Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. It turns out it actually takes time to build a high-growth business with differentiated intellectual property and roll out large, enterprise-class marketing solutions. 5 years ago. 5 years ago. The monkey on my back.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

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 10, 2010

It has long been believed that people from lower-income neighborhoods can’t learn as well as middle & upper class ones due to environment issues such as problems at home and trouble in the neighborhood. I poured myself into planning and I won the class-wide competition. He is the reason I majored in economics in college.

Class 340

Class Education Technical Review Writing 340

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

This is why I am such a big fan of General Assembly both because they’re teaching more tangible skills but also because they’re working directly with employers to fund classes as well as to onboard the more successful GA students directly. His class reading lists could be a primer for any entrepreneur, not just MBAs.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Recruiting – One of the hardest tasks of any startups is recruiting world-class talent. But as I like to tell entrepreneurs, great PR could add $10 million to your valuation or increase your chances of closing a round 2x and either case is a reason to make sure you have good press. It doesn’t work that way.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

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

JUNE 16, 2016

Entrepreneurs create their own jobs, why shouldn’t they also create their own degrees? As described in Should Millennial Entrepreneurs Skip College? most young entrepreneurs benefit greatly from the college experience. Like a sheepeople, I dutifully signed up for the required classes. Custom Wharton Degree.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Class Course Writing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2013

Business Writing for Email. 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. entrepreneur business classes startup college course business professional' Marty Zwilling.

Class 93

Class Course Writing Slides 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

If you do a capped note it’s bad for the entrepreneur. The trouble is, nobody has an incentive to agree to write the first check. There is simply no reason for the first angel to write you a check until you have the whole round secure, which is why people herd cats. I’m not sure why people don’t see that.

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

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

JANUARY 31, 2010

So I thought I’d write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation. You’re not lecturing to a college class, you’re not at a cocktail party and you’re not chatting with a small group in a board meeting. Or take an acting class. I spoke about this yesterday on Fox Business News.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

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. 44:45 Telling an entrepreneur to focus is like telling a fat person to lose weight. 00:45 Intro to Eric. 01:17 Background, before the Lean Startup.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 2, 2011

Thiel and friends will also agree to mentor these young entrepreneurs. Here is their inaugural class. I was prepared way more for business success in my political science classes than in my economics ones (I was a double major). In Poly Sci I learned critical thinking and writing. At least not as an entrepreneur.

Education 322

Education Startup Incubator Class 322

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

In my bones I’m convinced that entrepreneurs are more nature than nurture although I know both are involved. I wasn’t going to write about it since he had just covered the topic and echoed my point of view. I have recently written extensively on what I believe the 12 characteristics of an entrepreneur are.

Startup 289

Startup Statistics Entrepreneur Study 289

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

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. We brought in 10 – 20 people in each class. 2) Congratulations on Entrepreneur magazine recently naming BetterWorks a “ Brilliant Company.”

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

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. Most entrepreneurs I encounter seem to make their decisions more on perceived brand, past successes and ability to intro. Most VCs are book smart. It’s not you.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

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. I wrote out 3 pages of bullet point notes on paper and delivered a 20-minute speech to a crowd of entrepreneurs (which included the Minister of Technology for China). Get some seasoned entrepreneurs to come.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

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

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

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon. Yet nearly any entrepreneur who has an idea that other people aren’t doing will tell you that it’s hard to get investors excited. It was an investment management class. I will write about some of these topics soon.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

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

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class. Despite my cynicism of MBA’s , this class was very valuable to me. overvalued) and sell when the fall precipitously.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Main Street Venture Fund LLC, an angel fund of about 25 private investors, was formed by Ruffolo Benson LLC in northeast Indiana with the intention of bringing together area entrepreneurs and private investors to create economic value for the region. Tags: angel investor entrepreneur process trophy business. Business wisdom.

Entrepreneur 83

Entrepreneur Mentor Invest Angel 83

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. Like they truly understood entrepreneurs. I was a former entrepreneur. I know that I call them often to co-invest. I had run 2 companies.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Jonathan Lehmann: I was awarded the Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at UCLA, after getting amazing coaching from Matt Ridenour in our business plan development class. UCLA Anderson really seems to be a hotbed of entrepreneurs nowadays - did you know going into the MBA program you'd be starting your own company?

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

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

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

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

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

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. What was nice was that I got to take some of my practical skills from consulting and apply them into class discussions with operational leaders. I introduced myself as a serial entrepreneur.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

Occasionally on this blog I break away from industry commentary and write more broadly. You can fly first class and not talk to fellow passengers. Entrepreneur Dinners. One of my favorite things to do is to organize entrepreneur dinners when I travel. The first day of 2012 seems the perfect day to do so.

Startup 319

Startup Organization Entrepreneur Blogging 319