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

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Bockerstette, Main Street Venture Fund Angel investing in most parts of the country remains a relatively informal and unstructured process. Professional angel investing takes time, knowledge, skills and resources. The trophy investor understands these challenges and has developed a professional process to manage his investments.

Entrepreneur 83

Entrepreneur Mentor Invest Angel 83

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. Things I Loved.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. What is the investment focus for this fund? It's all about the entrepreneur.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The poor performance of the asset class (this analysis has largely been wrong as I pointed out here –> most analyses were clumsy rear-view mirror looks at the data). Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California. Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. Nowhere is social proof more prevalent than in angel investing.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Editor's note: As we head into the new year, we've been featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. We do, as of the writing of this in early December, seem to be seeing a correction at this time.

Southern California 100

Southern California News Class Writing 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. That asset class need not represent the broader market. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

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. When he writes them online his Tourette’s comes out and sometimes the substance gets lost in the style.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

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 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

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. It gave us the confidence to rent space for classes and form a school.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

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. You decide how much you want to invest in your employees and then you give your employees the control to build a custom perk package for themselves.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

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. Otherwise find an inexpensive class on grant writing. Experts are available but expensive. Technology is not enough.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

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. IA Ventures – Roger Ehrenberg was doing angel investing before he became a VC. I know that I call them often to co-invest.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

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. Neither class of people should give up easily. Fred Wilson wrote perfectly about sticking with struggling investments. and I realized that without years of experience it is tough to answer this question. It’s not you.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

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. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly?

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

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. Writing a book will be fun. I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

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). Others I have not.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

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

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. 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

InfoChachkie

JUNE 20, 2011

Thus, entrepreneurs must consistently balance expanding their bandwidth via delegation with the more efficient, but non-scalable tendency to complete tasks themselves. At both Expertcity and Computer Motion, we invested in outsized Intern programs. At Computer Motion, we regularly allowed engineering classes to tour our facilities.

Startup 244

Startup Software Review Technical Review Class 244

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

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. And no one could see me as anything but a startup guy, so I started a second company and called myself a serial entrepreneur.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

Jeff's father is an entrepreneur, and I wanted to go down the entrepreneurial path, so we had this early concept for a cash back and coupon web site. USC has a fantastic program, in that you are able to be in class, and both learn the concepts and apply it to business. Noah Auerhahn: We just had too much free time at USC.

USC 207

USC CPC Sites Startup 207

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Simply write a great book? Link has a summary of his argument plus a great video).

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. Do you have any words of caution or advice for entrepreneurs who attempt to “Get Their Band Back Together”? “In When assembling a team, I encourage entrepreneurs to seek out the MVPs, and look to build diversity into the teams they assemble.”.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012

Business Writing for Email. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Most classes in college focus on a narrow area of interest, which just teach students to focus on problems through one lens. Dress for Success.

Course 97

Course Writing Slides Email 97

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Here is a class of investor we’ve covered before, one usually focused upon you and less upon your business case. We’ve worried together about the moral obligation implicit in taking such investments from people so close, even with their promise never to expect a return. Angel investment groups or funds. Accelerators.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

We wanted to be able to invest in our software and our learning tools. We've been toying with taking an investment for the last three or four years, and were able to meet with the guys at Kennet, and Javier Rojas. If you're teaching classes of 32 maybe even 37 students, it's difficult to know where students are.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. Now the AP class. why do I write p.s.’s sometimes?

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2011

Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Business Writing Skills. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. Most classes in college focus on a narrow area of interest, which just teach students to focus on problems through one lens. Root-Cause Problem Analysis.

Course 91

Course Writing Social Network Ideas 91

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Most classes in college focus on a narrow area of interest, which just teach students to focus on problems through one lens. Business Email and Texting. Business Dress for Success.

Training 57

Training Course Email Social Network 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2010

Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Business Writing Skills. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. Most classes in college focus on a narrow area of interest, which just teach students to focus on problems through one lens. Problem Analysis.

Course 53

Course Writing Ideas Class 53