September, 2010

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How to Manage Employees When They Make Mistakes

Both Sides of the Table

I was recently involved with a company (not as an investor) where an embarrassing mistake was made. One of the leaders took a sort of “heads will roll&# approach. It’s not my company so I basically stayed out but tried to encourage him to think differently about the “punishment.&# I didn’t stick around for the repercussions so I hope the process was balanced.

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Interview with Eric M. Jackson, CapLinked

socalTECH

Today's interview is with Eric M. Jackson, CEO and co-founder of CapLinked (www.caplinked.com), which is developing tools to help entrepreneurs and investors connect. Eric is an experienced entrepreneur, and was a very, very early employee at PayPal, where he was recruited by Peter Thiel. Eric is also author of the book The PayPal Wars: Battles With Ebay, the Media, the Mafia, And the Rest of Planet Earth , where he documented that experience.

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Why Saying “Thank You&# Is Good Business

InfoChachkie

Americans are the most generous people on the planet. Arthur Brooks, a public administration Professor at Syracuse University and author of, Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide , cites the following facts: “Americans per capita individually give about three and a half times more money per year, than the French per capita. Seven times more than the Germans and 14 times more than the Italians.

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Board members must protect the coporation before themselves.

Berkonomics

All other board functions are secondary. Even venture capitalists who sit on boards where they have significant investments often forget this point. They write into their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth.

Class 179
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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

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Modern Family

Eric Greenspan

So, I’ve been married, 3x. My first wife, we were young, it ended. It was hardly enigmatic. No kids. I wish her well. So, I married again, the mother of my oldest boy Jacob. That ended too, not as smoothly as the first, but we all got through it. We both love Jacob, live less than a mile from one another and share his time wisely. I’ve been with my current wife for almost 10 years.

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Ten of the Worst Reasons for Starting a Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur needs to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and realistic about their reasons for choosing the startup route. For any entrepreneur, even the best business opportunities, if entered for the wrong reasons, will likely fail. Some of these reasons seem obvious, so forgive me for restating, but I still hear them too often.

More Trending

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BUMP.com Launches Text Messaging Service For Drivers

socalTECH

San Diego-based Bump.com , a new startup headed by former Active Network co-founder Mitch Thrower, said today that it has launched a new service which allows drivers to send voice, text, and email messages too people based on their license plate numbers. According to Bump.com, it has an iPhone application which allows users to send messages to any driver it sees, via voice or by text, given only the license plate of that driver.

Services 239
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Bootstrapping Your Business – Startups Uncensored #19

Jason Nazar

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “Bootstrapping Your Business”. It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation with some of the most successful LA entrepreneurs talking about how they started and grew their successful businesses without raising outside financing. This month’s session will be hosted by Jason Nazar (CEO, Docstoc.com), and we will be joined by Mark Verge founder and CEO of Westside Rentals , Josh Hartwell founder/CEO of MobileDelux , and Paige Craig one of the most

Startup 110
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Congrats To The Presenting StartupDemo Companies!

Tech Zulu Event

The moment is finally here. After weeks of StartupDemo submissions we are now ready to announce the participating startup companies for the StartupDemo event being held at Wokano Sept. 22, 2010. We took great consideration for every startup company that applied. We took into account innovation and entrepreneurship, style and appeal, originality, community, and value.

Company 106
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Buy The CEOFlow Book

CEO Flow

Want the peace of mind and freedom that comes with knowing you have all the support you need from your own people? Now you can buy the book! Chip Conley, best-selling author of “PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow&# and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality: Tags: Featured Books.

Company 53
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Nine Principles of Leadership for Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Creating and building a business is not a one-man show. It requires a team effort, or at least the ability to build trust and confidence among key players, and effectively communicate with partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. These actions are the hallmark of an effective leader. Behind the actions are a set of principles and characteristics that entrepreneurial leaders, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, seem to have in common.

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What I *Would Have* Said at TechCrunch Disrupt

Both Sides of the Table

What do you get when you combine 7 panelist plus one moderator on to a stage for 30 minutes to talk about a serious topic? Answer: Not much. And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. It’s a shame. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. I said almost nothing in the 30 minutes.

