Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

While the market isn't short of spritely, innovative entrepreneurs, harsh economic headwinds combined with a pullback in investor spending have made it harder than ever for budding businesses to break through. Verifying Looking for regular tech news straight to your inbox? 2023 hasn't been an easy year to be a startup.

Startup 210

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 210

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Tech.Co

JULY 13, 2023

Initially pinned as a generative AI startup for Twitter when it first hit the headlines back in April, the xAI website seems to suggest that the new startup will remain separate from the social media platform, as well as Musk's collection of other technology companies.

Artificial Inteligence 115

Artificial Inteligence ChatGPT Generative AI Technical Review 115

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

If you are the hot-shot technical innovator that invented your solution, make sure you have an equally adept business and marketing expert to complement your skills. “If Bill Gates was the technical genius, but Steve Ballmer, from Procter & Gamble, ran the business side of the equation.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 18, 2022

Elder told TechCrunch that the company raised $7 million in a seed round, touting it as “one of the highest seed-stage valuations in its category” — he declined to divulge the number — to give the company nearly $10 million in total funding to date. This includes a $2 million pre-seed round from 2021.

Software Review 187

Software Review Metrics Startup Technical Review 187

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. reviews – every due diligence process should feel like this) to our nascent offering and the dedication and detail orientation of the MakeSpace team.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). We feature a prominent speaker at every event.

Venture Capital 241

Venture Capital Technical Review Southern California Company 241

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. The company is ServiceTitan, and its market… is air conditioners. The city of Glendale, Calif. “Silicon Beach” this ain’t.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

According to a recent Forbes article , UC Santa Barbara''s Technology Management Program offers students a superior startup education over the University of Pennsylvania (home of Wharton), as well Harvard, Northwestern and even its acclaimed southern neighbor, the University of Southern California. Want to be an entrepreneur?

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

Most of these scenarios involve attracting outside investors, strategic partners, or key team members: You are the team and you don’t need outside funding. You need funding, and plan to get it from friends and family. Tiny bootstrapped teams usually don’t have a business plan, and probably don’t need one.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. It is also a result of pent-up demand. When the market run started in March people were relieved that “the world wasn’t ending” so they started spending again. So why the ’09 bounce?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

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. Fables of the reconstruction.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

Although his focus is naturally on bigger companies, I contend that his recommended strategies apply equally well to entrepreneurs and startups: Demand a mindset of deep thinking for the long term. In my experience, even in startups, longer-term strategy often gets pushed off the agenda due to current challenges.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I’ve raised in boom markets and when everybody thought the Internet was a fraud. I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. This is the fund raising perspective from both sides of the table. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Fund raising is bloody hard.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Nascent startup markets are like fine wine, they take time to develop.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Equity is stock, but private company stock has no market value until the company goes public or is sold or merged with another company. Of course, if you are able to bootstrap your startup, and don’t anticipate the need for outside investors, you can technically ignore the first two points. You can kick-off your next startup.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. Unless you have a co-founder or two with the business skills to complement your technical ones, you need a friendly Advisory Board. Learn how to build and manage a small team.

Startup 142

Startup Technical Review Equity Entrepreneur 142

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. Painfully Diligent Investors.

Angel 217

Angel Technical Review RSS Entrepreneur 217

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2013

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. Define milestones for cost review and sign-off. Change requests must be visibly reviewed by executives frequently.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 110

socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2019

However, there is already the technology out therefrom San Luis Obispo-based Whitefox Defense (www.whitefoxdefense.com)  to both detect, and neutralize those drones. We spoke with founder and CEO Luke Fox to learn more about the company, and its technology. Explain how your technology works?

Startup 187

Startup Technical Review Technology Competition 187

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” Let me check my plan.” If you don’t have a firm grasp of these concepts and how a VC thinks your meeting is dead.

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

The NSF determined eight to ten years ago that the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants they were funding to academic teams, to commercialize technology, they were losing, because not many academics had the background to understand how to go out and source customers, and did not know how to run a startup.

Marina Del Rey 150

Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Companies like DogVacay solve a real need in the market. They can read reviews, see pictures and even talk to the family before confirming. I then clicked on reviews, looked at pictures and read the owners descriptions of what they were looking for. I told her the story of Aaron, the company, the reviews, etc.

Venture Capital 344

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review San Diego 344

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 27, 2014

In instances when the celebrity''s brand is aligned with the target market, such as Kim Kardashian''s promotion of ShoeDazzle, this approach works. However, such alignment is missing at most tech startups, and thus there is little causality between a celeb’s investment and their ability to drive meaningful product adoption.

Entrepreneur 193

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hollywood Southern California 193

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

Equity is stock, but private company stock has no market value until the company goes public or is sold or merged with another company. Of course, if you are able to bootstrap your startup, and don’t anticipate the need for outside investors, you can technically ignore the first two points. You can kick-off your next startup.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2017

Last week, Pasadena-based Ocular Data Systems (www.oculardatasystems.com) announced a funding round from the Pasadena Angels, for its camera-based systems used by law enforcement to capture evidence in drunk or drugged driving cases. For the first time, in a long time, traffic deaths and crashes are rising, due to drunk and drugged driving.

Pasadena Angels 100

Pasadena Angels Pasadena Technical Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2020

I second his list of top innovation challenges and strategies to capitalize on untapped global startup opportunities: Create new markets rather than disrupt existing ones. Even here, Elon Musk faced this issue with Tesla, needing a support ecosystem as well as new technology. Target a global market rather than a local from day one.

Ideas 124

Ideas Venture Capital Software Review Technical Review 124

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Njoku in April this year closed an $8m funding investment round from Tiger Global and another $2m from a Swedish firm, Kinnevik and still he says more is yet to come. Tell us about funding rounds you have had? Naturally, there was a stringent due diligence process, and this took a couple of months. Are you also in London?

Netflix 82

Netflix Marketing Technical Review Content 82

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

Some investors are team focused, others market focused, others seems to look for product / market fit. Only then can I even care about product, market or their nebulous “fit.&#. You do a startup and decide you want somebody to step in and run the company so you can focus on technical excellence.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2018

Dave Fink: Postie is a building a technology platform with a mission of making direct mail marketing behave as easily and dynamically as your favorite, programmatic channels. However, there just hasn't been the underlying technology to make it possible to pull all of that together. What is Postie? What is a print cloud?

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Marketing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company. Today around 90 percent of successful startups are still acquired by bigger companies, as the safer and preferred method of growth and funding.

Startup 84

Startup Technical Review Report IBM 84

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. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317