Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. You want to send just enough to get the meeting (and of course a great deck sells better than a long email) and not so long that you don’t leave a chance to wow the person in your actual meeting. Poppycock.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

The concept comes from a Stephen Covey book called “ First Things First ,&# which is a worthwhile book ( Wikipedia overview here ) but if you haven’t read his seminal book “ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People &# you should start with that. I did the outline of the 15 slides on the flight over (after a few beers).

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Here's an example of that kind of email. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. He started the call by telling me he had exciting news. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50. Reduce any quotes to a few key words and make them large.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

He shared a number of witty entrepreneurial insights, including: "Startups are like high school. Note: I am an investor in Brian''s current startup via Rincon Venture Partners.). But the more I started to think about it, I said, well, why the hell not? and it was run by some college students up north (at) Stanford.

Startup 223

Startup Yahoo Santa Barbara Slides 223

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. It’s why I believe PalmPilot missed the important shifts to email that RIM (Blackberry) saw. Some “kick it up a gear&# and react how Toby did. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Startup Slides Seed Funding 288

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Don’t blog about what you think would be “cool.&# I don’t think that most startup blogs should be about how to build a startup. The new stuff: How do I get started? The advantage of the hosted version is that it’s easier to get started. Since there are 10-12 slides this gave me my first few weeks.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. It shows a lack of interest.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California. I recommend starting the meeting with a VERY brief introduction of your company, your background and why it’s relevant to the job you currently have.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

This applies equally to VCs, startups & big company executives. When I need to give a speech and I’m writing a slide for my deck, I think up the story in my mind that I’m going to tell for this slide. It’s ironic because I believe creativity is the most important success criterion for a startup.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. But certainly the Internet doesn’t do the job for you.

Startup 150

Startup Slides Email Customer 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below. 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.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

Managing Your Startup Board?—?A My talk was about “ managing your startup board ” and the full deck is on that SlideShare link and embedded below. I also wrote an entire series on the topic of Startup Boards if you want to do any more reading that link has several articles you can dig into. Below is just the highlight points.

Startup 234

Startup Slides Venture Capital Course 234

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. The world has changed much since I started my first company in 1999. Tim started to change our processes. Tim encouraged us to set up a blog and start talking openly about what we were doing as a company and inviting comments. Back then it seemed foreign.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

We had email, instant messaging, group calendars, discussion boards, etc. It was an online community like CompuServe and eventually started offering people dial-up access to the Internet for a monthly fee. They had a proprietary browser, their own search engine, their own content, chat rooms, email system, etc.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Management teams whisk through slides trying to get through a presentation to share how great things are going and they are eager to get through the meeting so they can get back to their real jobs. The most updated they are the more prepared they are when they do turn up at board meetings. Many board meetings are bored meetings.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Berkonomics

JANUARY 21, 2021

And if you are making a one-to-one presentation, don’t start without a conversation about the other person’s knowledge of your space. Immediately, I can tell how to orient the explanations behind my pre-cast slides, based upon the response. Asking the important question creates a connection. How I ask the question.

Slides 156

Slides Startup Venture Capital Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2014

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. business consultant entrepreneur specialist startup'

Startup 102

Startup Slides Email Customer 102

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

CEO Costin Tuculescu said in an email that "We don't have anything to announce at this time." AnyMeeting offers up an online service which lets users run webinars, run online meetings, share screens and slides, and much more. AnyMeeting got its start as Freebinar.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Keiretsu Slides Pasadena Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I will also delve into how to prepare for them, how to make the meeting effective and how to best follow up to make sure people take action. A good board member cares enough to weigh in BEFORE the meeting starts.

Startup 251

Startup Help Technical Review Writing 251

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 16, 2013

Article after article points out that Los Angeles is on its way to becoming one of the most robust startup communities in the United States. It is meant to bring everyone together so that they can learn, network and leave with the sense that they now belong to a family of entrepreneurs, all trying to make LA a startup hub.

