TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

This round is being led by Point72 Private Investments, with previous backers Toba Capital, Index Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, and VMG Partners also participating. Danna and his co-founder, CTO Sean Stavropoulos, previously worked together at Fullscreen as head of product and head of engineering, respectively.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. An obvious example would be in sales. You’re also learning directly about the skills of your sales staff by observing them in action.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

When I meet other VCs I’m constantly asking how they decide which investments to make, when to pass, when to do follow-on rounds, when to sell a company vs. when to go long, etc. On sales I often talk about “ Why Buy Anything, Why Buy Now, Why Buy Me ” as a tool to think about a sales process.

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

A year ago I invested, along with Dana Settle at Greycroft Partners , in a startup company called Maker Studios. You can monetize via Google Ad Sales before you have enough revenue to build your own sales team. It was founded by Danny Zappin, Lisa Donovan & Ben Donovan. Sound familiar? More on this soon.

Carson 291

Carson Content Press Los Angeles 291

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Chief Sales Officer (VP Sales). Chief Brand Officer.

Startup 97

Startup Invest CTO Hire Cloud Computing 97

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

At Upfront, our partners have been fortunate enough to be part of 18 companies that have reached north of $1 billion and the average tenure of an investment that exits at this scale is more than 10 years. We have invested in every round and as a result our ownership has actually gone up over time. Why does that matter?

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

Once you put your offer in, you enter your credit card, and you commit to the sale. Once that offer is accepted, that make the sale, and the retailer handles the transaction just as if it happened on their own website. We take a commission on the sale, and everybody is happy. How does the matching process work?

Pricing 273

Pricing Product Help Sales 273

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I’ve had several COOs at companies in which I’ve invested. Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#.

Startup 292

Startup CTO Hire Sales Email 292

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Fred Wilson also wrote on a similar topic in his usual more succinct manner , with a great quote being: “One thing I know for sure is that those who advise and invest in startups cannot and should not meddle in the day to day decision making. Another area we CEOs often meddle is in sales. ” Of course I agree with this.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

I fly home Friday night, weekend on the soccer field with the kids and head into a Monday partner meeting that will be contentious because there are two controversial investment decisions to make. Last time we met I didn’t have my CTO with me. I think you’d really enjoy meeting her wether you decide to invest or not.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

Instead, give me the details on how you’re going to make your sales, and to whom, on the first day, the first quarter, and the first year. What hurdles do we need to hit for that next round of investment? And it will be a consistent picture provided both to the team (CTO, COO) and to investors. Give me granularity.

Metrics 159

Metrics Search Engine Optimization Startup Ideas 159

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

whether they invest or not. If you presented on your own but have a very talented CTO perhaps your follow up is to bring by your CTO to show why the tech you’ve built is truly unique. These are artifacts of a sales process designed to get you back in front of the VC and have further engagement.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Monday, March 12, 2007 MyShape Article - Analyst Misses the Point The NY Times did a piece today on MyShape, a start-up in Pasadena - Log in Your Measurements, and the Clothes May Fit. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

MyShape 150

MyShape CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2009

According to the firm, it has named Francis Najafi, founder and CEO of investment group Pivotal Group, as its Chairman; Hooman Honary will serve as President and CTO; Ira Dworkin is the firm's new SVP Operations and Product Development; Stephen Guillot is its VP of Hospitality Sales and Marketing; and Catherine Gopaulsingh has been named Senior Vice (..)

Demand 100

Demand Hollywood Los Angeles Sales 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2016

We have have been funding agriculture technologies, water conservation, wireless electricity, aquaponics and so forth in addition to our standard investment themes in software, data, video and retail innovation. We are predisposed to backing founders who solve problems in which they have personal knowledge that is authentic.

Company 207

Company Companies CTO Coach Funding 207

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

Demand Media / Richard Rosenblatt / Los Angeles - Rosenblatt's last big win: MySpace, where he was Chairman, brokering its sale to News Corp. Elbaz sold Applied Semantics to Google in 2003, for pre-IPO stock, reaping first round investors more than a 100x return on their investment. Let us know in the comments below!).

