Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2022

Don’t take money, especially start–up loans, from unsophisticated investors. . I was a co–lender and assumed the chairmanship of a young startup where the entrepreneur’s cousin also loaned money under the same terms. The post The best advice startups will never follow first appeared on BERKONOMICS.

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Startup Entrepreneur Invest Course 317

SoCal Tech Calendar

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Tuesday, February 12, 2019 -- Start-Up Options for Rapid Development, Funding, and Commercialization. Is VC funding the only way to develop and grow your company? Have you heard of accelerators, incubators, angles, and other resources for rapid development, funding, and growth of your start-up?

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Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

Here’s one for executives of any company with next generation products in mind. Don’t draw your visionary resources into the incremental fight. In many companies, there are quiet geniuses, wanting to work on projects outside of the daily focus of the department or company. First, let’s recognize the problem.

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Company Companies Resource Cloud Computing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

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Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. In fact, even within Fortune 100 companies, almost 90 percent have encountered growth stalls or flirted with failure, or worse, in the last 50 years. Change is hard.

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Startup Company Companies Statistics 128

Berkonomics

MARCH 9, 2017

Starting a company is HARD – in so many ways. I read several years ago, that the average startup restaurant lasts only about a year. Here I am a professional investor in early stage companies, and I attempt to find those with the greatest chance of success and growth in value over time. And risky too. What does THAT mean?

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Startup Statistics Tech Coast Angels Study 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million-dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective.

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Startup Funding Organization Incubator 122

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

Preparing for the game… If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

An edtech startup called Entity Academy — which provides women with training, in areas like data science and software development; mentoring; and ultimately job coaching — has raised $100 million on the heels of strong growth of its business, and an ambition to improve that ratio.

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Mentor Training Startup Course 297

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

In fact, only 100 of the 10,000 multimillion-dollar consumer companies around the world can claim to be an “apostle brand” – one that inspires enduring trust, loyalty, and endorsement. The challenge of every startup is finding that balance between solving a real problem today, and giving customers the courage to make a leap forward.

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Company Companies Startup Customer 152

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Trade equity or services for startup help.

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Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. Building companies is hard work. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. We also had facilities in Dublin, Ireland where our company was initially founded. Our company was completely euphoric. I figured it out.

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Startup Press Customer Custom 331

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

For today's interview, we spoke to Dave Eastman, the Director of the Viterbi Startup Garage, a startup incubator that is run by the University of Southern California, out of its location in Marina Del Rey. What is Viterbi Startup Garage? The Startup Garage is located physically in Marina Del Rey, in the twin tower on Admiralty.

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Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2021

Today you can start a new web site business for as little as $100, produce cheap smart phone apps, or lead the effort to tap the multitude of opportunities brought by capitalizing on our concern for dwindling natural resources. Consider the startup MarkForged , which takes carbon-fiber to a 3D printer.

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Startup Resource Entrepreneur Social Media 162

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

First, few startups can use that much money today with all the virtual services available and increasingly inexpensive methods of development, prototyping and marketing. A much more rational approach to starting up. Four reasons you should reconsider.

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Startup Invest Summary Resource 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

First, few startups can use that much money today with all of the virtual services available and increasingly inexpensive methods of development, prototyping and marketing. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen executive summaries of business plans in which the entrepreneur seeks $5,000,000 to build the business.

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Resource Invest Summary Startup 180

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2014

You can start a new e-Commerce site on the Internet for as little as $100, with cheap smart phone apps, new technology innovations, or tapping the multitude of opportunities brought by capitalizing on our concern for dwindling natural resources. Consider the startup MarkForged , which takes carbon-fiber to a 3D printer.

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Resource Ideas Startup Commerce 96

Berkonomics

JULY 16, 2020

Catching up from past insights. Growing companies usually require more working capital during their periods of rapid growth. In this insight, we need to speak of the sources of working capital and the implications to the future financial health of the choices made when selecting one financial resource. It may not be equity.

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Company Companies .Net Equity 156

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. I also see companies as they move from having taken $1-5 million from me to their next round where they raise $8-15 million from Series B investors and sometimes I lead at this round (we’re stage agnostic but 80% of our deals are seed & A).

