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.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

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. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. start-ups are overvalued. It makes it extraordinarily hard to raise the next round of capital.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

I often describe “chutzpah” as being able to skate right up to the line of acceptability without crossing over it. Years ago I started using the term “politely persistent” to remind people that you still need to be likable even if you have gumption. Be polite, but never accept a simple ‘no.’

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

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). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. 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.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

would you want to give up the right to invest in subsequent rounds? Do investors always take up their prorata rights in later rounds? The simple answer is “No, investors don’t always take up their prorata rights.” Finally, some early investors specifically like NOT taking up their prorata.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She leveraged herself and even sold many of her possessions to get started.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

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. Startup Lessons' tl;dr version. And we ended.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

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. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners).

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.” I have to back up and give you more context. Getting follow-on meetings is very hard because if the VC wasn’t totally persuaded in the first pitch meeting they aren’t likely to want to commit more time.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

I made every textbook mistake at my first startup, which is why I believe I was much more effective at my second one. The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Also be careful about VCs. But once a VC has heard your idea he can’t “un-think&# it. Be careful about this advice.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

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

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. In a startup this is a mistake. And as a result their competitors were able to raise a considerable VC round from well-known firms.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

He has it on stage, too, at conferences. I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. 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

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It Kobe is famous for waking up crazy early every morning and practicing for longer and harder than nearly anybody else in the NBA. Think about Kobe Bryant.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

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

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

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. If you want to read more about hiring at a startup check out: 1. Help them write other stories. Are You a VC?

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 11, 2010

I travelled for a couple of days for work and decided to get some sleep on those days rather than staying up into the wee hours as I often do when I travel. I’ve written about the topic before when I wrote the post “ I emailed a VC but never heard back.&# As in, what do you do now that you’ve written them.

Email 265

Email Startup Writing Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

When to start PR? Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

We’re expected to be at conferences, events, sales meetings and be publicly visible. I have written about this before and often recommend to executives that they do less, but complete more by avoiding the shiny objects and distractions stop us from living up to our true potential. Lots of people start, very few finish.

Activity 297

Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. “This essay is dedicated to the great VC’s on my board who I am lucky to work with: Sameer Gandhi from Accel, Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed, and Kirsten Green from Forerunner. . Their data looks at tech VCs. Because they know him or her.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

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. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. What stage?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

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.

Tips 418

Tips Startup Email Blogging 418

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons”. I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital.

Startup 310

Startup Venture Capital Press Journal 310

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

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2018

Marlon Nichols: We are a three year old, early stage venture capital firm. How did the fund get started? Marlon Nichols: Right before this, I spent five years at Intel Capital, where I ultimately became Investment Director. When I joined Intel Capital, it was the largest and most active venture firm in the world.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Invest Capital Startup 100

InfoChachkie

JUNE 27, 2011

My response was brief and straightforward, which is common of popular Quora answers (as discussed in How To Write An Effective Quora Answer ). Although my answer was off-the-cuff, the question caused me to consider the issue of raising entrepreneurial children in greater depth, which led me to write this series. Plot Summary.

Entrepreneur 270

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Resource 270

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. ” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. I am a VC.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

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

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

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

You’re writing a freaking blog post! The same kind of tasks that a startup team has. I met for coffee with one of my favorite “startup advisors” in LA. I like to meet people like this because in an hour I get catch up on everything going on in the startup community. He has a startup.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

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. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

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

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. I filled up with 20 people pretty quickly and realized this schedule was masochistic. Felipe grew up in Brazil.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Of course that website isn’t completely up to date but it’s a great resource for seeing the overall picture. But let me start with some data. Much more data in the full post.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339