Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. If you haven’t read my post about that, you should. I get approached about clean tech or biotech periodically – I don’t focus on these. So they develop short-hand ways to qualify things better. Not what you read in the press.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2014

The moment your future head of sales, marketing, product or even junior developer says “yes” is the moment you’re most vulnerable of losing them. I’ve written about this before relating to any sales process – You’re Most Vulnerable After You’ve Won a Deal – and the same is true in recruiting.

Press 341

Press Startup Email Sales 341

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? Or more directly – they are likely narcissistic resuscitations of your newest features or bragging points that nobody but your marketing team and your mom care about. Think about Luma Partners.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Berkonomics

MARCH 16, 2023

As an early-stage investor, the first test for me is whether “my” entrepreneur is flexible in both the plan and execution of their vision (since from experience almost everything about a business plan changes over time), and whether that person, no matter what age or experience, is coachable. Doctoral theses have been written on this subject.

Coach 156

Coach Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Resource 156

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

There's been a lot of press about the name "Silicon Beach"--the name the local community has taken up to describe the high tech renaissance happening in Santa Monica and surrounding cities in Los Angeles. However, until now, there hasn't been a mobile app to go with the name. READ MORE>>.

Santa Monica 235

Santa Monica High Tech Press Guide 235

socalTECH

MARCH 17, 2014

In a statement to the press, Nakamoto denied having ever been involved with Bitcoin, saying the earlier Newsweek report that he was the secretive and anonymous creator of Bitcoin was false, and that he only heard of Bitcoin in February after being contact by his son about being contacted by Newsweek''s reporter. READ MORE>>.

Press 159

Press Report Angel Help 159

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 27, 2013

After that a meme developed amongst many startups (and the advisors that coached them) that, “TechCrunch didn’t matter. Here’s how you should think about your PR plan. And while obvious this misses a critical point - PR is not only about your users. You should focused on getting coverage where your users are.”

Blogging 309

Blogging Journal Press Startup 309

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

I took pictures of neighbor children, developing them in my bedroom closet, selling the prints to those neighborhood families. First, our family DNA made us comfortable talking about risk and self-discovery in running a business, even without formal training. Now, how about you? My entrepreneurial start. I was twelve.

Press 156

Press Entrepreneur Training Equity 156

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. Entrepreneurshit.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

If having an LLM write the whole blurb seems like too much, we could also fill our empty textbox with a writing prompt: I know writing about yourself can be tough. State Your Career Goals: You're passionate about guiding young minds in mathematics. Think about text boxes that have stymied you in the past.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence TechEmpower Tips 295

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

He was about to be featured in a major US news magazine as one of their “hot&# picks. Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real. A positive news story means NOTHING about the core performance of your business.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Announcing EIGHT new mini-books and eBooks by Master Entrepreneur, Dave Berkus , just released by The Berkus Press. Individual books from The Berkus Press by clicking HERE. Developing your vision. Direct from The Berkus Press: $14.95 (click here). Direct from The Berkus Press: $14.95 (click here). STARTING UP!

eBook 168

eBook Press Metrics Startup 168

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons. I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company. But first you need to know about Reg D filings.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you. When you read about the funding in the press it sounds like it was a walk in the park. Happy raising. It only takes one yes.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Are you cynical about their chances in the market just because they seem to be hot in the press and that bugs you? Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. How about “agree” and “disagree” buttons? But I tape the shows.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

If my objective is raising capital and I’m struggling, what can I learn about those who do get funded and how can I improve my odds by changing me ?” One example is that capital funds team growth which funds product output which funds press coverage and accolades which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your churn rates are too high.

Startup 150

Startup Press Entrepreneur Funding 150

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). I wrote about how to build relationships with journalists in this post.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. Be passionate about what you do, but develop a really strong plan, and a strong plan B too.

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

What I loved about the founding team from day 1 was that the founders were all people who tried to break into Hollywood and found the system closed. and if you haven’t seen 20 Feet From Stardom , which this founder talks about in his letter to Seth, you must. You got your tech press and your parents are proud.

