Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. Let me give you an example.

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 20, 2012

Rapidly and repeatedly hiring star employees is a competitive advantage. Although this is a core competency that must be honed over time, there is a cadre of SaaS hiring tools that the world’s leading tech companies deploy to their advantage. And we do that at a tenth of the cost of the traditional job boards.”

SaaS 209

SaaS Tool Startup Screening 209

socalTECH

JUNE 14, 2011

Los Angeles-based FunnelSource , the sales pipeline and performance management software developer headed by John Hanna, said today that it has rolled out a new application. The new app allows sales organizations to create competitions which does either individuals or team sales progress.

Sales 153

Sales Competition Software Development Los Angeles 153

socalTECH

DECEMBER 20, 2017

With so many APIs, SaaS ecosystems, and cloud platforms to rely on, a digital product that may have taken five years to get off the ground in 2000 can now be brought to life in a matter of months. It means competition is more fierce because formidable new competitors can arrive overnight. Why has product management be so slow to adapt?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Metrics Ideas Product 100

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. We build product roadmap software – it’s a SaaS company based here in Santa Barbara, California. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

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 ;-). Traditional software vs. SaaS. VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) and I realized that without years of experience it is tough to answer this question. Connections?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2016

There are a lot of other competition shows and reality show, which are much more predatory and cut-throat, and it's nice for our entrepreneurs to not only get a real investment, but get great feedback. What we want to do with our show, since it runs on a Saturday, is to be very family friendly, and focused on the entrepreneurs.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Competition 100

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

The company quickly pivoted to create a SaaS solution and in less than two years later, it was acquired by Intuit for $30 million. Apeel Sciences - Founded in 2012, after winning $10,000 at UCSB’s New Venture Competition, the company closed $1.25M in funding during 2013.

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

. · Divshot, a tool for web designers and developers, won a national pitch competition and one of it’s founders Michael Bleigh created a popular open source library now included in Ruby on Rails. The product integrates with Salesforce, Twitter, Zendesk and many other popular SaaS products.

GRP Partners 96

GRP Partners Startup Tech Coast Angels Bertelsmann 96

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

In many cases, you can stand firm on price by demonstrating that your overall cost is lower than the competition. This point is nicely illustrated by Albert Oaten, VP Market Development at SecureDocs. When I was at Citrix, we pitched a Fortune 100 company as our first multimillion dollar deal.

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Seasoned surfers develop an eye for swells which subtly build in the distance, just as experienced investors anticipate future trends, instead of following current ones. Although the venture's journey is not completed, we are very pleased that we deviated from our traditional b-to-b SaaS focus.

Invest 100

Invest Software Review Journal Competition 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative. The same phenomenon occurred at ProCore , when the company shifted the market focus of its SaaS solution from small contractors to large commercial builders. How Much For A Rib?

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Also at Startup Night will be 25 diverse and innovative startups showcasing their latest products, competing for prizes including: $1K from LaunchKC , Business Extra Points from American Airlines , and a fast tracked spot to the Startup of the Year semifinals competition at Innovate Celebrate 2018. Joanne Chen, Partner at Foundation Capital.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

It is not uncommon for founders to fight amongst themselves or teams to develop silos that simple can’t stomach talking with other groups so they avoid human contact and revert to flaming wars on email or Slack. It seems to me that we obsess too much with product features, sales pipelines, competitive pressures, fund raising and such.

Coach 150

Coach Technical Review Framework Google 150

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

That platform allows small businesses to use our processes and platform to extract all of that data out of the different SaaS platforms they are using, combine it, and provide some really useful analytics to answer questions and make faster, and better decisions. Talk about this recent funding round, how did that come about?

Startup 113

Startup Platform Commerce San Diego 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

As the economy soured and people grew wary of buying Internet software (we were SaaS as early as 1999 – our buyers were certainly “early adopters&# ) and life grew more difficult. Our business development discussions took longer than planned. We downsized, developed processes and found our groove.

Startup 331

Startup Press Customer Custom 331

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2009

FreedomSpeaks is a startup developing a business around connecting people with information about their political representatives, and also enabling organizations and others to do the same. What really differentiates us from our competition is the data set we have. Our competition doesn't have that data.

