Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

Startups in a world of massive markets can be confusing. The law of large numbers, platforms that can make your company blow up unexpectedly and the trendy nature of tech markets can be deceiving. This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.”

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InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

This allowed the curriculum to efficiently find its product / market fit. Brad Feld points out in his widely-read book Startup Communities , that business schools within universities are generally devoid of innovation and thus are not engines of entrepreneurship. Techpreneurs.

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Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

That is, how much should your company be willing to lose in cash every month as you make investments in staff and equipment that funds technology, sales, marketing and management. Sometimes, of course, reducing burn means cutting costs which usually means cutting staff. But here’s also a good rule of thumb for you.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

In SoCal we are also leaders in affiliate marketing (Commission Junction), Internet video (Hulu) and bringing local businesses online (ReachLocal). Andy Sack, Dave McClure, Brad Feld & Jason Nazar (photo by Jolie Odell). We are also home to DemandMedia (Richard Rosenblatt) and Mahalo (Jason Calacanis).

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I should note that my friend Brad Feld has written a new book on the subject that I would recommend if you want the bible on the topic. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

Fred has of course been a public mentor to us all with his market-defining terminology that he popularized including “freemium” and “mobile first.” You need to invest in good markets and bad. You can’t time VC investing markets. That always stuck with me. .” That always stuck with me.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Of course I don’t believe this argument. There is of course much nurture and culture weaved in. At the margin you can make yourself better at sales, product design, marketing, leadership, capital raising, etc. Of course you don’t have do be great at all 12 skills. from a young age. Or at least 73.6%

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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. The 3-year recidivism rate in California for comparison is more than 50%.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. It got worse.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

I don’t really care if I’m wrong as long as I’m not dogmatic if evidence later shows we need to change course. And just as my gut feel about the likely success of startups is often determined by looking at their velocity of product development and market progress of their product, so too is recruiting a factor in my assessment.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

You can also have them automatically published to Twitter; in fact, I first heard about the Withings from seeing Brad Feld Tweet about it. There is, of course, a paid version. There are some competitors in the market such as MyZeo , but I love my wife too much to wear a headband to bed. I prefer the private portal.

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Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

.” “[Founders underestimate] how difficult it is to get a deal done, and how few deals get funded out of how many deals that are pitched,” said Thomas Flake , Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of bcause , and who has been on both sides of the table. It’s validating that there is a market for their idea. Know Your Stuff.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

This is the market that Wonga serves and they are killing it! Peer-to-peer lending service; started on FaceBook; claim to own 79% of the US peer lending market in March 2010 with a whopping $8,664,750. Big market. Xobni’s main competitor that I know about is Gist, funded by Brad Feld at Foundry Group.

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Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

Oh, they didn’t cover that in your Stanford CS course? Consider it a sales & marketing expense for them. And Brad Feld. Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? Shame about that pesky FAS 157 ruling.

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Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The Scene Will Kill You - Brad Hargreaves , November 7, 2010 If you’ve taken a deep dive into tech startups, you know about the scene. Pacing Yourself - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , November 21, 2010 I've been pretty clear as of late that I think the market for investing in web startups is getting overheated.

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Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

Of course this can be done and of course I am a big proponent of the rise of startup centers across the country as the Internet has moved from the “infrastructure phase” to the “application phase” dominated by the three C’s: content, communications and commerce. Perhaps – who knows?

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

TrueCar, an LA-based company, sells more cars now than any physical dealer in the country and recently went public and has a $1 billion market cap. While the costs of starting a tech company have plummeted it still does take money to hire a team, launch products and market oneself. Mavens & Marketing. Venture Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” When I started blogging it was because I was inspired by Brad Feld. ” Of course life is more complicated.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio?

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2011

I sometimes feel that the Silicon Valley culture and we as technologists more broadly can breed monoculture in our approach to entrepreneurship, problem solving, market analysis and technology solutions. Take lots of inputs but then let your internal compass set your course. Often it’s not the best course. It globalizes.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Can you imagine investing in the stock market where your price was determined at a future date and the better that company performed the HIGHER the price you paid for that investment. This has worked very well in the 2009-2012 time frame because the tech market has boomed in this period. So you’re taking all of the pricing risk.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 20, 2013

Brad Feld seems to write books faster than I can read and write about them. But Brad & Amy take it one step further than I have – they talk about the impact on your personal relationships – most notably with your spouse or partner. Brad was married and divorced in his early 20′s. I’m done.”

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

And as I’ve written about before – building a personal brand is extremely important in today’s competitive job market. And was willing to be as open about it as Brad Feld, my inspiration , was. Jason charted his own course though. Here’s how he did it. Oh, but the weird trick first.

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