Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive. Project revenues, costs and investment needs.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. Some money out of every investment.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. Convertible debt is a loan to the company that doesn’t typically get paid back but rather “converts&# into equity when you raise a larger round at a later date. Google’s investment in Zynga. Finally we covered this weeks deals.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement. In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. Ask them to accept equity in exchange for all or a portion of their overall compensation. 6) Rely On A Public Relations Agency.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. 3. We then addressed competition in the context of SiteAdvisor and how it is important for journalists, customers, and the companies themselves. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

The traditional way that this type of financing is offered is what is known as “convertible debt.&# This means that the investment does not have a valuation placed on it. a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A dysfunctional team, or even one naysayer in a critical position can stall your investment.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Startup Writing Competition 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. 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. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. Imagine Apple without Steve Jobs.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. In many instances, it is difficult to gain an adequate return on this time investment, as the knowledge transferred is lost once the consultant moves on to their next client. Fallacy: An entrepreneur’s two most precious assets are time and money. Fallacy: Yes.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A dysfunctional team, or even one naysayer in a critical position can stall your investment.

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Writing Competition Tips 90

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. EcoMom’s metrics improved throughout this process and that’s when I decided to invest. It soon became difficult to manage the many new investment leads.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

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.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors. Investment Retirement Account funds and 401(k)s are arguably the single most accessible alternative funding source available today for startups. Micro-loans.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Stegmaier recommends that you start by writing a regular blog, joining a few related campaigns, building a high-quality video, and completing up to a hundred additional lessons before you even launch your own project. Startups need to build a large passionate group of fans before the campaign.

Startup 53

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 53

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Competition and sustainable advantage. List and position your competition, or alternatives available to the customer. Exit strategy.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Each of your angels or seed investors may have 20-30 investments. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors. Investment Retirement Account funds and 401(k)s are arguably the single most accessible alternative funding source available today for startups. Microloans.

Startup 97

Startup Entrepreneur Equity Examples 97

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. You are either bought for stock or for equity. The first being a competitive acquisition offer from a fierce competitor. It’s understandably on everybody’s mind these days.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). Your goal is to invest in engineering (to maintain your product lead), new offices / locations (to capture markets before others), marketing (to capture consumer attention before others do) … all of these activities consume cash often in advance of the revenue they generate.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. The upside for entrepreneurs is the equity in their business.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). So people sell or at least don’t invest. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We want to invest in early-stage technology enabled startup businesses – upfront in the funding cycle. In fact, 90% of our investments are either Seed or A-round investments (10% are B-round). We’re a national venture capital investment firm but with our roots firmly in Los Angeles. That’s healthy.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Clarify up front the potential for a conflict of interest or violation of a non-compete clause, and confirm the answer in writing. Give away more equity than required to drive the business. A common myth these days is that every startup needs an investor, and large investments are better than small ones.

Startup 62

Startup Patents Entrepreneur Writing 62

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! As you can see below, investments have skyrocketed – up 300% since 2009.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Men have dominated the world of investment. There were only 22% women who invested in 2012. Natalia Oberti Noguera is on a mission to help change the demographic of investment with her Pipeline Fellowship. TechZulu speaks with Natalia about Pipeline Foundation and her goals to change the face of business and investment.

Mentor 84

Mentor Invest Entrepreneur Startup 84

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

It seem that now, versus a few years ago, it's a lot more competitive to try to get out and acquire a user profitably for an app. Traffic Marketplace, Adconian, TheTradeDesk)--what is it that you look for in investing in a startup? I love that Bessemer anti-portfolio they have posted in their office, of all the investments they missed.

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The recent firing of Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is a cautionary tale of the increased scrutiny and heightened expectations that come from accessing increasingly larger amounts of investment capital. Thirteen months after raising more than $10 billion in the public markets the board forced Mason out after another dismal financial quarter.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

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 both made personal investments in the company. That taught us what we personally wanted to accomplish? There have been so many tradeoffs.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all. How I Think About Seed Investing As A VC - Feld Thoughts , August 2, 2010 Last week saw an explosion of discussion around seed investing, including plenty of negative comments around VCs as seed investors. equity debate. There is no competition. Example: Netflix).

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191