Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2023

People tell me there may be over 8,000 dating sites with scientific matchmaking algorithms worldwide, but I couldn’t find one that focused on scientifically matching companies and people for business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Bad ones will suck the energy out of your company, and leave you wanting more.

eHarmony 100

eHarmony Writing Sites Summary 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.” Start with a service you know and love.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2020

People tell me there may be over 8,000 dating sites with scientific matchmaking algorithms worldwide, but I couldn’t find one that focused on scientifically matching companies and people for business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Bad ones will suck the energy out of your company, and leave you wanting more.

Sites 155

Sites eHarmony Writing Summary 155

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

However, to a Big Dumb Company (BDC), a startup’s IP is a thing of beauty. As such, they are hesitant to acquire a company which has not sought formal protection of their IP for two reasons. One is obvious, without protection, such IP might prove to be of little worth, as other companies can mimic the technology without recourse.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.” Start with a service you know and love.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

My experience is that the discipline of documenting a plan will improve your likelihood of addressing all the right issues , as well as finding the right partner or investor. Remember, investors or interested in acquiring a piece of your company, so keep the focus on the attractiveness of the company, rather than the product.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 21, 2021

Netflix employees staged a walkout yesterday in response to the company’s handling of a Dave Chappelle special that premiered on October 5. But Sarandos doubled down on his defense of the special, writing an internal email that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” Several things can be true.

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Netflix Demand Content Hollywood 300

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2023

Yet from my own years of experience in the startup community, here are ten common steps that have worked for other entrepreneurs: Write a "job description" for that ideal partner. Take a hard look at your own business strengths and weaknesses, and write down what partner skills and experiences would best complement yours.

Startup 99

Startup High Tech Entrepreneur Writing 99

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. Your deck should be so good that a VC asks you for permission to show it to his or her portfolio companies.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2009

Santa Monica-based DocStoc , the online document sharing site run by Jason Nazar, just released a new feature Thursday afternoon, DocStoc Collections , which allows users to create their own groupings of documents by topic. Tags: docstoc collections topic sharing document. DocStoc is venture backed by Rustic Canyon Partners.

Rustic Canyon 100

Rustic Canyon Santa Monica SoCalTech Writing 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I don’t run one of the world’s largest companies but I can tell you for free that even I get some crazy physical mails because knowing one’s corporate address is quite easy. I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. The person writing things he or she is doing me a favor. I’m not an elitist a **e.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more. Document why your team is the best for this challenge. You may have heard that venture capitalists in Silicon Valley no longer read business plans. They want to see revenue to share in the return.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself. It only takes a little extra work to make it a professional document, with a cover page, table of contents, headings, and page numbers.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

Dress to fit into the company culture, no more, no less. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Share the everyday life of the startup team you are working with. Produce results. Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations.

Startup 150

Startup Slides Email Customer 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2022

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, costs, and tasks you don’t like. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. Let’s keep it in the family.”

Startup 140

Startup Satisfaction Writing Entrepreneur 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2021

Yet from my own years of experience in the startup community, here are ten common steps that have worked for other entrepreneurs: Write a "job description" for that ideal partner. Take a hard look at your own business strengths and weaknesses, and write down what partner skills and experiences would best complement yours.

Startup 126

Startup High Tech Entrepreneur Writing 126

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

I’m just writing verbatim what I wrote in a Quora response years ago. A term sheet is not a legally binding document. Get even by getting funding, building a great company and always know that the best “f**k-you” in life is success. Sorry for using f**k two posts in a row. So, what can you do? But why bother.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Content Writing Blogging 150

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Everyone who manages a company or its sales force wants to write as many new deals as possible, and is usually warry about doing anything that might threaten the positive outcome of a pending sale. Do so within the offer document and with a personal comment with delivery of the offer. Deadlines are an important sales tool.

Sales 120

Sales Tool Writing Customer 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2012

The result is a host of hiring mistakes that sink many young companies, or take years to fix. A key success element is to start by avoiding the known list of interviewing and hiring mistakes that have been documented many times over by human resources professionals. “I I didn’t have time to read the resume, but he has great answers.”

Company 94

Company Companies Startup Statistics 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

Ultimately the Goldman Sachs report gets picked up by a journalist who writes a hyperbolic headline with emphatic conclusions because nobody wants to read that tomorrow will be just like today. Since I had built 2 document management companies I knew all the reasons why building a document management company would “never work.”

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Statistics Writing Report 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

Pitch your company, not your product. Disciplining yourself to write down the plan is actually the best way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. In simple terms, it is a 20-page document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your new business. Written business plan.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

His talk was especially intriguing, as he attended UCSB, but dropped out to start a clothing design company. Seth is a design-oriented entrepreneur, with little desire to document details. The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. Chaos By Design. In his entrepreneurial Tribe, he is the Shaman.

Ideas 266

Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. If you’ve done a good job in the sales process you’ve already written out a needs document in which your wrote out what you believe the customer problems are with specific examples. Maybe they don’t?

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

No matter how much you think you know about Steve’s lean startup philosophy, Eric Ries’ contributions to the movement, or the methodologies by which companies have put lean startup tenets into practice, I am confident you will be enlightened and entertained by Steve’s frank and insightful remarks. . If you find one, you become a company.

Startup 229

Startup Class Press Custom Development 229

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2013

As long as somebody recognizes their million dollar idea and writes them a check, the source really doesn''t matter. This type of investor never really focuses on the returns your company can deliver, but instead tries to make money by intimidation, threats and lawsuits. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal.

Angel 105

Angel Writing Startup Invest 105

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). We led an investment round in a company a while ago in which we wrote a seven-figure check and have taken a board seat.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story last year “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article a while back, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Pitch your company, not your product. Written business plan.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2012

As long as somebody recognizes their million dollar idea and writes them a check, the source really doesn't matter. This type of investor never really focuses on the returns your company can deliver, but instead tries to make money by intimidation, threats and lawsuits. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal.

Angel 112

Angel Entrepreneur Writing Invest 112

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

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 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? Time based as in “a guaranteed right for 12 months, which can be renewed by mutual board consent” and event based “a guaranteed right until the company has raised $x million from new investors.” Should I be worried that I could be fired from my own company?

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 2, 2014

Emails, documents, and even tax forms are handled online, making it difficult for families to retrieve them, or even know they existed in the first place. This way, a person can leave behind a will including their tax forms, emails, and other digital documents family members wouldn’t have known about. Tell us a little about yourself.

Startup 79

Startup Design Los Angeles Technology 79