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This Week in VC – Scott Painter, CEO of Zag & TrueCar

Both Sides of the Table

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. And it carries no inventory. a fbFund winner.

Zag 248
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“Stay Lean as Long as You Can,” and Other VC Wisdom from Mark Suster

Xconomy

The most important takeaway of the evening, Suster said, is that it’s only by using the Internet to dramatically increase their market reach and size (getting to scale) that Web startups can significantly cut the price of the goods or services they provide. Startup Week San Diego Crowd at Mark Suster Talk.

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Bolstering the Partner Ranks at GRP

Both Sides of the Table

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. He was also the first one to challenge my conventional wisdom that it made no sense for tech companies to advertise on television.

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Interview with Tara Weingarten, VroomGirls

socalTECH

As automotive web sites go, there are lots of review and information sites giving you information about new and used cars, magazines and information sites for auto enthusiasts, and discussion sites and groups for all kinds of cars. But, I think it's because I have known all of these car companies for seventeen years.

Truecar 204
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How Startups Can Use Metrics to Drive Success

Both Sides of the Table

One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. Make them widely available inside the company and share your most important goals with your board. My experience has proven that even some well known companies are under-whelming in this department.

Metrics 346
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How to Develop Your Fund Raising Strategy

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Create scarcity.

Develop 366
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Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?

Both Sides of the Table

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.