Coach CTO Coach Funding Venture Capital 
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. The role of VC is sparring partner.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 7, 2013
I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. We generally have a policy to only fund entrepreneurs once the first version of a product has shipped or it near to shipping. So I asked Ethan to build his product first and then we would fund. The company was called Red Beacon. He was seeking $500k.
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SoCal CTO
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
You and I were talking about a startup recently and where they might go for seed stage funding, what is your impression on that aspect here in Los Angeles? We are not “finders” and usually serve the role of advisor and attorney. A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model. Are you doing much of that?
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 27, 2013
Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. What Rob wrote in his post is right.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. I certainly hope so.
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