Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%). New investors sometimes want early investors to put in money to “prove” they have confidence in the new price.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. I think there is also no denying the role that Richard Rosenblatt has played in building the LA tech ecosystem and spawning great entrepreneurs who followed in his footsteps. He built & IPOd Demand Media.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

.” In the article I discussed the downside of raising capital at a too high of a price and referred people to a previous article I had written encouraging founders to raise “ At the Top end of Normal ” as opposed to stratospheric prices. I always tell entrepreneurs, “ Clean Your Own S**t Up First.

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

InfoChachkie

MAY 5, 2011

Just as Batman repeatedly avoids Poison Ivy’s kiss of death, so too must entrepreneurs avoid the Kiss of Death provisions which BDCs attempt to include in their agreements. Agree to Bundling Without a Minimum Price. However, avoid writing contracts that may contractually hold the other party to an economically infeasible deal.

Outsource Development 244

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Resource Press 244

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Entrepreneurs are always looking for “the next big thing,” when maybe in fact it’s a lot of little things that are only recognized after the fact as components of a big evolution or revolution. So how do entrepreneurs train to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave?

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Training 95

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

Especially if you are in the early stage of growing a business, these five risks can and often do derail entrepreneurs before realizing the riches of a great exit. This risk can be mitigated by finding a customer willing to purchase as soon as a proven model is completed, and willing to state this in writing. Make you wealthy someday.

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2011

Entrepreneurs are always looking for “the next big thing,” when maybe in fact it’s a lot of little things that are only recognized after the fact as components of a big evolution or revolution. So how do entrepreneurs train to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave?

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Training 92

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

In the creation of a new enterprise, there are five principal risks to be addressed by the entrepreneur. So it is important for the entrepreneur to identify, address and mitigate each of these in order to increase valuation and decrease the risk of ultimate loss of the business. And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

It’s good advice; the theory being that entrepreneurs can discover the flaws in their business models sooner, make course corrections and move in a more favorable direction. In my case as a young software entrepreneur, I had a different approach: Fail Locally, one customer at a time. I became an entrepreneur by default.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

InfoChachkie

MARCH 18, 2013

In order to extract value beyond your Angel investors' cash, you must first assess three important parameters: (i) the relative strength of their personal brand, (ii) their ability to add operational value, and (iii) the amount of care and feeding they will demand from you. Four Common Angel Archetypes. The Beauty Of Low Expectations.

Angel 217

Angel Technical Review RSS Entrepreneur 217

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In essence, as a contractor, you are a consultant who is competing regularly for new work, and you constantly have to differentiate your offering from other candidates, including price. In fact, thinking like an entrepreneur is a good strategy today for success, even if you are currently in a long-term employment situation.

Startup 98

Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently. Back then VentureHacks didn’t exist.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Given the steady drumbeat of climate disasters that hit the U.S.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. I suggest you use social media, blogging, crowdfunding, or documented research to quantify a real demand from people who can afford it, and don’t have a better alternative already out there.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. You also ran the risk that if you hired employees quickly and then demand wasn’t as strong as expected it was incredibility hard to fire people.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? They hired a biz dev team to work on deals where their product could be embedded in other people’s products as a way to increase customer demand. If there was strong market demand for their product then this investment might pay off handsomely.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

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!” I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!” ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 25, 2016

If such write-downs only impacted the faux unicorns and their avaricious investors, there would be little need for alarm. The constant media coverage of the aberrant unicorn valuations has caused otherwise level-headed entrepreneurs to expect investors to participate at prices which are detached from their startups’ fundamentals.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Venture Capital 100

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. Fallacy: AdVentures tend to evolve once you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. “Learn from the mistakes of others.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." Investors demand more than that. Now that You've Got MVP, It's Time to Think About MVC You can't raise money on achieving an MVP.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

They suffered in trying to live up to public perceptions and the demands to continue their successes. Entrepreneurs could learn about loneliness of success: nobody talks about. The Yo-Yo Life of a Tech Entrepreneur. But needed to be seen. Mark Suster (@msuster) July 19, 2015. Of course that’s true. Entrepreneurshit.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. Market Size. How much ad revenue does TripAdvisor make?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Product is simply about defining a physical good or service that would be valued by consumers of the product more than existing alternatives based on functionality, quality and/or price.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you’re raising a round where a new lead investor would invest $5 million the VC fund must have no less than $100 million and if you’re looking for them to write $15–20 million as the lead their fund realistically should be at least $400 million. Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC).

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. And the starting price for WW is $18 / month … DailyBurn is free. It’s two young guys who both dropped out of college to pursue their dream of becoming entrepreneurs. We’ll see. Enter Withings.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

socalTECH

DECEMBER 1, 2010

What I found out very quickly, is there is a tremendous demand among the independent production community for this information. Pricing starts at $19.00 Tags: movie office numbers opusdata hollywood content entrepreneur interview nash bruce. We've found there is a big community of people who need access to our data. READ MORE>>.

Beverly Hills 164

Beverly Hills Research Hollywood Sites 164

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2010

Entrepreneurs are always looking for “the next big thing,” when maybe in fact it’s a lot of little things that are only recognized after the fact as components of a big evolution or revolution. So how do we as entrepreneurs train ourselves to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave? Marty Zwilling.

Startup 48

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Writing 48

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

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. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

The caveat is that these young entrepreneurs have to drop out of college to do it. An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. As your services gain demand, your time becomes more valuable and you can charge more.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. Passionate Entrepreneurs & Ambassadors. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

It was a pleasure to write them myself. He was a life-long entrepreneur and the first business he created out of college (actually, he founded it while he was at Caltech) was a company that manufactured high quality audio speakers. He said it was better than the Yellow Pages because he would provide pricing transparency.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. I’m going to write a whole post on BothSid.es They controlled distribution to the masses.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. raise money now to weather any storms). VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#. We took $2.3

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

Think about this: The investment banks and trading houses across the globe have invested billions of dollars in computing equipment and staff in order to process news that affects stock prices milliseconds before the rest of the market can process & transact on this same information. I can’t put it in writing but I won’t stop it.”

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307