Startup 100

Startup Writing Southern California Email 100

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer. for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? How can I control costs but effectively get stuff developed?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

It is simply the most important way to proactively control your career development and how the market perceives you. I was a guy who had built 2 SaaS companies and had sold to and worked for Salesforce.com. I could become the SaaS guy. Some will be quick to chalk about “personal branding” as gimmicky or manipulative.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

Everyone is a rock star developers, every company is crushing it and when they’re not crushing it they’re killing it. Do fewer business development deals but make the ones you do have more impact. They’re doing how much in SaaS revenue? And do the things that you ARE doing better and with higher quality.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Booyah – Develops a location based service platform that pairs the virtual world with mobile gaming. Helps content publishers and advertisers launch campaigns that develop viral distribution attributes and therefore gain “buzz.”. In the show we talked about why this is important to mobile application developers.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

As a result, I'm looking at a lot of software-as-a-service companies, and have run a number of SaaS companies. My competition is not Rustic Canyon, it's not Clearstone, or the other venture firms in town. They've signed a global distribution with Nintento to power Nintendo Wii and DS, and also have distribution deals with major labels.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

Tech.Co

MARCH 1, 2018

This biotech company developed Xplore-PATHO as a service to test samples for the presence of pathogens – everything from bacteria and DNA virus to parasites and fungus – in a single test. They have developed doctor-grade blood, saliva and urine tests approved by the FDA for over-the-counter purchase. Price: $1.99

Startup 79

Startup Mentor Platform Help 79

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Consequently, Jeff is a big believer in B to B opportunities or SaaS platforms, like Jeff’s own Leads 360. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs. Unwinding at an Amplify party.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Assume competition and assume within the buying organization you have enemies. I built my first software company in the early days of SaaS and there were few models to go by. It is the opposite of what SaaS is supposed to be. We said to customers, “We only sell SaaS and we think that’s the right solution for you.

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 1, 2010

For instance, if you were trying to establish a partnership with a BDC, the front door would be a direct inquiry to the VP of Business Development. A startup is far more likely to respond to an inquiry, especially if they are in your industry yet are not competitive. You might get lucky and be greeted with open arms.

Company 124

Company Companies Email Press 124

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2015

He was fortunate enough to attend three competitions: Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. SaaS for Cloud application lifecycle management. Fun Fact: There was a tough moment when the business was operating without developers or teachers! He’s traveled the world and developed a unique accent as a result. LawTrades.

Startup 40

Startup Training SaaS Walnut 40

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Consequently, Jeff is a big believer in B to B opportunities or SaaS platforms, like Jeff’s own Leads 360. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs. Unwinding at an Amplify party.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

If you’re a SaaS company and the firm is a “consumer” firm (or vice versa) then don’t waste your time. The next pass is the “competitive pass”?—?have Conversely if you’re raising $20 million in a C round then you probably shouldn’t be targeting an $80 million fund because they aren’t likely a good fit.

Funding 215

Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

Bootstrapping process, product development, Prototyping. . Bootstrapping development, team management. . Your Web Developer Thinks You're an Idiot. Bootstrapping development, Startup, Website content. . Bootstrapping development, minimum viable product, startups. . Jon Loyens, Bazaarvoice. The constrai.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

You’ve got to put the competition into perspective. We were strong in the UK and they were strong in Germany and Israel (where they had a development office). I had developed a great relationship with the CEO whom I still admire (he left many years ago). Not lose your cool. That was our first year of sales.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners Venture Capital 298

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

They are an open-source & SaaS provider of eCommerce solutions. eCommerce is an enormously competitive search term. So you developed a product for the mommy community? Do you have an application that helps mobile developers build HTML5 apps? Mint.com is the second result. Think Magento. Blog on that topic.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2015

We make money by helping customers reduce complexity in data streams and they pay us SaaS licenses and volumetric processing fees to do so. Twitter announced its acquisition of our competition Gnip almost a year ago. DataSift passes 95% of the data revenue back to Twitter. Ninety five. Some evidence?

Platform 150

Platform Course Customer Custom 150

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

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. So, I’ve had about 4 years on the “inside” of a fast-growing, venture-backed B2B SaaS startup. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

The conversations bleed into the sales messages the next time, they wend their way into software designs and form the plan of attach against competition. He gossips with the office manager who tells 3 software developers. I don’t like distributed development teams in early stage businesses. And it doesn’t stop there.

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335