Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. For example, I once was approached by an entrepreneur, passionate that his new algae strain would cure world hunger and make him rich. Bandwidth is a constraint we all feel.

Startup 142

Startup Technical Review Equity Entrepreneur 142

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. The most effective new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Every investor in your startup, even friends and family, normally expects a share of your company (equity), which means your return for all your effort goes down quickly. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. In the U.S. Experts are available but expensive.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity (coming soon).

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

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. rings true to me.

Venture Capital 286

Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

My partnership was pretty bearish and scratched our heads a bit at price tags. I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. The following is a 2-week graph of the end-of-week price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in Autumn 2008.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. Want to cut prices and go for market share?

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Yet talk with people at Twitter these days and many seem to feel like they are part of a movement – and that doesn’t just come due to product success. Equity for the future?

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

The founders felt that having a legitimate site for content would discourage Silicon Valley VC’s from funding entrepreneurs to create the next big TV killer. To say that the tech elite were cynical of Hulu’s launch would be an understatement , but by the time it launched just a few months later it was getting great reviews.

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. This article originally ran on TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. They will have to negotiate price and terms. So What’s the Big Deal?

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs, like online web sites and smart phone apps. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity (coming soon).

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Others, like Guy Kawasaki , have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent enhancements or omissions that can kill your deal. Even non-profits need money to scale, but their pitch should be to philanthropists, not equity investors. Skip the hype.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

My first advice for new entrepreneurs is to pick a domain, such as online web sites and smart phone apps, that doesn’t have the sky-high up-front development costs. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Bartering technically means exchanging goods or services as a substitute for money.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I was thinking back to a few previous “insider baseball&# blog debates that raged for several weeks: AngelGate (aka Bin38 secret cabal), convertible debt vs. equity, bubble vs. not, and now the AngelList discussion. It sure wasn’t when I was a first-time entrepreneur. But to entrepreneurs can be gold. Same thing.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Skip the fuzzy marketing terms, such as "easier to use," "lower cost" and "disruptive technology." " Investors want to buy into an entrepreneur with a startup that can provide evidence of an ability to double customer productivity, at half the cost, with patented technology.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Mark Cuban is a lifelong serial entrepreneur, launching his startup career with a variety of teenage schemes, including buying and selling collectable stamps to pay for college. In 1998, the newly christened Broadcast.com went public and set the record (since broken) for the largest single-day price appreciation, rising nearly 250%.

Tips 274

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Ideas 274

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. We spent our future since the equity was artificial. Consumer spending is where I’m dubious.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub.

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” One entrepreneur refrain I sometimes hear is “We want to raise some extra money for M&A activities.”

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 20, 2014

WordPress, by way of $15M via North Bridge Growth Equity in WPEngine. The morning, spent with the incredible group of entrepreneurs fostering # bigDOCC (Big “D” Open Coffee Club – Dallas that is ), was focused on not just what it means to be a startup in Dallas, but Texas, and the role that industry plays therein.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Commerce Yahoo Web 71

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) They are usually offered around 0.25% of the companies equity in exchange for their role and I’ve seen many companies hand out a total of 2% to advisers. My main advice to you if you’re considering it is don’t waste much equity on it.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

I would start by asking the candidate, “How did you decide on these five people” as part of your review process. By the way, I also strongly advise that entrepreneurs reference VCs. CFOs often know the other CFOs and same for heads of sales, marketing, tech, etc. And they have a general sense of reputation.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

socalTECH

OCTOBER 29, 2015

The easiest way to look at it, from the tech perspective, is that we are very similar to LendingClub. Brett and I sat down, and said, how can we take a tech approach and create a positive impact on the existing real estate industry, particularly in the mortgage and real estate finance industry. So, what is PeerStreet?

Southern California 100

Southern California Google Technical Review Manhattan Beach 100

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. Value is created through diligent hard work. Ask them to accept equity in exchange for all or a portion of their overall compensation.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will. On the other hand, exits at lower prices are easier with these providers of capital.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Short answer – yes. The deal was done in late 2007.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. One out of ten of Americans are out of work.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175