Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2013

I spent countless hours with VC firms, startups & LPs (the people who invest in VC firms). On my first real day back the first thought I have is that most entrepreneurs don’t manage their VC relationships as well as they could. And it would well be worth your while to broaden your relationships within your VC firm.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Summary Organization Entrepreneur 309

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

Los Angeles-based Lumi , which provides the fancy, custom packaging you might see from MeUndies or FabFitFun, has raised $9M in a Series A funding, the company said on Wednesday. According to Lumi, the funding round was led by Spark Capital, Forerunner Ventures, and Homebrew. Lumi was founded by Jesse Genet and Stephan Ango.

Commerce 113

Commerce Customer Custom Los Angeles 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. In fact, far better if you haven’t raised venture capital.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? billion fund.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. Stitcher - San Francisco-based service that lets users customize talk radio programming on their mobile devices. I found this investment strange since normally VC’s hate to bet on gaming companies. Time will tell. OTHER STUFF.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. Social proof is defined as “looking for others to guide our decisions&# and is also one of the most important techniques in acquiring customers in your company.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Rialto, California-based Plant Prefab , a manufacturer of custom, prefabricated homes, has raised $6.7M The Inland Empire company said the funding came from Obvious Ventures and the Amazon Alexa Fund. Obvious Ventures is the venture fund co-founded by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.

Customer 113

Customer Custom Sites Funding 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. You’d be surprised how many firms are “dictator VCs” – even those that don’t formally acknowledge it internally. ” Some firms are collegiate.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 150

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Five broad sources of independent, third-party validation are: Customers, Partners, Distributors, Industry Experts and other Stakeholders. Each of these constituents is represented below in the Triangle Of Evidence that you must build in order to demonstrate that your venture has achieved meaningful traction. Triangle Of Evidence.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital RSS Customer Custom 265

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 22, 2016

My venture firm, Rincon Venture Partners recently teamed with Jason Lemkin, Founder of SaaStr , to host the first SaaStrX event. He started by stating, “We track customer success.” In other words, are we measure whether or not we are truly making our customers more successful.”. Such metrics will obviously differ.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Cornerstone OnDemand Metrics 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2016

San Diego-based MindTouch , a developer of software-as-a-service tools to help companies create self-service, customer support sites, has raised $12M in a Series A funding. The funding came from PeakSpan Capital, along with SK Ventures and SAP SE. READ MORE>>.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Software Services 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Investors: FirstMark Capital (Amish Jani)(lead), with existing investors: Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Reid Hoffman. Assistly “Multi-channel customer support and management service&# – this is another industry I love and I specifically love the team at Assistly.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, no surprise?—?that’s founders, marketers, investors?—?and

Product 424

Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. VCs collude all the time, it is only fair that entrepreneurs compare notes every now and again as well.”. Even the most jaded VC cannot resist authentic flattery.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. Let me explain: 1.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. .

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

Leaving your real competitors off of you presentation to a VC is not recommended. which features do you believe your customers care about and where you’re try to differentiate? where do you need to make investments to make up ground and therefore need capital?). 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

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros. Partner Leverage.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 23, 2012

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 -- Lunch and Learn: Venture Capital and Investments. When companies want to grow revenue streams with new clients and customers, what are the options? This program will focus on the various sources of fundings such as venture capital and different types of investments.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Capital Invest Entrepreneur 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

As such, I understand the degree to which hand waving and vaporware can influence investors and potential customers. An interface that is engaging can fool customers into trying a sub-par product. However, if a product with a mediocre GUI is consistently adopted by customers, it may signal a lucrative investment opportunity.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. How Unique Is A Unique Visitor? -

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2009

The post is part of a series called “Pitching a VC&# – the outlines is here. You’ve been trying to raise VC for months. What about all the other VC’s I’m talking with? A VC isn’t going to give you an unlimited offer to stay on the table as you shop the terms around town.

Venture Capital 197

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technology 197

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2010

Venture capital investments in Southern California in Q3 totaled to $464.18M, according to the latest numbers released by the PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA Money Tree Report this evening, based on data from Thomson Reuters. billion invested in 780 venture capital deals for Q3. Nationwide, there was $4.8 in investments.

Southern California 195

Southern California Venture Capital Orange County Rustic Canyon 195

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. Once you’ve been around for a few years, attracted some great people, landed real, paying customers and raised venture capital you’ve likely got a talented team around you.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Instead, several former SpaceX employees have launched a raft of new companies, capturing the imagination and dollars of some of the biggest names in venture capital. “ It was a company in LA more than it was an LA company.” Over the past four years, Relativity href="[link] has raised $185.7

SpaceX 173

SpaceX Venture Capital Help Snapchat 173

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5 Identify the right people in the right venture firms.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

The logic in this is simple: once a company has market share, other issues can be sorted out to monetize the market, make the company profitable, scoop up wavering competitors, or even sell the company to a larger firm looking for a large customer base. Many, many companies accepting venture capital lost it all following this instruction.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Social Media Invest Marketing 156

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269