Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

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Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Upfront Ventures was created 20 years ago as one of the original VC funds in Los Angeles. 10 years ago we found ourselves trying to persuade LPs and VCs that it was worth spending more time getting to know the LA market and now the most common refrain that I hear from them is “there really is something going on in LA.”

Dollar Shave Club 321

Dollar Shave Club Cornerstone OnDemand Riot Games Venture Capital 321

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. 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. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. Does he blog about venture capital and try to advise entrepreneurs? Has written a book on venture capital. There is a reason for this. You betcha.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. In the old days there usually weren’t convertible notes on early-stage deals and there weren’t party rounds with 20 angels or 6 seed funds. It’s very simple.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

million in seed funding from Crosscut, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, and Female Founders Fund. Many, of course, are skeptical of natural care practices because they can be untested or dependent on unscientific principles. Additionally, holistic care often forces patients to pay out-of-pocket.

Guide 241

Guide Research Journal Seed Funding 241

socalTECH

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Los Angeles-based Knowable , which offers up paid, audio classes on a wide range of topics, said it launched on Tuesday morning, charging students $100 per student for access to a wide range of audio course on topics ranging from launching a startup to sleeping better at night.

Class 113

Class Seed Funding Course Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” My favorite new VC blogger, Hunter Walk, weighed in with some thoughtful comments about how Syndicates might actually pit, “ angel vs. angel.” Bowery Capital).

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Today is amongst the proudest days I’ve had at Upfront Ventures — getting the chance to announce that Kevin Zhang has been promoted to Partner. years at Upfront has been both a pleasure and also has taught me a lot about venture capital. And of course it doesn’t hurt that Kevin is fluent in Mandarin.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Course 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Of course, one of the best ideas around this is to have Negative Customer Acquisition Costs. A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , February 18, 2010 Great post from Fred Wilson that questions a common metric – unique visitors. Great stuff. How Unique Is A Unique Visitor? -

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Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

On Funding?—?Shots Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing.

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. This has led to the creation of incubators, accelerators and seed funds. The Funding Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

There were a lot of requests for us to turn our mentorship program into a physical accelerator with a fund, office space and full-time staff. Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me. Jim raised another venture fund as did I at Upfront Ventures.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

Initial funding. Many incubators do provide seed funding for entrepreneurs selected, usually in small amounts like $10,000 to $20,000, and usually taking 5% to 15% of your equity in return. Follow-on funding and connections. Why spend years struggling and all your money if entrepreneurship is just not your thing?

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Incubator Technical Review Entrepreneur Mentor 146

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

” Stay lean and only raise a big round if you DO find product / market fit and which point you want to loosen the belt quickly and raise the capital to do so. .” ” Stay lean and only raise a big round if you DO find product / market fit and which point you want to loosen the belt quickly and raise the capital to do so.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2013

The number of startups getting seed funding in 2012 jumped by 65% over the previous year to a total of 1749, according to a recent report by CB Insights. Seed investments” are early stage financings (typically less than $1.5 million) made by either Angels or venture capitalists, or both. Most active venture capital firm.

Startup 99

Startup Invest Venture Capital Seed Funding 99

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown. But of course it’s hard to advise people that they should do PR without a guide to how to do it on the cheap or how to do it at all.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

Of course, every alternative has advantages and disadvantages, so any given one may not be available or attractive to you. For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

Of course, every alternative has advantages and disadvantages, so any given one may not be available or attractive to you. For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

Rise of Seed. Prior to then the concept of “seed funds” barely existed and as I’ve argued before the seed fund phenomenon was largely driven by: Open source + horizontal computing + Amazon AWS. In other words, it isn’t that VCs suddenly got smart, it’s that the costs of starting a company went down dramatically.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Funding Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Venture capitalists have raised increasing amounts of money from their investors (LPs) every year. An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

The company plans to give creators and influencers more independence from existing platforms by allowing them access to funding from a team well-versed in their unique capital needs. Another company, Tribe , has similarly raised VC to grow its American footprint. million Series A in March. invests exclusively in the space.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC funds) called Fort Washington. They’ve been a long-term investor in our fund – GRP Partners – and it was important to me to spend time with them in their home market and meet the people with whom they deal locally. ” OF COURSE!

Press 364

Press Course Startup Email 364

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Still, as a VC I value proprietary dealflow & long term relationships. I know it was over heated when a deal where I wrote one of the first checks on (as an angel, not VC) went out on AngelList. An investor called the founder, spoke for 30 minutes on the phone and committed to funding having never met the team.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Of course you could start your own company. Of course I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t start a company. I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” Being the CEO of a fixer-upper gives you board exposure and VC relationships that will benefit you later.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. I know you’re not a tech guy and haven’t done anything other than an HTML course you once took, but if you’re inspirational and a leader you’ll find somebody to moonlight for free to get your prototype built. They might be as hard as raising VC.

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Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. Of course your friend’s company raised $50 million and offers it’s employees free kombucha and desk massages. Year in, year out.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Of course, every alternative has advantages and disadvantages, so any given one may not be available or attractive to you. For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2014

Initial funding. Many incubators do provide seed funding for entrepreneurs selected, usually in small amounts like $10,000 to $20,000, and usually taking 5% to 15% of your equity in return. Follow-on funding and connections. Why spend years struggling and all your money if entrepreneurship is just not your thing?

Incubator 103

Incubator Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2013

Initial funding. Many incubators do provide seed funding for entrepreneurs selected, usually in small amounts like $10,000 to $20,000, and usually taking 5% to 15% of your equity in return. Follow-on funding and connections. Why spend years struggling and all your money if entrepreneurship is just not your thing?

Incubator 115

Incubator Help Startup Technical Review 115

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

We have our own small seed fund, which we trigger to fund that company and hire a team, a CEO and a CTO. Once we get our initial proof point and prototypes, we raise more money, both from internal and external venture capital. What they then immediately start to do, is prototype the product.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

Of course, every alternative has advantages and disadvantages, so any given one may not be available or attractive to you. For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Equity Examples 107

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Of course, every alternative has advantages and disadvantages, so any given one may not be available or attractive to you. For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 31, 2015

VCs are interested in funding companies with large potential markets…enough to provide them with a ten times return on their investment. Of course you want to show large numbers. And of course, make sure that they support the rest of your business plan. One way to do this is by presenting a top-down financial model only.

Seed Funding 40

Seed Funding Course Metrics Invest 40

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VC growth.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. And of course you can’t win a game by playing a bit of both positions. VC Industry' Lines, Not Dots.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2015

Crosscut Ventures has just announced their 3rd fund and clocking in at $75 million , which will be focused heavily on Los Angeles – FTW. Rick was a partner there having previously been a Managing Director and founding member of Sun America’s venture capital practice and having been graduated from Harvard Law School.

News 150

News Funding Venture Capital Dollar Shave Club 150