Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. million round I might write $1.8 – 2.2 This is the same way VC firms, by the way.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Successful entrepreneurs understand the difference between a good business relationship with more people and having more friends. In fact, the focus on social networking platforms, starting with Facebook, has destroyed the meaning of the word friend and even changed it from a noun to a verb.

Entrepreneur 66

Entrepreneur Social Network Technical Review Social Media 66

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

There are large sums of money to be invested and if investors can get comfortable with “downside protections” they’ll still write checks. Of course I believe the market has slowed down massively. But when a fund writes checks into a portfolio company it typically “reserves” money to invest in future rounds. Yes, critical.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. You need funding, and plan to get it from friends and family.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2016

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Many entrepreneurs are finding their “secret sauce” these days by combining a strong purpose with a good business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free.

Entrepreneur 54

Entrepreneur Framework Customer Custom 54

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Next she took to Instagram, a new social media platform that quickly became the most effective tool in a blogger’s toolkit. I feel this responsibility to my industry to put the best business practices I’ve learned along the way into a platform so I can help other influencers.”. We are in phase three of the influencer economy.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. Increasingly local entrepreneurs are finding they don’t have to “take the trip up North” quite as often because on a weekly basis venture firms are down in LA — it’s only an hour’s flight. We take this responsibility seriously.

Funding 287

Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

I speak a lot on college campuses and entrepreneur events and amongst the most common things I’m asked to talk about are: What do VCs fund? Hard Problems I encourage entrepreneurs to try and tackle harder problems even if it makes fund raising more difficult and is less likely to succeed.

Design 150

Design Ideas Startup Writing 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

First, you’ll need a platform. I was an entrepreneur. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. OK, well, actually the first thing I did is come up with a list of 50 posts that I wanted to write. I didn’t want to run out of things to write about in the first 6 months.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2014

With the estimated 510 million live websites at last year-end, and 280,000 new ones being added every day, the biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Cultivate early customers.

Startup 101

Startup Blogging Writing Google 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

So what’s an entrepreneur to do to get his new business noticed these days? According to many experts, including Michael Hyatt, in his new book, “ Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World ,” you need to build the highest platform you can, to stand out and be heard above all the rest. Using the platform to expand your reach.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? ” Of course not. I am a VC. I hand out money. Final example.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2013

million new pages added to the Internet every day, the biggest challenge for every entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Of course, ultimately you want employees who can blog for you and your company as well.

Blogging 104

Blogging Product Startup Writing 104

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? Of course when you think about it it’s kind of obvious but when people make snap judgments about information they hear about companies or read about in the press they often don’t take the time to start to consider the details. For example, look at the following graph.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Writing a book will be fun. I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

MIIGLE is a LA-based social network for entrepreneurs and innovators that recently launched its Beta version. The platform enhances the process of turning ideas into entrepreneurial ventures and growing startups through social collaboration. So Luc , you call yourself a ‘Netrepreneur’ and social entrepreneur. Anyone can do it.

Startup 101

Startup Ideas Platform Entrepreneur 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to. And of course we had, TheMan. I first met him there and knew he was a talented entrepreneur that I wanted to work with some day.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2020

Bill Curtis: It's by far the most exciting platform right now. In our current case, we realized that radio is seeing channel and platform flipping like never before, websites are calling a three second view of an ad an impression, and the bounce rates for websites so high, it's kind of embarrassing. It ends up being good for both.

Media 150

Media Report Advertising Content 150

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. Vice versa is it’s a SaaS platform company where I spent nearly 10 years running companies. tip: write it down when asked / parked). Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

In more than a decade of writing about the Internet and tech-enabled businesses I’ve learned that mobs don’t do nuance well. The crypto in cryptocurrency is of course referring to cryptography on the ability to encrypt your transactions so they can’t be modified after they have been written to the blockchain.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Investor and customer attention spans are short, and both will write you off quickly. Of course, now that you have investor attention, the devil is in the details. Of course, we all prefer billion dollar opportunities, with double-digit growth rates. Will you be selling to businesses or consumers, or both?

.Net 73

.Net Examples Customer Custom 73

socalTECH

AUGUST 10, 2011

Effectively, what Corey and I are trying to do, is distill the course of opinions on the web, and turn that into a consumable format. We've instead taken those comments and turned them into scores and a rating platform. When you stick that plugin on a blog you are writing, it scans the article for names.

Startup 174

Startup Blogging Writing Examples 174

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

PerfectForms is a platform for business users to create web applications, to provide visibility to processes, and to report on information collected. In 1999, I was involved with GE Financial, launching a broker platform, so that they could self-score and autodoc their funding deals. That's the joy of being an entrepreneur.

Startup 150

Startup San Diego Entrepreneur Tool 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. Passionate Entrepreneurs & Ambassadors. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. Can’t list them all.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

Today I’m announcing that GRP Partners is doubling down on the Twitter ecosystem by investing in DataSift , a company who provides a real-time data platform and tools to third-party developers and corporations. And of course in my 700 are people like Bill Gates and Barack Obama, neither of whom follows me just yet Asymmetric works both ways.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Defy has graduated 1,100 prisoners upon release who have created 150 businesses that now employe 350 people — many of them ex Defy Graduates And of course Defy has a post-release program to help with reentry into a society not geared towards helping with recovery. I will write about that as soon as Caroline is ready.

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 21, 2012

One thing I noticed from our previous interview is that Heather is one smart entrepreneur. For a first-time entrepreneur, she is not only getting it right and getting “base hits”, but she is slugging balls out of the park! Entrepreneur Nuggets. Have a crystal clear value proposition to your potential partners.

Education 63

Education Web 2.0 Course Platform 63

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

With the an estimated 150K new websites and 7M new pages added to the Internet every day, the biggest challenge for every entrepreneur is to get found, and get some credibility for a new startup. So finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Take the initiative to put yourself out there.

Blogging 93

Blogging Invest Startup Writing 93

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : SocialStay is: "An easy to set up & manage mobile platform designed for the hospitality industry. Do you have any advice for emerging entrepreneurs regarding how they can be frugal without compromising their company’s value prop? Write it down…. It drives revenue & engages guests."

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. entrepreneur Wil Schroter (I am an angel investor in Affordit). Really!).

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. It is a communication platform. Let’s be clear: AngelList doesn’t scare a single VC I know. It is additive.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

Andrew Peterson: We have what we call a web protection platform, that provides other companies with protection against attackers who are attacking their web applications. It was that combination of great talent, the great companies we can sell to here, and of course, the great lifestyle of living next to the beach, which is a no brainer.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. They ignore/disrespect the platform. Not so bad.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217