Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

So part of seeing you with a team is to get a read on team dynamics and believe me all VCs discuss the team dynamics after you leave as in. Here are some guidelines for you – particularly for VC pitch meetings. It’s a terrible sign and VCs don’t miss this. The tougher the question the better.

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Venture Capital Slides Course Summary 377

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

But I have been in close contact with the NVCA, many of the major law firms and many of the major VC firms. Am I ineligible since I’m VC-backed? There is nothing in the rules that state that VC-backed businesses are ineligible. I am not claiming to be the world expert on this. shouldn’t I? The short answer is “no.” what is that?

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Doc 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting.

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Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. The role of VC is sparring partner.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price?

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Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. Over the past 2.5 Over the past 2.5

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

What you’ll see if you watch the video is an unscripted and unfiltered look into how Scott Kupor & I see some of the changes and challenges of the venture industry. The only point we didn’t seem totally aligned on was what we happening to the “middle of the VC market.” tl;dr version.

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Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. You’d be surprised how many firms are “dictator VCs” – even those that don’t formally acknowledge it internally. ” Some firms are collegiate.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

I once went to a startup event where a VC told the audience that if a VC doesn’t respond to your email to move on to the next VC – that VC is clearly not interested. Will every customer who feels bombarded with sales requests want to take your call? It’s your job to persist.

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Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. She focused on her customer. I blog on entrepreneurship & VC precisely because entrepreneurs and other VCs are my customers.

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Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. And that person has almost certainly chosen specifically to be a startup lawyer over serving other types of customers because he or she enjoys working with entrepreneurs. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital.

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Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” ” Because of the circles I run in I tend to meet many people who eventually do want to build large companies and therefore do want to eventually raise VC and “go big.” They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. VC meetings going well. 2 million in VC. I swore never to do that as a VC. What do VC’s Experience?

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, no surprise?—?that’s founders, marketers, investors?—?and

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Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

You’ll be able to give them an update on key hires, pilot customers, key tech innovations – whatever. I spoke about this more in depth in these two posts: 4 things I look for in an investment & how to manage VC relationships. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry. Quick coffees, whatever.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Most of the venture capital firms covered in TechCrunch and other tech publications compete for a spot on the cap table of the hottest Bay Area, New York or Los Angeles companies of the moment. Since Revolution launched in 2005, venture capital activity in underrepresented markets has grown significantly.

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Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

You need a great concept in which you will build something that is truly unique and that will be valued by your customers. I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion.

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Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Nearly four months ago we rebranded at Upfront Ventures. You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. Relaunching our brand is part of our larger initiative to build a VC firm of the future.

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Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens. One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures.

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Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment. 8% of VC partnerships, for example). Now 33% of Supreme Court Justices are women (vs.

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Venture Capital Examples Screening Help 256

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Ask your VC to send a critical email to a contact.

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Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The most important way to sell a product for an early-stage business (or frankly any stage) is to have strong referenceable customers. How do you get referenceable customers? Your project is forked without a rollout organization, communications, measurement, integration and without turning sales into referenceable customers.

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Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 2, 2021

“ We were targeted to a small number of very premier customers. Instead of relying on incumbent distribution platforms, customers control the audience relationship directly and maximize engagement and monetization in a way that fits with their brand objectives.

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Tool Commerce .Net Entertainment 315

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum. I didn’t want to disappoint my customers. And I’m happy as a VC.

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

million last year, is among hair businesses aimed at women and people of color, like Rebundle , Morado and theCut , attracting venture capital dollars. Upgrade’s e-commerce marketplace has two sides: one that enables consumers to choose a vetted stylist and have their wig colored or customized based on their desired look.

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Tool Customer Custom Marketing 179

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. There is one source I never liked and no early-stage VC should – investment bankers. They are venture bankers not investment bankers. What stage?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Instead, several former SpaceX employees have launched a raft of new companies, capturing the imagination and dollars of some of the biggest names in venture capital. “ It was a company in LA more than it was an LA company.” Over the past four years, Relativity href="[link] has raised $185.7

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SpaceX Venture Capital Help Snapchat 173

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 27, 2013

I mostly like to have coverage in the tech press where most of my customers (entrepreneurs) and business partners (other VCs) are. But I also need to address the other side of my customer base – the people who fund VCs (they are called LPs). Frankly, every VC’s, too. Perception = reality.

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Blogging Journal Press Startup 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs. She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. As an industry we’re not always as good as we could be about our own “creative destruction” to create the tomorrow of venture capital.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Others may not have the experience you want and they fill up a seat that makes retaining founder control more difficult if you ultimately raise large rounds of venture capital in the future. What happens at the A-round of venture capital? With that said, no venture capital firm really wants to replace a CEO.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

We have customers from so many different industries like software, financial services, healthcare, and media. The benefits of bootstrapping are many: we can focus on building the company, not raising capital. We could also spend time talking with customers rather than updating investors. We can make all the decisions ourselves.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. I see many companies these days just race to raise capital. They see capital raising at the success validator. My take on his argument is this: 1.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Understanding customer requirement ? Are You a VC? Whatever amount you’re getting out and talking with prospects, customers, employees, recruits, competitors, press, investors, potential investors … it’s never enough. 50 coffee meetings. Turn dots into lines. They’re wrong. 50 coffee meetings.

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Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. In the Early Days. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

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Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325