2014

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The Audacious Plan to Make Electricity as Easy as WiFi

Both Sides of the Table

'When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. 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.

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Announcing the 2014 socalTECH 50: Southern California's Ones To Watch

socalTECH

'This is our second year of creating our list of the top 50 people to watch in Southern California''s technology industry, and it was NOT an easy task. As we found last year, it''s a tough, unforgiving task to narrow down a list of the folks in Southern California''s technology industry to just fifty to watch. There were many, many people who are not on the list who indeed deserve to be on this list -- in fact, we had so many names from readers and our nominating committee, we were forced into t

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You Are Never Too Old To Learn To Surf (aka: Don’t Be Afraid To Suck)

InfoChachkie

'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. I have a confession: I used to quickly become frustrated whenever I tried something new and I didn''t quickly excel. Rather than attempting to master the new activity, I would moved on to another task, seeking a gentler learning curve. If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles!

Activity 275
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I’m Eric Greenspan, not Eric Greenspan nor Eric Greenspan

Eric Greenspan

'Every day my website gets hit by someone looking for Chef Eric Greenspan of the Foundry on Melrose and of Food Network fame. Sometimes I get hits from someone looking for Eric Greenspan the LA attorney who has represented Christina Aguilera and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And every once in a while, someone is looking for me, Eric Greenspan, the serial entrepreneur, dad and closet chef, chief consultant at Greenspan Consulting and Chief Storyteller at schoolofbookkeeping.com.

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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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Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You

Startup Professionals Musings

'Helpers do what you say, while good help does what you need, without you saying anything. People who can help you the most are actually smarter than you, at least in their domain. Top entrepreneurs spend more time putting the right team in place to accomplish their objectives than they spend on any other components of their job. Some entrepreneurs are so in love with themselves (narcissistic) that they insist on answering every question, and making every decision.

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Silicon Beach Fest: Two Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Frank Addante

'A month ago I spoke at the Silicon Beach Fest in Santa Monica in front of LA’s community of emerging entrepreneurs, innovators and disrupters. In speaking with Michael Carney, the West Coast editor of PandoDaily, who hosted my fireside chat, two things emerged—a strategy for how to build a company: the ‘find out’ and the ‘roll out’. THE ‘FIND OUT’ When you’re looking to disrupt any industry—advertising, yogurt, VoIP technology, or whatever—begin with learning everything you can.

More Trending

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10 ways you’ll probably f**k up your startup — Spook Studio — Medium

SoCal Delicious

'Medium site navigation Cancel Home Search Collections Sign in with Twitter 10 min read Photo from the Happy Startup Summercamp Next in trending 10 ways you’ll probably f**k up your startup Here I highlight some common early-stage mistakes I come across working closely with startup teams (and how you can avoid them) Laurence McCahill in Spook Studio 10 min read 10 ways you’ll probably f**k up your startup Here I highlight some common early-stage mistakes I come across working closely with startu

Startup 78
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Framework Benchmarks Round 9

TechEmpower

'The latest round of our ongoing Framework Benchmarks project is now available! Round 9 updates several test implementations and introduces a new test environment using modern server hardware. Since the first round, we have known that the highest-performance frameworks and platforms have been network-limited by our gigabit Ethernet. For Round 9, Peak Hosting has provided a high-performance environment equipped with 10-gigabit Ethernet at one of their data centers.

Framework 546
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The five C’s of Business Partners: a marriage without the sex

Berkonomics

'By Richard Sudek. Dave’s note: Our guest insight this week is by Richard Sudek, an associate professor of entrepreneurism at Chapman University Graduate School of Business. He is Director of the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurism and Business Ethics, and Chairman Emeritus of the Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel group in the United States.

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The Case for Optimism and Risk at Startups

Both Sides of the Table

'Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives.

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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

'This week. On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Him: Yeah. We raised a seed round. About $1 million. Me: At what price? Him: It wasn’t priced. We raised a convertible note. Me: With a cap? Him: Yes, $8 million. Me: Ah. I see. So you did raise with a price. It’s just a maximum price. You’ll find out the minimum when the next round is raised.

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Why ADD Might Actually Benefit Startup Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

'This weekend I was reading the NY Times online and I came across this excellent piece about ADHD written by Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry. In the article the author talks about the condition of the brain – which affects up to 11% of American children in which people with ADHD (or ADD, which doesn’t have hyperactivity) – in which people with ADD have a low tolerance for routine tasks and thus they seek out “novelty” The author believes this ma

Startup 416
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Putting Tom Perkins Comments into Context

Both Sides of the Table

'Tom Perkins is one of the founding members of the venerable venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins. He just had his Mitt Romney moment and his name will forever be etched in the collective consciousness of the tech community for this terribly insensitive and tone deaf letter to the Wall Street Journal. The headline of Mr. Perkins letter to the WSJ?

Education 417
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The Very First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in is You

Both Sides of the Table

'This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I look for a lot of things, actually: Persistence (above all else), resiliency, leadership, humility, attention-to-detail, street smarts, transparency and both obsession with one’s company and a burning desi

Startup 409
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How VCs Think About Adding New Partners

Both Sides of the Table

'Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. I have known Kara for 7 years and knew almost immediately after meeting her that I wanted to work with her one day in some capacity.

