Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. Consistently review and respond to relevant online feedback. Invest your time in networking online, as well as offline.

Product 127

Product Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Technical Review 127

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

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. Still though, when founders are seeking funding, “ 75 percent of the venture capital goes to three states: Massachusetts, New York, and California,” said Steve Case in an interview with Recode. The Case Foundation (Washington, DC).

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

James (chairman of the Althea Foundation) and appointed Adam Sroka as Senior Vice President of Technology in a move to make business transactions simple and secure. . Jackson , “This financing round, coupled with hiring Adam Sroka as our head of technology, puts CapLinked in a position to further enhance our enterprise product offerings.”.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

socalTECH

MARCH 17, 2016

There has been a lot of worry recently in the high tech industry and from venture investors about "headwinds" in the technology market, particularly with valuations of "unicorn" companies dropping, investors shying away from investing in rounds, and even employees looking for safer jobs.

Southern California 100

Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Technical Review SoCal 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. Unless you have a co-founder or two with the business skills to complement your technical ones, you need a friendly Advisory Board. Bandwidth is a constraint we all feel.

Startup 142

Startup Technical Review Equity Entrepreneur 142

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

.” And even the venerable Fred Wilson weighed in with how people “ leading vs. following ” in funding rounds play different roles and have different skills. AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. So there you have it. And Fred points out.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Just like the sky scraping investment banks of Wall Street, the technology industry tends to be a sausage party. A Silicon Valley conference is a room full of suits, with the occasional skirt suite. Hunt strives to improve product search with crowdsourcing through product questions, comments, and reviews.

Conference 77

Conference Startup Technical Review Software Review 77

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2015

Explore investor websites and conferences. Most Angel groups and VCs advertise the startups they have recently funded, with pointers to startup websites, sometimes including open positions. Investor conferences are also a good place to keep up with what is going on, get to know some potential investors for you, and find what is hot.

Sample 101

Sample Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

As the rate of change continues to increase in business and technology, the more I’m convinced that marketing is the primary key to success for a new venture. Yet I find that many technical founders don’t feel they need it at all, or at best point to one person on the team who is marketing.

Marketing 71

Marketing Tips Technical Review Social Media 71

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). There is one source that was always problematic for me – intros from investment bankers. This is no criticism of the investment banking industry (although I’m sure some will read it this way) for which there are very useful purposes. I hustled.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2014

Explore investor websites and conferences. Most Angel groups and VCs advertise the startups they have recently funded, with pointers to startup websites, sometimes including open positions. Investor conferences are also a good place to keep up with what is going on, get to know some potential investors for you, and find what is hot.

Startup 100

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Conference 100

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 11, 2011

To examine disruptive technology and prognosticate on the effects on society as a whole is fascinating. Our technology corrects the status quo by eliminating the fragmentation and voids that exist in bill payment, allowing you to pay all your bills in one place, only pay your fair share in real-time and save money.”.

Conference 96

Conference Orange County Technical Review Software Review 96

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. I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. At least for the best entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

I myself recently covered the topic when I spoke about why GRP Partners invested in Ad.ly. I know that advertising is important to inform consumers of offers – the same reason many tech companies use SEM. GRP Partners invested in GoTo.com which rebranded as Overture. If he didn’t, I would unfollow him.

Advertising 277

Advertising Technical Review GRP Partners Google 277

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2010

Clearly, 2009 was not a good year, from the perspective of the technology innovation ecosystem. That was primarily driven by the economy; when the economy is down, investments are down, and it is increasingly difficult to d a startup. For OCTANe to be successful, we want to see our technology ecosystem grow.

OCTANE 174

OCTANE Orange County Technical Review Southern California 174

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. This is no criticism of the investment banking industry (although I’m sure some will read it this way) for which there are very useful purposes. I hustled.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Manatt Venture Funds, which we dedicate a specific portion of our funds to targeted digital media investments, is also part of the Manatt Digital Media network. More interest and money invested in LA. There will be the big crowdfunded company that goes bust and people without a lot of resources lose their invested money.

Los Angeles 84

Los Angeles Media Invest Startup 84

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 2, 2013

gaming and mobile tracks others took advantage of during the course of the three-day conference held consecutively at ROC , Cross Campus and Santa Monica Place. One such entrepreneur was Adam Miller , Cornerstone OnDemand , CEO, who kicked off the conference at ROC. 4 P’s of Success. Meet The Accelerators.

Cornerstone OnDemand 93

Cornerstone OnDemand Santa Monica Technical Review Startup 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There’s too much PR and too many tech blogs and too many newsletters and aggregators and Twitter summarizers to even try to catch everything that’s going on and equally there’s so much noise that it becomes harder to be heard. For investors life is no different. “Yeah, we think about going every year.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

According to the Angel Capital Association , at least 300,000 people have made angel investments in the last two years, totaling $24 billion in the U.S. Contrary to a popular myth, angels don’t fund dreams. They expect to see at least a prototype solution, funded from your own resources, or friends and family or a grant.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2014

In a world with a rash of startup incubators and accelerators, super angels, crowdfunding sites, and more, what''s the relevance of organized angel investments groups? We now have two person teams reaching out to applicant companies, after we do an early screening, weeding out those companies with no change of getting funding from our group.

