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. So what does a VC do when he or she isn’t ready to say “no” or perhaps might like to talk with you in a year but not now?

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

This episode of This Week in Venture Capital featured Michael Montgomery, president of Montgomery & Co. The Montgomery Conference : one of the top technology events of the annual calendar in the United States and held every March. Should you use investment banks to raise venture capital? We discussed: 1.

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Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

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.

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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. Of the ones I have been to recently, the Nantucket Conference has been my favorite. Tesla is not.

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Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

The perverse nature of raising capital is that “no’s” almost always precede “yeses” because it’s very easy for a VC to tell you that you’re not a good fit without doing any real work to evaluate your company so you hear “no” far before others start doing more work. Raising money is a sale and selling requires persistence and follow up.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC? It may be the right answer for you.

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Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

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.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. People attending marquee conferences with rock bands, prominent speakers, Gartner Group prognosticators and lots of other happy customers. Have sales bonus plans based on more than just sales targets.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

The startup, which is led by Robert Flynn, said it will use the funding to launch new sites and grow its advertising sales. As part of the funding, Andrew Goodenough--formerly of Summit Business Media and Thomson Media''s Banking Publishing/Conferences Group--will join the company''s board of directors. READ MORE>>.

Tech Coast Angels 113

Tech Coast Angels El Segundo Newsletter Blogging 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

My long-time friend Jason Lemkin is on the verge of launching a spectacular SaaS conference called SaaStr this week. What Jason has achieved in no time flat in VC is astounding. Without inventing the browser he has single-handedly created a personal VC brand on a shoestring. We shared information about building sales teams.

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SaaS Venture Capital Conference Technical Review 150

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. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

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Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. And I have been impressed with Steven Kaplan and others at University of Chicago (my alma mater), who have been encouraging entrepreneurship through the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship , through angel investing , seed conferences and changes in teaching.

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0 Unfortunately this was reinforced by the many conferences that rushed to espouse the benefits of Web 2.0

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Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early. Hire admin / office management after you raise a reasonable size VC round. When you scale you bring in the heavyweights.

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Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. Congratulations.

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Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

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. We are over-intro’d and at the same time under-resourced in terms of staff to handle the barrage of in-bound requests.

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Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Conferences. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? I was at the Lobby Conference a few weeks ago in Mexico. Board Meetings.

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Xconomy

DECEMBER 4, 2019

The Path Forward Between Echo Health Ventures and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, we work deeply on both sides of these partnerships and have perspective that accelerate their development or shut them down. Don’t confuse marketing with sales. Read more » Reprints | Share: UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS.

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Conference Sales Startup Marketing 79

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Much more data in the full post.

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Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

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. People at the conference become aware of who you are.

Startup 284

Startup Conference Venture Capital Tips 284

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. Speaking at a “city tour&# in which Salesforce.com sales reps and executive management were present. Leading breakout sessions at our annual conference – DreamForce.

Marketing 294

Marketing Custom Customer Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

One other big tell for me is the CEO’s grasp of the sales pipeline. I can’t tell you how many CEO’s I’ve met with who can’t walk me through the details of their sales pipeline. years as a VC, “You don’t want to raise money from me. Who does sales report to?

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

Founder focus is the single most important resource that needs to be spent wisely  —  @msuster 9/ Don't spend undue time at conferences.  —  @msuster 8/ Don't spend undue time advising other people's startups until your business is successful, scaling & stable.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

forward sales with some as high as 12x sales. Collectively we chose growth and the market was rewarding high growth rates over any other factor so we felt that we ought to bring in an experienced CEO who had taken companies public, who had led large, international sales organizations and who was poised to take Invoca to the next level.

Funding 150

Funding Startup SaaS Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

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. But I have to catch a flight to New York for a two-day computer vision conference and 2 board meetings, 2 board dinners and a catch up with my LPs to tell them how our fund is going.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Maybe this is reverse “hanging around the rim” where if you keep you VC process going long enough you’ll eventually get to “yes?” These are similar to the pipeline reviews I used to do with sales reps when I was a CEO. She stood in front of the sales executives and shouted at them like she was a high school football coach.

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. I stayed up late every night after a day of meetings doing email until 3am so that I didn’t feel out of touch with our product and sales pipelines. We were based in London. At least not externally.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

We feel pressure to hit milestones for a variety of reasons: Investor presentations, conference demos, customer sales meetings, competitive pressures, a need to drive revenue, business development commitments – whatever. Obviously you can’t always present at conferences to hit delivery dates or this would happen.

Software 344

Software Startup Design Course 344

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? Are You a VC? unless you’re a conference ho … then it’s too much ). Imagine the human progress you could make with 250 short, relationship-focused meetings. Here’s why it’s critical: 1. Recruiting. Are you looking for great engineers? A smart young marketing exec?

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 3, 2015

Women in sales or real estate, were more savvy with negotiation than those who weren’t and often asked for, and received, the better price as a result. 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.

Conference 40

Conference Entertainment Startup Digital Hollywood 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

As a VC I regularly meet with companies and listen to their plans. “Yeah, but I’m just going to execute this [channel sales deal, international license of my product, new industry, new operating system, biz dev deal] and then it will pretty much run itself.” Let me explain. ” I already know your response.

Resource 415

Resource Startup Product Ideas 415

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. You need somebody who is thinking laterally about how to creatively get extra attention at conferences or trade-shows. It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

We kept meeting at conferences over the next 18 months and he kept showing me what he was working on. When Roger Ehrenberg & I agreed to fund Nick’s first institutional VC round we agreed it knowing that he was staying in the UK, that he was building out product & engineering in the UK and that he was the CEO of the company.

CTO Hire 309

CTO Hire Organization Google Course 309

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. Ask for short conference calls. Rob does it.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). clearly didn’t cause this.” How it happens.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191