Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

A major chunk of this activity is provided by the newer class of “super angels,” who often look more like micro-VCs, except that they are investing their own money. Individual angel investors and crowdfunding have been adding to the momentum, some say exceeding VCs in total amount invested. Super angels sometimes drive up valuations.

Funding 125

Funding Venture Capital Startup Class 125

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

By combining our equity investment with a tranche of venture debt, the company has avoided a larger equity round, which would have significantly diluted the Founders’ ownership share. Investor Threshold – If possible, avoid accepting more venture debt than your investors can reasonably payoff with an equity infusion.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

To refresh your memory, angel investors are typically high net worth individuals, accredited by the SEC and willing to invest their own money in a high-potential startup for a share of the ownership. They don’t get excited by early stage research, development, or marketing hype. Crowdfunding is not the best platform here.

Funding 119

Funding Startup Platform Examples 119

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2014

Earlier this year, researchers at USC proved the veracity of this old adage. According to lead researcher Professor Sarah Townsend, " When youre putting together an important presentation or working on a high-stakes project. The same foundational elements that lead to a successful marriage are precursors to startup success.

Startup 257

Startup Santa Barbara Competition Journal 257

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Competition and sustainable advantage. Competition and sustainable advantage. Executive team.

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over 60 times as many companies, according the Center for Venture Research. Individual angel investors have been filling the gap, and now match VCs in total amount invested.

Angel 104

Angel Funding Startup Venture Capital 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). You have to get past how great the product is to address clearly what your business rationale is, why it is different from the competition''s, and why it will succeed. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. If you go this route, be careful to make the stakes clear: i.e., that they could lose their whole investment. Angels (invest their own money) and super angels. Expect to be diluted by 20-25% with each equity round. Target VCs.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Competition and sustainable advantage. Competition and sustainable advantage. Executive team.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.)

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Access to intellectual property and current research. Other project and research reports in their library are a rich source of new ideas, if you are still looking for a place to start. Every startup needs to start their funding search looking for grants, with no equity dilution, as well as contests and foundations.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

If you don’t know Montgomery & Co it is one of the premier technology & media focused investment banks in the country (and as Michael corrected me they also have a strong Healthcare / Med tech practice). Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital? We discussed: 1. This is often in the 5-7% range.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Competition and sustainable advantage. Competition and sustainable advantage. Executive team.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.” Same with VC.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Xconomy

MAY 17, 2019

A lawsuit is now claiming that many top generic drug makers routinely conspired to avoid competition. During his tenure as FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb often spoke about generics as a market force that could help tame climbing drug prices. But such tools only work when companies play fair.

Pricing 79

Pricing Competition Tool Marketing 79

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). You have to get past how great the product is to address clearly what your business rationale is, why it is different from the competition's, and why it will succeed. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Advisors 80

Technical Advisors Startup Equity Ideas 80

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. Prepare an investment-grade business plan. Line up an experienced team. Free trials don’t count.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2012

Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Even banks, as well as equity investors, look more favorably on a proven business model than a new and unproven one. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research. Learn from competitors and early adopters.

Patents 84

Patents Startup Statistics Course 84

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

When I described to people why I initially invested my calls went something like this, “He’s taken kicks to the face for nearly 2 years and is still standing. She did a bunch of research on it and finally found a small number of safe brands. It soon became difficult to manage the many new investment leads.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2012

The firm is not new; the fund has been around for two years with investments in more than 45 firms as listed here. A 2011 McKinsey Global report says Big Data is the next frontier for innovation,competition and productivity, this could be reason the seasoned investors and executives believe these are big data days. Big Data Shift.

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Entrepreneur Oracle Software Review 74

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2011

Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Even banks, as well as equity investors, look more favorably on a proven business model than a new and unproven one. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research. Learn from competitors and early adopters.

Startup 91

Startup Patents Statistics Course 91

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Whether that''s for competitive analysis or market analysis, our product is basically able to monitor--on a very large scale--things that are important to your particular company. He ran DARPA research out of UC Irvine for almost a decade, until stepping out and focusing purely on entrepreneurial efforts. out of UC Irvine.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Marty Zwilling.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

Darren Clark: It was officially May 9 of 2012, when David and I and others within YP and AT&T decided that given where we were with AT&T, their core focus on wireless, we should figure out how to take the business out of AT&T, so that we would not be constrained on our investments, and we could go after markets in a more strategic way.

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 223

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

Yelp has great consumer research, but it''s been a challenge for them to reach advertisers. We also know we''re not a startup, and don''t have equity to offer. ON the other side, we had incredible high ranking search results when we were baked off against the competition. We''re connecting those two parties.

Technical Review 211

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 211

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. In this sector of startupland, company creation is up, investment is up, there are plenty of success stories, and not all of them are based on quick flips and takeouts.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

Entrepreneurism / Monetization Customers, research, startups. . Entrepreneurism / Monetization Customer, marketing, research. . Collaboration Over Competition: Competitors as Business Partners. It's generally thought that investment banking and management consulting are terrible backgrounds fo. Nicholas Metzgar, MITRE.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69