Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. But I fear that for most angel investors who invest over the long haul angel investing will not be a profitable endeavor.

Invest 306

Invest Angel Venture Capital Slides 306

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2017

Pasadena-based ObEN , which develops virtual reality avatar technology, has scored funding from SoftBank Ventures Korea, SoftBank said this morning. Size of the investment was not announced. SoftBank Ventures Korea said the investment came via its SB Next Media Innovation Fund. READ MORE>>.

Pasadena 124

Pasadena Research Funding Invest 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

And in Latino content (both Spanish & English) – the player I believe will build the next billion-dollar-business is MiTú, the online equivalent of the powerful offline brands like Univision or Televisa – both billion-dollar franchises. I wasn’t. I was trying to be more analytical than critical.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Los Angeles-based Fitplan , which develops a mobile app focused on personal training, wellness, and fitness, has raised $4.5M in a funding round, according to the company. Alex Rodriguez retired from the MLB in 2016, and is the founder of an investment irm, A-Rod Corp. READ MORE>>.

Training 100

Training Los Angeles Capital Invest 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I have talked extensively about “social proof&# in fund raising in the past. And we all know that Ron Conway is considered the savviest of angel investors and yet by definition not all of his investments succeed. Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. In fact, sometimes seeing social proof (e.g.

Invest 288

Invest Angel Web 2.0 SEO 288

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Los Angeles-based Mythical Games , a game technology studio which says it specializes in "digital ecosystems around player-owned economies", has raised $19M in a new, Series B funding round, the company said this morning. The new funding brings its total raised to $35M. John Linden is the CEO of Mythical Games.

Activision 124

Activision Venture Capital Los Angeles Funding 124

socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2017

Los Angeles-based mobile gaming developer Scopely has raised $60M in a new funding, the company announced on Thursday, in a round led by Revolution Growth. As part of the funding, Donn Davis of Revolution Growth will join the company's board. As part of the funding, Donn Davis of Revolution Growth will join the company's board.

Acquisition 113

Acquisition Mobile Venture Capital Los Angeles 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

My first suggestion is that entrepreneurs need to forget the old myth that all they need to do is sketch an idea on a napkin, and investors will line up to invest. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend. Non-credible funding request or unreasonable valuation.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Invest Funding Patents 108

socalTECH

AUGUST 24, 2021

Los Angeles-based Greenfly, a developer of marketing software for brand ambassadors, athletes, and sponsors, said on Tuesday that it has raised $8.4M in a strategic growth round. The company said that the NBA's Paul has joined the company as both a strategic investor and partner.

Software 113

Software Marketing Activision Venture Capital 113

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. What is the investment focus for this fund?

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development. I know some people think the whole market has been disrupted and startups and funding work differently these days.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

Imagine that you funded Larry & Sergey, Chad Hurley & Steve Chen, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Pincus or Evan Williams. I’m obviously only naming a small fraction of their investments since I don’t feel inclined to research them all and many other great venture firms have this kind of access.

Invest 280

Invest Angel Venture Capital Yahoo 280

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Santa Monica-based online car buying technology provider TrueCar said this morning that it has raised $30M in a new round of funding, from Vulcan Capital, the venture funding arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. TrueCar said the new funds will go towards market expansion, product development, and to build its brand.

Truecar 187

Truecar Capital Santa Monica Venture Capital 187

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

This week, Insider reported on the struggles that Microsoft was enduring in its HoloLens division, sharing that the company was scrapping plans for a third-generation headsets amid a lack of clarity in its path towards becoming a player in the untapped consumer AR space. Image Credits: Facebook. the big thing.

Marketing 246

Marketing Newsletter Technical Review News 246

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

If there are conflicts within the team, or differing views of the strategy, or evidence of missing processes and tools, the investment process will likely be terminated. Make yourself available to answer any questions, show your enthusiasm, and explain both the positives and negatives of the external investment process.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2022

Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. In reality, it doesn’t take a huge investment of money and time to build a prototype today. Don’t spend your whole development budget, before finding that you need another iteration.

Outsource Development 110

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 110

socalTECH

JULY 2, 2013

San Diego-based startup EcoATM , the developer of automated kiosks used for recycling cell phones and other electronics, has been acquired by newly renamed Coinstar (now known as Outerwall). ecoATM develops self-serve kiosks--found in many malls--which lets consumers turn in their mobile phones, tablets, and MP3 players for cash.

Claremont 174

Claremont San Diego Venture Capital Acquisition 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

The new hot topic for entrepreneurs the last couple of years is crowd funding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. Good-cause crowd funding. People can invest (donate) money to a project which has good moral/ethical value.

