Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Even with advantages that independent startups can never hope to match, including brand recognition, customers, financial capital, and distribution, I don’t often see the entrepreneurial passion for innovation, agility, and team perseverance exhibited by new startups. Make sure everyone comes with an entrepreneur mindset for real innovation.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

“We feel over the next couple of years, we’ll start to see repeat entrepreneurs come out of these LA companies. The timing is ripe for a fund like ours to capitalize on the opportunity.” “ I’ve watched the ecosystem grow over the last two decades.”

Funding 218

Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

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

OCTOBER 8, 2023

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Venture Capital 106

Venture Capital Angel Seed Funding Invest 106

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2016

in a seed funding round. The funding came from Aristos Ventures, private angel investors and investment from serial entrepreneurs, founders and executives from several high tech companies, according to the company.

Artificial Inteligence 100

Artificial Inteligence Platform Southern California Seed Funding 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 21, 2016

San Diego-based GoShare , the developer of an on-demand, moving and delivery app, has raised $1M in a seed funding round, the company said on Friday. The company said it will use the funding to improve its product and expand into new cities. The startup is led by Shaun Savage.

Demand 100

Demand San Diego Seed Funding Los Angeles 100

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. He is going gangbusters, and is now targeting a $50M second round of funding.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Seed Funding Incubator 101

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

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

The startup--headed by entrepreneur Nicholas Fiorentino--provides an online quote to purchase used equipment from both consumers and businesses. Totem also provides data erasure services to those corporate customers. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 170

Seed Funding San Diego Organization Entrepreneur 170

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

Most of our mentors are people who have been successful entrepreneurs and investors, who have been there, and understand how to get a company to the next sage. other companies, which are already off and running are ready for aceclerators and seed funding. Blake Caldwell: We believe heavily in customer in customer development.

Startup 172

Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And there is so much money around being thrown at so many entrepreneurs that many firms don’t even care about board seats, governance rights or heaven forbid doing work with the company because that would eat into the VCs time needed to chase 5 more deals. Seed has become an option factory for many.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Constance Curtis: I have been a successful entrepreneur for the past thirteen years. At that time, I didn't know it would cost me $14,000 to hire my own personal matchmaker, and leaving my first meeting when I learned that, and being an entrepreneur, I realized I had identified a huge problem. How did you start the company?

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

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

JANUARY 27, 2021

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. contributes more than $25 billion to fund 70,000 startups every year. Look to grants and strategic partners for seed funding.

Angel 126

Angel Funding Venture Capital Seed Funding 126

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Even if you work every day in the world of new-venture funding, as I do, the options are confusing, and their meanings seem to change on a regular basis. I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Startup incubator seed funding.

Funding 104

Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

The startup--headed by entrepreneur Nicholas Fiorentino--provides an online quote to purchase used equipment from both consumers and businesses. Totem also provides data erasure services to those corporate customers. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 124

Seed Funding San Diego Organization Entrepreneur 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2020

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. With customer acquisition costs (CAC) rising significantly across most products, one company experimented with a few low-cost initiatives.

Capital 100

Capital SoCal Southern California SaaS 100

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

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Fundraising is indeed brutally tough at all stages, and the seed funding is the hardest to find.

Software Review 106

Software Review Funding Startup Seed Funding 106

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 19, 2018

million in seed funding to begin building a manufacturing facility and expand its presence in Los Angeles as the city continues to grow as a hub for robotics and automation. . “Nothing is final because we are still quite early, but we’re using 3D depth-sensing cameras along with proprietary custom hardware elements.

Los Angeles 207

Los Angeles Angel Artificial Inteligence CalTech 207

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I know many super experienced entrepreneurs who don’t understand the basics of how fund size and age can affect them so I thought it was worth establishing a baseline. I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. invested in the seed round they have more inside knowledge than I do.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2017

I continue to be surprised by some clever SoCal entrepreneurs who are creating out-of-the box companies that are opportunistic and reflect our markets ingenuity. We are seeing SaaS companies more and more are competing against other SaaS companies and experiencing more churn, price resistance and customer demand for customization.

Capital 124

Capital Southern California SaaS SoCal 124

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Lior Elazary: I'm a serial entrepreneur. Now, we're giving the solution to a lot of our customers to be able to support that growth, to support the requirements so people don't have to do that shopping themselves. Talk about your funding? Our seed funding was more friends and family, and our Series A was led by Upfront.

Westlake Village 113

Westlake Village Startup Commerce Seed Funding 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

But like the company Kyriba, where we recently sold our position at above $1 billion, it took time until the revenue exceeded $100 million recurring and then the industry really competed to back this amazing company since it had scale, defensible technology and long-term, committed customers. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Fair (www.fair.com), the latest startup by serial entrepreneur Scott Painter , does just that, letting users shop for a car, get approved, and pay for a car through a month-to-month payment--with no long term committment. Fair is buying the car, and our customer is then entering into a contract to use that vehicle.

Startup 124

Startup Truecar Pricing Entrepreneur 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2011

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Fundraising is indeed brutally tough at all stages, and the seed funding is the hardest to find.

Software Review 98

Software Review Funding Seed Funding Startup 98

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. So they set up seed programs that allowed for rapid decisions for $500k or less, often done as convertible debt for both speed and cost reasons. I told entrepreneurs that it was a bit of a Faustian bargain. I was an early cynic.

Seed Funding 283

Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. Work with customers on business cases (for internal use) and ask for case studies (for you to publish in marketing).

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2012

One of the biggest complaints that local entrepreneurs have with Los Angeles has been a dearth of local sources of venture capital. However, the recent surge in startup activity has attracted a lot more capital into the area, including a significant amount of capital from LA's latest fund: Karlin Ventures (www.karlinvc.com).

Funding 253

Funding Startup Invest Commerce 253

socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2014

Who are your customers? Mauhan Zonozzy: Our end user is the consumer, but our customers are media companies. In short, we provide a toolset that allows customers to create clips not just for video sites, but for sites like Instagram and Vine, and put that in the hands of consumers. How are you financed and backed?

Content 113

Content Los Angeles Seed Funding Hollywood 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2016

I find that this type offers the most value to new entrepreneurs or startups in the early idea stage. Here are some of the key parameters that will help you decide where you fit in this spectrum: Your commitment to the entrepreneur lifestyle. Costs, returns in equity and funding access. No surprises in this advice.

Incubator 58

Incubator Startup Seed Funding Equity 58

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

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Customers heavily adopted in-person returns. We saw the steady stream of customers Nordstrom Rack was getting from HauteLook shoppers, and we realized that we could do that same thing with any retailer. Customers expect the retailers to pay for those returns, they expect returns to be free, and they expect outbound shipping to be free.

Training 100

Training Customer Custom Software Review 100

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

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Each has met legal securities minimums for net worth and professionalism, to reduce the risk to entrepreneurs. Most share expertise as well as money.

Angel 106

Angel Startup Venture Capital Seed Funding 106