Pasadena Angels 162

Pasadena Angels Pasadena Angel Startup 162

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2019

Being a really small company going after a security and mission critical use cases, we'd often talk to customers, and they'd be interested in the technology and do due diligence and suddenly realize we were just three people operating in LA, and we struggled for awhile to acquire top tier clients. Ryan Disraeli: Yes.

Marina Del Rey 113

Marina Del Rey Software Review Startup Incubator 113

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2009

billion was invested in 3,808 deals in the fourth quarter of 2008. The report, based on data from Thomson Reuters, found that 2008 investments declined by 8 percent in terms of dollars, and 4 percent in terms of deal volume, with fourth quarter results seeing a 26 percent drop to $5.4 billion in 818 deals, down from $7.3 in 10 deals.

Southern California 100

Southern California Rustic Canyon Orange County Miramar 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have never felt prouder of the team & product at awe.sm ( please visit to check out our latest & be ready for our next big product announcement due out in next month or so) and yet we just brought in a new CEO to the company, Fred McIntyre. I funded Jonathan’s first $500,000. We had VCs show interest in funding awe.sm

Startup 303

Startup Technical Review Product Blogging 303

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

At the big consulting firms, investment banks and established large technology companies we’re taught to produce long reports, make sure that every document is perfect quality and that every possible bit of diligence has been done. It says that you need to take due care in selecting team members. Good enough isn’t.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

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. I will soon announce a few fundings (not yet closed, sorry) and I’m beginning to help them think about how to ramp up their engineering teams.

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Men have dominated the world of investment. There were only 22% women who invested in 2012. Natalia Oberti Noguera is on a mission to help change the demographic of investment with her Pipeline Fellowship. TechZulu speaks with Natalia about Pipeline Foundation and her goals to change the face of business and investment.

Mentor 84

Mentor Invest Entrepreneur Startup 84

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Getting suppliers to accept terms that they said they never normally agree, getting accepted to speak on a panel when the conference organizer initially said “no,&# getting people to moonlight for you until you have the cash to bring them on board.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

socalTECH

MAY 27, 2009

We caught up with Peter earlier this week to get the background on Baroda, and to talk a little about the firm's investment goals. Peter Lee: Baroda Ventures is David Bohnett's--the founder of Geocities'--personal investment fund. It was him investing his own money. Are there any specific areas you'll be investing in?

Southern California 113

Southern California Venture Capital Startup SoCal 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had intended to talk about how bad the process could become, not to name-and-shame anybody (and The Funded was not yet around). We have also been very busy with our next release, which is due out by December 11th (but I’ll save that for a different post). I later learned that they were a spin out from an investment bank.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly so compelling (other than the fact that the CEO Sean Rad is a great young technology leader and his advisers – Brian Norgard , Dan Gould and Evan Rifkin - are some of the guys I respect most in the LA tech market.). So did the media. Then came blogs.

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Either you’re not a good leader and he shouldn’t be investing at all, or he has no clue what it takes to build a startup.&#. Below is a quote about Gus from The Funded. They work for a prestigious firm, have sat on big boards, went to HBS and speak at lots of conferences. I guarantee this is a bad VC.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 19, 2011

TechZulu is heading out to CES and we have tons of products/gadgets/games/companies to review and interview. Learn how to attract funding, planning an exit strategy, and where they are investing. We currently have sponsorship slots open If you would like to be part of this amazing conference and show your support for TechZulu.

Social Media 84

Social Media Newsletter Mobile Startup 84

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2017

No one has ever been able to execute on that from a technology standpoint before. We are a technology company, not an ad agency, and we are really just a bunch of nerds who believe we can turn this thing upside down, and let people try those apps out before downloading. The basic premise, is try before you buy.

Startup 113

Startup Southern California UCLA Technical Review 113

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Hence the emergence of Source13, a new mobile conference produced by Flurry. The company recently closed an impressive $19 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital to build out the engineering teams. John Busher, Harry Balls – a humorous site offering reviews and information about mobile apps, primarily indie games.

Mobile 71

Mobile Technical Review Platform Startup 71

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Loading… Tech. SIGNIFICANCE PASSING-MENTION. --> Tech Titans Hit the Beach As Silicon Valley moguls go on a home-buying spree in Los Angeles, theyre reshaping the real-estate landscape. The tech industry is going south. Venture capitalist and hedge-fund manager Peter Thiel—PayPals co-founder and Facebook s.

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44