Both Sides of the Table

MAY 11, 2010

It preserves more of their scarce time to deal with the people and companies with whom they want to interact. And that’s in addition to portfolio companies, colleagues at work and legitimate deals you’re working on. Many days I have a breakfast meeting, back-to-back meetings all day and then an evening event.

Email 265

Email Startup Writing Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

I was asked by somebody recently in a private message on Quora about whether the individual should leave his comfortable job to become an entrepreneur. There is no shame in being an exec at a company or whatever.&#. Every one of these events (with names changed) has happened to companies I’ve worked at or closely with.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

able to sign up online and rent the car, with only $50,000 invested in the company, which went towards the website, database and beta car. She called it the “Quora for shopping,” which is two words that this 500 women at Women 2.0 Register your company on Angel List early if you know you will be looking for funding.

Conference 77

Conference Startup Technical Review Software Review 77

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

I was asked by somebody recently in a private message on Quora about whether the individual should leave his comfortable job to become an entrepreneur. There is no shame in being an exec at a company or whatever.&#. Every one of these events (with names changed) has happened to companies I’ve worked at or closely with.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 176

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2011

This version has some additional details on a portfolio company I’ve invested in, which are disclosed below. The annual Apple event where no real hints about what products they plan to release are floated in the public domain in advance. No private head nods are given to small startup companies to help them prepare.

Google 325

Google Press Marketing Content 325

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. Over the last few weeks, the Real Ventures team has met with easily 50 companies. Here they are: DO.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

I applied to hundreds of jobs: low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies. Big companies rejected me outright or gave me a courtesy interview before rejecting me. Here’s one possible explanation – Job titles in a startup mean something different than titles in a large company. Kanye West. Advisory Board.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I’ve raised in boom markets and when everybody thought the Internet was a fraud. Why buy now?

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

In 2006 when I was a budding entrepreneur building my second startup I ran into a young (ish) enthusiastic founder of an electronic signature company called EchoSign. I was building a document management company and he was building a document signature company. Jason sold his company to Adobe.

SaaS 150

SaaS Venture Capital Conference Technical Review 150