Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Many (Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, True Ventures, GRP Partners, Mike Hirshland at Polaris Ventures) do it the right way – we treat it as a normal investment and we don’t have a “options&# strategy with our investment. Many firms do it in a way that can be more detrimental to entrepreneurs.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get paid (well) for interesting people to come in and tell me how they want to change the world – Being an entrepreneur is like having blinders on. At least for the best entrepreneurs. Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. I love it.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Who came in the office at 2am when the servers crashed – even on the night of the big company party. Writing a book will be fun.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

And for many companies a good deal of their business is still closed over the phone–through their call centers. This is especially true for companies with expensive and complex products or services that are more consultative in nature, like insurance, financial services, home services, education and travel, etc.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

I’m often asked the question about why there aren’t more women who are entrepreneurs. The truth is I have been thinking a lot about the topic, I just haven’t been writing about it. My inspiration to become an entrepreneur came from my mom, not my dad. AWS helped lower the cost of starting a company by 90%.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. And I feel that this skill is invaluable in both building a start-up company and in being a VC. I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. I know that I have not yet earned these kudos based on investment returns (although my partners have. By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

Panels were based at hubs including Leadership, Branding / Advertising, Social Media, Entrepreneurs, Community and more. RT @OEInnovation #SBF why I live in #LA: intersection of #beach #tech #entrepreneur #entertainment. & & #celebrity to pull off anything! RT @urlgrl @DigitalLA had an amazing time at #SBF. Photo by TechZulu).

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. I’ve always been a big believer that just a couple of key individuals make all of the difference in a company’s success. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Amazon in turn led to the formation of an earlier stage of venture capital now led by what I call “micro VCs&# who typically invest $250-500k in companies rather than the $5-7 million that VCs used to invest. Surprisinly, this strategy works well with many entrepreneurs. This led to an explosion in startups. Funny, that.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

I call it the entrepreneur thesis. I’m not talk about the age old debate amongst investors whether you back entrepreneurs, markets or products (or as people like to hedge – product / market fit). It’s entrepreneurs I back. It’s what I call the “entrepreneur thesis.” So what is the “entrepreneur thesis?”

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur GRP Partners Venture Capital Invest 321

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

Today I’m announcing that GRP Partners is doubling down on the Twitter ecosystem by investing in DataSift , a company who provides a real-time data platform and tools to third-party developers and corporations. And better yet, the company has a product that will turn the stream into a lake. What does that mean?

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307