Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. “Hi [entrepreneur], I hope all is well. I’m an investor at [Big Name, Large Fund VC] and recently came across [Your Company]. It's big, well known & we've invested in all of these really cool companies].

Venture Capital 294

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Email Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. Portfolio community building.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2021

There are other social networks in the list of 300 “major sites” recognized by Wikipedia that entrepreneurs use for networking, depending on where you are in the world, like Viadeo, Ryze, and Sina Weibo, but talking to friends on Facebook probably won’t help you. Volunteer to help out with entrepreneur activities at your local university.

Entrepreneur 143

Entrepreneur Social Network Activity Networking 143

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. They are venture bankers not investment bankers.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# At least for the best entrepreneurs. That’s true.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. I once had a debate with a prominent VC on a panel.

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. 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.”

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. There are many great VCs.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

I’m not anti VC. But there are a lot of things that become norms in the VC industry that always drove me crazy from entrepreneur’s side of the table. One of them is when VCs say, “I’d like to ‘noodle’ on that for a while.&#. I’d love it if VCs gave more honest and direct feedback.

Entrepreneur 297

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Java 297

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Jason Calacanis , the serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and conference organizer, announced Tuesday morning that it has closed his first, formal angel investing fund, The LAUNCH Fund I. Calacanis said the fund will invest $100-$250K in 50-100 startups. LPs in the fund include Calacanis, David Sacks, and others.

Funding 178

Funding Company Companies Conference 178

Berkonomics

MAY 15, 2014

These usually involve a handful of angel investors, and a few entrepreneurs, who all want to build the very best term sheet for their exciting nascent enterprise. Each one of these terms includes aspects of fairness, ethics, law, business, entrepreneurship, psychology and investing. Email readers, continue here.] Raising money'

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Venture Capital Examples Invest Conference 228

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” Bowery Capital).

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Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. What you’ll see if you watch the video is an unscripted and unfiltered look into how Scott Kupor & I see some of the changes and challenges of the venture industry. tl;dr version. tl;dr version.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. If you don’t know Montgomery & Co it is one of the premier technology & media focused investment banks in the country (and as Michael corrected me they also have a strong Healthcare / Med tech practice).

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. More on that later. That may soon change.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

SoCal Tech Calendar

APRIL 23, 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010 -- Growth Capital Conference. Network wit * Angels: Tech Coast Angels and Maverick Angels * Venture Capital Firms - Early Stage * Strategic Investors * Investment Bankers * Advisors and Deal Makers * 50+ Entrepreneurs Seeking Capital, Advisors, Strategic Partners.

Conference 100

Conference Capital Tech Coast Angels Venture Capital 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Today's contribution is from Alon Goren , the co-founder of Crowd Invest Summit and 805 Startups. Alon Goren: This year, my partners, Josef Holm (Krowdster), Darren Marble (CrowdfundX) and I started Crowd Invest Summit. We also got the LA VC community involved as well which was a lot of fun. Alon Goren: Delegate!

Invest 124

Invest Startup Southern California Conference 124

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. would you want to give up the right to invest in subsequent rounds?

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2019

There are other social networks in the list of 200 “major sites” recognized by Wikipedia that entrepreneurs use for networking, depending on where you are in the world, like Orkut, Viadeo, and Sina Weibo, but talking to friends on Facebook probably won’t help you. Volunteer to help out with entrepreneur activities at your local university.

Networking 90

Networking Entrepreneur Social Network Activity 90

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2018

The Montgomery Summit (www.montgomerysummit.com), which kicked off on Wednesday, and continues today in Santa Monica, is one of the biggest gathering places for venture capital, private equity investors, and technology executives from around the globe. What's going on this year at the conference? It's nice to be here in LA.

Southern California 113

Southern California Santa Monica Artificial Inteligence Conference 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. The best entrepreneurs focus on details.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Today is amongst the proudest days I’ve had at Upfront Ventures — getting the chance to announce that Kevin Zhang has been promoted to Partner. years at Upfront has been both a pleasure and also has taught me a lot about venture capital. Watching him develop over the past 4.5 Kevin joined Upfront in 2012 as an Associate.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Course 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 18, 2012

TechZulu is proud to announce that we are a sponsor of the Variety 2012 Venture Capital & New Media Summit and will be there in full force bringing you all the action. Variety is pleased to announce the return of its Venture Capital and New Media Summit on June 27 at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles. Speaker List.

Venture Capital 68

Venture Capital Media Capital Steamboat Ventures 68

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. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. Venture Capital. Internationalization of Technology.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

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

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. friend of mine asked me to chat with a startup he’d invested in.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

There is a lot of uncertainty about the state of the private, high-growth technology markets and the venture capital markets that underpin them. Perhaps I would call it “Mourning in VC” as in mourning for the days of rational behavior. I spoke last week at the annual Cendana VC/LP conference.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Platform Marketing 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2018

Nichols is a former Kauffman Fellow and investment director at Intel Capital, and tells us how his fund--which he co-founded with Atom Factory's Troy Carter--is looking to find companies solving large problems outside of the typical Silicon Valley bubble. Talk about Cross Culture, what your investment areas are?

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Invest Capital Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2015

Crosscut Ventures has just announced their 3rd fund and clocking in at $75 million , which will be focused heavily on Los Angeles – FTW. Like many entrepreneurs, the founders of Crosscut quit their well-paid jobs in the belief that LA’s moment was about to arrive and they spent years on low (sometimes no) salaries to prove it.

News 150

News Funding Venture Capital Dollar Shave Club 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I heard Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital say these words at a conference in London nearly 10 years ago. I jotted the words down (I normally pay little attention to anything said at conferences. There is a folklore in Silicon Valley that you should fund first-time entrepreneurs. I believe great entrepreneurs do that.

Startup 333

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Conference 333

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.”

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

He knows every startup & VC in town.” I told him that our market was absolutely booming and was worthy of a commensurate investment. Invest they have. I told David, “Look at the changes we’ve seen in the VC / funding market. The whole movement to seed funds / early investments happened for a reason.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles GRP Partners 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

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. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds. What do I do now?

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381