Funding 99

Funding Satisfaction Sites Outsource Development 99

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Los Angeles-based Signal Sciences (www.signalsciences.com), which develops web application firewall software, just inked a big, $35M series C funding round a few weeks ago, and now has plans to dramatically expand its hiring in Los Angeles. Tell us a little bit about this round? Were excited about both angles.

Startup 113

Startup Funding Technical Review Software Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2012

The new hot topic for entrepreneurs these days is crowd funding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. This new model will allow large numbers of “regular” people to invest small amounts each online to fund early startups.

Funding 96

Funding Satisfaction Sites Outsource Development 96

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m Where are we today?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Tech.Co

JANUARY 3, 2022

SoLo Funds. Well, another year has come and gone, and while we're yet to leave the pandemic behind, it has led to a record number of small businesses starting up. With all these businesses forming, it's possible that some future household names are finding their footing as we speak. A startup for startups! “We’ve been in your shoes.

Startup 200

Startup Invest FAQ Examples 200

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

Upfront Ventures has a deep-seated commitment to equality in funding & building diverse teams across all ethnicities, nationalities and genders. We strive to invest in companies that are consciously working to create a diverse leadership team? “We Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion. Feel free to copy or edit this, too.

Venture Capital 284

Venture Capital Coach Ideas Startup 284

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

So while these sources now account for 17% of the US power supply (predominantly still hydro and wind), renewables will never fully realize their potential without better scale energy storage solution (for those who track the space, you know despite huge investments in battery technology they are still both expensive and bulky at commercial scale).

SoCal 140

SoCal Southern California Startup Venture Capital 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Apple pulled ahead of other mobile phones in its early days largely because it cultivated an ecosystem of software developers who created iPhone apps to meet every consumer niche and need. The old approaches of controlling distribution channels, saturating retail, and methodically scaling your brand awareness don’t protect you anymore.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

The trend of funding anything from the first $25k to funding $50 million at a billion+ valuation is unlikely to last as the skills and style to be effective at all stages are diverse enough to warrant focus. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well. These are very different.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2015

This enabled our partnership to raise its third Frontier Fund offering, focused on early stage media and technology companies. I''m very interested in seeing how the so-called "marketing cloud" emerges and develops further. There are many silos, and several big players (Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle, etc.), READ MORE>>.

Oracle 100

Oracle Southern California Venture Capital Media 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Watching him develop over the past 4.5 We track which investment firms and which investment partners are a good fit for each company we have back so that we don’t have a scattergun approach to fund raising. We like to know that when we call our peers they truly are the best fit for the company in which we’ve invested.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. In reality, it doesn’t take a huge investment of money and time to build a prototype today. Don’t spend your whole development budget, before finding that you need another iteration.

Outsource Development 124

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

Having time to think about “leadership” at most startups feels like a luxury. It feels like something you could turn your attention to once you have tens of millions of dollars and a large staff to run operations and you could step back from it all and think about how to lead. The reality of most startups is about survival.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2020

I realized it was consistent with my own view as a former angel investor, that investors invest in you, more than your solution. This means you set goals, milestones, and metrics, and are able to provide financial projections to support funding requirements. These can be honed over time, and can’t be easily faked. Everyone has a story.

Entrepreneur 168

Entrepreneur Mentor Metrics Customer 168

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

” I found myself nodding through all of it with quotes like, “Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley,” said Sam Altman. I love those Beats commercials where the basketball player puts on his music and tunes it all out, to go win the game,” she said. That’s what it feels like.”. All of my partners at Upfront do.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 20, 2012

Goko, a new HTML5 games company based in Redwood City California is set to help game developers easily distribute and monetize social games. Goko is backed by Redpoint Ventures and Aslop Louie Partners from whom it raised raised $8m in Series A funding. Goko was founded by Ted Griggs as CEO and Kevin Binkley as CTO.

Redpoint 65

Redpoint HTML Funding Company 65

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

The big differentiator here, is the sports game we have gone out to buy or which we've developed are super lightweight. We have invested in a very robust platform. It's not about putting twenty developers in a room and building one big hit game. We're the only players in the space making a big push her.

Mobile 248

Mobile Platform Startup Examples 248

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising. There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that the pace of VC investments in early-stage technology companies has picked up in the past few months. Because you have multiple forces at work. but I’ll save that for post 3/3).

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. Picking a VC is hard. You don’t really have much to go on to decide who would make a good fit. Reputation of firm? Of partner? Deals done in your industry? It’s a bit of all of these.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Attend trade shows and network to find the right players and pitch your product.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136