Startup 371

Startup Press Blogging Entrepreneur 371

socalTECH

JANUARY 26, 2016

According to the startup, the company has launched a 360 degree space, which features content both in 3D and traditional monoscopic views, to teach children about things such as evolution and space exploration. As of press time, the world was not accessible to the public.

Press 100

Press Los Angeles Content Startup 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Los Angeles-based electric car developer Faraday Future , even after dramatically scaling back its ambitious plans, appears to be circling the drain--losing three executives, including its CFO, CTO, and head of its manufacturing line. Kraz had only been hired in July in a wave of fanfare about "accelerating" the company's vehicle production.

CTO Hire 113

CTO Hire Press Los Angeles Report 113

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 7, 2019

For Fox, the idea for Earbuds sprung from his experiences in the NFL, watching how other players interacted with crowds and hearing about the things fans wanted to know about their favorite players’ routines. Fox said at every press conference one or two questions would be about what songs teammates played before games.

Entertainment 224

Entertainment Social Media Social Network Media 224

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Internally at Upfront Ventures we talk about “high consensus” vs. controversial deals with “high conviction.”

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. I remain a huge supporter and am very proud of our accomplishments and hugely optimistic about our future. I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2021

These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. They don’t think about this process requiring an investment on their part, both in nurturing the relationship, and really listening, without being defensive, to advice given. Marty Zwilling.

Mentor 151

Mentor Coach Entrepreneur Press 151

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. I wrote about how to build relationships with journalists in this post. Their competitors took it seriously. There is one carve out.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

We hadn’t even thought about having a customer support line or who would staff it. We had one of the largest US software companies talk about buying us. My competitors from those days STILL love to talk about how much money we raised in February 2000 (get over it already!). We developed deep kinship. We were hot.

Startup 331

Startup Press Custom Customer 331

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Here in LA we continue to be excited about the growth of the startup ecosystem and the quality of the companies here. In 2006 she sat next to a woman on an airplane who became her business partner in her next startup, Scribble Press. Find her @annawbarber.

Startup 124

Startup Press Commerce Southern California 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Where Stealth is Good – There’s a lot of discussions on the web about whether startups should be stealthy before they launch or not. It means avoiding drinking too much at cocktail parties with other tech people and bragging about your plans.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Of course everything could be replicated if a massive juggernaut like Amazon or Google wanted to pour all of their resources into it but I’m talking about technology that is hard to replicate, takes years of know-how and once adopted is significantly valuable. When you think about what makes Google so valuable?—?it’s

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

It’s easy to find yourself caught in the trap of just GSD (getting s**t done) and not stepping back to be thoughtful about whether you’d benefit from doing fewer things but doing those things truly well. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people. You get a lot of traffic — not always results.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

Yesterday I wrote a post about top-down versus bottom-up thinking. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people. Let’s say you have a marketing department with an incredibly talented leader who knows SEO, SEM, social media and how to hit the ball off the cover on press coverage.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Today I’d like to talk about what startup communities outside of Silicon Valley look like, how they emerge and what makes them take hold. Most of what I think about startup communities came from mentorship by Brad Feld through hours of private discussion and debate. Think Fred Wilson, Tony Hsieh or Brad Feld. Here are mine: 1.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

As the catalyst for this collaborative fantasy epic, these authors would post twelve initial origin stories about their fictional universe, to which they owned the copyright. Within hours, fans confronted the authors in the Discord server with their concerns about the project. An emerging tech dystopia.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

No matter how much you think you know about Steve’s lean startup philosophy, Eric Ries’ contributions to the movement, or the methodologies by which companies have put lean startup tenets into practice, I am confident you will be enlightened and entertained by Steve’s frank and insightful remarks. . One of the best students I ever had.

Startup 229

Startup Class Press Custom Development 229

socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2010

For today's Insights and Opinions section, Nicole Jordan , who has been instrumental in bringing together the Los Angeles technology industry over the last few years, talks about the issues that come when a CEO is out of sync with their target market and the media, and how PR pros deal with it. They just aren't getting it," she said.

Press 147

Press Startup Media Web 147