Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. They have done 3 startups in the customer support space and one that wasn’t.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Five broad sources of independent, third-party validation are: Customers, Partners, Distributors, Industry Experts and other Stakeholders. Each of these constituents is represented below in the Triangle Of Evidence that you must build in order to demonstrate that your venture has achieved meaningful traction. Triangle Of Evidence.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital RSS Customer Custom 265

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. - First Principles.

Startup 380

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 380

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly? Short answer – yes.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

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.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

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. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. They know the VCs so they know what interests them. What stage? What price?

Venture Capital 348

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 348

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. I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. tl;dr version. This can’t all be driven by increased company performance).

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

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. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. GRP Partners last fund is the single best performing VC fund in the US (prequin data) for its vintage year). Absofuckinglutely.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

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. 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 356

Startup Funding News Press 356

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.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. What better than to have capital from somebody who has actually done it in the trenches? Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. Deal with your White Elephants.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is what I’m looking for in an investment. This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. I once had a debate with a prominent VC on a panel. Your customers don’t care that you went to Stanford, Harvard or MIT. Yeah, right.

Entrepreneur 339

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Help them write other stories. One day they’ll write yours. Raising money from angels and VCs some day? Understanding customer requirement ? Are You a VC? Relations with journalists to drive better coverage of your business long term? 50 coffee meetings. 50 coffee meetings. Turn dots into lines. Office hours.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

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.

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

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.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

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. Investors are writing checks for dots. This is happening with both angels and VCs.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Fund Raising – No self respecting VC would admit (even to themselves) that they are influenced by what they read about you in the press. Enterprise Sales – The very first thing a potential customer does when you email or call to set up a meeting is Google you. PR pays dividends in Biz Dev. Just like negative press hurts.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

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!” Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” One of them is profitability. What makes up revenue?

Startup 419

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 419

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. The difference is that VoiceXML does not leverage customers' knowledge of web development.

Venture Capital 181

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 181

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital. Make sure you focus on what matters – your customers.

Startup 310

Startup Press Venture Capital Journal 310

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. He and I once took different sides of an debate about whether “VC signaling&# in early-stage deals is a serious problem or not. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. Back to regular writing this week so check back in. What did you do before VC and how did that lead you to VC? (1:00 How did you get into VC? (9:30 Thank you. (if

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

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. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 366

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 366

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Also be careful about VCs. But once a VC has heard your idea he can’t “un-think&# it. Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. Be careful about this advice. You don’t.

Marketing 381

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 381

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. I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” Incoming into a VC fixer-upper you often have leverage over personal compensation.

Technical Review 335

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 335

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2010

VC’s Want to Help! To understand what most VC’s want between board meetings I think it’s useful to start with a quote from Mark Solon ’s blog for which I’m in complete agreement (along with agreeing with his entire post, which was brave, honest and accurate ). Most VC’s want to help.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Software Review Email 301

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Guide 294

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

And even the best teams combined to create big innovations sometimes don’t time markets well, are surprised by unexpected technology breakthroughs by competitors or just don’t find the magic the leads to mass customer adoption. I hope to offer experiences from being an entrepreneur and being a VC.&#.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

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. I need to take some VC meetings. But it did take Brad as a public spokesman, consummate networker and successful VC to help create legitimacy to let David’s ideas flourish.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 318

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field. Last week’s obsession was about obsession itself. The founders of DropBox, Airbnb, Uber – you name it.

Competition 395

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 395

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. And as a result their competitors were able to raise a considerable VC round from well-known firms. I write on my blog how I think in my head.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started - OnStartups , September 27, 2010 "The best part of blogging is the people you will meet"- Hugh MacLeod repeating wisdom from Loic Lemeur to me at the Big Pink at 2 am in South Beach after the Future of Web Apps 2008. Why You Should Write. People want status.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. As a CEO you never stop needing to go on sales calls (or to work the phones in telesales or customer support) and ceasing to do this as your company grows because you’re focusing on investors, recruiting, PR or whatever is a mistake. A quick example.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 320

Press Startup Writing Training 320