SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. If you think it’s location-based services / find out where your friends are at while you’re out – let’s talk about whether we need to incorporate that into our product.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2012

I hear lots of excuses from startup founders, like “I’m too busy,” concern over IP security, can’t afford an agency, and it’s too early. How about talking to some real customers to see if they are as excited about your idea as you are? People forget your early mistakes if they haven’t bought your product yet. Give it to them.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Newsletter Blogging 96

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. But if you’re the Director or Product or VP of Marketing – you don’t get to make that decision. And one that you get to write.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2011

I hear lots of excuses from startup founders, like “I’m too busy,” concern over IP security, can’t afford an agency, and it’s too early. How about talking to some real customers to see if they are as excited about your idea as you are? People forget your early mistakes if they haven’t bought your product yet. Give it to them.

Startup 92

Startup Writing Newsletter Blogging 92

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2010

I hear lots of excuses from startup founders, like “I’m too busy,” concern over IP security, can’t afford an agency, and it’s too early. How about talking to some real customers to see if they are as excited about your idea as you are? People forget your early mistakes if they haven’t bought your product yet. Give it to them.

Startup 90

Startup Writing Newsletter Blogging 90

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok. but that’s our firm’s money on your balance sheet.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Thus, I will recruit independent distributors and they will sell my new and innovative products on my behalf. Fallacy: AdVentures tend to evolve once you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issues, technology trends, funding rounds, etc. Angels will largely take a product risk (they bet on the product or idea and your ability to build it). “A” The team, of course, is just as important as the product or idea.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. I learned how to better run a product management process. We fought for every customer together.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. But when I’m looking to write my check I need to look in the eyes of the captain — the maestro who brings the whole orchestra together. I want our associate to have empathy for the customers we serve — our portfolio companies.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. They haven’t launched their next gen product – watch this space. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. No Dave S. = Seattle has its patrons.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Just as you would not ask your family physician to perform a coronary bypass, do not ask your corporate lawyer to help you write your patent application. The money you pay your IP lawyer should be judiciously spent, but you should not attempt to save money by working with someone without the appropriate experience in your technical domain.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2010

Let's start with the products. Plus, there's always shoulder surfing--when people write them down, and are grabbing for your daytimer or spreadsheet for passwords--that's treating passwords like it's the 1950's, and leaving your front door key under a door mat. What does Confident Technologies do?

Technology 124

Technology Web Sites Orange County 124

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 15, 2010

While handling bots, you should detect search engine crawlers, too: /* lookup your crawler IP database to populate $isCrawler; then, if the IP wasnt identified as search engine crawler: */ if ($isCrawler !== from the IP address range 65.52.0.0 Other rogue bots identify themselves by IP addy, user agent, and/or referrer.

SEO 37

SEO IP PHP Blogging 37