Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. The core of the investing job of course is investing dollars into startup companies and helping as a mentor, advisor and board member on the companies in which you’ve invested.

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

Of course, no business wants to be the next Blockbuster , which kept charging straight ahead despite subtle clues that the Internet was changing everything. Investigate broader implications of disruptive events. Be a first responder, rather than the last, to make business model and strategy adjustments to compensate.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Custom 162

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2022

Of course, such actions are equally applicable to businesses at any stage. Sponsor customer events for visibility and giveaways. These events are also opportunities to get a better handle on customer requirements, as well as measure your customer satisfaction and market trends. Show potential customers that you care.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Mentor Conference 119

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 22, 2013

The mobile app and website that allows people to capture and share images and videos of events through social media. The idea for the app is to see events through the eyes of the audience. But the news events were hard to keep up with, so we decided to cover locally and focus on events near LA.

Social Media 94

Social Media Startup Media UCLA 94

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Of course you want your customer to come back, but the best ones also become your evangelists in bringing their friends to you, and broadcasting their positive experiences to the world through social media. That’s your chance to step in and compete at every moment of the customer buying process, usage experience, and follow-on events.

Customer 146

Customer Custom Startup Course 146

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2010

The University of Southern California and wealthy engineer Fariborz Maseeh , now a hedge fund manager in Newport Beach, is announcing this week a $1M endowment, which will fund an annual, $50,000 prize for a business plan competition for the school's engineering students. affiliated event focused on spreading innovative ideas.

USC 214

USC Southern California SoCalTech Competition 214

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2021

Of course, this kind of leadership has a big risk, since you have no one to blame if you get it wrong. This may mean attending industry conferences, taking college courses, or reading some key books. It may be time for you to start your own blog, write a book, or volunteer as a speaker at public events in your domain.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Course Satisfaction SpaceX 132

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I presented the deck below – which was prepared with the great help of Upfront Venture’s Principal Jordan Hudson – at Dave McClure’s must attend event called PreMoney with much more data and narrative than I had in my blog post. I saved it mostly for LP discussions that I had over the past year.

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. I wish more startups were rigorous in defining market needs and competitive differentiate versus throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks but it seems as an industry we’re breeding the culture of the latter. It’s worth a quick read.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Enjoy a sports event together, or find common non-profit causes to participate in. Invite the investor to dinner or fun-related activity.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2023

This fallacy, often called historical myopia, essentially involves extrapolating only from recent positive events, and ignoring the reality that markets saturate or evaporate. A smart entrepreneur learns to embrace failure as a badge of learning that provides a competitive edge. Startups can go down many times faster than they go up.

Entrepreneur 125

Entrepreneur Netflix Social Media Startup 125

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

How to Deal with Electronic Distractions Of course the biggest competition you have with the attention of your board members is their mobile phones. Given how seldom you come together you’d imagine you’d have the boards’ full attention during this time. Most likely you’d be wrong. You can solve this if you’re willing to.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2021

Then there was always the risk of failure, which of course doesn’t apply once your real job is gone. Nothing says you are serious about a business like handing out professional business cards at local events and Chamber of Commerce meetings. Also, for most of us, not having done it before, we have no idea where or how to start.

Startup 156

Startup Social Network Activity Ideas 156

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

The reason for this is that the executives who founded the company have so much tacit knowledge of how to position their product relative to the competition that they can easily win campaigns when they’re involved. So I often work with teams to get them to codify the key things they do well that the competition does not.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Custom 336

Berkonomics

JUNE 18, 2015

Of course, there are external risks that cannot be controlled or predicted, but can be planned for as well –. natural disasters, sudden political or economic events that rattle the entire economy, and more. Fourth is competitive risk , which consists of two separate risks. That discussion is for a future time.

Competition 120

Competition Marketing Class Product 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2021

An entrepreneur’s passion for an idea often prompts them to blame others or external events for setbacks, rather than themselves, so that they can maintain some semblance of self-esteem and control. Leadership is all about finding positives, for business growth, for competitive advantage, and people development in your organization.

Examples 136

Examples Organization Startup Course 136

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Of course you want your customer to come back, but the best ones also become your evangelists in bringing their friends to you, and broadcasting their positive experiences to the world through social media. That’s your chance to step in and compete at every moment of the customer buying process, usage experience, and follow-on events.

Custom 124

Custom Customer Startup Course 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Of course it happens all the time?—?especially 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.” This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

And whether to warn your superiors or your boards about these unraveling events early. And of course, a promise not kept is an indication of a lack understanding of the problem or of care for the solution. Let’s talk about surprises. You have a dashboard or KPI’s, don’t you? Another of my board learning experiences.