Rustic Canyon 74

Rustic Canyon Startup Los Angeles Class 74

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know that you can use an email system with this to track my open rate, whether I forwarded the email, the IP address where I read it, whether I was on a mobile device or a wired computer and you can tell who else read the document. I would likely open up your deck, read it again and begin contemplating your company again.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Our interview this morning is with David Sacks, CEO of Geni.com, an online family tree and social networking site, as well as Yammer, the instant messaging startup spun out of Geni.com at TechCrunch50. We sat down with David to catch up on what Geni and Yammer are doing, plus got his insights into entrepreneurship and the Paypal mystique.

Yammer 133

Yammer Geni Startup Southern California 133

Berkonomics

APRIL 11, 2019

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. If you are raising funds, list “do nothing” as a viable competitor in your slide deck. We investors see this all the time. When asked (as we always do,) the response is “This is new. We have no competition.”. Your potential customers could choose “do nothing.”.

Competition 120

Competition Slides Research Sales 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2013

Every startup fears that one angry and unfair customer who can jeopardize the business by a negative post on Ripoff Report , Yelp , or one of the hundreds of other consumer complaint and review sites on the Internet. For all the rest of us, it’s nice to know that we can shout back quickly and broadly, when someone starts to whisper about us.

Report 98

Report Search Engine Optimization Startup Google 98

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2012

Olloclip managed to fund and start the company based on crowdfunding, and is one of the most popular projects that has been funded through Kickstarter. You can slide it onto the corner of your iPhone, or you can flip it over, and it you get a wide angle lens. First of all, tell us about what olloclip's products are? Is it ready?

Patents 191

Patents Ideas Design Startup 191

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2021

Every startup fears that one angry and unfair customer who can jeopardize the business by a negative post on Ripoff Report , Yelp , or one of the hundreds of other consumer complaint and review sites on the Internet. For all the rest of us, it’s nice to know that we can shout back quickly and broadly, when someone starts to whisper about us.

Search Engine Optimization 163

Search Engine Optimization Content Social Network Google 163

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2010

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. But certainly the Internet doesn’t do the job for you.

Startup 90

Startup Slides Email Customer 90

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

The emails we all get on the AngelList get say something like, “New gaming platform invested in by Dave McClure, Chris Yeh and Jeff Clavier. As an investor it’s hard to not be influenced by an email like that where you respect the early investors and at least want to read about the company. So what are you waiting for?

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2012

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. But certainly the Internet doesn’t do the job for you.

Startup 85

Startup Slides Email Customer 85

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

They suck up time and are often unproductive or don’t yield the results we expect. This is your chance to tell board members what keeps you up at night and let them offer you input into what they would do. If you provide these slides in advance you give board members a chance to reflect and come prepared for a real discussion.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

I started out with a handful of dimes making cold calls from a phone booth in Grand Central Station. I was on the way back to LA from a ski vacation in Switzerland where I decided while sliding down a glacier that if I survived I would start my own advertising agency. So cheer up everybody, this too will pass.

Marketing 150

Marketing Social Media Blogging Media 150

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

From LA Demo Day to Silicon Beach Fest to Crowdstart LA to hackathons to Startup Weekends, companies and entrepreneurs alike have joined forces to feed the startup ecosystem. Startup Weekend is a 54-hour frenzy in which a group of strangers can come together to form a company and compete for prizes.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas San Diego Mentor 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

If you are one of the thousands of entrepreneurs who need equity funding to get your startup going (no loans to repay), you are probably overwhelmed at the prospect of finding, contacting and pitching to the huge number of qualified angels and investment groups around the country. Register Internet and social media startup names.

Platform 94

Platform Equity Invest Technical Advisors 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2015

Every startup fears that one angry and unfair customer who can jeopardize the business by a negative post on Ripoff Report , Yelp , or one of the hundreds of other consumer complaint and review sites on the Internet. For all the rest of us, it’s nice to know that we can shout back quickly and broadly, when someone starts to whisper about us.

Search Engine Optimization 101

Search Engine Optimization Content Social Network Google 101