Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. Yet, most good business people I know agree, but don’t know where to start.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. Most top tier VCs return about 3x invested capital and outlier funds (the best of a vintage) might return 6-8x.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

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. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. I think of VCs as coaches. Fred Wilson wrote perfectly about sticking with struggling investments. Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I spent time on college campuses.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

So part of playing an effective coach is helping the team to see the answer for themselves. My goal in the interview overall was to capture more of the personal side of Fred since so much of his investment thesis and portfolio work already comes out in his blog. You need to invest in good markets and bad.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. Investing Strategy. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 284

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I spent time on college campuses.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2018

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them almost ten years ago. What they need now is some coaching from more experienced business leaders, to catch up and overcome some unique qualms and challenges. Think of these strategies as an investment in your own future, as well as theirs.

Mentor 60

Mentor Coach Guide Startup 60

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This insight follows closely the conclusions from the previous declaration, that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

Resource 149

Resource Startup Invest Entrepreneur 149

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We want to invest in early-stage technology enabled startup businesses – upfront in the funding cycle. In fact, 90% of our investments are either Seed or A-round investments (10% are B-round). We’re a national venture capital investment firm but with our roots firmly in Los Angeles. That’s healthy.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Men have dominated the world of investment. There were only 22% women who invested in 2012. Natalia Oberti Noguera is on a mission to help change the demographic of investment with her Pipeline Fellowship. TechZulu speaks with Natalia about Pipeline Foundation and her goals to change the face of business and investment.

Mentor 84

Mentor Invest Entrepreneur Startup 84

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

By the time of my second company MySQL was a much more robust solution and worked well when you had to read a lot of information but was less performant on “write&# activities. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres. Attention to detail matters. Skipping is insidious.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. Write things down. I hate losing. On Losing in VC.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. Write things down. I hate losing. On Losing in VC.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

By the way, I also strongly advise that entrepreneurs reference VCs. In this instance my personal style is to have entrepreneurs in whom I’m considering investing to call my good references and those where we have gone through some tough times so in that sense I end up in the 0.05% but I tell entrepreneurs I’m doing this and why.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. Trust your instincts – they will serve you well as an entrepreneur. And many of these people are money managers rather than people like Gus who inspire entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. Most entrepreneurs are. You can also just generally ask entrepreneurs who have presented to the VC but who didn’t get funded (the majority of companies that actually present). Drain in quickly.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits ;-). Write things down. I hate losing. Be gracious.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

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. There is an exemption from the requirements that these investors be accredited with net worth or income minimums to qualify legally to invest in your company. Accelerators.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Yet a critical mistake I see many entrepreneurs make is that they hand over too much control to their third-parties. You can certainly get coaching from your VC on how to play the negotiations since they do it more often than you do. I have investment money at stake so I’m a principal in the negotiation, too. Recruiters.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

First, angel investment groups come in all sizes from a few organized angels to large groups of three hundred or more. Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments. You will be given a “term sheet” during the process, calling out the terms proposed for the investment.

Equity 232

Equity Startup Invest Organization 232

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Bruce Sallan (@BruceSallan) - I'm a former showbiz guy who writes a dad's column. Cash Warren (@cash_warren) - producer, entrepreneur, president of Verso Entertainment. Cash Warren (@cash_warren) - producer, entrepreneur, president of Verso Entertainment. Cathy Brooks (@CathyBrooks) - Strategic Communications Coach.

Social Media 40

Social Media Journal Media Education 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Amazon in turn led to the formation of an earlier stage of venture capital now led by what I call “micro VCs&# who typically invest $250-500k in companies rather than the $5-7 million that VCs used to invest. Some have moved into later stage investments in an effort to “put logos on their websites.&# Funny, that.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If you have or are thinking about a business in the video space you’ll enjoy hearing from Gregg but even more broadly this is a great conversation for entrepreneurs, investors or industry analysts. Gregg is an ex Investment Banker and Wharton MBA. Any takers in a trade for helping do some write-ups against whatever you want?

Startup 303

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Writing 303

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 2, 2010

It’s the story of persistence in entrepreneurs. As a VC I’m acutely that a “yes&# decision to support an entrepreneur can do just that, yet I only write 2-4 of them per year and maybe another 3-4 as an angel. As an entrepreneur you can change people’s lives, too. Your advice made a difference.&#.

Startup 352

Startup Help Blogging Entrepreneur 352