Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself. It only takes a little extra work to make it a professional document, with a cover page, table of contents, headings, and page numbers.

Sample 137

Sample Writing Mentor Content 137

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

You will often find these governing conditions in the “protective provisions” section of your company’s legal documents. I plan to write a series of posts on the topic. Equally, I plan to write for the benefit of investors and independents, too, to offer some tips on how can you get the most out of the boards on which you sit.

Startup 204

Startup Writing Framework Summary 204

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. If you’re going to play in the big leagues you need to be writing checks from a $700 million?—?$1 Are we in a bubble?” By definition?—?I’m of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2023

I was most impressed with the steps he outlined for turning ideas into goals into results, which I paraphrase here for aspiring entrepreneurs: Write down your goals or your dreams. Writing something down is the first step toward moving forward and making it real.

Writing 92

Writing Ideas Startup Entrepreneur 92

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.” Start with a service you know and love.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2011

Los Angeles-based LegalZoom , the online legal document provider, is the target of a class action lawsuit in Missouri, which is looking to block the ability of the firm to provide wills, leases, and other documents.

Legalzoom 160

Legalzoom Software Class Writing 160

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm going to be looking at aspects like: Things to consider before building your MVP Features often overlooked when documenting an MVP for developers Understanding important metrics you want to measure Risks and challenges in developing an MVP. Have you Documented Your MVP for Your Developer s? What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.” Start with a service you know and love.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

I was most impressed with the steps he outlined for turning ideas into goals into results, which I paraphrase here for aspiring entrepreneurs: Write down your goals or your dreams. Writing something down is the first step toward moving forward and making it real.

Ideas 121

Ideas Writing Startup Entrepreneur 121

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2009

Santa Monica-based DocStoc , the online document sharing site run by Jason Nazar, just released a new feature Thursday afternoon, DocStoc Collections , which allows users to create their own groupings of documents by topic. Tags: docstoc collections topic sharing document. DocStoc is venture backed by Rustic Canyon Partners.

Rustic Canyon 100

Rustic Canyon Santa Monica SoCalTech Writing 100

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Oculus, Snap, Tinder and others.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. The person writing things he or she is doing me a favor. They had to physically write a letter, address it, put a stamp on it (pay) and then put it in the mailbox. I’m on all of them and they’re all used in some form for business communications.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2023

The act of communicating and writing enhances learning. The process of documenting what you think you know in a business plan, for the team and for investors, solidifies your own understanding of your new business. With that learning, you are able to more effectively share and market your solution to customers and business partners.

Social Media 120

Social Media Startup Entrepreneur Education 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself. It only takes a little extra work to make it a professional document, with a cover page, table of contents, headings, and page numbers.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2015

The solution is to do the right job up front on requirements, document and approve specifications, and have the toughest person you know do the project management. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. In all documents, clearly define who must sign off on content and provide business-side feedback.

Technical Review 104

Technical Review Product Software Review High Tech 104

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 21, 2021

But Sarandos doubled down on his defense of the special, writing an internal email that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” After receiving backlash, he later told the Hollywood Reporter, “I 100% believe that content on screen can have impact in the real world, positive and negative.”

Netflix 300

Netflix Demand Content Hollywood 300

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2020

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Writing 125

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 125

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. “Results” these days are not PowerPoint slides, or theories and recommendations. If you are the CFO, showing results means you set up the accounting system, and generate the first P&Ls. Have "customers", not "clients."

Startup 150

Startup Slides Email Customer 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2022

I’m not suggesting that co-founders should be equal contributors on both sides, but the parameters for “equality” better be well understood and well documented. In all cases, once you have decided that it’s time to seal the deal, be sure to establish in writing your working agreement, as well as ownership shares. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 140

Startup Satisfaction Writing Entrepreneur 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2013

The solution is to do the right job up front on requirements, document and approve specifications, and have the toughest person you know do the project management. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. In all documents, clearly define who must sign off on content and provide business-side feedback.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 110

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

I’m just writing verbatim what I wrote in a Quora response years ago. A term sheet is not a legally binding document. Sorry for using f**k two posts in a row. This isn’t Dave McClure secretly taking over Mark’s blog. So, what can you do? Legal actions = zero. Retribution actions = lots. But why bother.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Content Writing Blogging 150

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Everyone who manages a company or its sales force wants to write as many new deals as possible, and is usually warry about doing anything that might threaten the positive outcome of a pending sale. Do so within the offer document and with a personal comment with delivery of the offer. Deadlines are an important sales tool.

Sales 120

Sales Tool Writing Customer 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2022

Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. In school, you're taught to stretch weak ideas to reach your document page limit. Don’t you wish that someone had prepped you on how to read the body language, interpret office gossip, and when to hit the delete key on your email rather than the send key?

Class 140

Class Course Email Social Network 140

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

Ultimately the Goldman Sachs report gets picked up by a journalist who writes a hyperbolic headline with emphatic conclusions because nobody wants to read that tomorrow will be just like today. Since I had built 2 document management companies I knew all the reasons why building a document management company would “never work.”

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Statistics Writing Report 182

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. Writing it down promotes both understanding and commitment.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

Disciplining yourself to write down the plan is actually the best way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. In simple terms, it is a 20-page document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your new business. Pitch your company, not your product. Written business plan.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

Seth is a design-oriented entrepreneur, with little desire to document details. The more you play around with ideas and you write them down, the better. The key is to document and challenge the veracity of your ideas at the time they occur to you. Chaos By Design. In his entrepreneurial Tribe, he is the Shaman.

Ideas 266

Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.” What happens is 18–20 firms access the data room and download all of your documents. He told me to stop responded to RFPs where I wasn’t the person who helped write the specs for the RFPs. It doesn’t.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story last year “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article a while back, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Disciplining yourself to write down the plan is actually the best way to make sure you actually understand it yourself.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. In simple terms, it is a document which describes all the what, when, where, and how of your business for you, your cohorts, and potential investors. No problem.

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2013

As long as somebody recognizes their million dollar idea and writes them a check, the source really doesn''t matter. But after they write the check, it soon becomes apparent that their desire to be helpful 24 hours a day is a nuisance at best. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal. Only your Board can save you here.

Angel 105

Angel Writing Startup Invest 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2020

The act of communicating and writing enhances learning. The process of documenting what you think you know in a business plan, for the team and for investors, solidifies your own understanding of your new business. With that learning, you are able to more effectively share and market your solution to customers and business partners.

Social Media 127

Social Media Startup Education Entrepreneur 127

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274