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. Many of our job postings for Engineering positions describe the company as a place “where the word ‘millions’ is used frequently and in many contexts&#.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

We chatted with co-founder and CEo David Sobie about the company and the problem it's solving. Customers heavily adopted in-person returns. We saw the steady stream of customers Nordstrom Rack was getting from HauteLook shoppers, and we realized that we could do that same thing with any retailer. HauteLook saw that very quickly.

Training 100

Training Customer Custom Software Review 100

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. 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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

One would think entrepreneurs would never want less available cash – until such time as their competitors ridiculously and unnecessarily all raise $50 million in the name of a “land grab” thus making it much harder for your totally reasonable company to attract investors. For investors life is no different.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. Cloud computing and the open source movements have brought down the costs of starting a company by more than 90%. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

But the hardest question to actually answer is, “What is the right burn rate for your company?” In other words, fund-raising is a permanent part of the job of the CEO (and CFO) of a company so whether you allocate 5% of your time to it or 20% – it is a year-round activity even if just in the background.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I believe that it’s OK for young people to learn and try different roles, companies and geographies. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. But in these years I learned how to sell software – necessity is the mother of all invention.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

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. We have also been very busy with our next release, which is due out by December 11th (but I’ll save that for a different post). My blog was wiped out. After Office 2.0

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. Great companies are built by having great products. One great company, AppFolio , filmed all of this user interaction and made the DVD available to me. They are people who built and sold companies and have a bit of money.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291