SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Who's the customer? You will get a response via email to schedule a time to talk. Do I have to write up the overview?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. But, with the economy turning south in 2008, lots of those customers went out of business. In the meantime, Groupon came along, and our media customers started to lose advertising. We were crowd sourcing artists and design.

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

Our customers tend to be mostly moms, but also some dads who support their families, uncles, aunts, and their friends, but primarily moms. I made a point to call ten of our customers randomly every day, and ask questions--such as what other products they were interested in, what was challenging, what products they liked to buy from us.

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

. <Note: I edited a few comments from Jeff's email, none of which related to our meeting in 2008.> Tech Diligence - Consider The Source. Rather, we value entrepreneurs' time and thus our diligence generally includes introducing them to potential customers and partners. > -jeff.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. The value of Pitch Decks; Brad’s personal preferences on deal presentation; and Brad’s practice of accepting cold approaches via email. Very few people can do a good job with a presentation that is emailable.”. You have said outloud anyone can send you an email, is that fair?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition. It is code word for “I’m not ready to invest for whatever reason … I need more proof.&#.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Not too many people are aware of the success and story of Lynda.com (www.lynda.com), started by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin , and how the firm's now grown to a double-digit, multimillion dollar business which is known as THE source for online training on such things as web design, graphics software, animation, video editing, and much more.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc). We told the horror story of the company that originally owned the URL groupon.com and lost it due to not having a trademark. they take time!!

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

From devising a tweet length pitch to having an easy to remember name, each branding opportunity is a touch point for a new customer to be attracted to what you have to offer. In order to prepare for TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 I reviewed company bios via the official site and read taglines that said “cool” rather than what the company does.

Press 97

Press Startup Technical Review Email 97

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. When I first met the team in San Diego they had only been working on their software for 5 months. The exact same team had worked on 2 previous customer service startups (and 1 non-CS product).

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2010

It makes no sense to meet in August or December due to travel schedules of most investors. For the record, this is not a secret, coded messages to companies for which I am on the board! . They mostly understand your company, your customers, your competitors and your market but never as precisely as you do. That’s it.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Software Review Email 301

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. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - If you’ve got good ideas for a story – shoot it over to them in an email.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

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. He launched a business called Unsubscribe, which helped consumers deal with the deluge of email lists that one gets signed up to and get rid of them all.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. But in these years I learned how to sell software – necessity is the mother of all invention. I never built Google.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

We had email, instant messaging, group calendars, discussion boards, etc. They had a proprietary browser, their own search engine, their own content, chat rooms, email system, etc. But AOL brought online services, email, chat and discussion boards to the masses and thus educated a generation that paved the way for others.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

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. He’s been steadily emailing me for the past 18 months with ideas for local entrepreneurs I “have to meet&# and has been egging me on to spend more time in Seattle. It’s awesome.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285