining the elements of this process in the classic book, “ Disruptors ,” by Kunal Mehta. Then write them down.

Satisfaction 57

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Writing Startup 57

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Journalists write stories that have an appeal to readers whether the accusations have merit or not. The most tempting thing for inexperienced entrepreneurs to do is to attack the press. I was recently talking with an entrepreneur who had just gotten a ton of press around his company for an interview he gave to a journalist.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Indeed, whether you’re a producer, screenwriter, director, actor, cinematographer, editor, art director or composer (or some combination of these) Stage 32 offers classes to meet your specific needs. Classes with a wide geographic appeal. Among those that have paid for a Stage 32 class, 91% say they’ll do it again in the future.

Education 82

Education Entertainment Class Manhattan Beach 82

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

Those programs--epitomized by YCombinator in the Bay Area, and TechStars in Boulder, Colorado--attract newly minted entrepreneurs with a mixture of cash and mentoring, and a program which rapidly takes ideas and turns them into viable, executing businesses. Typically, venture backed companies, always entrepreneur led.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

We help companies reward their employees with perks. 5) When I interviewed people at my past startups, I rejected them if they asked me about our dental plan, as true entrepreneurs don’t care about such pedestrian benefits. We brought in 10 – 20 people in each class. What must a startup do to motivate you to write them a check?

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand. World-class education including Caltech, USC and UCLA. Home of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), which helps put rockets into space. Like they truly understood entrepreneurs. North of the 101].

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Santa Monica 304

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

The life of an entrepreneur is filled with 20 second opportunities. You can’t help but lean forward and want to hear what the next line is. But Sam is a first-class act and boy does he know how to nail an intro. As entrepreneurs you need to learn to pause and let the listener reflect.”. Most are squandered. He’s a master.

Startup 315

Startup Content Conference Media 315

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

On September 10th of this year I spent an entire day in California State Prison with people who had committed felonies and worked with them on business plans to help them create legal enterprise upon their release as part of Defy Ventures 6-month training program. I am committed to finding ways to help graduates get jobs.

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

I was influenced heavily before my career even began because in my undergraduate work I took a ton of statistics classes that showed how easily we human brains fall prey to easy biases and slights of data and try to draw conclusions that don’t exist. Coming back with an empty chamber for the third battle is much worse than not coming back.

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Statistics Writing Report 182

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. entrepreneur Wil Schroter (I am an angel investor in Affordit). Really!).

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2013

What is a hackerspace, and why might having them available in the area help the tech community? You can learn from others in the space, or take a class. It's membership based, and the goal for us is to eventually be sustainable through membership, by putting on events and classes, and so on.

Startup 227

Startup Tool Ideas Class 227

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. I asked him if I could join his practice as the guy who could help him bridge technology & business. When I started my second company I was a serial entrepreneur. We take MBAs.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

Venice Beach-based Signal Sciences (www.signalsciences.com) has created sofdtware designed for those application developers to help protect those web applications. We decided we'd take this solution out, and help solve that same pain for a broad group of people. We want people to hear about us and our product, and how we can help them.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Some data like those in the studies I mentioned above might help influence our thinking but the answer is, in the end, subjective. In my bones I’m convinced that entrepreneurs are more nature than nurture although I know both are involved. Entrepreneurs aren’t born, they’re made.&# The data in this article is at best, a stretch.

Startup 289

Startup Statistics Study Entrepreneur 289

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. My mom was an entrepreneur – she was kind of my inspiration for entrepreneurship. Probably the internet helped because they needed internet skills in their strategy group. So it’s something to be mindful of, how lucky we are.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

InfoChachkie

APRIL 3, 2012

They profess to be entrepreneurs, but are they actually Wantrepreneurs? A Wantrepreneur is a well-intentioned person who wants to be an entrepreneur, but does not have the skills, personality and or risk profile to be successful. They smile, they laugh on cue and they have a rehearsed response for every conventional interview question.

Entrepreneur 219

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Sample 219