Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa. That’s normal.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte.

Technical Review

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. And I think about the “Seattle issue&# as a metaphor for startups and business in general. How do we make that happen?

Venture Capital

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. We brought Ryan Lissack down from San Francisco to become Maker’s CTO and the rest is history. You hire people who look good on paper. After 6 months – you know. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Responding to Elizabeth Warren’s call to regulate and break up some of the nation’s largest technology companies, the venture capitalists that invest in technology companies are advising the presidential hopeful to move slowly and not break anything. This too shall pass.”

Technical Review

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. And, I dont like to copy and paste.

Blogging

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. I spoke about the need of the CEO, CTO and head of Products to be in the same location. Google’s investment in Zynga. I’m going to make this a regular part of the show since it was really fun. Great exit. - Beyond The Rack.

Venture Capital

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 not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds.

Venture Capital

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. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Tips

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. If you asked me to tell you a list of three of the best decisions in my life, I can certainly tell you that regularly writing is one of them. Why You Should Write. Why You Should Write.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. In fact, the headline of one read, “How Putting $10m into uBeam illustrates everything that is wrong with tech investing today.”

Technical Review

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." Yes, they are happy that you have your product built and that does make it much more investable. " And other similar questions.

Metrics

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

The mistake entrepreneurs make is either writing a lengthy email (everybody has too much email so it will get skimmed / not digested) or not having a deck which means the VC can’t quickly determine his or her fit as a potential investor. whether they invest or not. The key is WHAT you send.

Venture Capital

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. My first big move here, when I came to Telesign, was I felt we needed a high quality CTO. One of the partners, Greg Goldfarb, was really excited about Telesign. It's been fantastic.

Marina Del Rey

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

Occasionally on this blog I break away from industry commentary and write more broadly. Or riding a crazy party bus and sitting next to Aaron Batalion the co-founder & CTO of Living Social. Office Space. The first day of 2012 seems the perfect day to do so. Nom nom nom. You get a feel for the company “vibe.”

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2011

And so as Steve is apt to do, he consolidated this midnight mind meld, added it to his linear thinking on the investment phases of tech companies and turned it into one of the most cogent pieces on the topic that I’ve seen. Ok, it’s not quite a “ double rainbow all the way &# moment, but close. You should read this.

Ideas

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. At CallWave, Colin was CTO, Jason was CFO and I was in charge of product marketing and customer acquisition. We wanted our investors to have great reputations among their portfolio companies and we wanted a fair set of investment terms.

Marketing

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

We wanted to be able to invest in our software and our learning tools. We've been toying with taking an investment for the last three or four years, and were able to meet with the guys at Kennet, and Javier Rojas. We used that cash to invest as intelligently as we could, and scale the business so we could enter into other businesses.

Software Review

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. We would have gladly followed Jamie (and Josh Roth, the CTO who is phenomenal and we’ve also known for a decade) right through an IPO if we could have.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Funding

socalTECH

JUNE 18, 2009

That was the jumping off point for OneCubicle a little over 18 months ago, when we started writing the business plan and code. The strongest executives I can identify can both talk entertainment and at a high level with a CTO, and know code and other things. We're financed through friends and family, and some angel investment early on.

Social Network

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Startup

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CIO) and a product lead (CTO). Show personal investment. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Tips

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

His main company Providence Holdings has invested in real estate and several small businesses. Mathew Brian (Chief Creative Officer) is also based in Columbus, OH, and is behind the strong branding effort of Huddlewoo. Zach Ferres (Chief Technology Officer) has been an entrepreneur since the age of 15.

Mentor

Frank Addante

JANUARY 23, 2007

► August (1) Invest in Transparency & Active Communication ► July (1) The Fear of Success ► May (2) Optimized for Speed = 30% Waste Happy 1st Birthday Rubicon Project! There are a lot of people out there who can "write code", but very few good engineers. ► October (1) New Video!

Outsource Development

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

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. But I don’t think so. call to arms.

Technical Review

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. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. I don’t plan to write the authoritative venture capital blog, just some anecdotes. And covered we did.

Venture Capital

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all. angel investing tips. m the f%*kin’ boss.”. Developer.

Startup

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

► August (1) Invest in Transparency & Active Communication ► July (1) The Fear of Success ► May (2) Optimized for Speed = 30% Waste Happy 1st Birthday Rubicon Project! As CTO, it was my job to solve this problem. We invested the first $1 million to develop version 1.0 ► October (1) New Video!

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

I’m in the team centric sphere so every investment decision I make first & foremost centers on this plane. I made an investment in a company with deep domain knowledge. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. How come you guys only invest when you have proof of success?&#

CTO Hire

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

If u see an article or write a blog post, email us or leave a comment below with a link to your story and we’ll add it in. More than 100 developers on 13 teams hacked from Thursday – Saturday to pitch amazing ideas to our team of a dozen CTO judges, at the SBF HQ Cross Campus. . & #celebrity to pull off anything!

Hollywood

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March The following are the top items based on social signals. at a $2.5M

Startup