Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple , you should. It takes on many of the lessons MBA programs and Corporate America have been teaching about business for the past 50+ years and questions whether lessons from Apple might be more applicable in thinking about the future.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

I’m sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses that we should have taken. But on the business side, here is my list of useful courses that we wish existed, but as far as I know, still aren’t generally available: Basic Office Politics.

Course 96

Course Email Social Network Ideas 96

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

And of course, the fines are astronomical. Think of the advertisements that follow you around various sites for days and weeks after you visit the first site and look for a product.) Most of us create our data stores to identify trends both geographic and product-based, stripping individual contact data from the mix. (But

Sites 149

Sites Email Google Course 149

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

less than 18 months from when the company was created so I thought it was probably a good time to weigh in on the questions I get asked most frequently and why we’re so excited about Bird. How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? The company has done zero paid marketing.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2019

A Startup I’ve Been Excited to Tell You About for Years A few years ago I spent time in prison with Trevor O’Brien , the founder of Projector. We were of course there to work with incarcerated men on developing entrepreneurial skills on behalf of Defy Ventures. Yes, I always imagined announcing the company that way.

Startup 191

Startup Social Media Slides Design 191

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Operating experience (Helped run parts of CitySearch & UrbanSpoon, tons of product management experience, Board of Hatch Labs which helped spawn Tinder). Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). M&A experience (Morgan Stanley and later co-headed M&A for Barry Diller at IAC).

Venture Capital 408

Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. ” Of course I agree with this. Here is where I see this really play out: Product Management. CEOs often meddle in products and dev teams hate it.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

.” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. I have thought a lot about anonymity over the years and actually have enjoyed debating the topic with those passionate about anonymity’s benefits because of course that’s how I learn.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

We did know about Snapchat as early as anybody. But that narrative was fresh in my head when I first had the discussion about Snapchat. Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. But of course we all need the space to be young, to experiment, to do stupid things and not to have it define our entire future.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. What excites me about this space is that there’s so much low-hanging fruit.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. The “competition slide&# of your investment deck is such a great opportunity to talk about how you’re positioned (premium product vs. economical product? It is a great place to talk about your future roadmap.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. When Ethan was considering leaving Google we talked about it.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2019

Every entrepreneur believes that their product or service is memorable, and that every customer will quickly see the advantage over competitors. Yet true product differentiation in the eye of the customer is rarely achieved. Of course, working on perception can backfire if the differentiation reality isn’t there.

Product 124

Product Customer Custom Examples 124

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Your first customers for any product or service form your reference base, the important group of allies that your marketing and salespeople rely upon when attempting to create buzz and make a mass market for a new product. And I am serious about the “…at all costs” admonition. Be ready to over-allocate resources to a launch.

Resource 156

Resource Customer Custom Product 156

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Of course that website isn’t completely up to date but it’s a great resource for seeing the overall picture. Of course unsolicited spam has very low open rates and is filtered by the major providers. So I send Byron any SaaS investment I do at the earliest stage where I know we’ve nailed product / market fit.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I’m sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses that we should have taken. But on the business side, here is my list of useful courses that we wish existed, but as far as I know, still aren’t generally available: Basic Office Politics.

Course 104

Course Email Social Network Ideas 104

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2019

The pivot can be as simple as changing the pricing model, or as complex as moving from a product business to a services business. In all cases, it’s more effective and less painful to do it as a planned process, rather than a crash course in survival.

Course 85

Course IBM IBM Social Media 85

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2020

Based on my experience, survival and success are both about doing the right things , and not about doing everything. < These days, it’s easy to find comprehensive videos and online courses on the Internet to get you up to speed, but I find many entrepreneurs who are too independent and proud to look or ask for help.

Product 123

Product Startup Tips Entrepreneur 123

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

Product Hunt. It seems out of nowhere it has become the go to website for startup companies to launch their new products or businesses. I strong showing on TechCrunch created initial product demand and if you could sustain that it led to buzz overall in the tech community. It reminds me a lot of how TechCrunch felt in 2006.

