Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. On the marketing side of the equation, there are so many “marketing gurus” and “marketing resources” out there, the real challenge for most of us is to sort out the basic do’s and the don’ts that apply to startups. Marty Zwilling.

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Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

It’s often called the “double opt in” as in you make sure both sides are ok with an introduction before creating it. I try to steer entrepreneurs away from over-introducers and I often find myself wanting to be careful about them becoming an investor in companies I back. It starts seemingly innocent enough.

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Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. Entrepreneurs started demanding that VCs call their first-round financings “seed” rounds even if they were $3 million. Why the latter? and there''s always a but]. I saw this myself a few times in a row.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. On the marketing side of the equation, there are so many “marketing gurus” and “marketing resources” out there, the real challenge for most of us is to sort out the basic do’s and the don’ts that apply to startups.

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Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

We help early stage entrepreneurs in technology and digital media raise early stage funding rounds. We''re finding that we are adding value to entrepreneurs who come to our platform, and have great co-marketing partners. Second, it will go to scale our growth efforts, and help acquire both entrepreneurs and investors to our platform.

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Venture Capital Invest Platform Entrepreneur 174

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? You probably follow some high-profile entrepreneurs on Instagram and Twitter and see conference pictures of them in Davos, Mexico, Monaco or wherever.

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

The best entrepreneurs in our industry focus on it year-round as opposed to just once every 18 months. How to go for the close Some Advice Before You Hit the Fund Raising Trail was originally published in Both Sides of the Table on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And there is so much money around being thrown at so many entrepreneurs that many firms don’t even care about board seats, governance rights or heaven forbid doing work with the company because that would eat into the VCs time needed to chase 5 more deals. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way.

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Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. Long hours.

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 176

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. He said, “I prefer to do Enterprise A rounds and Consumer B rounds. But VC is like congress.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2015

The grass is always greener on the other side. It seems that everyone I know who works in a corporate environment dreams of escaping to become an entrepreneur, and every entrepreneur wishes he or she had the security of a regular paycheck. Startup challenges can be more painful then corporate frustrations.

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Entrepreneur Statistics Startup Class 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

Moving a VC from an A to a B doesn’t mean they aren’t still your top pick, it just means your chances are less likely and your extremely limited resources should be allocated elsewhere. For simplicity I’ll assume you’ve raised some money from angels or seed investors and you’re either raising an A round or a B round of venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. While this is temporarily a good thing for entrepreneurs it will turn sour when we go through the next inevitable downturn.

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Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

My pal Dave doesn’t visit the right side of the Haimish Line – he lives permanently on the right side ! Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. I don’t know an entrepreneur or a VC who wouldn’t cut him in on any deal.” He’s loved by both sides. I think I am, too.

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Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 20, 2010

Mark Suster – Both Sides Of The Table. I recently read a book I'd highly recommend to every reader of this blog called "Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive” by Robert B. Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. Tags: Entrepreneur. ——-.

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InfoChachkie

MARCH 1, 2012

Despite the book’s shortcomings, it contains a number of insightful lessons for budding entrepreneurs. Of the 100 business “lessons” articulated in the book, I highlight a few below that I feel are the most relevant and impactful for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can learn from their achievements as well as their failures.

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Tips Startup Entrepreneur Product 259

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2015

Yet, as an advisor to startups, I see some common disasters, and recommend some anticipation and recovery moves that can save every entrepreneur some painful time and money. While every entrepreneur needs to remain upbeat and optimistic on all of these, it is also smart to anticipate the worst case scenarios that are possible with each.

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Startup Entrepreneur Marketing Satisfaction 105

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Hamet Watt is a longtime serial entrepreneur, who just recently join LA''s Upfront Ventures (www.upfront.com) as a Venture Partner. Hamet was previously co-founder at bLife and MoviePass, founded NextMedium, and was Entrepreneur-in-Residence with True Ventures, among other experience. Congrats on the new position.

Entrepreneur 191

Entrepreneur Startup Metrics Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. Your A round?

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Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He didn’t tell it in the video but, ever the entrepreneur, Scott started a business to take couples up on a “mile high club&# flight on airplanes as a way of getting all of his miles logged to get his next class of airplane license that required a certain number of hours logged. Current round: $16.5mm in Series-B.

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Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2011

Sit closest to the projector – Many times a week I have entrepreneurs who do presentations for me and often I’m with some or all of my colleagues. If you look at Diagram B you’ll see that the people you’re presenting to can look you in the eyes and glance up at the screen. Just smile and say, “Oh, sorry.

