Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). After we sold it to that public company, I founded HashtagOne. It's all about leverage.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. We hired IP specialists to review prior art.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In retrospect, our decision was both perfectly rational and completely lame. What’s The Worst Mistake?

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

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. This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest. Is that when it became big? This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Or as I picked up from Bruce Dunlevie at Benchmark Capital (who I’m told took the quote from elsewhere). I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. I wanted to write a follow up post because it was such an important lesson for me and so eye opening.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

Tech companies have spent the past decade or more developing innovations that can be applied to old-world industries like agriculture, construction, energy, education, manufacturing and transportation and logistics. The vast majority of those are nowhere up to modern codes. ” Climate resiliency . Fables of the reconstruction.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). I’ll explain in detail below. He knows the ad management and ad network businesses.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit. Write things down. I HATE LOSING.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit. Write things down. I HATE LOSING.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. 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. Go research it.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” Kind of like a law firm (or VC firm) with four partners but shortened to just two, people dropped off his second two words.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

Investor in Twitter, Foursquare, DISQUS, and (by Naval’s own admission) “a lot of other companies you have never heard of”. I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. “As Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

We caught up with EcoMom CEO Jody Sherman , to learn more about the company. To do that, we've gotten pedestrians, doctors, and eco-experts involved in the company and helping us to determine the criteria we have published on the site. So, I reached out to this VC I mentioned, who sent him an email.

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past. But the hardest question to actually answer is, “What is the right burn rate for your company?” Who are Your Existing Investors?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. So he decided to start his company in Canada.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. To hear about the company, we spoke with Ramit Varma , co-founder of the company. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We wanted to be able to invest in our software and our learning tools.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Start-up Lessons that I learned from founding two companies. In the 2003/04 timefame I was living in the UK and running my first company. I had been competing to win a contract at Thames Water, the largest water company in the UK. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. Most of this advice boils down to an argument in favor of basic planning before starting a company or raising money. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. If your last company was Apple, Blackberry, AdMob or JAMDAT and you have some experience in the sector then I know that your product will have your experiences baked into it. He’s a star.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. He said, literally, I sh*t you not, “well, my report was due and I didn’t have much time.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits. . * Im constantly frustrated by conversations that take place in discussion groups that cant cross the border into the blog world.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2010

It makes no sense to meet in August or December due to travel schedules of most investors. And most companies don’t do enough between board meetings. For the record, this is not a secret, coded messages to companies for which I am on the board! VC’s Want to Help! Most VC’s want to help.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Software Review Email 301

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. Our first big round of venture capital (our A round) was a whopping $16.5 This is what happened to me.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’ve always been a big believer that just a couple of key individuals make all of the difference in a company’s success. Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. I need to take some VC meetings. The ingredients are all here.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

BTW – if anybody at Twitter reads this you need to fix your “embed Tweet” code because as you’ll see from above it doesn’t properly embed when you have a quoted Tweet. **. I just write. I told her I need “20 minutes” to write a blog post. Keep on writing. HSzvQK63th. Ezra asked.

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Frank Addante

JULY 30, 2007

. ► November (1) 2 Ears and 1 Mouth: There's a Reason ► October (2) Be Best at Something Tear Down Your Firewalls ► September (3) Elements of Sustainable Companies We're Not Saving Lives. ► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? I'm 30, now will you take me seriously? Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40

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. No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. I never built Google.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

When you are selected you share the stage with 49 other companies (in the case of TechCrunch50. Most people pay attention to the first 5 companies. By company 22 it’s hard to remember what any of them did. Many other great companies are not. - I’ve heard many startup CEO’s (and VCs!) Maybe 10.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last board meeting. Nobody knows how many outstanding shares are in the company so nobody knows what percentage Mary’s 22,475 shares is equal to. The meeting starts.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. It is an LA-based company that was recently acquired by Amazon, which you can read more about in this incredibly well-researched article.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

Nearly every company faces its crisis moments and only through the inspiration , focus and dedication of the leadership can you motivate teams to dig in deep and come out the other side stronger. I made an investment in a company with deep domain knowledge. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

If the recruiting manager’s job consisted solely of reviewing your resume it would be an easy task. VC Pitch Decks. The great thing about the VC pitch deck is that you can have 30 slides. You’ve been given 10 minutes to stand on stage and tell what your company does and why it matters. Presentations.

Slides 346

Slides Software Review Blogging Venture Capital 346