News 120

News Statistics Resource Sales 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2020

Sponsor some friendly competitive events with prizes. Elon Musk and Tesla made their battery patents available to anyone, to clear the path for market infrastructure growth and compatibility, which of course benefits Tesla. Let your highly motivated customers be your best marketing advocates for new customers.

Marketing 170

Marketing Examples Startup Custom 170

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Enjoy a sports event together, or find common non-profit causes to participate in. Invite the investor to dinner or fun-related activity.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2020

This fallacy, often called historical myopia, essentially involves extrapolating only from recent positive events, and ignoring the reality that markets saturate or evaporate. A smart entrepreneur learns to embrace failure as a badge of learning that provides a competitive edge. Startups can go down many times faster than they go up.

Startup 124

Startup Netflix Social Media Customer 124

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

The firm, which underwent a significant restructuring over the last two years, went on an investment tear over the course of 2019 as new partners went out to build up a new portfolio for the firm — almost of a whole cloth. Speaking onstage at the Upfront Summit, an event at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

IBM 164

IBM IBM Venture Capital Invest 164

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2014

One local company-- Edmunds.com (www.edmunds.com)--has been very active looking to tap into the innovative spirit in the community through its own hackathons -- days-long, endurance events where teams come together to quickly built and prototype software around a central theme. It was a great event, and candidly, it exceeded our expectations.

Edmunds 172

Edmunds Southern California Ideas Startup 172

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Of course, these new customer-facing strategies shouldn’t preclude you from focusing behind the scenes on reducing costs and broadening your product line to supersede competitors. Make sure that everyone in your business understands your competitive advantage from a customer perspective, and continually seeks to optimize it.

Customer 133

Customer Custom Satisfaction Examples 133

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

You need to build business relationships with partners, team members, investors, and of course customers. By helping others, and participating in online debates and industry events, you will find that productive relationships emerge naturally with peers. That means proactively finding common exchanges of value.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Mentor Activity Startup 104

socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2019

Those airport drone incursions shut down Gatwick over the course of three days, which caused major delays at Heathrow and Newark. However, there is already the technology out therefrom San Luis Obispo-based Whitefox Defense (www.whitefoxdefense.com)  to both detect, and neutralize those drones.

Technical Review 187

Technical Review Startup Technology Competition 187

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. Ability to source information easily to help build a thesis around companies / industries / competition. Of course our expectation is that Jordan will be working closely with partners as he considers the type of investments he’d like to make and as he learns the ropes.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Berkonomics

APRIL 30, 2015

Of course money motivates. Salaries or hourly wages must be within reasonable limits set by the industry and matched by the competition, both regionally and for the same job classification. And there are some industries where tools such as stock options are considered mandatory for a company to be competitive. What a title.

Design 120

Design Competition Pricing Sales 120

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. But I would posit that in order to sustainably build great products in an intensely competitive industry with skills shortages – people management is one of the most critical soft skills organizations need. And, yes, it is politics at its purest.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

Of course, unlike cars there is no direct comparison across each startup so these are just some general guidelines to try and even the information field. If you don’t perceive that you have any potential “issues” (raised too much, price too high) then this should be a non event. is to start with just the data.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Tech.Co

JULY 18, 2016

We’ve also partnered with WeAreLATech , a startup resource that can help everyone from potential employees to budding founders to get acclimated to the LA ecosystem with job listings, event calendars, and startup profiles. Startup of the Year competition, which will be held in San Jose, CA during the Innovate!

Los Angeles 70

Los Angeles Angel Startup Newsletter 70

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 28, 2013

In this yearly event put on by the Stevens Center for Innovation , 30 teams, selected from a pool of 70 applicants, presented their unique ideas to crowds of students, parents, and judges. The event began at 9AM as the early visitors began exploring the showcase. This transitioned into the final portion of the event: the Fast Pitch.

USC 91

USC Ideas Southern California Platform 91

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

They’ll also be throwing live events to build Lime’s hype. Instead, it’s the fierce competition from hometown startups like local favorite Bird that Lime wants to overcome through brick-and-mortar marketing. This, of course, comes with risks too, as electric scooters can be dangerous to the novice or uncoordinated.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Education Technical Review 221

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2017

In this age of information overload, success is all about building a brand that stands out above the competition. Of course, she assumes that you are confident and courageous, and willing to capitalize on all your strengths and opportunities to market yourself. Attend networking events with investors and influencers.

Startup 55

Startup Organization Newsletter Content 55

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

As an investor you’re trying to pay the appropriate price for your perceived risks of the company succeeding and protect yourself in the event that it isn’t quite as valuable as you had hoped. Well, obviously if you knew that in advance it would be big of course that would be true. And of course there are always outliers.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Of course, you wouldn’t include this data in your customer product pitch. Intellectual property and sustainable competitive advantage. Of course, investors want to see a positive return on their investment, with timeframes and growth expectations. Discussion of likely liquidity events and exit strategy.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58