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Interview with Mickie Rosen, Tecca

socalTECH

Last week, Santa Monica-based Tecca (www.tecca.com) launched a consumer electronics, consumer information service, backed by Fuse Capital and Best Buy. The service--currently only available on iPhone and Android--allows users to find reviews and information about consumer electronics products. We caught up with Mickie Rosen , the firm's CEO, about the company, its links to Best Buy, and how it was incubated out of Fuse Capital.

Incubator 239
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Top 40 Startup Posts for August 2010

SoCal CTO

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f

Startup 191
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Online Video Game Executive and Expert Andy Tong on TechZulu Live

Tech Zulu Event

Click here to watch live on Thursday 4pm PT. This week on TechZulu Live we have special guest Andy Tong. Andy is a video game executive with 10+ years in online Casual/MMO/Social gaming and eCommerce. Founder and former CEO of MMOABC , with Andy's guidence, propelled the company to the 2nd most prolific portal and community for MMO gamers in North America with over 2 million monthly visitors through strategic business development efforts with over 50+ international leading video game publishin

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Angel Investing (1): Dealflow – Are You Sitting at The Right Poker Table?

Both Sides of the Table

Executive Summary. 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. It is basically a return to the type of VC that was done 20 years ago long before the craziness of the Internet boom that skewed things so greatly.

Invest 306
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Outbound VC Dialing Programs – Total Disrespect for Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. He sent me an email asking whether the approach was real and whether he should take it seriously. Here is the email he received (reprinted without names with his permission). “Hi [entrepreneur], I hope all is well. I’m an investor at [Big Name, Large Fund VC] and recently came across [Your Company].

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How to Discuss Stock Options with Your Team

Both Sides of the Table

I was thumbing through Twitter messages on my Blackberry on Monday (I use Twitter as a “ mobile first, web second &# product) when I saw the following Tweet (see graphic). I resisted the temptation to jump in with a response because I knew it was too complicated of a topic to discuss on Twitter. But I thought I should do a quick post on the topic. 1.

Startup 294
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What Entrepreneurs Should do about Price Fixing

Both Sides of the Table

OMG. This is super funny. I wrote the post below after work. I had to race to meet my wife for dinner & a movie (we have “date night&# once / week) and went to see Town (which was awesome). I figured I needed time to spell check and edit before publishing so I would hit publish when I got home. Wow! I returned to my house, flipped on my Mac and see AngelGate, The Sequel.

Pricing 292
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Angel Investing Skill 2 – Domain Knowledge

Both Sides of the Table

This is the second article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. I have talked extensively about “social proof&# in fund raising in the past. But the problem is that most deals – even really promising ones – fail.

Invest 288
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Solving for Banner Blindness. Solve Media.

Both Sides of the Table

I think we’ve all come to accept that “ banner blindness &# is a real phenomenon. Sometimes you see solutions and immediately know they just make sense. Solve Media is that. In the early days of the Internet as an advertising medium the industry organized to create “standard ad units&# for which most media companies would sell their inventory.

Media 288
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Revisiting Paul Graham’s “High Resolution” Financing

Both Sides of the Table

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’ I initially didn’t agree with the premise of the post. Photo credit: D. Story/J. Blanchard/O’Reilly Media. I just re-read it and on second reflection, I’m surprised just how much I found myself in near TOTAL agreement with Paul.

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Angel Investing: Skill 3 – Relationships with VCs

Both Sides of the Table

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. Part 2 discussed the need for domain knowledge since merely “joining the right club deal&# will in no way determine success. Not everybody agreed on the need for domain knowledge.

Invest 284
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Angel Investing 4 – Why You Need Deep Pockets to Win Big

Both Sides of the Table

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. 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.

Invest 283
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Angel Investing – The Most Underrated Skill: Access to Buyers

Both Sides of the Table

This is the fifth & final (I promise!) article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. After that it’s domain experience, access to VCs and deep pockets. 5. Access to buyers – I saved the least obvious for last. Most people think that being a successful investor is about finding the right deals and nurturing the teams through the difficult times to come out with

Invest 280
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Sonos Releases iPad App

socalTECH

Santa Barbara-based Sonos , the developer of the Sonos wireless, multi-room music systems, said Wednesday that it has released its Apple iPad application. The application--which users had been eagerly awaiting, particularly since a slip of its release date in August--is available for free on the iTunes App Store. The Sonos Controller for iPad allows owners of Sonos equipment to control that equipment using the iPad's touch screen.

