Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2022

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Startup 100

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Successful entrepreneurs like Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Chris McCormick of L.L.Bean have long realized that networking is no longer something that you do to get what you want, but requires listening and relationship building to do what the other party wants, with a win-win outcome. Master listening to learn where other people live.

Networking 106

Networking Entrepreneur Social Media Coach 106

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Satisfaction 109

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2012

A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” In my humble opinion, ideas are a commodity, and are really not worth much, outside the context of a visionary leader and a plan. But not every entrepreneur has to be a visionary.

Ideas 103

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Resource 103

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

If you’re talking with a firm that mostly only invests in the San Francisco Bay Area and you’re in Minnesota, you’re probably wasting your time for a seed or A round unless you find somebody at that firm who is from Minneapolis and comes home 2–3x / year already. have they invested in somebody that is very similar to my business?

Funding 215

Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

InfoChachkie

JUNE 27, 2011

I recently answered the question “ What are good ways to raise your children to be entrepreneurs? ” I believe that you cannot teach someone to be an entrepreneur, but that you can teach entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur is faced with making something out of nothing. Note: This is part I of a five part series.

Entrepreneur 270

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Resource 270

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2019

How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding. Leading with this answer will likely terminate any further investment opportunity with this investor. Don’t bash the competition. Being negative is never the answer.

Competition 120

Competition Patents Resource Invest 120

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. Wow, we''ve heard about your newsletter, and it seems to be motivating and inspiring entrepreneurs around the country. A version of this article previously appeared on Inc.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2020

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. All of these offer the potential for a win-win relationship with a nominal competitor, rather than a win-lose deal, as long as both sides can remain humble and not try to dominate the relationship. Let market response dictate a later split, merger, or acquisition.

Startup 126

Startup Outsource Competition Acquisition 126

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2012

Successful entrepreneurs, like Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Casey Sheahan of Patagonia , have long since realized that influence is no longer something that you do to someone to get what you want, but requires listening and relationship building to do what they want, with a win-win outcome. Master listening to learn where other people live.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Social Media Coach Help 106

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

What Cham rarely tells people – he’s both private and humble – is that he started making some small co-investments with me in tech firms starting with Maker Studios where he was one of the earliest investors. We’ve been debating various business concepts he has and what it would take to build them.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

InfoChachkie

MAY 20, 2013

According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I asked Tige to define Return On Life, “Any good investor looks at return on investment, which is generally just dollars. Return On Life is (the pursuit of) experiences.

Entrepreneur 235

Entrepreneur Startup Software Engineering Technical Review 235

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s most admired entrepreneurs, primarily because of his humble style and his growth from a regular person background to a current net worth in the neighborhood of $200 billion dollars. Significant inventions always take time, and involve failed experiments, causing negative short-term business results.

Slides 137

Slides Customer Custom Satisfaction 137

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2020

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Startup 125

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 125

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2021

As an angel investor in new startups, I’ve long believed that investors invest in people, not ideas. But the magic that makes one entrepreneur stand out over others is hard to quantify – yet we all recognize it when we see it. Practice being humble and demonstrating transparency in your communication of needs and challenges.

Customer 157

Customer Custom Metrics Ideas 157

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2010

A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a dialogue on their current hot “idea.” In my humble opinion, ideas are a commodity, and are really not worth anything, outside the context of a vision and plan. But not every entrepreneur has to be a visionary.

Ideas 98

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Resource 98

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

Last week, Fika Ventures , LA's newest venture fund, announced its formation, led by tech investment veterans Tx Zhuo and Eva Ho. We sat down with Tx Zhuo to chat about the new fund, what investments it hopes to make, and what kind of entrepreneurs the fund is looking to invest in. Have you started making investments yet?

Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Cornerstone OnDemand Funding Dollar Shave Club Los Angeles 100

InfoChachkie

MAY 20, 2013

According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I asked Tige to define Return On Life, “Any good investor looks at return on investment, which is generally just dollars. Return On Life is (the pursuit of) experiences.

Entrepreneur 164

Entrepreneur Startup Software Engineering Technical Review 164

InfoChachkie

JULY 4, 2011

However, typical of an Optimistically Pessimistic entrepreneur, Sam never loses hope, and does gives up. Humility – Sam exhibits a Humble Pride and remains committed to his Prospect’s satisfaction throughout the sales cycle, even after the Prospect becomes a customer and admits that he loves the product. I was no exception.

