Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2016

Why would a VC do that? I LOVE writing. But writing takes more time and some days I don’t have that. I’m simply pointing out that by numbers more startups are founded in that younger demo). Not since the initial popularity of Twitter in 2007 has a product so befuddled people. Snapchat is faster and easier.

Snapchat 200

Snapchat Blogging Venture Capital Writing 200

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

Sometimes those motives are positive (they really want the chance to work with you, they think you have unique skills) and sometimes they are less positive (their first-tier of “go to” referrals passed on the deal, they don’t want to write another check themselves, etc.). VCs don’t need to be perfect.

Venture Capital 337

Venture Capital Invest Ideas Entrepreneur 337

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." What The Heck Does “Traction” Really Mean To A VC? Great analysis from John Greathouse: Do You Speak VC?

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. And I would rather, even before the executive summary, have something to play with (a demo)…” It falls in the category of show don’t tell.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. 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. When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 7, 2019

Let AI write the script. The startup is about to close its Series A funding round just months after banking seed money from Y Combinator and Chinese venture capital firm Skysaga , the startup told TechCrunch. ” Our 9 favorite startups from Y Combinator W19 Demo Day 2. Investors are buying into rct’s offering.

Startup 235

Startup Artificial Inteligence Los Angeles Software 235

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Demos – One of the things that most people are bad at and that are hard to standardize is the demo. I have written about how to do a demo before (even though this was in the context of a VC pitch much of it applies). A good demo tells a story. 80% of demos I see are features, functions & benefits.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds. You had an amazing meeting with an investor. The dialog was great. They told you how much they loved your space.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Can we do a really quick run through your deck so that we save tons of time for a product demo & questions at the end?&#. And because as a VC or as a CEO or senior exec you get presented to all the time we’re extra sensitive to it. 25% of VCs are expressives, like you. Can I make a small suggestion?

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

Get yourself in a big demo day competition. Acquihires and Venture Capital. I’m a VC. But that’s not how you make money in the venture capital business. What kind of message does that send to the party faithful who slave away loyally to hit targets for BigCo? I’ll tell you what is says.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

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. If you need VC, no better time than the present.

Startup 310

Startup Venture Capital Press Journal 310

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. Almost every VC I’ve spoken with in LA is tracking DataPop. Thursday night was the unveiling of the newest batch of Launchpad LA companies.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. It wasn’t because I’m the target demo for that app – I am certainly not. If this drives enormous VC returns I’m happy to be the person who missed out.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. 2 weeks later and we may never have raised any more VC.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2. That led us to venture capital as opposed to trying to bootstrap ourselves. The ‘Santa Barbara effect’ has been interesting–we all have cute VC stories around that.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

So I thought I’d write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation. If you demo your product (which is always great) then tell us part of the story while you’re demo’ing. Also, asking is not appropriate at a marquee conferences like TechCrunch50, DEMO, Twiistup and the like.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

We write and create our own content for the game. 8:00 – 8:35pm – 5 five-minute demos, followed by brief Q&A for each company. Thousands of organizations have turned to TriNet for human resources, benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation, and strategic human capital services. What: Spotlight Series Event. RSVP: AGENDA.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Frank Addante

DECEMBER 5, 2006

► August (3) Venture Capital - What's the rush? StrongMail Systems (Digital Messsaging Infrastructure Software) Status: VC-backed (Sequoia Capital, Globespan and Evercore) Lesson: Trust your gut. ► July (1) ► June (3) ► May (5) the Rubicon Project The Journey Startup 6.0: Zondigo, Inc.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Develop Development Product 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Robert’s article is worth reading. It started socially.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Justin Bieber is unbelievably entrepreneurial and most of you will never know it because he serves a target demo that doesn’t include you. Consider Usher a hard-working early-stage VC. It’s that sort of mentorship experience that drives many of us hands-on VCs. I will stand 100% behind my assertions in this post.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

From LA Demo Day to Silicon Beach Fest to Crowdstart LA to hackathons to Startup Weekends, companies and entrepreneurs alike have joined forces to feed the startup ecosystem. THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: On Sunday we presented to a panel of judges consisting of entrepreneurs and a VC investor. We are all part of the ecosystem after all.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas San Diego Mentor 100

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

I appreciate the write-up and your continued support of this blog. Before they even launched, Mike and his team started bringing in hundreds of influencers from NYC’s technology ecosystem to their office to give them a private demo. Thank you, John. Why AltaVista Failed To Become as Successful as Google. How Hashable Got Buzz.

Google 302

Google Startup Advertising Acquisition 302

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2016

Let me first address VCs or anybody else who is likely above the age where they “get” Snapchat but whose customers are likely in the age demo who use it religiously. That’s like you saying you don’t want to go to cocktail parties and network anymore while every 25-35 year-old VC steals your customers.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Screening Venture Capital Guide 150