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

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

But trust me when I say that my observations across many startups (and other companies, frankly) is that not enough time goes into thinking. If you’re not taking this zone-out down time I’ll bet you’re not having enough strategic reflection on your job, your company, your strategy.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. I will obviously be judged on my performance.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. As any historian of bubbles will tell you – there were periods of bubbles in assets as arcane as tulips , South American trading companies , dot-com bubbles & housing bubbles. Ah, but today’s Internet companies have real revenue! I believe that. and profits!

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

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

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 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly that is an “in-stream advertising&# company currently focused on monetizing Twitter. Traditional media companies published their stories on the web. Advertising has driven the majority of Internet innovation. was the 2-way web.

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Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

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. Absofuckinglutely.

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Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

Silicon Beach Fest, created by Digital LA and presented by engage:BDR, is the first startup / entertainment fest in LA with programming by tech community team effort including companies (Digital LA, engage:BDR, StartEngine, TechZulu, PromoJam, PageWoo, venues (Hotel Erwin, Viceroy Hotel, Cross Campus, Coloft, CoWorks, Working Village, io/LA).

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

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. Some have moved into later stage investments in an effort to “put logos on their websites.&#

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Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

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. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. Patron Companies. The ingredients are all here. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

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.

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Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

Today’s post is about my investment thesis. My investment philosophy is to back the best possible entrepreneurs I can. But when I’m looking to invest the dollars that my Limited Partners have entrusted my firm with I’m going with my view. He invested $8 million in a company in the computer networking space.

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