Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2010

I wrote the following answer: “I have always believed that UGC (user generated content) website users fall into three categories that follow the 1/9/90 rule. 90% of all users will never contribute anything to your company. But perhaps the lurker category is smaller. We all get benefit regardless of our roles.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Writing Content Sites 294

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. But, in fact, I would rather have an executive summary than a pitch deck. And I would rather, even before the executive summary, have something to play with (a demo)…” It falls in the category of show don’t tell. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2019

Every aspiring entrepreneur I know is convinced that his or her idea could be the next big startup, blossoming into a billion dollar unicorn. Most trend watchers agree that it is time for a revolutionary new category of medicine treatment devices and customized healthcare solutions. Satisfy a “higher purpose” as well as a current need.

Startup 91

Startup Customer Custom Examples 91

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Even worse, many entrepreneurs don’t even take the time to monitor what people are saying about them to others. If you find yourself and your business in one of these categories, it’s time to heed the steps I recommend to every business client today: Ask for a good review from every satisfied customer.

Customer 86

Customer Custom Examples Sites 86

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Short summary of my posts: 1. Many firms do it in a way that can be more detrimental to entrepreneurs. There are positive benefits to the right VCs being involved early – especially if your company or the economy hits bumps in the road. There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2014

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Every company needs this focus to attract the best minds and loyalty in both categories. Doing business is a human process.

Startup 91

Startup Organization Pricing Customer 91

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2012

When you have been on the startup firing line, you quickly learn that any insight from experts and entrepreneurs who have been there before you can make the difference between failure and success. Yet, many new entrepreneurs brazenly assume they are bulletproof, and march blindly into the fray. Manage growth wisely.

Startup 94

Startup Entrepreneur Summary Activity 94

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. Products so innovative that they define a new category. In today’s information overload, marketing is everything.

Product 95

Product Case Study Customer Custom 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). But consider periods of time where the average time a company exists before acquisition or IPO is 7-10 years. Easier to start companies, yes. Companies ultimately go through multiple rounds.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2011

When you have been on the startup firing line, you quickly learn that any insight from experts and entrepreneurs who have been there before you can make the difference between failure and success. Yet, many new entrepreneurs brazenly assume they are bulletproof, and march blindly into the fray. Manage growth wisely.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Summary Activity Startup 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. I explain in the video what happened in my first company (e.g. A: It’s not best.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I shifted my thinking a few years ago after I read Tim Ferris’s book The Four Hour Workweek (link is to a short summary I wrote). So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. Some summary notes are below. And I made the prediction that within the next 2 years RIM (the parent company of Blackberry) will not be independent.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. I would mostly lump me in that category.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

LA not only produced the obvious – MySpace – but also created the whole category of sponsored search (Overture), AdSense (Applied Semantics), Local Search (City Search), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla) and lead generation (LowerMyBills). Much of this was highlighted at Twiistup.

Twiistup 228

Twiistup SoCal Southern California Yammer 228

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

The reality, however, of the coexistence between immigrants and their American peers is proving to be a one-sided pursuit, with qualified immigrants struggling to stay in the country to join the companies that they have co-founded. category E visa for investors as a prime example of the recent troubles. Take the U.S.

Technical Review 77

Technical Review Startup Offshore Entrepreneur 77

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

In business, one important measure is the value of the company. That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth.

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Summary notes, as always, provide below. He invented the category of sponsored search. At the time when you did a search on Lycos, Alta Vista or similar for a category such as Cars you ended up getting 9 spam results and 1 proper website to meet your needs. So he launched a company with exclusively paid search.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

If you don’t want to read that post, the summary is: Open source computing drove computing costs down 90%, which spurred innovation in technology. Surprisinly, this strategy works well with many entrepreneurs. I doubt this will end well for those VCs or for the entrepreneurs they backed. Or at least venture-style returns.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2013

Here is a summary of the “big picture” high risk considerations: Inexperienced team. Historically high failure rate category. New drugs often fall in this category, due to long clinical trials and FDA approvals required. Yet, it’s still worthwhile to understand the issues so you can minimize your own risk of failure.

Startup 109

Startup Summary Software Review Sites 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2011

Here is a summary of the “big picture” high risk considerations: Inexperienced team. Historically high failure rate category. New drugs often fall in this category, due to long clinical trials and FDA approvals required. Yet, it’s still worthwhile to understand the issues so you can minimize your own risk of failure.

Startup 97

Startup Summary Software Review Sites 97

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Here is a summary of the “big picture” high risk considerations: Inexperienced team. Historically high failure rate category. Investors in one country are generally reluctant to invest in a company outside their realm of operational knowledge. Tags: entrepreneur startup risky unfundable business. Enjoy the challenge.

Startup 89

Startup Summary Sites Invest 89

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2015

Every entrepreneur should do the same due diligence on a potential investor that smart investors do on their startups. Here is a summary of some key investor stereotypes that generally need to be avoided: Investment sharks. Violation of abstract clauses may be used as a way to push you out, take over the company or pull the investment.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Coach Invest Sample 108