Sales 219

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Product 219

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The most successful entrepreneurs and business owners I know are humble, and they don’t have an inflated sense of self. I come from the same world, with an additional decade advising entrepreneurs, and I enthusiastically confirm his view. It’s a recipe for disaster. Understand the sources of your own negative tendencies.

Competition 81

Competition Startup Examples Coach 81

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. Wow, we''ve heard about your newsletter, and it seems to be motivating and inspiring entrepreneurs around the country. A version of this article previously appeared on Inc.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

There are large sums of money to be invested and if investors can get comfortable with “downside protections” they’ll still write checks. But when a fund writes checks into a portfolio company it typically “reserves” money to invest in future rounds. Not anywhere nearly as hard as being an entrepreneur. Raise when you can.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2016

How do you find somebody that is exceptionally bright, driven and accomplished and yet still be humble enough to understand that the founders we back are the ones who have invented technologies and have to live with the day-to-day decision-making and hard choices. This latter bit is very important to us and very hard to achieve.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2015

How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding. Leading with this answer will likely terminate any further investment opportunity with this investor. Don’t bash the competition. Being negative is never the answer.

Startup 118

Startup Competition Patents Resource 118

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 14, 2014

Last year, the humbly brilliant and veteran entrepreneur (I totally signed up for www.MoviePass.com the second I saw it), joined Upfront, as a venture partner. Business Culture Entrepreneurship Investment behavioral health Hamet Watt innovation Technology Upfront Ventures Venture Capital'

GRP Partners 87

GRP Partners Startup Incubator Venture Capital 87

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Who makes more money, entrepreneurs or venture capitalists? Jason’s comments caused me to compare my career as an entrepreneur and a VC with Rincon Venture Partners. This analysis is particularly timely, given the recent tidal wave of successful entrepreneurs who have become Angel and venture investors. My Experiences.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Capital .Net Entrepreneur 100

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 22, 2011

By early 2010, I found my stylistic voice and identified my audience of emerging entrepreneurs and thus dropped my penname. In addition, my role as Partner at Rincon Venture Partners provided me with a business reason to invest additional time and effort into my humble blog. I published 21-Skype interviews during 2011.

Newsletter 205

Newsletter Blogging Santa Barbara Content 205

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

The Dave I know is very humble. Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. Hell, I can barely manage 10 investments – how could anybody do 500? I don’t know an entrepreneur or a VC who wouldn’t cut him in on any deal.” Tourette’s Dave who loves a good fight is the Dave you know.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 24, 2015

By now most of you know that Chris Sacca invested in what is now thought to be one of the best performing VC funds of all time having invested an $8.4 He has won many over (including me) through his hustle, his relationship, his service approach to venture and the fact that he is, frankly, a very likable and humble guy.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Funding RSS Technical Review 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2018

How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding. Leading with this answer will likely terminate any further investment opportunity with this investor. Don’t bash the competition. Being negative is never the answer.

Competition 51

Competition Patents Resource Entrepreneur 51

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” In my humble opinion, ideas are a commodity, and are really not worth much, outside the context of a visionary leader and a plan. But not every entrepreneur has to be a visionary.

Ideas 104

Ideas Startup Entrepreneur Resource 104

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

As is often said if you don’t get at least a few fellow VCs (and entrepreneurs) scratching their heads you may not be funding ideas with enough upside. This was certainly the case when I invested in a small YouTube video production company called Maker Studios that recently sold to Disney for just shy of $1 billion.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2018

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Customer 63

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. All of these offer the potential for a win-win relationship with a nominal competitor, rather than a win-lose deal, as long as both sides can remain humble and not try to dominate the relationship. Let market response dictate a later split, merger, or acquisition.

Startup 59

Startup Outsource Competition Acquisition 59

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2014

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. All of these offer the potential for a win-win relationship with a nominal competitor, rather than a win-lose deal, as long as both sides can remain humble and not try to dominate the relationship. entrepreneurs startup strategic partners tough competitors'

Startup 97

Startup Entrepreneur Outsource Competition 97

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2016

Long before author Stephen King sold over 350 million books, he was a budding entrepreneur. Unlike entrepreneurs, whose survival is similarly based on their ability deliver value to their customers, politicians and big company executives routinely confuse activities with results. A version of this article previously appeared Forbes.

Activity 100

Activity Startup Sales Santa Barbara 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. The longer I do this the more humbled I become.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150