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Kareo Gets $9.5M

socalTECH

Irvine-based Kareo , a developer of web-based medical billing software, announced today that it has raised $9.5M in an investment round. According to Kareo, the funding came from OpenView Venture Partners. The firm said the new funding will go to enhance customer service, expand its product suite, build out sales and marketing, as well as to bolster its management team.

Software 217
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Southern California Goes Back To School: Five Education Startups

socalTECH

Last night, we (and the entire rest of the tent) spied Olivia Palermo working her publicity magic on the gawkers. She is actually much shorter and slighter than I thought, pretty tiny. Whose shoes do you think she was wearing? She’s been a prominent fixture at most of the shows. Ah, reality shows — they’ve made stars of socialites.

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SodaHead Launching Major Redesign

socalTECH

Encino-based SodaHead , the social news and question and answer site headed by Jason Feffer, told its users today that it is launching a major redesign this week. According to the site, it is improving the look and feel of its site, adding polls with an interactive map feature, and improving the layout of pages. Among major changes, the new site now feature more featured content; more graphical and interactive headings; rankings of the most popular topics for a day; and more information from pol

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MorphLabs Launches New Product, Ties With Zend

socalTECH

Manhattan Beach-based Morphlabs , the developer of cloud computing software run by Winston Damarillo, announced this morning that it has released a "significant upgrade" to its mCloud Controller product. The firm said the release simplifies the process of building and managing internal cloud computing environments. In addition to the release, the firm also said it has partnered with Zend Technologies, to integrate the software as part of mCloud Enterprise.

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Cornerstone OnDemand Files For IPO

socalTECH

In what looks to be a banner year for IPO filings for Southern California, Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand filed for an IPO this morning, saying that it is looking to raise up to $115M in an IPO. The firm has not yet specified an exchange it plans to list on. The IPO is being underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Barclays Capital, William Blair & Company, Piper Jaffray, Pacific Crest Securities, and JMP Securities.

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Invested.in Launches Site for BizWorld

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Invested.in , a startup focused on helping people to manage fundraising efforts for individuals, non-profits, and businesses, has launched a new site for The BizWorld Foundation, a group which teaches business basics to children. According to The BizWorld Foundation and Invested.in, their new site will help educators to raise the fund they need to purchase BizWorld's educational programs for their classrooms.

Sites 207
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Interview with Mike Gammarino, Students4Startups

socalTECH

Despite the excitement and lure of startups to those in the tech industry, not everyone wants to join a startup after college--according to Mike Gammarino , who is helping to organize a new effort here to recruit students to startups. According to Mike, startups have an uphill battle recruiting from college campuses, including fighting over the best students with big name technology firm.

Startup 206
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Factual Launches Geo-Coded Business Dataset

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based Factual , the open data startup headed by Gil Elbaz, the inventor of Google's AdSense technology, said today that it has launched a new open set of data that the firm says provides geo-coded data for 14 million local U.S. businesses. Factual said that the data set helps developers gain access to information which had previously been difficult to license, due to multiple vendors and licensing requirements.

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Health In Reach Launches Medical Scheduling Service

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Health In Reach , a new startup founded by Scott Sangster, has launched its new service today at the DEMO Fall conference. Health In Reach is focused on helping patients find doctors, schedule appointments, and receive upfront pricing on medical procedures. Sangster is well known in Los Angeles for his work with the Tech Coast Angels, and previously was in strategic planning and corporate development at Walt Disney Internet Group.

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ResumeBucket Adds New Resume Tools

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based ResumeBucket , the online job search site co-founded by Josh Stomel and Ted Hekman, said this week that it has launched a new set of tools on the site. According to the firm, it is offering up a new resume builder to help people create a resume; ability to create up to 20 different resumes tailored to different opportunities, industries, or job titles; and sample resumes for job seekers looking for a start point for their own resume.

Tool 200