Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2012

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 98

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Training 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Communicate what is happening and why to everyone.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. Our whole product and technology team is about 500 people. Talk about the technology behind your operations here? What''s your background and how did you end up at YP?

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2010

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 91

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP (www.yp.com) -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. Our whole product and technology team is about 500 people. Talk about the technology behind your operations here? Louis and Atlanta.

Technical Review 211

Technical Review Glendale Advertising Google 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

” Bill Gross, who is one of the Godfathers of the Internet, once told me, “ If you don’t design a product that is 10x better than the competition then you’ll never build anything truly big or amazing.” Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures makespace' 10x the experience. Full on burger flipping mode.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. ” So other partners at the firm might sling mud at your ideas as you go for approval on an investment. Lots of it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

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. Those are fundamentals that don't change.

Tech Coast Angels 182

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 182

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Communicate what is happening and why to everyone.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Companies Company 282

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. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

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. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition. Attention to detail matters.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

There’s an article making the rounds in tech circles titled “ Growth Hacking is Bull ” written by Muhammad Saleem. they’ll flock to your channel with marketing budgets and tech prowess. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. I’d strongly encourage you to read it. Success begets success.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar As more people spent time at home last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup saw its contract revenue spike by 5x, Wu says. Eano, she said, offers competitive and transparent pricing so that homeowners aren’t surprised as a remodeling project goes on.

Technical Review 185

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and The core of the investing job of course is investing dollars into startup companies and helping as a mentor, advisor and board member on the companies in which you’ve invested. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?—?leadership,

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2016

What they don’t realize is that about half the investment deals fail to close at this stage, including mergers and acquisitions , during the due-diligence process. The same is true of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank investments you see on TV. Undisclosed skill gaps or agendas can stall your investment.

Technical Review 55

Technical Review Help Innocal Startup 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. The ingredients are all here.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

It’s the whole basis of my investment philosophy, which I call “ The Entrepreneur Thesis.&#. 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. He was tech.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

socalTECH

MAY 26, 2009

Last week's angel investment report by the Angel Capital Association reported that investments by angel investors dropped nine percent in 2008, with a hefty percentage of angel investors--40 percent--expecting this year will be a down year. Tags: angel investment capital venture.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Invest Westlake Village 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. I acknowledged this in the article.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

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. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. And finally there is the most modern spin on these concepts by two individuals who have built tech startups and have done an excellent job at describing the process.

Startup 401

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. As an angel you can look for the social proof in deals “Dave Morin is investing …” to make your decision. Less investments, more active. Social proof can be helpful. This is what leads do.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

socalTECH

MARCH 27, 2013

The funding--which included at least two prior investors, including Oak Investment Partners--is still in progress. Burbank-based eSolar is developing utility-scale, solar thermal power technology used for generating power on a large scale. Idealab-based solar energy startup eSolar has just raised $12.8M READ MORE>>.

Burbank 178

Burbank Idealab Technical Review Competition 178

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. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. Put simply – if you invested early in Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

Competition 110

Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 110

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. Tags: Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

There are many paths into the VC world, but they can generally be lumped into two categories: (i) serial entrepreneurship, and (ii) tech-oriented investment banking. In contrast, an Angel Investor is someone who invests their own capital. Aspiring baseball players are not intimidated by the competitiveness of their sport.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest RSS 242

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Responding to Elizabeth Warren’s call to regulate and break up some of the nation’s largest technology companies, the venture capitalists that invest in technology companies are advising the presidential hopeful to move slowly and not break anything. This too shall pass.” — Balaji S. ”

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. This world of local meets retail meets digital advertising portends to technology disruption and with it VC opportunities.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

socalTECH

JULY 12, 2010

In an effort supported by the Goleta Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Barbara Airport and local technology firm Citrix Online, the groups said they're trying to reach out to local businesses to try to address the issue in a forum later this month. SkyWest had been providing service after United pulled out of the market several years ago.

Santa Barbara 202

Santa Barbara SoCalTech Technical Review Commerce 202

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. But I would posit that in order to sustainably build great products in an intensely competitive industry with skills shortages – people management is one of the most critical soft skills organizations need.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340