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Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

He did whatever work he could find as he was alone, no family or resources. Ultimately Billy quit his night job and became a legitimate businessman hauling cargo out and back from ships that could not tie-up at the busy docks. Or maybe Billy’s story is the same story as so many start-ups. The time line was in the 1930’s.

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Startup Blogging Activity Entrepreneur 100

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

He did whatever work he could find as he was alone, no family or resources. Ultimately Billy quit his night job and became a legitimate businessman hauling cargo out and back from ships that could not tie-up at the busy docks. Or maybe Billy’s story is the same story as so many start-ups. The time line was in the 1930’s.

Startup 100

Startup Blogging Activity Entrepreneur 100

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

Startups across the nation and around the world are looking for ways to relieve shortages of much-needed personal protective equipment and sanitizers used to halt the spread of COVID-19. ” Against this backdrop local startups and maker spaces are stepping up to do what they can to fill the gap.

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Company Companies Mobile Organization 281

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Allan Jones’s first startup was Fourth and Grand , a Trunk Club-like service backed by the venture studio and accelerator, Science, out of Santa Monica. What sets Bambee apart from companies like Zenefits and other companies looking to provide human resources services is its focus on the needs of employees as well as employers.

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Services Resource Santa Monica Los Angeles 281

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

What is Startup Boost , and how is it looking to help early stage startups in Los Angeles? We recently sat down with Matt Stodder , Co-Director of Startup Boost/Los Angeles, and Blake Caldwell , Global Director of Startup Boost, to learn more about the program, what it offers up to startups.

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Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. Nearly all of the mistakes I made at my first company I fixed by the time of my second company. It’s landing AT&T or Microsoft as a customer when you’re a start-up.

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Startup Customer Custom Resource 389

TechCrunch LA

MAY 12, 2020

This morning, Snap joined a host of startup accelerators shifting its demo day online amid the COVID-19 quarantine. With its third class of startups, Yellow, Snap’s in-house startup accelerator that launched in 2018, brought investors and founders together in private slack channels after a live-streamed presentation.

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Invest Startup Artificial Inteligence Class 237

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2022

Instead of sizing up new opportunities and actively courting every new customer, you start worrying about cutting costs, repeatable processes , and overtaking known competitors. As a consultant, I hate to see you lose that startup focus on innovation, change, and customers. Limit resources to be applied to optimizing processes.

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Startup Artificial Inteligence Metrics Netflix 154

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2023

Hopefully, between the two of us, more of you with big business dreams will follow the leads and generate more successful business results: Start by getting your hands dirty. A business entity has to be created and real resources applied. Never give up in the face of adversity. The time to get started is now.

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Ideas Startup Entrepreneur Social Media 105

Tech.Co

JUNE 29, 2021

You know what a startup is, right? Or at least you have an idea of what a startup is like to work in? That is, of course, until the small, ambitious startup is acquired by a larger, more traditional company in its sector, or the small startup goes public with angry shareholders and regulators asking difficult questions.

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Startup Course Coach Demand 175

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

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Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2023

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 Ideas Organization Entrepreneur 82

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2014

Mid-level or even top executives who “grew up” in large companies often look with envy at startups, and dream of how easy it must be running a small organization, where you can see the whole picture and it appears you have total control. These instincts kill you in a small company, where requiring more resources is a negative.

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Startup Company Companies Training 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2021

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Many entrepreneurs are paranoid about the partnership approach, and think that M&A is only an alternative for large companies who are flush with cash.

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Organization CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 132

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

One startup that aims to help make the process simpler, cheaper and less stressful by helping people manage the home renovation process has raised $6 million to help it grow even faster. Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar Renovating a home is an exciting, yet often fraught-filled, endeavor.

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Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

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Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much. In the best cases boards come together to help the company get through its trough?—?in

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Startup Venture Capital Layoffs Resource 269

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 2, 2014

Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. One of the most common refrains I hear is, “I want to have a company with no politics. And it’s why many early-stage companies blow up. You know, no b t.”

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Startup Coach Course Snapchat 385