Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

The law of large numbers, platforms that can make your company blow up unexpectedly and the trendy nature of tech markets can be deceiving. I have written about the deceiving nature of early successes before – in particular in the SaaS or B2B world leading to a phenomenon called “shelfware.”

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

Josh Kaplan and Dee Murthy, both founder and co-CEO of the Los Angeles–based company, started Ghost in 2021 after previously working together at Four Five Group, a men’s apparel business. More people are focused on the beginning of the product lifecycle; very few are focused at the end.”. That’s our vision.”.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

help you integrate your product with other systems making it harder for your product to be replaced by competitors. deliver profitable revenue that while on gross margins of 50% vs. software at 85-95% it is still profits to help you cover fixed costs. Only Work on Projects That Support Your Core Product Effort.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Company 321

Southern California Edison Blog

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

Productive offices get more done—their workers complete projects faster and bring in more revenue for their organizations. Below you will find several techniques managers can use to encourage office productivity: . Below you will find several techniques managers can use to encourage office productivity: .

Product 94

Product Training Software Review Technical Review 94

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. What excites me about this space is that there’s so much low-hanging fruit.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 10, 2012

I did a presentation recently for a graduate class from The Founder Institute around getting online/mobile products out the door. Third party products are used appropriately. Review the code being built. They were making some significant choices that were going to have lasting impact on their company.

Technical Advisors 332

Technical Advisors CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 332

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

There were startups and a software industry but barely. I started my first company in 1999 and was admittedly swept up in all of this: Magazine covers, fancy conferences, artificial valuations and easy money. Nobody cared about our valuations any more. Between 2006–2008 I sold both companies that I had started and became a VC.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2019

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. Business ethics are more about religion than management or leadership. Any given individual may not recognize the moral scope of the issues involved. The reality is different.

Software Review 77

Software Review Summary Examples Offshore 77

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in. But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? I often see companies burning $100,000 per month (net) looking to raise $6-8 million.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. Wednesday I have 4 companies coming in to talk about their companies.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E financing that values the company at $3.15 SpotOn is paying $415 million in cash and stock for the Los Angeles-based company. Image Credits: SpotOn.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Who are the top tech companies to work for in Los Angeles? Despite a huge number of companies, we found there are a number which. Despite a huge number of companies, we found there are a number which. Demand Media consistently popped up near number one in the list of "companies to work for" from our readers. Demand Media.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Company Companies Southern California 279

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

With Startup Boost, we had dozens of investors, service providers, successful entrepreneurs, and major industry leaders (including Microsoft, Google, Softbank, REME, and TechStars) coalesce around our initiative to help early stage companies get to the next level. Yet they turned-out each and every week of our six-week programs.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

SoCal CTO

APRIL 9, 2013

I''ve written before about finding Web Development Firms in Los Angeles. What I didn''t discuss was how you should go about selecting the right company. They''ve been in talks with some consulting companies, but don''t quite the know the criteria for evaluating them and things like references(and where to get them).

Web Development 204

Web Development Web Develop Development 204

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. We were talking about raising money from LPs.

Custom 341

Custom Customer Venture Capital Software Review 341

InfoChachkie

JUNE 30, 2014

Entrepreneur and noted investor Brad Feld unwittingly echoed Franks approach to marketing when, during a discussion with me , he declared, " …companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. Don’t tell me what you are, just be it and show me.”.

Marketing 193

Marketing Software Review Product Social Media 193

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski.

Software Review 187

Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2022

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. Business ethics are more about religion than management or leadership. Any given individual may not recognize the moral scope of the issues involved. The reality is different.

Entrepreneur 116

Entrepreneur Software Review Summary Examples 116

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. Outsourcing is defined as contracting the work to another company, usually located in a developing country, like India, China, or Eastern Europe.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2019

Citron previously founded and sold Mogreet, a developer of mobile marketing software, among other ventures. If you see all of the examples, like Salesforce, Warby Parker, the companies that do good outperform all of their peers. How did you decide to get into this as a company? What is Pledgeling? I'm thinking, this is crazy.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Software Review Mogreet Platform 113

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

Stella Wu, who formerly worked as a growth product manager at Wish, got firsthand experience of the pain points related to the process when she bought her own house in 2017. “I As more people spent time at home last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup saw its contract revenue spike by 5x, Wu says. trillion-dollar industry.

Technical Review 185

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2023

This is counter to the traditional business premise of “control,” so many companies are still pushing back. Search, combined with ratings and reviews become key in separating the useful from the rambling. The goal here is to grow the sources of new ideas and gather fresh thinking to create a new product or service.

Social Media 112

Social Media Media Software Review Social Network 112

Tech.Co

MARCH 9, 2020

Efficiency and Productivity. Work When You're Productive. Update Antivirus Software . Efficiency and Productivity when Working from Home. But, extended periods of working from home can risk having a negative effect on productivity. This is where tools like project management software can really help.

Tips 157

Tips Software Review Study Email 157

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2013

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. times the return of other companies over the last 10 years. Business ethics are more about religion than management or leadership. The reality is different.

Software Review 100

Software Review Summary Examples Offshore 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. We always had the added advantage that I have never met a single person in my life who ever said anything positive about their storage provider or experience. 10x the experience.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2017

Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Now all we hear about is providing the best “customer experience.” Exploit your product and service differences. Demonstrate the value of your offering.

Custom 85

Custom Customer Product Marketing 85

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. There’s many more concepts I could have written about. More people aren't the answer if your core business isn't already productive. This wasn’t meant to be exhaustive.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

emerge and are there any lessons to be gained about the future? Listening to young people talk about social networking as a new phenomenon is a bit like hearing people talk about a remake of a famous song from my youth as though it was the original version. AOL was controlled by one company and the Internet was distributed.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2014

However, Redondo Beach-based StaffRanker (www.staffranker.com) has rolled out a system to help those companies better manage what is a notoriously difficult segment of the labor market, which has a lot of turnover and which just doesn''t match existing, corporate performance management systems. How did you start the company?

Help 223

Help Hermosa Beach Technical Review Redondo Beach 223

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

Just over a year ago I wrote about how MakeSpace had raised $17.5 So how did a company that provides storage grow so fast (we’ll exit 2017 with 10’s of millions in recurring revenue), why is it so defensible and is it really a tech startup? years of software development. We’ve been delighted with 8VC as a co-investor.

Technical Review 268

Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

socalTECH

DECEMBER 3, 2012

It's surprising how often we run into rapidly growing companies that not many people have heard of, here in Southern California, but that's the case with El Segundo-based. NEOGOV , which has quietly built an enterprise software company supplying human resources software to the government and public sector. What is Neogov?

Software Review 243

Software Review SaaS Startup Technical Review 243

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today. As a simple example, the Wal-Mart website now shows shoppers more products that they may like, based on previous purchases.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2020

This is counter to the traditional business premise of “control,” so many companies are still pushing back. Search, combined with ratings and reviews become key in separating the useful from the rambling. The goal here is to grow the sources of new ideas and gather fresh thinking to create a new product or service.

Framework 159

Framework Social Media Software Review Social Network 159

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. We only want software revenue.” We prefer to sell software, not get involved with client systems.”

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403