Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Every year at Upfront we try to analyze the venture markets. We use this try to draw some context that informs our funding decisions. Of course we fund companies in good markets and bad. For this year’s analysis we turned to our peers to gather their points-of-view on the state of the market.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Marketing Writing 150

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

Their investment should be structured with the help of a good attorney who understands the mutual goal of maximum leverage of funds with minimum interference in your business decisions. Building the business with investors and board members As the company grew and became profitable, it became more visible to others in the market niche.

Invest 296

Invest Capital Startup Entrepreneur 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. Taken together these “mega rounds” represent nearly half of the funding in 2018. More on that later.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. The key is WHAT you send. Poppycock.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. So I recommend a high-level “state of the company” email a couple of times a year but a message that you assume might get shown to others.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. billion email accounts.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. Call this “price signaling.”

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. If I check Twitter it’s usually because I’m waiting for a meeting to start and I never write posts during the day. They don’t have market power. I get a lot of thank you emails for blogging.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Email updates frequently. Key point – if your emails are as long as my blog posts you’re forked. Make your emails actionable.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. No cookies for guessing which reason they use to market to us. So how does this apply to you?

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2022

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? Business Email and Texting. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Class 140

Class Course Email Social Network 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Others send investors email and business plans in all uppercase or no punctuation. Contrary to popular belief, most investors are not looking for entrepreneurs who are desperate for funding. Message delivery must be customized for each investor.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? As Shervin said, it’s just email. A few reasons.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in the following 9-minute excerpt from John''s recent talk at UC Santa Barbara. an email) to about 35 people. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you''re in, and that was it.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Nearly every entrepreneur has heard the refrain, "Get back to me when you have some traction,” while seeking funding. Evidence of validation manifests itself in many forms and is derived from a variety of market forces. From an unsophisticated investor, this response might be a non-confrontational way of saying "No." Share and Enjoy.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital RSS Customer Custom 265

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. When should you start a company?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

Earlier this week, Derek Norton , a long time advisor to the media, Internet, and technology industry in Los Angeles, announced a brand new venture capital fund called Watertower Ventures (www.watertowerventures.com). We sat down with Derek to learn more about the new $5M fund and what it's all about. Tell us about the new fund?

Invest 145

Invest Funding Capital Startup 145

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

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%). Today we’re in a world where 10 accelerators are bombarding you with emails to meet their 10-15 companies. They worry too much about missing out on a deal. I don’t.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

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. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. I just cover the companies that were funded that week. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. Big market.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

Their investment should be structured with the help of a good attorney who understands the mutual goal of maximum leverage of funds with minimum interference in your business decisions. As the company grew and became profitable, it became more visible to others in the market niche.

Invest 243

Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. I would love for prospective investors in Dave’s fund to call me personally to learn about “the real Dave.”. Dave is terrible with email. He doesn’t email you. I’ve been told so.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Others send investors email and business plans in all uppercase or no punctuation. Contrary to popular belief, most investors are not looking for entrepreneurs who are desperate for funding. Message delivery must be customized for each investor.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

. • Obtain Customer Feedback Before You Release Your Product - Musicians spend their entire youth writing songs and performing them in front of live audiences, which ensures that their initial album is validated by their fans before they enter the recording studio. Entrepreneurs should always err on the side of long-term gain. Pay To Play.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. The “more traction&# feedback is a very typical scenario is a down market economy like the one we’re in. Fund raising is an ongoing process and not an event on a workplan.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. Clearly define the addressable market for your pain reliever, which is a subset of the total number of people who are feeling the pain; the total market size is not relevant. Who do I write the check to and where do I send it? Financials. Share and Enjoy.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

So, if you're a marketer, how do you track and encourage those word-of-mouth recommendations? San Diego-based Wildfire Systems , led by startup veteran Jordan Glazier , has developed software which product referrals and automatically transform them into trackable links across email, text messaging, chat, and social messaging.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in the following 9-minute excerpt from John''s recent talk at UC Santa Barbara. an email) to about 35 people. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you''re in, and that was it.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

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. I wrote him the following email. We write that into the calendar entry so that I (and any my partners) know this and would only reschedule if extremely urgent.

Conference 369

Conference Startup Century City Email 369

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

An email subscription is coming! Harris writes: “The figures, dating back to 2016, paint a picture of a company desperate to meet over-ambitious autonomy targets and one that is willing to spend freely, even recklessly, to get there. .” Email me or send a direct message to @kirstenkorosec. Deal of the week.

San Fernando 217

San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217

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. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Berkonomics

MARCH 13, 2014

Email readers, continue here.] They told me all about why this is such a good idea: hard to manage price discovery in the commercial real estate market; fragmented information about vacancies obtained from landlords and brokers; and the large scale of transactions. Story seems to be an artifact of the human brain, and soul.

Invest 237

Invest Examples Networking Writing 237

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2008

Writers can log into our site, upload their project, and select from over 4,000 markets, and send their work out to the world physically with a single click. In their case, people write their scripts on a web site, and when they're done, they can submit them to contests with a single click.

Writing 209

Writing Hollywood Startup Sites 209

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

We are bridging the gap between casual, self service dating apps, and traditional matchmaking, and doing it for business professionals in the dating market. Right now, there are no real efficient products in the dating market. It was really incredible to me, that there was such a white space in the market. more) READ MORE>>.

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

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? Business Email and Texting. Writing in business is not the same as in an academic environment. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Course 96

Course Email Social Network Ideas 96

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

I ran program and marketing for MySpace for a little over three years. Prior to that, I was at a marketing company, Fanscape, one of the early guys in the online marketing space. Prior to that, I was at a marketing company, Fanscape, one of the early guys in the online marketing space. Let's talk about funding.

Email 218

Email Startup Ideas Burbank 218