Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams. As a VC I regularly meet with companies and listen to their plans. Let me explain.

Resource 415

Resource Startup Product Ideas 415

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. Despite best intentions they probably won’t follow up on their actions. Let’s be honest.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

A few days before the meeting the CEO asked me to change the meeting to 11:45 because “he was going to be wrapping up a meeting in Pasadena at 11am” and it would take 45 minutes to get to Century City where my offices are. “No problem,” I replied. ” So I didn’t go to the conference. I was furious.

Conference 369

Conference Startup Century City Email 369

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t. Why Buy Now?

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. I have a new startup in the space that I think would interest you.

Startup 322

Startup Conference Email Venture Capital 322

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

He has it on stage, too, at conferences. Dave is terrible with email. He’s so bad that his email auto-responder tells you he likely won’t email you back. I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 16, 2010

A few days before the meeting the CEO asked me to change the meeting to 11:45 because “he was going to be wrapping up a meeting in Pasadena at 11am&# and it would take 45 minutes to get to Century City where my offices are. &# No problem,&# I replied. And that’s why he stood me up! At 11:15am (e.g I was furious.

Startup 346

Startup Conference Century City Email 346

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Thus, based on my experience as an entrepreneur as well as a startup investor, there are indeed situations where a non-disclosure is highly recommended, and others where the potential good far outweighs the risk. The same is true for people who may approach you at networking events or industry conferences. Build trust first.

Ideas 159

Ideas Tips Technical Review Patents 159

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2013

I recently wrote a post about how to manage relationships when you’re at a startup or are busy executive. I had images in my brain of all of the stresses I had placed on my wife in the heyday of my startups. A spouse’s hints for surviving an incredibly busy start-up person. Help encourage him not to.

Tips 418

Tips Startup Email Blogging 418

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We’re expected to be at conferences, events, sales meetings and be publicly visible. Taking tons of VC meetings is relatively easy but getting 1 or 2 to truly engage is much harder and takes total focus.

Activity 297

Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Southern California's top startups showed up in force Friday at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, for the Technology Council of Southern California's annual VentureNet conference. socalTECH was a media sponsor of the conference).

Southern California 100

Southern California Conference SoCal Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2010

As a startup entrepreneur you’ll have many demands for your time. Especially if you start to have a degree of success or build a high public profile. Everyone will want you to speak at conferences. “Thank you for writing to me – it’s nice to hear from you (or meet you) via email.

Startup 305

Startup Venture Capital Writing Conference 305

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. billion email accounts.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. Their data looks at tech VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. 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. Email updates frequently.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2010

Many of us in the technology, media and VC world sit on panels at lot. I sat on two panels in the past week – once at LeadsCon (** see appendix if you’re interested in a back story here) and today at the America’s Growth Capital conference. It spices things up and makes for great entertainment.

Startup 284

Startup Conference Venture Capital Tips 284

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

Let me start by saying I’m a huge business book cynic. But Net had told me that he picked up some valuable lessons from the book, so I thought, “WTF? They can travel the world, take classes in interesting subjects, spend time with loved ones or start new hobbies. You’re on the DS (deferred startup) plan.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

My friend and fellow SoCal venture capitalist Peter Lee wrote a post about the different roles within a VC and spent much time on the role of an associate. These are the permanent members of a VC. The process for raising money from a VC is a sales process and as such much of what is taught in enterprise sales can be applied.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur Startup 308

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

For starting relationships today that won’t pay off for a year. It is a piece of actionable advice that if you put into practice starting next week will start paying dividends in the near future. You send them update emails. If you want to read more about hiring at a startup check out: 1. Are You a VC?

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

Last night I co-hosted a dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles with some of the most senior people in the media industry with executives from Disney, Fox, Warner, media agencies and many promising tech & media startup CEO’s. He started selling the mixtapes out of his trunk and even gave away some of his music. He was riveting.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

After my first Tweet with the Notorious mothafucka quote , I thought about my role as a VC and I Tweeted the following. I reviewed an email from Kara Nortman, the CEO of Moonfrye who is working on putting together venture debt. I then traded emails with two former senior tech professionals in LA. Whom to Meet? .”

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

I speak at conferences where I might meet 75-100 people and have conversations. I have Twitter chats, respond to blog comments, trade emails, respond to comments on This Week in VC. I spoke briefly to you about my startup in the x,y,z space. Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Blogging Conference Email 288

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2021

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? Another place to start is the local Chamber of Commerce.

Entrepreneur 143

Entrepreneur Social Network Activity Networking 143

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Every so often I find myself caught up in a really hectic 3-4 week schedule where it seems like I float endlessly betweens meetings. Conferences. I get sucked up in “Do” mode. Startups Are for Doers. But getting caught up in the doing can often leave you directionless. Board Meetings.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Thus, based on my experience as an entrepreneur as well as a startup investor, there are indeed situations where a non-disclosure is highly recommended, and others where the potential good far outweighs the risk. The same is true for people who may approach you at networking events or industry conferences. Build trust first.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Patents Ideas Sample 101

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2010

Fred Wilson once wrote about the topic of how to introduce two people who don’t know each other via email. He called it the “ double opt-in introduction. &# He talks about the stuggles of email introductions when you’re dealing at scale. Sometimes I forget to ask. I hope some day to emulate Brad Feld in this area.

Email 255

Email Startup Blogging Invest 255

InfoChachkie

JUNE 27, 2011

If your offspring are entrepreneurially inclined, these activities might nudge them in the direction of a lifetime of startups. In particular, Marcia Brown’s 1947 retelling of the classic French folktale Stone Soup is a veritable playbook for how to start a venture. Plot Summary. Something From Nothing.

Entrepreneur 270

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Resource 270

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

It starts in a crowded room at a conference or networking event. We set up Formation Media to bring that experience to the Internet. We were off to the races and talking about how he had bought the CarAudio Magazine out of death and how he started by already having a subscriber base and fans. Most are squandered.

Startup 315

Startup Content Conference Media 315

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. And why I woke up at 4.50am. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. There is a difference between a Conference Ho and a successful entrepreneur.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

socalTECH

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Jon Ferrara was co-founder of Goldmine software, a huge customer relationship management (CRM) provider which he built into a $100M business in the PC age, and is now working on doing the same thing in the age of the cloud, with another CRM startup, Nimble (www.nimble.com). Businesses were hooking up their PCs with things like Novell.

Startup 113

Startup Canoga Park Email Google 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2015

Yesterday I wrote about the need to “ do fewer things, more often ” in which I described that frenzied world we live in and why the shiny objects and distractions stop us from living up to our true potential. VC meetings are easy to come by but money in the bank is the only thing that will fund your next 12 months.

Startup 150

Startup Framework Sales Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. And even this can’t stop their employees from fleeing after two years of vesting to move on to the next hot startup. Easier said than done.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Communicate frequently and proactively The most effective CEOs that I’ve observed send regular, short, board update emails every few weeks or monthly just to give the board a sense of what is going on. The most updated they are the more prepared they are when they do turn up at board meetings. If you took away actions — follow up.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2019

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? Another place to start is the local Chamber of Commerce.

Networking 90

Networking Entrepreneur Social Network Activity 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2012

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? Another place to start is the local Chamber of Commerce.

Activity 97

Activity Networking Entrepreneur Startup 97

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

They suck up time and are often unproductive or don’t yield the results we expect. This is your chance to tell board members what keeps you up at night and let them offer you input into what they would do. Allowing board members to bring up topics not on the agenda. I would start the conversation by asking somebody to weigh in.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196