Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2010

By Jim Flowers A few months ago, Marty invited me to comment on business incubation and what a startup company ought to expect from an incubator. There is a growing fellowship of special-case start-up programs operated by closely-knit, permanent groups of angel-mentors. Relationships , I said back then.

Incubator 80

Incubator Mentor Capital Startup 80

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 7, 2013

The good news for entrepreneurs is that there have never been more office space options for early stage companies. Significant confusion exists when distinguishing between Accelerators and Incubators. A version of this article previously appeared in The Wall Street Journal. Having people being captive within some investor’s…sphere.

Incubator 238

Incubator Startup News Entrepreneur 238

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Resource 159

Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

It really is possible for an introvert to succeed as an entrepreneur, even though you can’t expect to start and build a business alone. You need to build business relationships with partners, team members, investors, and of course customers. Asking someone to be your mentor is not a sign of weakness, and most mentors love to help.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Mentor Activity Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Customer Custom Entrepreneur 143

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

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Incubator Startup Help Resource 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2016

A question I often get as an adviser is whether or not to join a business incubator or accelerator as a way to move forward faster and smarter and increase the odds of business success. I find that this type offers the most value to new entrepreneurs or startups in the early idea stage. Direction, mentoring and resources required.

Incubator 58

Incubator Startup Seed Funding Equity 58

InfoChachkie

MARCH 5, 2012

In the past year, the number of startup accelerators and incubators across the US has grown faster than expansion league baseball. ” I recently discussed the explosion of seed accelerators and incubators with Brad Feld, who, as the Co-Founder of acclaimed startup accelerator TechStars , is uniquely qualified to opine upon the subject.

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Startup Incubator Doc Mentor 270

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Customer 113

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

For today's interview, we spoke to Dave Eastman, the Director of the Viterbi Startup Garage, a startup incubator that is run by the University of Southern California, out of its location in Marina Del Rey. How are you different from other startup incubators, etc? What we do, is regional customer discovery for teams, typically academic.

Marina Del Rey 150

Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2020

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Get help with grant funding and incubator resources. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors.

Class 124

Class Startup Resource Mentor 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. Get help with grant funding and incubator resources. Access to entrepreneurs-in-residence, business mentors.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point.

Startup 98

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

I explain to her that, like the contestants on the show, we work with very early startup entrepreneurs to build the next great product. We invest time and money into helping them develop their ideas, and help develop those companies and the entrepreneurs as leaders. Startups coming to us receive $75,000 at the start, in exchange for 7.5

Startup 100

Startup Incubator Invest Resource 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Funding 174

Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. The hard part for entrepreneurs is figuring out what it takes to play.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Seed Funding Incubator 101

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. This time I'm getting to know Mark Geller ( LinkedIn , @markgeller ). Tell me a bit about your background.

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Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2017

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Startup 64

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 64

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2012

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Startup 118

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 118

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2016

The real unique part of this program, which I'm excited about, is the marriage between the mentoring that a company could receive from both those with an entrepreneurial startup background of Techstars, and the deep, vertical knowledge of clinicians or healthcare administrators, who have been doing healthcare work for a while.

Mentor 100

Mentor Startup Coach Ideas 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2016

The real unique part of this program, which I'm excited about, is the marriage between the mentoring that a company could receive from both those with an entrepreneurial startup background of Techstars, and the deep, vertical knowledge of clinicians or healthcare administrators, who have been doing healthcare work for a while.

Mentor 100

Mentor Startup Coach Ideas 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Most investors won’t touch a first-time entrepreneur at this stage.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 114

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2014

to hear about how the program is both helping the studio tap into the energy and ideas of the startup community, as well as helping those startups find new customers in the media and entertainment business. warner bros media camp mediacamp technology startup content hollywood accelerator incubator interview' READ MORE>>.

Startup 159

Startup Technology Hollywood Media 159

Tech Coast Venture Network

APRIL 22, 2010

This is where all entrepreneurs have to start. With rare exception, you will need to finance personally (or with friends and family to the point of revenue and/or significant customer pre-order or commitment). Groups like Tech Coast Angels and Octane hold pitch sessions to hear entrepreneurs sell their businesses. SBA Programs.

Startup 124

Startup Tech Coast Angels TCVN Incubator 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Equity Examples 107

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

They have hired great people, have brought on great mentors, have raised money from top tier investors, and we are excited for a bunch of big announcements in the months ahead,” said Teller. Atlas Powered has raised $700k from Tech Coast Angels, Maverick Angels, Pasadena Angels, Angel Capital Entrepreneur Fund, LaunchpadLA, and Clark Landry.

GRP Partners 96

GRP Partners Startup Tech Coast Angels Bertelsmann 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

Recently I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M. Lean startup.

Startup 92

Startup Funding Seed Funding Incubator 92

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

We have about 8500 customers there, but only a small percentage have built great communities that took off, and the rest floundered. That's why we built FanMix, to solve our own problem, and help our SocialEngine customers to promote their own sites. We have some great mentors now. After TechStars, how did you end up in LA?

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Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 30, 2011

A serial Internet entrepreneur, Mike has founded, advised, invested and sold numerous businesses, including application platform Userplane, which he led from startup to its acquisition by AOL, Tsavo Media, Movoxx, PeopleMedia, Brizzly and Myspace. Dan Dato , Mentor at upStart.LA. Custom ad deals and partnerships.

Tech Coast Angels 105

Tech Coast Angels Startup Angel Southern California 105

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2018

The idea, is to make it accessible as a multi-disciplinary part of Tel Aviv University, so that young people, alumni, and students with ideas for a company can join the fund, not only to be funded with seed money, but also so they can be accelerated and potentially incubated before they go out.

El Segundo 100

El Segundo Southern California Startup Santa Monica 100

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Big crowd of entrepreneurs, professors, students, and established professionals. I wanted to connect LA’s incredible entrepreneurs with the larger business community and with the resources of USC.”. Over $50,000 in prize money. Filled with innovation. Bigelow stated, “AIM was a very similar contest.

USC 98

USC Cornerstone OnDemand Southern California Netflix 98

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 28, 2011

In addition to the 330+ students, entrepreneurs and investors in attendance, the event also achieved over 45,000 views on the TechZulu live stream. GumGum was founded in 2007 when a team of seasoned Internet entrepreneurs realized web site publishers were missing out on valuable revenue by not monetizing their image-based content.

Idealab 77

Idealab Tech Coast Angels Startup Platform 77