Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2021

The ultimate compliment that any entrepreneur can get is that they can “see around corners.” 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. Believe there is no such thing as a crazy idea.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. Equity for the future?

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2018

Many experts will tell you that you can’t succeed as a part-time entrepreneur, as any good startup will require a 100 percent commitment of your time and energy. Thus I often recommend that entrepreneurs keep their day job until the startup is producing revenue. Select a business idea that has a longer runway.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2022

I’m convinced that’s why most mature companies are slowing down or buying their innovation through acquisition, rather than building it. True entrepreneurs, like backpackers, are ready to explore new terrain, more open to new possibilities, and don’t get stuck in yesterday’s practices.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Contrary to what you might guess, the highest rate of small business and entrepreneurial growth over the last few years is not Gen-Y upstarts, but Boomers over the age of 50, now called encore entrepreneurs. One new incentive is the falling transaction costs and barriers to entry for entrepreneurs of every age. In the U.S.,

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2020

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Attract a co-founder and key team members. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Female Founder Office Hours gives founders the mentorship and the role models to see that it is in not only possible but also to have a plan to make it a reality.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by the fact that some never seem to be able to that first startup going, while many others never seem to stop, starting their second or third initiative before the first one is fully hatched. I’m now convinced that serious entrepreneurs relish the startup process more than success.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It I see founders who think they can be at every conference, advise multiple companies, do side investments in angel deals, leave the office at 6pm and have a balance life.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2022

Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way. People won’t follow you if they have no idea where you are headed and why it’s good for them as well.

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TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

The Los Angeles-based app development shop, V/One , is giving away 50,000 free mobile app builds through the rest of April as the company officially launches its platform for would-be, LA-based mobile app moguls. Since its soft launch, December 20th of last year, the app development company has built over 100 new applications.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I spoke at Stanford last year about starting a tech company. I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# Here is a quick summary of my POV: When you start a company a 50/50 partnership seems obvious. Either you’re not technical and you think you need a technical co-founder or vice-versa.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 29, 2020

This week, Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures announced a brand new effort to provide health and wellness to the founders of companies it invests in, helping those founders with well being, mental health, stress management, coaching, and leadership development. Tell us about this new program? It's a comprehensive bucket.

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InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

Seth Epstein, Founder and CEO SocialStay , former Founder and CEO of FUEL (acquired by Razorfish) and Emmy Award winner for his work on the X-Games, recently spoke at UC Santa Barbara as part of the Technology Management Program’s Distinguished Lecture Series. Seth notes that, "Ideas are a lot like exercising.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2022

Some people are not cut out to be entrepreneurs. How do you know if you should be running your own company, or concentrating on that queue of work that someone else has built for you? I’ve hit this before, but I still hear from too many unhappy entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have a "never, never, never quit" attitude.

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InfoChachkie

MARCH 9, 2019

Even when it was published on Netflix, I had no desire to see The Founder movie, as it was clear from the film’s preview that it was yet another, “businessperson gone bad” film. Michael Bloomberg, American Entrepreneur and Politician. When an entrepreneur selects a venture, the idea should be all consuming.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 18, 2017

Saturday, May 20, 2017 -- POSiBLE LA Entrepreneur Summit. POSiBLE LA Entrepreneur Summit, a one-day event to empower aspiring business owners to build their ideas and grow their companies. a new campaign to help budding female entrepreneurs or family business owners build their financial futures.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2013

Can tapping the power of the crowd not only help you find customers and help fund your project, but also help you shape your startup idea and find funding? A new, Los Angeles area startup, JumpStartFund (www.jumpstartfund.com) recently launched, offering up a combination of crowdfunding and crowd-advice for entrepreneurial ideas.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

I was at a dinner recently in Chicago and the table discussion was about building great companies outside of Silicon Valley. I then got my MBA at University of Chicago so I secretly pull for local entrepreneurs as long as they don’t make me visit in the Winter any more. That was my original idea behind Launchpad LA.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016

It only takes one person come up with a great startup idea, but in my experience as an investor, it’s a rare entrepreneur who has all the skills and resources to build a business as well as a solution. Yet I meet inventors and startup founders every week who balk at the thought of sharing the founder position.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2020

Although most people believe that being a successful entrepreneur is all about having the right idea, I’m convinced from my years of experience as a startup advisor and investor that’s it’s more about you as a person. People need to see you as an “influencer,” who is able to sell your new ideas, as well as communicate the future.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. A programmer can build a new smartphone app for a few thousand dollars.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2019

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. They take you step-by-step through the innovation execution process, in the context the ten most common myths about innovation, which I think makes their approach particularly instructive: Innovation is all about ideas.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Designed to be a collaborative startup company incubator alongside corporate partners, Launchpad focuses on developing new consumer tech businesses focused on M13’s main investment areas: health, food, transportation, and housing. “ The EIRs will receive a small stipend and equity in the business, Barber said. .

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2020

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have new ideas on a regular basis, and find it hard deciding which to pursue, or try to tackle several at the same time. In addition to personal focus, I find that the best entrepreneurs build and demand a culture of focus and excellence in their team, their investors, and even their advisors.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

“We want to inspire, but we also want to be realistic and show beauty in real life,” Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss said in a 2017 interview with Inc, just as the brand had reached what Weiss herself described as “cult status.” billion company in the brutally competitive beauty industry, especially one with such broad appeal.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2020

When I heard a friend and business mentor say, “Your startup won’t fail if you don’t quit,” I realized that every entrepreneur should adopt “never give up” as their mantra. Nothing is more discouraging to aspiring entrepreneurs than the high failure rate. The number one reason seems to be that the founders just walk away.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

I’m often asked the question about why there aren’t more women who are entrepreneurs. And many of the best women founders. My inspiration to become an entrepreneur came from my mom, not my dad. She was the dominant figure in my family and was both an entrepreneur and a community leader. Every single one.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

The Founder Institute (www.founderinstitute.com), an entrepreneurial training program that originally launched by Adeo Ressi in Silicon Valley, recently announced that it is setting up shop in Southern California, with branches both in San Diego and Los Angeles. What do participants get out of the Founder Institute?

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

The realm of an entrepreneur is all about change, but in my experience as a mentor to business founders, I hear too much about incremental change, and not enough about revolutionary change. Whenever you have a great idea, ask yourself why it couldn’t be made 10 times bigger, or even 100 times. Talk to everyone and think young.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

They can talk with passion about their innovative new idea, and ask lots of questions, but never seem to really get started. The challenge we all have as business founders is to move from the idea stage to a real business. Do the same for partners and co-founders that will buttress your strengths.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2011

Based on my own experience and feedback from friends, every investor is approached by at least ten entrepreneurs with a “hot idea” for a new business, for every one who has a real “plan” for a new business. In fact, you can find websites full of ideas, like these “ Free Innovative Ideas ,” by serial entrepreneur Kim E.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. two founders in a garage?—?(HP dot-com bonanza.

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Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 27, 2019

In fact, the region’s relative dearth of investors is often bemoaned by local entrepreneurs. Venture Summit —an annual gathering of local founders seeking financing and venture investors, primarily from outside San Diego, on the hunt for companies to back—was first organized by the San Diego Venture Group (SDVG) 17 years ago.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2016

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2016

As a small business and startup advisor, I find that entrepreneurs often love to talk about their latest idea, but not their execution. Like most investors, I’m convinced that success in business is more about the plan and the person than the idea. Ideas can’t be tracked, and tend to only morph into other ideas as time passes.

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