Southern California 228

Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

One other big tell for me is the CEO’s grasp of the sales pipeline. I can’t tell you how many CEO’s I’ve met with who can’t walk me through the details of their sales pipeline. I once had a startup team pitch me for an investment where the President of the company led the first call with me on his own.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. Through advertising or direct sales, these sites harvest intent. they have purchasing intent ).*.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

LPs (the people who invest in VC funds) want to know what “hot” deals you’re in. In a pool of 25-30 investments in a VC fund the goal is to have 2-3 huge outliers. Our partners have invested in more than dozen companies that became worth more than a billion dollars and that has disproportionately drive returns.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2010

We went out on the Android and Blackberry, and as we were going out to market, we realized that we could use that consumer launch as a proving ground for our technology, and leverage that to the B2B market. When I joined the company, I found an amazing technology platform and analytics capability. Finally, what's next for you?

Content 189

Content Screening Mobile Customer 189

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

Venture backers : Oak Investment Partners, Spectrum Equity, W Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs & Co., Demand Media, the internet publishing firm which is in the midst of an IPO effort, is the brainchild of Richard Rosenblatt, who was at the reins of Intermix, the parent firm of MySpace, and brokered the sale of MySpace to News Corporation.

Startup 178

Startup Tech Coast Angels Demand News 178

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Who cut you in on their bonus because even though you’re “just an sales engineer” they know you really deserved more credit for this deal. We brought Ryan Lissack down from San Francisco to become Maker’s CTO and the rest is history. Who in stead said, “That’s what Skype is for?”

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. For some of my more skeptical portfolio companies I simply asked them to run a trial of inbound sales calls and they were shocked.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. sold to Disney for $670 million and since our first investment was at < $10 million valuation we did quite well. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 18, 2013

Okuno has been investing in Los Angeles startups for the past three years after selling his own company E-Z Data. Okuno said, “I have invested in over 40 startups almost always in the six-figure range.” He is looking to find more. The Blayze network already reaches or 200 million viewers and has generated thousands in sales.

Class 100

Class Startup Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

The math works out that the investor owns 25% of the company post deal ($1 million invested / $4 million valuation) and assuming 1 million shares, each share would be valued at $3 / share ($3,000,000 pre-money / 1 million shares = $3 / share). This states how the proceeds from a sale or dissolution of the company will be distributed.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. They were originally founded inside of Times Mirror and had a huge string of major investment success before spinning out as a fully independent fund. Investors: Matrix (Dana Stadler, who was the CTO of PayPal).

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

He called me and said--this is a company you might be interested in, maybe taking a board seat, or co-investing in, or helping them get funded. That ended up as a $200 million sale to Microsoft. My first big move here, when I came to Telesign, was I felt we needed a high quality CTO. I was introduced to the founders.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2011

For this morning's interview, we spoke with Scot Richardson , CEO of Los Angeles-based LaughStub (www.laughstub.com), which develops software which helps comedy clubs and others manage ticket sales, online marketing, and customer relationship management. So, I wrote the business plan and get investment behind it. What is Laughstub?

Ticketmaster 140

Ticketmaster CTO Hire Tech Coast Angels Social Media 140

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. For businesses like this, finding new ways to drive more of these high-value inbound sales calls is key. Those are the two main criteria.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

in sales last year, what he learned from his experience at TechStars, and where he's going with Fanmix. Plus, he told us a little bit about how he's helping to build a mini cluster of technology companies in the Silverlake area. million in sales last year, with great margins, and it's profitable, with a team of ten people.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2016

That can be a subject matter expert, product head, a sales head, any category in the enterprise, and they can use our lightweight platform for answers. Now, you can effectively have those answers at your fingertips, from experts, who can explain those answers once, rather than repeating themselves over and over again.

El Segundo 169

El Segundo Southern California Startup CTO Hire 169

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

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. Each of your angels or seed investors may have 20-30 investments. What Rob wrote in his post is right. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Sergey Belyankin is our Chief Technology Officer. Sergey’s diverse experience as an entrepreneur, technology consultant and software executive qualifies him to lead amSTATZ’s technology development. David Cohen from TechStars, someone I look up to as an entrepreneur, says that they don’t invest in ideas, but teams.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. I later learned that they were a spin out from an investment bank. We have invested heavily in this. It all made sense.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274