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Here is How to Make Sense of Conflicting Startup Advice

Both Sides of the Table

'Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. WTF? There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. What is a founder to do? There are some smart if not somewhat cerebral bloggers I read who say that you shouldn’t take any startup advice at all because it’s too generalized to be useful

Startup 407
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What is the Definition of a Seed Round or an A Round?

Both Sides of the Table

'Marc Andreessen kicked off another great debate on Twitter last night , one that I’ve been talking about incessantly in private circles for the past 2-3 years – what actually IS the definition of a seed vs. A-round. This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste.

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The Changing Structure of the VC Industry

Both Sides of the Table

'There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. On the surface the narratives have been. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The poor performance of the asset class (this analysis has largely been wrong as I pointed out here –> most analyses were clumsy rear-view mirror looks at the data).

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Upfront Ventures Raised New $280 Million Fund

Both Sides of the Table

'Whew! We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. We raised $280 million. Our last fund was $200 million but as you may already know since we raised that fund we added new partners Greg Bettinelli and Kara Nortman and Venture Partner Hamet Watt – all of whom are busy looking at new deals for the firm

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Why I Look for Obsessive and Competitive Founders

Both Sides of the Table

'Obsession. The drive to succeed at all costs. When second place isn’t good enough because we live in winner-take-most markets. The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field. This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It would often make my colleagues laugh because they’d hear me like a broken record and then the next week read my ramblings in a post.

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The Magic of the Irish – Dublin’s Resurgence on the Global Tech Scene

Both Sides of the Table

'I wrote this on my flight home from f.ounders & web summit in Dublin, Ireland late last year. I think I was too hung over to finish it, hit publish and move on. So here is attempt two now that the alcohol is mostly out of me. The Magic of the Irish. Scenes from my counter-top on my last night in Dublin. I recently returned from a 5-day visit to Ireland, my first time back in 10 years and the start of what I hope will be a more regular travel schedule there.

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One of My Most Frequent Pieces of Advice: Be Politely Persistent

Both Sides of the Table

'One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. There is that rare breed that doesn’t accept “no” for an answer. It is impossible advice to give because there is such a fine line between being persistent and being annoying and it’s something you probably can’t teach.

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How I Got the Monkey Off My Back – Today Was a Good Day

Both Sides of the Table

'I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 years ago. I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel.

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Why Entrepreneurs Should Be Respected More Than Loved

Both Sides of the Table

'One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. How hard could it be? You just assign out tasks to all of us. In the early days the CEO is the jack-of-all-trades, doer-of-all, famously the “chief janitor” or coffee maker.

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Understanding the Politics of Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

'Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. Thus I hear many talk about “radical transparency” when virtually ever experienced operator in my inner circle talks knowingly about that naiveté. It’s not that I don’t love idealism – I was young once, too!

Startup 385
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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

'I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. ” I highly recommend reading it. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in.

Startup 383
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Why The Haters are Wrong About Growth Hacking

Both Sides of the Table

'There’s an article making the rounds in tech circles titled “ Growth Hacking is Bull ” written by Muhammad Saleem. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. I’d strongly encourage you to read it. I actually really enjoyed many of the points Muhammad made about marketing in general and I found myself nodding through the entirety of the article except for it’s core premise.

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Helping Startups Understand Salespeople & the Sales Culture

Both Sides of the Table

'Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual.

Sales 382
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This is How Startups “Level Up” After Raising Money

Both Sides of the Table

'One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. I also see companies as they move from having taken $1-5 million from me to their next round where they raise $8-15 million from Series B investors and sometimes I lead at this round (we’re stage agnostic but 8

Startup 381
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Understanding the Underbelly of Online Marketing & Why You’ll Lose if You Don’t

Both Sides of the Table

'Yesterday I wrote a post about “ growth hacking ” and why I thought it was wrong that people were hating on the term unnecessarily. It’s worth a quick read. My argument is pretty simple. If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379
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Why Has LA Suddenly Gotten So Much Attention from VCs and Entrepreneurs?

Both Sides of the Table

'An abbreviated version of this post appeared yesterday on TechCrunch. If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. “There’s something going on in LA.” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. I hear it right after people have decided to come by for a few days to “check out what all the fuss is about.” I hear it when I visit LPs (th

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A Seriously Great Story and Why We Funded Them

Both Sides of the Table

'We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013.

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Some Reflections on VC Investment Decisions

Both Sides of the Table

'I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I was telling him that it was much easier when I started because there were fewer deals, life was less public and somehow the world seemed to be spinning more slowly.

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Finding an Investor Who is in Love with You

Both Sides of the Table

'I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. It’s even a direct quote in my Twitter bio. Of course passion isn’t enough. You need a set of innate skills that differentiate you from the thousands of others who set out on your similar journey.

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Here’s How to Cancel a Meeting the Right Way

Both Sides of the Table

'I wrote a version of this post four years ago but given the hectic nature of today’s tech markets I thought it was worth revisiting and updating. Canceling meetings is a part of modern day life. I seem to get so over programmed that if I ever want to have a “break-out” unplanned trip somewhere I seem to have to reschedule meetings.

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Understanding the Power of Your Human Networks

Both Sides of the Table

'We all intuitively know how important human connections are in business but for many people it’s like exercise or eating well – one of those things you keep meaning to get around to. It reminds me of a line my wife and I often jokingly say to each other after seeing the awesome film “ Notorious ” about the life of Biggie Smalls. “I know mothafuckas who know mothafuckas.” Please just take 8 seconds to listen to this clip on YouTube – it’s priceless