Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea. The trusted leader.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea. The trusted leader.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 2, 2013

Then we discussed how they could go about finding this startup business advisor. Great question and I believe that just like finding a Technical Advisor for your startup is critical, finding a good mentor is critical. These are not mutually exclusive and good mentors and advisors get into both.

CTO Coach 259

CTO Coach Mentor Startup Technical Advisors 259

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

She told us about why so many Los Angeles investors are supporting the company and gave us an overview of what PartySlate is all about. We're focused on larger scale events, not do-it-yourself type events, and we're really for people planning large scale events, looking for ideas, and who are looking for a professional to help them.

Technical Advisors 100

Technical Advisors Technical Review Metrics Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow the basic advice here you can cause yourself much heartache down the line – even if your company ultimately becomes über successful. It’s hard enough to build a successful company.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Accelerator programs--like YCombinator in Silicon Valley, and TechStars in Colorado--have come to the forefront of the minds of entrepreneurs as a way to boost their ideas quickly into the market, find funding, and into existence. First and foremost, we're focused on making companies become successful.

Technical Advisors 176

Technical Advisors Startup Southern California Los Angeles 176

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Not the successful companies themselves but the entire b t culture of swash-buckling startups who define themselves by hitting some magical $1 billion valuation number and the financiers who back them irrespective of metrics that justify it. My fear isn’t whether these companies will be valuable in the future. ” No.

Technical Advisors 150

Technical Advisors Startup Writing Blogging 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Show focus and your understanding that your company is something more than just a good idea. Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that''s appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. What a banker is looking for is validation of your idea.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2012

For those who haven’t heard of what Startup Weekend is all about, it’s building a company on STEROIDS! From visualization to conception, and actually taking the product to market, a company usually takes about 1-2 years to create. People had one minute to “pitch” their idea to the group as a whole. We had exactly 54 hours!

Startup 99

Startup Technical Advisors Ideas USC 99

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. So we discussed his ideas several times. They are filled with ideas and they get those ideas onto paper.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Most of the entrepreneurs I advise today are ready to declare success when they get that first surge of traction with a real customer. This is a good sign, but they have no idea that the hard work of scaling the business is still ahead of them.

Technical Advisors 83

Technical Advisors Tool Software Product 83

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The truth is – there isn’t a “right&# answer so for your company. In the early days you don’t really want 3 extra teams hearing your ideas and gearing up to compete before you feel you’ve got a solid head start. Most people totally advise against stealth. You need some guidelines to make decisions.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Show focus and your understanding that your company is something more than just a good idea. Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that's appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. What a banker is looking for is validation of your idea.

Technical Advisors 80

Technical Advisors Startup Equity Ideas 80

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X&# or not. at a startup that has already raised $5 million the chances of you making your retirement money on that company is EXTREMELY small. This is part of my Startup Advice series. That’s Ok.

Startup 418

Startup Technical Advisors Venture Capital Santa Monica 418

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2018

While spending years in a big company as an employee and an executive, I heard many people talking about jumping the corporate ship, dreaming of being an entrepreneur, and totally in charge of their own destiny. I’m not saying success is rare, but the list of famous entrepreneurs who started their career in a big company is small.

Startup 52

Startup Technical Advisors Entrepreneur IBM 52

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

It’s validating that there is a market for their idea. Try to compile all the different types of questions you could be asked about your business, like technical details, financial assumptions and projections, marketing, IP, etc., I would advise trying not to get into an argument with an investor. Prepare for Q&A.

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

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. First, if it’s an early stage company, I don’t need to see a powerpoint deck. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Jason Nazar

APRIL 7, 2011

Who Are You: You corner us at mixers and tell stories about all the great things you do and how wonderful you are, without having any idea if we need your help. You take no interest nor show any curiosity in how technical systems are built or maintained, and Engineering is the least valued/respected part of your organization.

Technical Advisors 112

Technical Advisors Startup Social Media Ideas 112

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

When I was raising money for my first company we had closed a seed round in 1999 and were working on our A round. But we weren’t optimizing for dilution – we were building a $1 billion+ company and we wanted the runway to succeed. We thought it was a good idea so we brought it up to Goldman. Let me start with a story.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Each company is investing untold billions of dollars in developing AI technologies, betting on a future defined by computer systems that can perceive, reason, advise, and decide. Though the participating companies certainly have plenty of lobbying clout individually.)

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Technical Advisors Research 40

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. There’s a funny phenomenon where often the best sounding technical people are often the worst developers.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

. ► 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. Web Development & Marketing Technology) Exit: evolved into L90 (next company) Lesson: What you dont know cant stop you.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Frank Addante

MAY 15, 2006

. ► 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. Web Development & Marketing Technology) Exit: evolved into L90 (next company) Lesson: What you dont know cant stop you.

Advertising 40

Advertising Startup Chief Technology Officer Technical Review 40