Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. ” His argument is as follows. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2017

This may seem intuitively obvious, but as an angel investor, I have heard hundreds of new business pitches that focus heavily on the product, but don’t tell the rest of the story. The first secret is to know your audience before you pitch. Remember that every person is different, and their emotion will likely not match yours.

Social Media 58

Social Media Coach Invest Media 58

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Many soon find that what you do in a personal context doesn’t necessarily translate to your business, and measuring business value is quite different from measuring personal satisfaction. Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2017

True business success and leadership starts with real personal values, extends to building a team, and finally to inspiring customers and your community. I fully support and appreciate his case studies and conclusions on specific required personal initiatives, and how these can change people, organizations, and even entire industries.

Case Study 55

Case Study Customer Custom Entrepreneur 55

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2012

For the average person, you don't want to deal with what kind of packaging you need to buy, having to go to the post office, figuring out who pays for it, how much it costs, and so on. I've really gotten an in-depth education about what women want when buying and selling online. It really couldn't be easier. We're now driving over 1.5

Startup 236

Startup Education Acquisition Funding 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Pitch your needs to friends and family. Solicit venture capital investors.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. My blog was wiped out. After Office 2.0

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 24, 2013

They must have the creativity to figure out unique ways of driving growth in addition to testing/evolving the techniques proven by other companies.” This is the most important role because this person graduates a company from startup to viable long-term business. About Richie Hecker.

Hulu 111

Hulu Startup Social Media Organization 111

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2013

We spoke with co-founder Brenton Sullivan about the company''s platform, and how it''s hoping to transform the athletic recruiting process. We''re not the company which tells athletes to jump on our site, and we''ll spam you to schools and find you a place. How''d you start the company? What''s the idea behind FieldLevel?

Coach 252

Coach USC Statistics Startup 252

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2012

For those who haven’t heard of what Startup Weekend is all about, it’s building a company on STEROIDS! From visualization to conception, and actually taking the product to market, a company usually takes about 1-2 years to create. Pitch and form teams! People had one minute to “pitch” their idea to the group as a whole.

Startup 99

Startup Technical Advisors Ideas USC 99

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 5, 2011

A major disadvantage of a public Big Dumb Company (BDC), as well as one that works closely with governmental agencies, is the degree to which they are forced to publicly disclose otherwise confidential information. Thus, by never giving it out, you can honestly say, “Look, it’s not personal. Startups have few advantages.

Startup 216

Startup Slides Resource Organization 216

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Pitch your needs to friends and family. Solicit venture capital investors.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Equity Examples 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2013

Great entrepreneurs seem to all exhibit a common set of attributes which go well beyond the basic skills required to be an entrepreneur: “Larger than life” personality and presence. Richard Branson’s adventurer escapades are legendary, and Steve Jobs made new product presentations an experience, as well as a sales pitch and an education.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Marketing Startup Design 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2012

Great entrepreneurs seem to all exhibit a common set of attributes which go well beyond the basic skills required to be an entrepreneur: “Larger than life” personality and presence. Richard Branson’s adventurer escapades are legendary, and Steve Jobs made new product presentations an experience, as well as a sales pitch and an education.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Design Ideas Startup 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Negotiate an advance from a strategic partner or customer. Find a major customer, or a complimentary business, who sees such value in your idea that they are willing to give you an advance on royalty payments to complete your development. Pitch your needs to friends and family. Solicit venture capital investors.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 9, 2014

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle framework “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” Simon Sinek If your customers believe in your mission, then they’ll warm to you and listen to what you offer and how. Happy customers tend to spend more, more often and tell their friends. This is where the Golden Circle comes in.

Startup 78

Startup Design Customer Custom 78

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 18, 2013

The large gathering of top investors spilled out of the office into the surrounding sidewalk and swelled with buzz and speculation of what the 10 newly formed companies had to offer. Okuno has been investing in Los Angeles startups for the past three years after selling his own company E-Z Data. Or maybe a goldmine. Founded by L.A.’s

Class 100

Class Startup Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 14, 2014

Businesses deal with countless data points, leading to decisions affecting their companies in various ways. Collecting and analyzing the right data can easily find faults and successes lying within the company’s walls. MW: We love the customers in LA. The domain was available and I went and got it and the rest is history.

Startup 85

Startup Southern California Mobile Software 85

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

When you are selected you share the stage with 49 other companies (in the case of TechCrunch50. Most people pay attention to the first 5 companies. By company 22 it’s hard to remember what any of them did. Many other great companies are not. - It’s no wonder many companies don’t get good coverage.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. I was the judge. It was mostly painful.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed. AOL controlled the services, taxed companies to access users and decided what was good or bad. If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. companies versus the Web 1.0

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

After starting three companies, I've found that some widely accepted advice lead me to failure while. Scratching Your Personal Projects Itch. You work in (or run) a services company. Stop Listening to Your Customers. A common assumption among startup entrepreneurs is that listening to potential customers is the best.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2022

Good business relationships make better teams and customers. Working directly with a mentor provides a depth of communication, through body language as well as personal focus, that is much more likely to provide the required inspiration compared to classrooms. Mentoring pitches turns students into communicators.

Mentor 154

Mentor Entrepreneur Satisfaction Summary 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2019

Good business relationships make better teams and customers. Working directly with a mentor provides a depth of communication, through body language as well as personal focus, that is much more likely to provide the required inspiration compared to classrooms. Mentoring pitches turns students into communicators.

Mentor 88

Mentor Satisfaction Summary Entrepreneur 88

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2017

Good business relationships make better teams and customers. Working directly with a mentor provides a depth of communication, through body language as well as personal focus, that is much more likely to provide the required inspiration compared to classrooms. Mentoring pitches turns students into communicators.

Mentor 73

Mentor Entrepreneur Satisfaction Summary 73

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 9, 2011

iGottaGuide allows you to find just the right person to give you the experience you are looking for. Give Us the Fast Pitch. Just like iGottaGuide, the idea was all about democratization–taking the power away from the gatekeepers and giving customers a greater range of choices at a lower price. Are you Funded?

Startup 63

Startup Guide Entrepreneur Ideas 63

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person. No, the question is: What are doing now knowing that a big company will copy your idea?

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217