Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. At the time I pointed out: “If I had realized exits almost certainly it would be because I invested in a company that failed.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. First in late-stage tech companies and then it will filter back to Growth and then A and ultimately Seed Rounds.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

In the past decade we have remained consistent, investing in 12–15 companies per year at the earliest stages of their formation with a median first check size of approximately $3 million. In our best-performing companies we often write follow-on checks totaling up to $10–15 million out of our early-stage fund.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company. Yes, you could tell them in a private internal meeting but nothing builds confidence more than their buddies all telling them, “wow, you work for a great company. ” Why?

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 10, 2012

On his first day of work my wife was kind enough to write down words of wisdom from her years on the job. I don’t write about Tania very often – mostly at her request. She’s worked for L’Oreal, Accenture, Virgin Mobile & BSkyB (one of the leading media companies in the UK). Hope you enjoy. **.

Writing 414

Writing Mentor Blogging Tips 414

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

You should always have a steady stream of “friend of the firm&# hanging around your company. Hot company. You won’t land the big jobs unless you’re in there shaping the discussion about what the company needs, convincing them that they need you before they’re even ready to hire. Hire Fast, Fire Fast.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

I’ve been having this PR discussion with three separate portfolio companies at once so I thought I’d just publish my thoughts more broadly. PR is an insanely valuable activity in early-stage companies. It’s much hard to get funded as a company nobody has heard of. Business Development - Biz Dev is hard.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. You now own 20% of a company valued at $50 million but you’ve put in $4m to get that. Why investors care about prorata rights.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

These outside board members spend most of the board meeting trying to reacquaint themselves with the company’s business and critical issues. Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. Ineffecient Board Meeting.

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” They sold 2 years later for $16 million In the financial crisis of 2008 we had a company that had jointly hired lawyers to consider a bankruptcy and also pursued (and achieved!)

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The truth is – there isn’t a “right&# answer so for your company. And these ideas have ways of seeping into board discussions with portfolio companies as in, “have you ever thought about trying A, B or C?&# For early-stage consumer companies I would be careful not to market futures at all.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It I see founders who think they can be at every conference, advise multiple companies, do side investments in angel deals, leave the office at 6pm and have a balance life.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? More strategic.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

” I look for a lot of things, actually: Persistence (above all else), resiliency, leadership, humility, attention-to-detail, street smarts, transparency and both obsession with one’s company and a burning desire to win. In fact, my salary never caught up with my pre startup salary across 2 companies and 8 years.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. I’ve seen too many companies go off track by a VC hell bent on the team pursuing the VCs strategy which at times is about chasing the next shiny object. Most VCs are book smart. I call them “ VCs Seagulls.”

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Today we’re in a world where 10 accelerators are bombarding you with emails to meet their 10-15 companies. Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, They worry too much about missing out on a deal.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

The truth is I have been thinking a lot about the topic, I just haven’t been writing about it. AWS helped lower the cost of starting a company by 90%. When I started my first company at 31 year’s old I had to raise at least $5 million. million to launch a SaaS software company and we took $2.5

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

I got a call from a VC friend of mine who said, “we’re looking at this deal but can’t write the full check. But I had just seen the company present at a recent tech event and thought highly of what they were building. I was interested in the company but I wasn’t chasing the deal. The CEO called me.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Writing 356

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. You took the risk to start your company. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. I worked with a startup CEO who decided he wanted to sell his company. CEO transparency.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

I started by writing 3-4 times / week. I didn’t have any grand ambitions other than to write, share ideas and try to build awareness of who I am through my thoughts. I agreed to finance a company today. The best companies struggle – just not publicly. I’ve kept it up for 2 years. Nothing comes quickly.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

This is certainly the case when I met Nick Halstead , the founder of DataSift which is why I invested in their A round despite the company being based in England (a long way from home). I want to wake up in the morning on weekends thinking about the company, the product, their positioning. I have fallen in love twice recently.

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. Don’t confuse this with a tour-de-force education on the finer details of how your company operations. Don’t write sentences on them – only key words to help you remember what you’re going to say. Show some energy!

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. Mostly, no.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. It doesn’t mean that these won’t produce great companies but the prices people are paying for today’s value exceeds what the underlying value of the business is worth and does not account for the risks the investor is assuming.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

She entered you reservation by writing in a time slot in a paper calendar and you were in. and then took the lid off of the product by announcing the company – I wrote about that here. The hostess worked from 4-10pm so you had to call during these hours. Between 7-10 she was busy seating guests so had to put your on hold.

Development Team Review 324

Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. M&A discussions (where your company is buying or being bought). Therefore of course they need to be more selection when writing checks and can’t spread their bets across 75 deals. founder fighting.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 9, 2021

The company has been building a title called Blankos Block Party that seems to be Fall Guys meets Roblox meets Funko Pop. Users don’t need to walk through the mechanics of setting up a wallet or writing down a seed phrase either. The round was led by WestCap. The startup has raised a whopping $120 million to date.

Platform 308

Platform Framework Los Angeles Design 308

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 24, 2019

Google worked with the company to open source the system, which Google and Imageworks have scaled to up to 150,000 cores. The company previously also open sourced and contributed to tools like OpenColorIO and Alembic. Cue 3 was actually Imageworks’ internal queuing system, which is at least fifteen years old.

Google 261

Google Tool Los Angeles Entertainment 261

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 19, 2017

I discovered the power of ownership early in my management career, establishing an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), once popular as incentive compensation as well as a tax write-off for corporations and even a way to slowly transfer ownership of a company from the founders to the employees.

Slides 243

Slides News Equity Writing 243

Berkonomics

MAY 11, 2017

As a professional investor in early stage companies, I have long discounted long, detailed business plans in favor of a concise “executive summary” followed by a believable spreadsheet-based financial forecast projecting three to five years into the future. Write these steps down in any form for now.

Summary 243

Summary Resource Writing Email 243

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

I’m still planning to write some in depth pieces on the topic but I thought, “given that this is about how video will consume the Internet over the next 5 years, what better way to exemplify this than with a 10-minute video.” I recently gave a talk about the Future of Television.

GRP Partners 371

GRP Partners Content Technical Review Press 371

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I I work with a few computer vision companies.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. If you’re talking with a typical Seed/A/B round firm they often have ownership targets in the company in which they invest. But there is also another very rational reason.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

Like it or not – finance is a major job function in any company – startup or public company. The profile of one of the hottest companies I met was as per the graph below. But I really think this company has a good shot at becoming a monster. Investors are writing checks for dots.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

There’s also a relatively modest request (of only $4 billion) for funding devoted to pilot projects, startup companies, and public clean technology investment initiatives (like LACI). “ This will also help dealerships increase sales and bring needed sales tax revenues to local and state governments,” Peterson writes.

Southern California 261

Southern California Los Angeles Rosemead Incubator 261

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 22, 2021

The company also notes that it took care to maintain some of the space’s more iconic elements. Apple Tower Theatre anchors the corner of Eighth Street and Broadway, where visitors will immediately recognize the fully restored clock tower, recreated Broadway marquee, clean terra cotta exterior, and renovated historic blade sign,” Apple writes.

Education 299

Education Los Angeles Press Hollywood 299