Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

As a mentor to many business professionals and owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, I find a wealth of innovative ideas, but often less insight on what it really takes to transform ideas into an income stream that can excite new customers into long-term business success. Investors expect this step to be proven successful before funding.

Ideas 145

Ideas Startup Case Study Writing 145

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

As investors continue pouring funding into artificial intelligence and consumer habits shift, many AI and subscription model startups have been enjoying rapid growth. However, its unique-for-the-industry monthly subscription model has helped it maintain healthy profits from its loyal customer base in 2023. million in 2022.

Startup 210

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 210

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. One of the most important aims of a fund-raising process is to keep similar firms at the same stage of your process. Why 8–10 and not just 3–4?

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. His follow-on rounds & problems: • Hit funding nuclear winter, impossible to get anyone to invest in follow on, • The concept did not connect with VC’s.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

The first check I wrote was just over 10 years ago into a company called Invoca who just announced a new $56 million in funding led by Scott Hilleboe at HIG Growth Partners. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds. Why does that matter?

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

Most business advisors I know will say that writing a business plan is the first step to starting your own business, but I believe that a better first step is to do a self-analysis of your real drivers, strengths, and assumptions before committing to this lifestyle. Assess your own resources as well as funding sources.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Very few people fund individuals. release out the door and get some customers using it, or friendly people piloting it then at least there is some validation to the product and some people to speak to about their experiences. Do you work as a civil engineer on water projects and have great access to wealthy project developers?

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

billion— a huge win for the company’s privately held owner, the power development and investment company LS Power. That company raised $50 million in new round of funding earlier this year. “The writing is on the wall and the investors have to take the time.

Company 363

Company Companies Acquisition Equity 363

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

Among those funds is TYLT Lab (www.tyltlab.com), which recently announced a new, $20M early stage investment fund specifically focused on companies here. We spoke with Rami Rostami and Gerard Casale , who are behind TYLT Labs, and who told us a bit about their new fund, its investment criteria, and where it sees the promise here.

Seed Funding 220

Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Berkonomics

MAY 8, 2014

I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. The company has been funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all. Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time.

Company 166

Company Companies Writing Education 166

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Mark Zuckerberg, while still in school, tested the viability of his “ FaceMash ” technology as a business by rolling it out to other students at Harvard as customers. He learned quickly that several pivots were required for business, legal, and customer acceptance reasons. Write a business plan and pitch deck for learning.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Message delivery must be customized for each investor. It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

There's a lot out there around Customer Development - read Steve Blank : Entrepreneurship as a Science – The Business Model/Customer Development Stack - Steve Blank , October 25, 2010 Checklists for Chaos, The Path to Success - Steve Blank , October 28, 2010 and reading about Lean, MVPs, etc. is a requirement.

Startup 198

Startup Custom Development Sales Writing 198

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

Beyond the fear, many really don’t get the value of being willing and able to communicate effectively with team members, investors, customers, and a myriad of other support people, both one-on-one and one-to-many. As your company grows, you have to host customer seminars.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Customer Custom 113

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

Their deep understanding of their customers, an uncompromising drive to create a quality product and the courage to ignore the music industry's formulaic approach to producing hits resulted in the creation one of the top selling non-compilation albums of all time.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2010

By Adam Hoeksema According to a report distributed by the Angel Capital Education Foundation , total startup funding from venture capital funds, state funds, and angel investors totals approximately $20.8 One strategy may be to utilize search engine traffic to bring in customers. billion annually. Have an exit strategy.

Funding 90

Funding Startup Blogging Invest 90

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. whether they invest or not.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

The Lean Startup approach dictates that successful customer development is an iterative process. By conceptualizing, selling, gathering feedback and then developing a product, startups achieve success more quickly and economically. Eric (Ries) was a student in one of the very earliest customer development classes at Berkley.

Startup 229

Startup Class Press Custom Development 229

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. In the evangelical phase you’re working through these with customers on the fly. But they want to establish a baseline in the customer’s mind of the value they will get by using your product.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Message delivery must be customized for each investor. It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Nobody likes to hear you say, “we can’t tell you anything we’re in stealth mode&# so develop some generic talking points that don’t give anything away when you’re asked what you do. Market to Your Target Audience – I’ve seen a lot of startups who like to write blog posts on life as an entrepreneur.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2014

I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Too many entrepreneurs spend big money on development, only to find out that the solution isn’t quite right. Feedback from your blog will tell you quickly whether anyone agrees with your assessment, and whether you have a customer base waiting.

Startup 101

Startup Blogging Writing Google 101

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Scot Lawrie , the President and technical Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Coverfly (www.coverfly.com), and John Rhodes , Coverfly's head of Marketing and Business Development, to learn a bit more about the early stage, bootstrapped startup focused on Hollywood script writers. What is Coverfly?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

In today's world of web application development, speed is everything. Developers are now turning out code and releasing it live to the world in near real time--what is called DevOps and Agile development. With the rise of the cloud and Agile, it's really changed how developer are coding their websites.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. Could leaders of society try to change the culture in ways that encourage acceptance of failure? Could big business accept its own creative destruction?

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

In the Los Angeles startup world, there are lots of high profile, buzzy companies which have lots of attention and funding--but which haven''t earned a dime of revenue. We generate thousands of new customers everyday for clients such as Ally Bank, GE Capital, Transunion, and a few other big brands. What is ConsumerTrack all about?

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

CapLinked says the round of funding and new appointment are an advancement in their move to displace the legacy left by Virtual Data Room (VDR) with their intuitive new product for coordinating on complex business deals such as asset sales, financings, and mergers and acquisitions. 25 Years of Writing Code. Founded in 2010 by Eric M.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

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. Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs). You hire people who look good on paper. After 6 months – you know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. And of those 35 people.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on. How does control start to change at the B-round of funding? The Limited Partners (LPs) who back funds don’t expect their dollars to be passive.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Thus founders seeking funding for a good cause or a new technology often seize on grants from universities, government agencies and philanthropic organizations as free money to solve their problems. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. In the U.S.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

You’re writing a freaking blog post! I had a pre breakfast with a CEO of a company in which I invested talking about his next fund raising round. I called another about his fund raising (DUDE – you never called me back! ). Fund raising. But it’s mostly customer service. “But WAIT !!!

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2013

I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Too many entrepreneurs spend big money on development, only to find out that the solution isn’t quite right. Feedback from your blog will tell you quickly whether anyone agrees with your assessment, and whether you have a customer base waiting.

Blogging 104

Blogging Product Startup Writing 104

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

We talked with Noah about how the company grew out of a business plan competition at the University of Southern California, his recent funding from the Maverick Angels, as well as how the firm hopes to stand out among a crowded list of comparison shopping sites. We then went out to raise money, and got started on development.

USC 207

USC CPC Sites Startup 207

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

The final clip is Fred & I talking about whether “the best product wins” and my assertion that the bias in today’s Silicon Valley dominated tech world there is probably too much emphasis on tech at the expense of how to sell, implement and service customers. Don’t be in a rush to invest your fund.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150