Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2013

Of course, there's no law saying you have to go to college to start a business. It also shows that survival prospects are higher if the owner has at least four years of college, like Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, and Andrew Mason of Groupon. Many colleges offer courses on entrepreneurship, to help you think like one.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Course Education 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2011

Of course, there's no law saying you have to go to college to start a business. It also shows that survival prospects are higher if the owner has at least four years of college, like Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, and Andrew Mason of Groupon. Many colleges offer courses on entrepreneurship, to help you think like one.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Course Education 105

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. It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Throughout all of this we saw a tinkerer, a problem solver and a completely obsessed leader who was competitive and wanted to win.

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Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

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.

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Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

In more than a decade of writing about the Internet and tech-enabled businesses I’ve learned that mobs don’t do nuance well. The crypto in cryptocurrency is of course referring to cryptography on the ability to encrypt your transactions so they can’t be modified after they have been written to the blockchain.

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Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. Of course if I’m not ensconced in deep, thoughtful work then by all means I answer the call. OK, before you all tell me about Google Voice, let me say the following. I was a Google Desktop user for years.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

In my UC Santa Barbara Entrepreneurial course, I require the students to submit a venture idea every week. The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. Competition – which competitors will prove to be the most formidable? Seth notes that, "Ideas are a lot like exercising.

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Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2021

How I Shifted from Just Counting Calories to Supercharging My Fitness Workouts This is part of a weight loss and fitness improvement series that I’m writing to share how I went from 222 pounds and unable to bike more than 20 minutes on a Peloton to 153 pounds and running 8–12 miles / day in just 18 months. On May 31st the competition ended.

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Startup Screening Competition Training 302

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. tip: write it down when asked / parked). Let me write that down.&#. - Congratulations. Do you mind if I answer that a little later in the presentation?

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. Excite, MSN and eventually Google. Of course you’re not going to give them unlimited exclusivity in time or in scope but I’ll come to that in the section on how to craft exclusivity agreements.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! Get yourself in a big demo day competition. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! And who cares, right?

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Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Aspiring creators learn by connecting with top web filmmakers and YouTubers on a topics specific to the web: developing a web series, producing web series, writing for genres like comedy & sci-fi, directing, editing, camera, Kickstarter funding, show hosting, distribution, and marketing. How does it work? Take us through your features?

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Web USC Course Guide 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

Even the Google search engine crawlers may take up to two weeks to find you. Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. People are more distracted than ever, and competition has never been greater.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. When you start a company in the Bay Area you can often get your first biz dev deal done with Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, eBay, Yahoo! I’m in Seattle this week.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

I was happy to see a real focus on preparing for tomorrow highlighted in a new book, “ Start a Successful Business ,” by Colleen DeBaise, who has made a career of studying and writing about entrepreneur challenges. Regularly follow reviews and influencers in your industry. Use tools and analytics to identify trends and directions.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Admittedly, that last part is an exaggeration but they were bad enough that I am writing this essay in the hopes that you will read it and not make these mistakes. For instance, we ask what makes your solution special and, in another question, ask you to specifically drill down into your competition and how you are better.

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Tips Startup Statistics Metrics 70

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2012

Test and adjust your projections, based on experienced advisor input and industry norms, rather than the Google high exception. Don’t focus too much on the competition. Never write something you wouldn’t want to come back to you. Excel spreadsheets can easily project dramatic growth, with no connection to reality.

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Tips Startup Ideas 97

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. In our industry we call that a TAM (total addressable market) and I’m sure you can even Google methods for calculating a TAM. But I’m investing on the assumption you will be successful, of course.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

And of course in my 700 are people like Bill Gates and Barack Obama, neither of whom follows me just yet Asymmetric works both ways. is already providing these kinds of insights to the celebrities that use its system including Serena Williams, Paris Hilton, Linkin Park and, of course, Kim Kardashian (with her 8.2 That’s normal.

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Platform News Startup Invest 307

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

Even the Google search engine crawlers may take up to two weeks to find you. Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. People are more distracted than ever, and competition has never been greater.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. Which is why the mega valuations you read about are almost always by companies with enormous valuations and/or cash on hand: Google, Microsoft, Cisco, etc. Hang on, Mark. But that’s another story.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2011

Test and adjust your projections, based on experienced advisor input and industry norms, rather than the Google high exception. Don’t focus too much on the competition. Never write something you wouldn’t want to come back to you. Excel spreadsheets can easily project dramatic growth, with no connection to reality.

Startup 96

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Writing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Of course, a real entrepreneur always takes a failure as a milestone on the road to success. The discipline of writing down a plan is the best way to make sure you actually understand how to transform your idea into a business. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. No intellectual property.

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Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Resource 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Of course, a real entrepreneur always takes a failure as a milestone on the road to success. The discipline of writing down a plan is the best way to make sure you actually understand how to transform your idea into a business. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. No intellectual property.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Ideas Resource Statistics 109

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” of course there are MUCH more sophisticated financial tools than either of these, but PEG is a short-hand many people use].

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. But make it competitive.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free! ” Of course life is more complicated. So prices start dropping.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

The team, of course, is just as important as the product or idea. You can write an angry email to get your emotions out but you shouldn’t necessarily send it (or wait 1 hour and then make a decision). We discuss Googles plan to pay more to Verizon in order to be on a higher speed connection and get its mobile content to users faster.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

To cap off our 6th year at SXSW and follow up on last year’s amazingly successful Trend Lounge , we knew this year had to be bigger, better, more engaging, and of course, even more fun. Noor Siddiqui – Remedy On Glass , helping doctors collaborate using Google Glass. Setting the Stage : The Indiegogo/TechZulu Tech Cafe.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. I, of course, knew nothing about business. Neither became Google but I figured I had learned quite a bit about taking a company from cradle to grave. I was “technical guy.”

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

I’m not going to try and defend IF (intermittent fasting) here but if you want to learn more about Bullet Proof Coffee or IF just Google it. Turning the Urgency Addiction into a Competitive Asset. Of course you’re supposed to prioritize things that are important but not yet urgent!). It worked magic for me.

Tips 150

Tips Startup Help Mobile 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. but: Something is Still Missing.

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Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175