Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

As a business advisor and advocate for entrepreneurs, I find myself almost always talking and writing about change. With a bit of humor, he provides some serious guidelines for struggling career professionals looking to move up, and new entrepreneurs looking to build a company. Someone is always taking attendance.

Startup 93

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Screening 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

You’re writing a freaking blog post! I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do. It’s an entrepreneur with whom I’ve been wanting to work for 6 years. Customer support – After my pre-breakfast meeting I had my actual breakfast meeting. It was a young, first-time entrepreneur who wanted to meet.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 57

Organization Entrepreneur Satisfaction Screening 57

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. Keep on the radar screen – I know the VC’s seemed to love you when they met you.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. They are likely taking losses on their first project with the entrepreneur so they select carefully.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you’re raising a round where a new lead investor would invest $5 million the VC fund must have no less than $100 million and if you’re looking for them to write $15–20 million as the lead their fund realistically should be at least $400 million. Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC).

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. They are likely taking losses on their first project with the entrepreneur so they select carefully.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. Much more data in the full post. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

I have often said that what separates real entrepreneurs from pundits and bystanders is a bias towards getting things done versus over analyzing things. The startup entrepreneur knows that they’re going to be wrong often. I’m not arguing that no screening is required. Great entrepreneurs find a way. But here’s the thing.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

Jody--an experienced entrepreneur who was most recently co-founder of a firm he sold to the Virgin Group, and has been involved with such firms as Lycos, Buydirect.com, and Xoom--told us the story of EcoMom, plus how he connected with McClure on the investment. We caught up with EcoMom CEO Jody Sherman , to learn more about the company.

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? You fish where your customers are. I know this because you’re not a young teenager. You can also use the app even if you don’t have a smartphone.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

When we talk to customers, we hear about these pain points. Gabe Grifoni: I had actually transitioned to the writing side, and focusing on tech. That got me to CES for some technical writing and journalism, and I started checking out the scene. We're really growing our customer relations.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

where entrepreneurs share their stories. 63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Free Corporations For First-Time Entrepreneurs. Right now they’re setting up 500 free corporations for first time entrepreneurs. Here are 62 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Either it’s a bunch of pictures or screen shots or it’s a bunch of words. If you have time check out the video (or download on iTunes – Episode 27 - and listen at the gym or on your commute!). Or, as always, summary notes available below. Is that when it became big? was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to. Walk into any Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Southern California and you can’t miss their digital screens. Watch this space.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 22, 2014

We spent a morning talking about the transition from being an engineer to being an entrepreneur, having the distinction of being the first digital health startup to emerge from USC Viterbi’s Startup Garage , and drilling down to what really matters in all of our entrepreneurial efforts – listening to consumers. It was really fast.

USC 104

USC Southern California Activity Study 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. Ask your customer why you lost. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. I hate losing. Specifically: 1.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

Want to take a year pursuing your dream to write a screenplay, travel through Asia, run a triathlon or start your own fashion line? I got to experience much of the local culture and customs. Obviously if you’re in a customer support role, a sales role or a customer service industry this can be impossible.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. Ask your customer why you lost. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. I hate losing. Specifically: 1.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. In reading the comments on Bijan’s blog and having discussed this so many times, I know some entrepreneurs only want to talk with VCs that think that Powerpoint causes leprosy. Mobile app? Competitors?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The multi-tiered platform allows for money to be transferred between Facebook friends, the ability to click and purchase any item that you see on Facebook and through the published API’s, developers can integrate and write their own applications on top of the ZunguZ platform. Ernst & Young – World Entrepreneur Awards – FINALIST (Annex.13).

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

For those who still might be wondering what Spotlight: LA Tech is all about, It’s a screening room for new technology homegrown in our region. We write and create our own content for the game. Everything happens in the browser (no software to download) and the finished product looks amazing on large screens!

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. Entrepreneurs are neurotic about it. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. Something happened and it was clear to me that this IE issues was just a smoke screen.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Yet a critical mistake I see many entrepreneurs make is that they hand over too much control to their third-parties. They’re also good at screening candidates. As an entrepreneur I have one company to sell. Very customer focused. They do a routine task over-and-over again all year long that we do only periodically.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing. He has many of the attributes I look for in an entrepreneur and importantly he has deep domain experience in ad management. I’ll explain in detail below.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. So I thought I’d write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation. Far more expedient.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Every entrepreneur I meet in my role as a small business advisor dreams of making the business run like clockwork, even without them. Frankly, I’ve never been sure what to tell entrepreneurs who want to break free of these bonds. It’s easier to use screen-captures and notes on existing processes, rather than write detailed manuals.

Resource 60

Resource Examples Design Entrepreneur 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2016

The reality is that entrepreneurs usually don’t have the money or time for executive recruiters to do the filtering and selection for them. On a business team, the ability to communicate verbally and in writing is more important than technical depth. Good communication skills. Already possesses key skills required.

Technical Review 56

Technical Review Coach Training Screening 56

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

That, plus I love the space of high-customer-service, focused eCommerce for moms worried about what their kids eat & wear.&#. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2016

Let me first address VCs or anybody else who is likely above the age where they “get” Snapchat but whose customers are likely in the age demo who use it religiously. That’s like you saying you don’t want to go to cocktail parties and network anymore while every 25-35 year-old VC steals your customers.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Screening Venture Capital Guide 150