Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

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. It also has to be said that bad apples on teams bring down productive even if that person is individually a superstar. Writing a book will be fun. You hire people who look good on paper. After 6 months – you know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

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." It is almost never the case that you are building an MVP to "show" to an investor the product itself.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But I knew that to be a good decision maker I needed first hand knowledge rather than just a summary from my CTO.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. Last time we met I didn’t have my CTO with me. But the real product being bought or sold is “trust.”

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. 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. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Having street smarts with no inspirational ability to build teams can yield a great small business but will be difficult to scale into a large VC-backed business. So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. In the book they profile how VC worked in the early days (60s / 70s).

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

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 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

Dave’s industry experience includes tenures as CTO and CEO of several successful software companies, and upper-level management positions in Fortune 100 companies. He keynotes leading technology conferences on cloud computing, SOA, enterprise application integration, and enterprise architecture. CTO at SOA Software.

SaaS 92

SaaS Cloud Computing CIO Web 92

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. 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: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Frank Addante

JANUARY 23, 2007

Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? ► 2006 (20) ► December (2) Just Say What it Is 12 Proven Guidelines for Rapid Product Development. ► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? So, you need to develop a product? Build a SWAT team 3. Zondigo, Inc.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Develop Development Product 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

I wasn’t going to write about it since he had just covered the topic and echoed my point of view. Notes Wadhwa, “Jason [Calacanis], Fred [Wilson], and Silicon Valley VC’s, I’ve got news for you: you’ve got it all wrong. I’m now a VC that funds entrepreneurs. Fred Wilson said as much on his blog also.

Startup 289

Startup Statistics Entrepreneur Study 289

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. People want status.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Messenger : Thorsten von Eicken , RightScale’s Co-Founder and CTO, Chief Architect at Citrix Online (formerly Expertcity) and Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and UC Santa Barbara. I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

This is especially true for companies with expensive and complex products or services that are more consultative in nature, like insurance, financial services, home services, education and travel, etc. 9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. We met with a ton of VC’s and angels.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission. Now, despite bootstrapping, you actually have some connections to the venture capital world, don't you? I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. I need to take some VC meetings. They haven’t launched their next gen product – watch this space. Me: “Bullshit.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

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. Product Friday: Monetizing Content is a Product Problem - This is going to be BIG. m the f%*kin’ boss.”.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

There are hundreds of entrepreneurs here in Los Angeles who are building awesome companies, writing awesome books, making awesome movies and are trying to solve important problems to help make this world a better place. Matt Miller – Co-Founder and CTO of CareerBliss.com. Here are 62 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? ▼ 2006 (20) ► December (2) Just Say What it Is 12 Proven Guidelines for Rapid Product Development. ► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? Venture Capital Funding 7. Build a SWAT team 3. Zondigo, Inc. Relaxing 2.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

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. Why did Ring become an enormous success when it produced a hardware product and the market keeps saying, “hardware is too difficult to scale?”

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2011

They write and tweet every day, with the single guiding credibility and personality that the new social culture demands. Here are a few that I aspire to: Venture Hacks , by Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant. Mark is a serial entrepreneur who is now active in the venture capital community for early-stage startups.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Technical Review Blogging Java 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

Some investors are team focused, others market focused, others seems to look for product / market fit. Only then can I even care about product, market or their nebulous “fit.&#. I want somebody who can inspire you to produce great products but not know your trade better than you do. I love the design of your product.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc. 500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

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. Here’s why.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217