Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Even with the perfect product, your customers won’t even know you exist without marketing.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Customer Custom Outsource 174

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2017

Next week is the Montgomery Summit (www.montgomerysummit.com), one of the longest running technology conferences held in Los Angeles. The conference is run by Jamie Montgomery , one of the local industry's pioneers in venture capital and investment. First of all, what's new with your conference this year? READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Conference Silver Lake Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. Final startup grind from msuster. Don’t hire a homogenous team.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. So WTF am I supposed to do when an investor asks for access to my data room if I don’t have one?

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

Shared business support services, including telephone answering, conference rooms, teleconferencing, administrative support, and a business mailing address. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

Shared business support services, including telephone answering, conference rooms, teleconferencing, administrative support, and a business mailing address. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Resource 159

Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 3, 2015

It’s been a fascinating sociology study starting with the first panel of all female executives I heard during a conference on the Santa Monica Pier all the way up until now. When Roxy approached them there was “authentic core-synergies in how each brand approached the market.”

Conference 40

Conference Entertainment Startup Digital Hollywood 40

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2016

My partners and I were able to plan, sell and organize the conference, but without the help of our teams and interns, it would have been a nightmare to execute. I love it because it shows how there are so many ways to innovate, not always hi-tech, and if you find the right market / problem to tackle, it doesn't have to be super-complicated.

Invest 124

Invest Startup Southern California Conference 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Many of the growth equity firms have had outbound dialing programs for years. Growth equity firms typically target profitable businesses that are often not technical in nature. Perhaps outbound dialing / emailing programs worked well for growth equity firms in their core business. These kind of companies were seldom startups.

Venture Capital 294

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Email Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. The Montgomery Conference : one of the top technology events of the annual calendar in the United States and held every March. We discussed: 1.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

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. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. At least for the best entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. This will be seen as a watershed moment in the wake-up call and rationalization of our industry.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Slides Capital Funding 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Yesterdays’ equity round of $1.6 He helped develop an airline tracking system for Homeland Security and is an organizer of the Agile Open SoCal conference. Established In 2010 By PayPal’s First Head of US marketing. CapLinked is changing this with our intuitive and easy-to-use platform.”. million Raised.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Shared business support services, including telephone answering, conference rooms, teleconferencing, administrative support, and a business mailing address. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Incubator 87

Incubator Startup Resource Seed Funding 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2015

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Even with the perfect product, your customers won’t even know you exist without marketing.

Satisfaction 101

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Customer Custom 101

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

– while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot. Equity for the future? If you are the person staying how resentful will you become working your arse off for equity that your co-founder who leaves will get value from. Those are the easy cases. We sat down the three of us.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

We had been looking at the landscape of the mobile videogame market, and Epic games launched Infinity Blade 2, which was the best looking game we'd ever seen, let alone the best game for a small mobile device like the iPhone. We're scattered everywhere, and are telecommuting, having conferences on Skype, and really working together well.

Startup 217

Startup Mobile Venture Capital Resource 217

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

But it’s more atypical for investors located in this market. If we extend a bit North up the coast line we have many affiliate marketing innovators including ValueClick, Commission Junction and FastClick. You can hire a talented head of marketing, business development, technology and sales.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

Shared business support services, including telephone answering, conference rooms, teleconferencing, administrative support, and a business mailing address. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 24, 2011

There has recently been a common theme among the entrepreneurs I have interviewed and the conferences I have attended: despite the relatively weak state of the world economy, now is a great time to create a high-tech startup. Marketing is free or cheap because of social media. People are free or cheap because of the recession.

Company 257

Company Companies Startup Study 257

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale. Maybe the market views this as not worth the price you paid?

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Xconomy

OCTOBER 16, 2016

After raising $30 million, San Diego-based Certona said it is moving to accelerate its product development, expand its sales and marketing team, and improve its client services as an e-commerce technology vendor. It also is a burgeoning sector. The differentiator is going to be customer experience.”.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Commerce San Diego Web 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

I had a chance to discuss AngelList Syndicates with Naval at Michael Kim’s Cendana LP/VC conference on a panel with Naval, Roger Ehrenberg (IA Ventures) and Mike Brown, Jr. That means if we collaborated on a project we can do an A-Round after a brief conference call.” Must be doing something right! Bowery Capital).

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

The founders could reinvest this in growth (0% tax, focus on future equity growth) or take the profits of $12 million and divide amongst the founding partners. Yet you can run a conference and mint money. If it’s well run, people readily pay for conferences and sponsors readily pay to become platinum, gold or silver sponsors.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Even with the perfect product, your customers won’t even know you exist without marketing.

Satisfaction 61

Satisfaction Startup Customer Custom 61

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 30, 2011

Topics of discussion will be Saas, Cloud, Mobile, Gaming, Social Markets, what surprises are coming for 2012, creating value with your company, hiring problem solvers, and building sensible businesses. He sits on several boards and is involved in the virtual worlds, gaming, mobile, media, and healthcare markets. Venue Sponsor.

Tech Coast Angels 105

Tech Coast Angels Startup Angel Southern California 105

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

Shared business support services, including telephone answering, conference rooms, teleconferencing, administrative support, and a business mailing address. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts.

Incubator 98

Incubator Startup Help Resource 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

A business needs technical, marketing, financial and many other skills. Remember that angel investors are buying equity in your business, so they are not impressed with a customer presentation. Assemble a team with the requisite expertise and experience. Create and highlight your intellectual property portfolio.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2014

I’ve written about this before, but I was reminded again a while back at a conference for startups when an entrepreneur started berating investors for not funding early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I And like water or food, it isn’t free.

Startup 96

Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Customer 96

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

Being an entrepreneur is about, “The journey through the ‘NO’ to get to the YES’ ” said by Ryan Caldbeck, CEO of CircleUp , on a panel at the Connections Conference in Indianapolis. image EPA/Andrew Gombert. And when Matt asked his friends around the country for support people took action. Word of mouth travels far.

Startup 104

Startup Technical Review Search Engine Optimization Los Angeles 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Ask for short conference calls. You may have an opinion on your market-entry strategy for Europe. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2013

I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Startup 98

Startup Satisfaction Customer Custom 98

Xconomy

JUNE 10, 2016

—At the annual BIO conference, which gathered in San Francisco for the first time since cops battled street protesters in 2004, industry bigwigs took to the stage to defend themselves. Not against street riots this time, but against political, financial, and social pressures that are changing the way America pays for drugs.

Incubator 67

Incubator Thousand Oaks Screening Pricing 67

socalTECH

OCTOBER 16, 2012

The firm is backed by more than $100M in funding from private equity firm Great Hill Partners. The event we're doing in LA is something we're starting in LA, because we're big believers in the LA market. We're calling it the Access To Capital Conference, to help connect businesses to banks and other lending sources.

Malibu 100

Malibu Startup Los Angeles Invest 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2012

I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs. “I

Startup 93

Startup Satisfaction Customer Custom 93

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 8, 2011

This instalment of the TZ Startup Hotseat is with Jeff Morris Marketing Strategist with Zaarly. Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time, buyer powered market where buyers make an offer for an immediate need and sellers cash in on their local marketplace. What is the market opportunity? Also sign up for the beta HERE.

Startup 96

Startup Funding Examples Product 96