Product 150

Product Startup Press Social Media 150

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

And yet, such relationships properly used and never overused, can quickly and precisely help you cut through delays in government agencies, speed the process of product planning and ultimate release, aid in positioning in the market and help you avoid a myriad of mistakes that could prove costly in time and money.

Class 194

Class Organization Technical Review Activity 194

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

Fred Wilson immediately weighed in on her analysis , a meme was born and we were off to the races talking about “Unicorns.” I’m not talking about raising money at a billion dollars. I’m talking about making your company memorable by describing it with a narrative that people will later remember.

Startup 150

Startup Venture Capital Course Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2022

I’m sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses that we should have taken. But on the business side, here is my list of useful courses that we wish existed, but as far as I know, still aren’t generally available: Basic Office Politics.

Class 140

Class Course Email Social Network 140

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

Yesterday I saw two biopic films: “ Amy ” about the life of Jazz sensation Amy Winehouse who died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 and “ Montage of Heck ” about the life of Kurt Cobain , the grunge-rock generational voice who died of an overdose of heroin and valium at the age of … 27.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

The problem is you don't yet have product/market fit, and until you do, you don't really know what to build. When product vision is truly clear, then it makes sense to execute it, and hiring follows. You may end up hiring these people eventually and you'll know more about them when you do. Far from it. They are very early.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach Develop 205

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? I’m not saying that lawyers were my screening process – simply that they knew about deals early on and they had voted with their time and pocketbooks so I knew I had a degree of filtering. What stage?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We have global opportunities from these trends but of course also big challenges. Of course we can’t. There are of course many Seed VCs who take board seats, don’t over-commit to too many deals and try to help with “company building” activities to help at a company’s vulnerable foundations. Hot, Flat & Crowded.”

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “ Deferred Life Plan &# and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek. I would love to say that I’m the productivity guru. Admittedly I also fall into this trap.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than about airbnb in particular. If you have information about a situation that has gone terribly wrong don’t cover it up. ’ You’re being talked about for the wrong thing. Make the story be about your market.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2012

The vision part is fine, but successful entrepreneurs have found that the extreme uncertainty of a new product or service usually requires many course corrections, or “pivots” to find a successful formula. In this case, what previously was considered a single feature in a product becomes the whole product. Platform pivot.

Course 109

Course Startup Platform Entrepreneur 109

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

I first learned about Shahidi’s perspective from my friend Shahed Khan who was working as an analyst at Upfront and told me Shots was much more unique than I had perceived because at first glance it appeared to me to be just another version of Instagram. And of course comments are used to call people fat or ugly or stupid.

Social Media 150

Social Media Media Technical Review Startup 150

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Women have made great inroads into the tech world in recent years, but there remains a long way to go before we reach a truly equitable state of affairs in workforce numbers, remuneration and product development. Since 2016, some 400 students, almost all women, have completed the course.

Mentor 297

Mentor Training Startup Course 297

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2019

Of course, the best evidence is you have done it before, and succeeded more often than you failed. Commit time to thinking deeply about the future, focus on problem solving by first principles, and practice continuous learning in areas where you desire expertise. Social capital: influencers, leaders, investor relationships.

Product 93

Product Ideas Resource Capital 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). Here’s the thing: I actually do care about responding to people. ” Brilliant! . ” Brilliant!

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 7, 2021

And there are limits of course. But should we reward a research team that fails for the fourth time to find the solution to a nagging problem – on the way to a new product? Speak about insanity. Of course, the major hits paid for thousands of misses. That may be a difficult concept for an executive.

Course 156

Course Research Venture Capital Resource 156

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. I called an (ex) LP to tell him about her and my goals for her. Leadership is about recognizing your next generation of talent and helping lift them up. Or, maybe it’s just about getting out of the way and watching what they can achieve.

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361