socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Due to this, seed rounds have become more competitive, with more expensive valuations and more oversubscribed rounds. Since 2010, $6.3B

Capital 100

Capital Technical Review Truecar Venture Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

As I like to say when asked, “For entrepreneurs you generally need to go to 2-3 cities max and probably pitch 5-15 investors. In recent years we’ve had big wins across all of our long term partners (Yves: Envestnet), (Steven: TrueCar), (Me: Maker Studios). Was it hard to raise the fund? It’s always hard raising money.

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs, We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. You know Zag, herein town, and more recently our new car investment, TrueCar.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Most people under estimate the challenge of winning “share of mind” the least understood concept with tech entrepreneurs. But there are other reasons people churn – low product quality, inability to understand the value of the product, costs, competitive products, etc. At 99 cents they’re disposable. In 6 months? In 3 months?

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

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.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs. You’ll never make a great entrepreneur. So your journey to fund raising begins by strengthening your relationships with other entrepreneurs.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366