Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2022

Angel investors and venture capitalists don’t make equity investments in nonprofit good causes. A nonprofit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. There is no discussion of equity, or return on investment.

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Funding Equity Technical Review Organization 130

Berkonomics

APRIL 11, 2019

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. We have no competition.”. That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. If you are raising funds, list “do nothing” as a viable competitor in your slide deck. When asked (as we always do,) the response is “This is new.

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Competition Slides Research Sales 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. Wait, didn’t you just raise a fund? Was it hard to raise the fund?

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Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

AOL co-founder and former chief executive officer Steve Case’s venture capital fund, Revolution , deploys capital to companies “outside of the hotbeds.” Today, Washington, DC-based Revolution is announcing its latest fund. Revolution began nearly 15 years ago as Steve Case’s balance sheet fund, in essence.

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Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

socalTECH

APRIL 3, 2015

San Diego-based Qualcomm said Thursday that it is doubling the size of its QPrize annual investment funding competition, and will now award $250,000 in convertible note financing to regional winners, with an additional $250,000 to grand prize winners. This will be the fifth year of the competition. READ MORE>>.

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Competition San Diego Venture Capital Invest 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2023

Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. If you need investors, it’s important that you understand their filters, and even if you are funding your own efforts, you need to recognize the red flags. Huge ramp-up time and money required.

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Invest Sites Technical Review Social Media 98

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2013

San Diego-based Qualcomm has named the winner of its annual, Qualcomm Ventures QPrize Venture Investment Competition, the company said this morning. iOnRoad had previously won $100,000 from Qualcomm for winning the Israeli region competition of Qualcomm's QPrize competition. READ MORE>>.

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Invest Seed Funding Competition San Diego 193

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2023

Indeed, while the rules and technologies for lead generation have changed, Forrester and other experts still see it as the most effective way for businesses with limited budgets to maximize their return on marketing investment (ROI). How many of these lead generation techniques are funded in your business plan? Cold calling.

Marketing 114

Marketing Invest Social Media SEM 114

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Many CEOs have asked me if I felt an investment banker adds value if the buyer has already been identified. Investment bankers sometimes slow the process by requiring a “deal book” to be prepared containing considerable information about a company to help a buyer. Deal books are expensive to create. Then there is the question of fees.

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Invest Competition Pricing Startup 207

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I had invested in myself for years.

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Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. Better yet, the valuation of your enterprise is often higher than if the same investment were taken from a professional investor. There is a lot to say about retaining control.

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Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. Investors check connections.

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Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

San Diego-based Qualcomm said Tuesday that it is launching its second annual venture investment competition, the Qualcomm Ventures QPrize competition. According to the firm, this year's competition will provide up to $750,000 in seed funding to entrepreneurs working on mobile ventures. READ MORE>>.

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Competition Seed Funding Venture Capital San Diego 154

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Read on to find a financing option that suits you, whatever your business's specialism, needs, and financial profile, or jump to a specific funding type below. It's competitive though – last year 18,000 applicants competed for only 12 slots. Learn more and apply here Deadline: April 1 2. Apply here Deadline: Monthly 5.

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Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 194

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. Many of my colleagues do, too.

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

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 twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. Individual angel investors and crowdfunding have been adding to the momentum, some say exceeding VCs in total amount invested.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Class 125

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2023

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they generally 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.

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Equity Technical Advisors Funding Ideas 121

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and I’ve become fond of saying “if I had a dollar for every person who told me just how much they loooooved Kara Nortman, I’d have a 10x fund.” She had all of the skills and traits we sought?—?leadership, So What Does All This Mean? I’m only 52!

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Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Just this past September was a year with Amazon, when I left, and we started investing in September under the new name, ScOp Venture Capital.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest Capital 145

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Even then private market investors can paper over valuation changes by investing at the same price but with more structure so it’s hard to understand the “headline valuation.” No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality.

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Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

According to Beta Boom, The List--founded by Constance Curtis--is part of a group of startups which is near completion of a six month program, the Beta Boom 2020 Women's Startup Academy--which culminates with a competition for $10K in funding judged by investors and others from Elevate Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Hustle Fund, among others.

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El Segundo Startup Invest Training 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Conventional wisdom says I shouldn’t tell you this because I invested in their main competitor, MakeSpace. Clutter is LA based and many of my friends invested. But the bigger truth is the competition is important. When we funded Sam , Rahul and team at MakeSpace > 2.5 Healthy competition keeps you on your toes.

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Funding Competition Marketing Summary 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

In fact, they usually invest because they have extensive experience in your business domain, often have strong convictions on what it takes to succeed, and probably would like you to do it their way. Every funding term sheet is followed by a set of milestone commitments, which should not be considered optional suggestions.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Report 173

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea. Venture Capital is a tricky industry. Far from it.

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Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

socalTECH

AUGUST 31, 2012

Qualcomm said it awarded the venture financing to MightyText as the top prize in the North American Regional Semi-Finals of its 2012 QPrize venture investment competition. MightyText now goes on to compete with Qualcomm's other regional winners for $1M in funding. READ MORE>>.

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Invest San Diego Competition Funding 140

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

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. A sample of three views is adequate.

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Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

With the advent and popularity of crowdfunding platforms, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo , as a winning alternative for funding your new venture, I find that many aspiring entrepreneurs are confused about the need to ever seek a professional angel investor. Consider the need for multiple rounds of funding.

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Funding Startup Platform Examples 119

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

My first suggestion is that entrepreneurs need to forget the old myth that all they need to do is sketch an idea on a napkin, and investors will line up to invest. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend. Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Invest 123

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. And as a result of this there are now very robust secondary markets where founders and seed-funds alike are selling down their ownership long before an ultimate exit. That used to be called A-round investing. of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. If you are raising funds, list “do nothing” as a viable competitor in your slide deck. Well, come to think of it, this is especially true in such an instance.

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Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. If you stumble on to a really good idea believe me it will get competitive really quickly. I know that people who aren’t competitive always find competitive people slightly distasteful. I had to say it.

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Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. 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.”

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

VC firm policy or fund analysis. Most associates need some entrepreneurial experience before actually making investments. Ability to source information easily to help build a thesis around companies / industries / competition. Deal support / analysis / quant / legal for deals a partner is seriously considering. Industry reviews.

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Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2021

Two startups won a total of $25,000 in prizes last week at the Sunstone Innovations Challenge at CSULB, a startup pitch competition involving student teams from CSU Long Beach. The runner up was UNWIND, which is developing personalized meditation programs, which received $10,000 in seed funding.

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Long Beach Seed Funding Startup Competition 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2012

However, the recent surge in startup activity has attracted a lot more capital into the area, including a significant amount of capital from LA's latest fund: Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com). TX Zhuo: Karlin Ventures is an early stage venture fund based in LA. We are going to focus most of our investments in LA.

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Funding Startup Invest Commerce 253

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2021

Just over three months after its last funding round, European fintech giant Klarna is announcing today that it has raised another $639 million at a staggering post-money valuation of $45.6 We’ve scaled up so massively in investments in our growth and technology, but running on a loss is very odd for us,” he told TechCrunch. “We

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Los Angeles Funding CIO Marketing 266