Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. I just want to state that up front because while I believe that this post will apply to most startup technology companies out there, I’m sure there will be exceptions. You decide to go out and hire a sales rep.

Startup 293

Startup Sales Marketing Product 293

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. At a minimum I encourage you to spend some time preparing for that question, which phrased another way is, “What do you plan to do with $6-8 million when you raise it.” Growth vs.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

One of the few local funds to recently raise a fund is TVC Capital (www.tvccapital.com), which just closed TVC Capital II, a $75 million growth equity and buyout fund. Jeb Spencer: We consider ourselves a private equity firm. One issue has been a difficulty by indigenous funds to raise their own capital from their limited partners.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Good entrepreneurs have a penchant for doing vs. over-analyzing. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

Those who know how to lead are those who have an easier time doing all the things that feel like such a struggle. So spending time thinking about what your leadership style is, whether it’s effective and what you could do to improve it can yield dividends. We can be blunt but we believe that builds healthier relationships.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. I’ve already made clear that I think raising equity from “strategic money&# is an oxymoron.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

The nature of the company’s business model requires it to fund certain costs before it is paid by its customers. By combining our equity investment with a tranche of venture debt, the company has avoided a larger equity round, which would have significantly diluted the Founders’ ownership share. Do we have a deal?”

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board members having worked with many of them for the past 20 years. When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e. When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e.

Startup 187

Startup Writing Venture Capital Oracle 187

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Perform China Syndrome Market Analysis.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

I often advise startup companies not to try and pin all of your brand equity into an announcement. If you choose your name well and it represents what your customers value in you then it will be memorable, differentiated and meaningful. I couldn’t believe the quality intro.” A brand is a marathon, not a sprint.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. Public relations at a startup is a sales process.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Although cash is a convenient measure of success, most entrepreneurs do not consider money to be success, unto itself. Rather, "Money is a scoreboard where you can rank how you’re doing against other people." "Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is. Love what you do or don’t do it."

Tips 274

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Ideas 274

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

They financed their companies, to the extent possible, in a manner minimizing the cost of capital, planning for organic growth in the number of customers served and in associated revenues. The Flipper’s executives usually have significant equity holdings, either actually owned or reflected in stock options.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Equity Competition Pricing 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. You are either bought for stock or for equity. ” No, I said you’d have to be really freaking awesome for them to do so. I believe Instagram was. But they are SO FREAKING SLOW.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. And as Rob points out – if you email members with short updates more frequently they are more up to speed when you do need them to weigh in. Rob does it.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Lead with your intent to offer the solution free to customers. Of course, customers love free, but investors hate it. Even non-profits need money to scale, but their pitch should be to philanthropists, not equity investors. Sales projections are less than one percent market penetration. Sleeping giants do wake up.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Don’t believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and professional investors will throw money at you. Self-funding is the preferred source of cash for your startup – if you can do it. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Small business grants.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Equity Incubator Venture Capital 103

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? Aren’t you ever tempted to go back and do it again?”. Even many successful entrepreneurs tell me that they’d prefer to do a buy-out the next time rather than go back to square one in a startup.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Even when you do sign-up initial customers it’s still not clear that your company will be a success and you’re still likely paying yourself under market rates. .” They own a fixer-upper in an outskirt neighborhood in the wrong school district but they’ll make do. He still has the dream.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

Mostly during the day I’m in meetings or doing work. I was thinking back to a few previous “insider baseball&# blog debates that raged for several weeks: AngelGate (aka Bin38 secret cabal), convertible debt vs. equity, bubble vs. not, and now the AngelList discussion. Are these signal or noise? Examples: Bin38. Same thing.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. You get on a plane at a moment’s notice because a senior customer agreed to meet you.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. But I don’t have money to pay a fancy lawyer – I’ll just have my cousin do it - Don’t. I know he’s smart but you wouldn’t hire a Javascript developer to do your database design – would you?

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Don’t believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and professional investors will throw money at you. Self-funding is the preferred source of cash for your startup – if you can do it. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Small business grants.

Startup 93

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 93

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Also, it’s harder to pay a $30 million pre-money value on an unproved company when you see public companies with $100 million in sales trading for less than $20 million.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2016

Most first-time entrepreneurs seem to believe the myth that they need a minimum of a half a million dollars to start a business. Find team members to work for equity rather than cash. Equity is your best assurance of commitment and focus. Defer your urge to find office space until you have customers.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media Entrepreneur Equity 61

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Here’s why that is important: when users are on your website you want to convert them to become paying customers. It’s true that the carrier then gets their huge slice for being the billing and payment engine but the idea is that you as a website more than make up for this in terms of customer conversion. 15mm in Series A.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 30, 2012

This is the origin of the “solution looking for a problem” and “if we build it, they will come” syndromes, which result in surprise and frustration waiting for funding, and waiting for customers that don’t materialize. Business strategy allows you to change customer perceptions and responses to your product or service offerings.

Startup 99

Startup Competition IP Patents 99

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

What will you have to do differently to jump the proverbial “chasm” and appeal to more mainstream, bread-and-butter hoteliers? “We We have built SocialStay for scale so I think the ‘chasm’ is both a function of time and sales. Without their buy in, we don’t get the opportunity to interact with end customers. Write it down….

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

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.&#. But life would have been much easier if we could have just gone to EcoMom and let them do the vetting for us. I started to realize that Dave is able to do it because he approaches VC differently.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

If you do a lot of pitches, spend the six minutes to watch this. Do it because you love small teams. m the f%*kin’ boss.”. In all my years in business, I have yet to hear someone say: “I love corporate politics.” In all my years in business, I have yet to hear someone say: “I love corporate politics.” clearly didn’t cause this.”

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? Aren’t you ever tempted to go back and do it again?”. Even many successful entrepreneurs tell me that they’d prefer to do a buy-out the next time rather than go back to square one in a startup.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 176

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

This is the origin of the “ solution looking for a problem ” and “ if we build it, they will come ” syndromes, which result in surprise and frustration waiting for funding, and waiting for customers that don’t materialize. Business strategy allows you to change customer perceptions and responses to your product or service offerings.

Startup 92

Startup Competition IP Patents 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

Don’t believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and people will throw money at you. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. It’s not a quick solution, but the government and other funding agencies do not want ownership or interest payments from your company.

Funding 59

Funding Startup Technical Review Equity 59

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 24, 2014

Buddytruck even has the issue of unloading solved as the drivers are contracted to help customers both load and unload their hauls. Not having technical backgrounds ourselves, we were fortunate to have friends develop the app in exchange for equity. TZ: How many drivers do you currently have in operation? AJ: Absolutely!

FAQ 98

FAQ Startup Technical Review Santa Monica 98

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

We brought together Peter Cowen of Groundwork Equity , Mark Suster of GRP Partners , Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures , and Richard Yen of Saban Ventures -- all of who will be on the judging panel for the Tech Coast Angel's Fast Pitch on February 24th, to give us a their hints and tips about pitching to venture capitalists.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Ideas Entrepreneur Invest 100

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

Give them all a quick look over and the ones you believe would be the best to see give them a vote. Bootstrapping enterprise, marketing, Sales. . How to create a technology start-up inside a large organization - based on how we are doing it right. Stop Listening to Your Customers. Michael Coté, RedMonk. The constrai.

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69