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Tips Screening Slides Venture Capital 392

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

One entrepreneur refrain I sometimes hear is “We want to raise some extra money for M&A activities.” On the other side, VCs often don’t want to see a plan that funds longer than 2 years and seldom do they want to see 3 years. This is a red flag for VCs. They don’t want you experimenting for many years on their capital?

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Xconomy

JUNE 10, 2016

Seattle’s UP Global, now part of Techstars, oversees the operation of Startup Week and other programs for tech entrepreneurs across the U.S. But while Startup Week San Diego has always collaborated with UP Global, San Diego entrepreneur and Startup Week organizer Austin Neudecker said, “We’ve always been an independent entity.”.

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San Diego Guide Tech Coast Angels Startup 74

InfoChachkie

APRIL 30, 2012

In his book Enchantment , Guy Kawasaki encourages entrepreneurs to immerse their audience in their “cause”, in order to enchant them. A/B Testing – We learned that orange was the ideal color and that a burst was better than a circle via rigorous A/B testing. Common Name – As Cialdini, et al note in Yes!

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Study Advertising Research Customer 243

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 27, 2013

Join TechZulu as we celebrate LA’s most exciting tech creations of the moment with the brightest digital minds and engineering talents this side of Fresno. If you prefer an elevator, take the ground level entrance on the west side of Building B. It’s a gathering of friends and tech enthusiasts of all stripes.

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UCLA Southern California Santa Monica Pricing 104

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? Company A lost $2 million in Year 2 while Company B broke even. I also wouldn’t be so quick to say that Company B is run worse than Company A. Thus the trade off between profits & growth. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2011

We also put together the Series B with Redpoint for Machinima. I think, also, that we'll clearly benefit from companies like Demand Media, and the newly minted set of angels and entrepreneurs coming out of that. We'll benefit from Riot Games, which will further support the ecosystem of angels and entrepreneurs. READ MORE>>.

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Riot Games Technology Los Angeles Entrepreneur 199

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

The advantage is that in many of our best deals we now have $50+ million invested so we can really support entrepreneurs as their businesses scale. Accel led the B, Morgan Stanley the C and now HIG the D. In the case of Invoca we led both the seed round and the A round and didn’t wait for somebody else to come and provide more capital.

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. They have relationships that are hard for entrepreneurs to build. They can also help raise larger rounds of capital and often at higher prices. students.

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Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. On the marketing side of the equation, there are so many “marketing gurus” and “marketing resources” out there, the real challenge for most of us is to sort out the basic do’s and the don’ts that apply to startups.

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Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

socalTECH

APRIL 19, 2018

Brett Crosby: The big news, is we announced our Series B funding round, led by World Innovation Lab, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Thomvest, Colchis Capital, Felicis Ventures, plus a couple of new investors, Solon Mack and Navitas Capital. Tell us a bit where PeerStreet is nowadays? Brett Crosby: There are three major factors.

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Funding Platform News Capital 113

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2010

One of Southern California's successful, serial entrepreneurs is Winston Damarillo , who founded Gluecode, which he sold to IBM in 2005. Earlier this month, his latest startup, El Segundo-based Morphlabs announced it had raised a Series B funding worth $5.5M. We thought we'd catch back up with Winston to hear about the Morphlabs.

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Southern California Startup Cloud Computing El Segundo 242

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

At Idealab, we saw many shots on goal with companies who were consumer focused, and we have found the quality of entrepreneurs going to consumer Internet companies has changed dramatically, which represents a real opportunity. On the B2B marketplace side, that area has been an interest of our fund, and has been for awhile.

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Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Join TechZulu as we celebrate LA’s most exciting tech creations of the moment with the brightest digital minds and engineering talents this side of Fresno. If you prefer an elevator, take the ground level entrance on the west side of Building B. It’s a gathering of friends and tech enthusiasts of all stripes.

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UCLA Santa Monica Mobile Web 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. On the marketing side of the equation, there are so many “marketing gurus” and “marketing resources” out there, the real challenge for most of us is to sort out the basic do’s and the don’ts that apply to startups. They will call you back.

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Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

That view from me isn’t surprising since on the topic of Nature vs. Nurture in entrepreneurs I’ve clearly come down on the side of nature more than nurture (again, that doesn’t mean nurture has NO influence, just less than nature). Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice. LOVING Balsamiq!

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Startup Sales Framework Organization 350

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.” As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324