Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. Gross margin positive != That bit is easy.

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Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? Metrics: 2.5mm members, 1,000 brands, 2,500 sale events to-date.

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InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. However, the greater degree you can sequentially follow these steps and maintain your discussions with each venture capitalist (VC) at relatively the same stage, the sooner you can spend less time in the company of investors and get back to running your business.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

We have significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. For any company interested in applying please visit the website. To show these companies that they can remain in LA.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

in a funding round, the company said this week. The funding was led by Okapi Venture Capital, and also included Serra Ventures, Cove Fund II, 1855 Capital, and Mooring Ventures LLC. San Diego-based Daasity , a startup working on data analytics for direct-to-consumer retailers, has raised $2.3M

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Metrics San Diego Venture Capital Commerce 113

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

His work in social media, e-Learning and Performance Support has won awards and has led him into engagements at many Fortune 500 companies including Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity Investments, Symbol Technologies and SHL Systemhouse.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2013

Encinitas-based ForwardMetrics has just taken $1M in a seed funding round, to help companies better conduct their strategic planning. forwardmetrics forward metrics strategic planning software venture capital' The startup said that the new funding round brings its total raised to $1.75M. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding Funding Metrics Venture Capital 252

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.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grabinski.

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Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, March 9, 2007 Map of VC Investments Found this Map of 2006 VC Investments post. Kevin Federline Search Engine Realistic Entrprenuer's Guide to Venture Capital Time Rich, Time Poor and Apple F2F Still Matters 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing.

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Venture Capital Invest CTO Coach Southern California 150

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.” What happens at the A-round of venture capital? But it’s quite rare.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. What makes their story more remarkable, in the age of 20-something billionaires, is that both of the company’s founders are in their 50’s.

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Xconomy

MARCH 30, 2020

San Diego has long been considered a second-tier primary biopharma hub in terms of number of companies and venture capital raised, falling behind the twin behemoths of Boston-Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area on those and other metrics.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He calls it his “Tom Sawyer&# company. Scott’s first big foray into industry-changing companies came with CarsDirect, an IdeaLab company where he was the initial founder & CEO. Scott left the company, which eventually IPO’d and became Internet Brands. a fbFund winner. Current round: $4.

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Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? There are VCs who get a string of wins that is far from chance.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product. The real question you should be asking is "When I've built this product and show you the following metrics, would you invest?" What The Heck Does “Traction” Really Mean To A VC?

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Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. Mike Starkenburg: The company was founded in 2000, and was started in Manchester, UK, by a handful of computer vision specialists. How did a company started in the UK end up here?

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Metrics Startup Sales Newsletter 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

And as I always assert, “Great companies are built in downturns. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. And it’s when mediocre companies get pulverized.” I remember, for example, when business intelligence swept through companies globally.

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Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. It is probably the right thing for the stage of company. And VC’s are tough customers.

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Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

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. So what does a VC do when he or she isn’t ready to say “no” or perhaps might like to talk with you in a year but not now?

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SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. Bending over: How to sell to large companies - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , May 24, 2010 This is a guest post by Steve Hanov , who blogs about programming and startups.

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TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Scott McCorkle has spent most of his professional career thinking about business to business software and how to improve it for a company’s customers. The first offerings will be launching in the beginning of 2019, but the company has dozens of customers already using its pilot, McCorkle said.

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Chief Technology Officer SaaS Metrics Custom 145

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

It’s one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the country with the 100 largest tech companies in L.A. PledgeLA initiative grew out of a series of problem-solving sessions within the Los Angeles venture capital community. Over the past five years, Los Angeles has emerged as one of the top five destinations in the U.S.

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Los Angeles Angel Entrepreneur Orange County 249

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2020

in a funding, and launched a new, mobile fitness app which combines live instruction with real time sensing of motion and metrics. The company says it is backed by such angel investors as Michael Stoppelman (former SVP of Engineering at Yelp) and Tom McInerney (seed investor in Bird, Segment, Notion). READ MORE>>.

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Mobile Artificial Inteligence Metrics Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2015

Last night I wrote a post about how the fall in the stock market over a 3-day period may affect the venture capital markets. If you’re an entrepreneur or VC who wants somebody else’s view on that you should read it. Let me give you the quick summary of what I said yesterday: Public markets affect venture funding.

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Venture Capital Startup Marketing Summary 150

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 22, 2016

I had the honor of moderating a panel of three SaaS CEOs who have collectively raised nearly $40 million of venture capital and are on their way to breakout success: Reed Shaffner of Workpop , Jerry Jao of Retention Science and Ara Mahdessian from ServiceTitan. The Most Important Metric. Such metrics will obviously differ.

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Custom Customer Cornerstone OnDemand Metrics 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

He believes that one of the financial metrics taught at business schools and reinforced by Wall Street has accelerated offshoring of industries. He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed). Venture Capital. We spoke about the disruption of VC through crowd funding. So they could monetize and people would pay.

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. We need people at all stages of the funding lifecycle and not just VCs.

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Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Berkonomics

JULY 1, 2021

Here’s one that most small company founders and CEO’s miss until it may be too late. What is the role of a chief financial officer in growing and protecting the company? And it extends beyond the usual interpretation of the CFO position in many companies. Where else would there be a knight-protector in a company?

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Email Coach Metrics Venture Capital 156

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Many of our job postings for Engineering positions describe the company as a place “where the word ‘millions’ is used frequently and in many contexts&#. SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

I got three calls from another big name, big check VC. It’s super hard not to want to spend more time with these companies. I always ask when somebody sends me a deal, for example, are you already a shareholder in the company? I got an email recently from a VC who had invested in a company a small amount in a seed round.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2012

BAT said the new round was led by Matthew Pritzker Company , and also included existing investors Miramar Venture Partners , Newport Coast Investments , RimLight, LLC, Fulcrum Venture Capital , and ad pepper media International.

Technology 159

Technology Miramar Metrics Venture Capital 159

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” Or anybody who remotely resembles you.

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Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. We’ll see in time. ” Well.

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