Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. 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. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

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. We also had our first exit for Moonshots Capital Fund 1 --Threatcare. Think Google Ad Words for podcasting. Since 2010, $6.3B

Capital 100

Capital Technical Review Truecar Venture Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). We all have one-click purchase power (Apple, Google, Amazon, eBay). The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Fortunately, for those headed to SXSW, Startup Night SXSW 2018 , presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo, will be filled with investors from a multitude of industries who are looking to discover and fund startups building the latest solutions and tech innovations. Lisha Bell, Deal Flow Lead for Pipeline Angels.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

We thought today for our interview, that we'd get an update on the angel investment environment here in Southern California from Scott Sangster , the incoming President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels , the biggest angel investment group in Southern California. I think that's a good sign for startups.

Tech Coast Angels 182

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 182

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Build your business with minimum outside funding.

Resource 121

Resource Metrics Entrepreneur Customer 121

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. Most often at the earliest point in the life of a startup, the dominant need is certainly to produce product to get something in the market, get funding, etc. What technologies will we use?

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. So let’s be very specific: let’s assume your dream job is product manager at Google, working on the Analytics product.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2019

This led to massive funding rounds at Bird, Lime and others. There was seasonality, theft, tough unit economics and slowing funding rounds. This is only true when: 1) there is funding available to finance short-term losses and 2) when there is a lucrative positive unit-economics business when you become the winner.

Santa Monica 250

Santa Monica Venice Competition Software Review 250

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

For a high-volume seed fund that adds many portfolio companies every year (such as our friends at 500 Startups who invest in over 100 distinct companies annually), the cost of a bad affirmative decision (a false positive) is quite low, since it accounts for a relatively small portion of their total fund. Unicornless.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Build your business with minimum outside funding.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Resource Metrics Customer 129

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

With public interest in artificial intelligence technologies on the rise, five of the world’s largest corporations—vying against each other in so many spheres—are banding together to support research on the ethical and societal issues raised by machines with increasingly human-like capabilities.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Technical Advisors Research 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

But they also take on issues in science, technology and management. This morning’s show took on the topic of “teams” and highlighted research that Julia Rozovsky and Google has conducted called Project Aristotle and profiled in Charles Duhigg’s book Smarter, Faster, Better.

Coach 150

Coach Technical Review Framework Google 150

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2012

A tweet by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on August 9th caused a stir in the tech scenes. A new venture fund had been launched, not because it was her husband’s but it was a totally unique and different fund and a timely move. She tweeted; So proud of my husband @zackbogue for the launch of his new fund, DataCollective ( @dcvc ).

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Entrepreneur Oracle Software Review 74

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Terms “paradigm shift” or “disruptive technology” used more than once. In reality, fundamental changes in technology frighten away more customers than they attract, and take longer and more money to come to fruition than any investors wants to commit. These terms are so overused as hype that any meaning has been lost.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

It is often the fortuitous mixture of new technologies, customer awareness and then acceptance of the technology and then the slow adoption into our daily lives that leads to markets exploding. Over funding often produces bad behavior in early-stage companies. “9 women behavior&# is not restricted to just fund raising.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

TechZulu caught up with co-founder Calvin Schemanski chat about their upcoming launch, their product and why Long reviews suck. myfab5 is a platform that reinvents the restaurant review. Unlike typical review sites, our platform does not use star ratings or long reviews. What is myfab5?

Software Review 79

Software Review Technical Review Writing Startup 79

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2017

I’m a strong believer that a great team can achieve success with a less impressive product offering, while potentially disruptive technology often goes nowhere due to a team with an uninspired work ethic. These will provide the competitive edge you need with customers and less-focused team members.

Funding 55

Funding Satisfaction Customer Custom 55

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 28, 2012

Just request advice and, if granted, leave a review on how effective you found the Advisor’s input. Entrepreneurs ask Advice, when granted, they leave a review for the Advisor. We review the credentials of Advisors via LinkedIn and other social media sources to ensure they’re worth their weight in advice.

Entrepreneur 89

Entrepreneur Startup Paramount Social Media 89

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2014

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly so compelling (other than the fact that the CEO Sean Rad is a great young technology leader and his advisers – Brian Norgard , Dan Gould and Evan Rifkin - are some of the guys I respect most in the LA tech market.). contextual text ads (e.g.

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2019

Rather than punish them, it may pay you to nurture and manage their outside-the-box thinking, and capitalize on their innovations that help your customers and keep you ahead of the competition. He created a simple Gmail for internal use, and later it became one of the biggest Google offerings.

IBM 53

IBM IBM Java Google 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

Thus the top priority of every entrepreneur who wants funding should be to build and highlight their “dream team” of co-founders, executives and advisers, to attract the biggest and best investors. If your team has a depth of expertise in software, that won’t help you get funding for a new hardware solution.

Startup 60

Startup Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2013

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition.

Startup 103

Startup Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Build your business with minimum outside funding.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 115

socalTECH

MARCH 20, 2015

Ross tells us about how they bootstrapped the company, the challenges of going up against big, venture funded competitors, and how it sees opportunity in Europe. Ross Weber: We''re not here to replace ad platforms like Google Adsense. We want to give publishers the ability to use this technology, to help them monetize their traffic.

Advertising 100

Advertising Startup Software Review Platform 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

and the subsequent acquisition sprees of companies like Google, Yahoo!, What about your competition – how much do they charge? If you don’t understand why this is important I encourage you to do a little Google research. Usually in a tech / software startup 70-80% of your costs will be people. portfolios.

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Build your business with minimum outside funding.

Startup 113

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Build your business with minimum outside funding.

Resource 64

Resource Metrics Entrepreneur Customer 64

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

In a long, convoluted way, the value proposition we bring to the client gives them many different options for lawyers they can choose from, not just based on price, but also based on their profile, experience levels, and client reviews. That''s how we ended up developing this technology, to take that initial step out of the process.

Help 240

Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

He said, “They need an unbiased view of the fund raising environment because there is too much misinformation and everything seems to be changing fast.&#. Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# Many good companies will not get funded.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2013

Nick told me that he was in the process of winding down his fund at Spring Ventures, which would allow him to focus his energy on a new business he founded with Sunil Paul. Competition abounds, mostly in the form of Lyft , another Bay Area-based purveyor of ride-shares. In essence, ride-sharing is carpooling with a technological twist.

Google 92

Google Technical Review Santa Monica Framework 92

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. Their first fund was a $75 million fund raised in 2006 and they very recently announced a brand new $130 million fund. Competition: McAfee , Symantec.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 14, 2015

Good news, Fixed , the San Francisco app that helps drivers fight tickets has just launched in Los Angeles after raising an additional $650,000 in seed funding last February. Fixed is not without competition, LA-based Cited launched last year and charges 20% of the cost of the ticket. If you lose you pay $1.95 convenience fee.

Los Angeles 40

Los Angeles Angel Software Review Seed Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. The perfect competitors are the ones where they unable to respond due to The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150