Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. Selecting the right sales channels is one of the first strategic decisions that every startup faces. Lead management performance.

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Berkonomics

OCTOBER 4, 2018

There’s almost always a closing party where the board, prime investors, attorneys and investment bankers all get together to celebrate the victory. I cannot recall ever attending a closing dinner for a sale in which we returned only a portion of the investor group’s money. It is an exhilarating ending to a great journey.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. No pain usually means no sales. Hardly anyone mentions selling principles.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2022

Most entrepreneurs believe they are “different,” but they can’t quite understand how. The classic book, “ Hunting in a Farmer's World: Celebrating the Mind of an Entrepreneur ,” by serial entrepreneur and business coach John F. Dini makes the case that entrepreneurs are hunters, while the rest of us (large majority) are farmers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Investors don’t invest in services startups. Here are some pragmatic tips on how to make your startup more scalable and investable: If you need investors, start with a scalable idea. These are more likely scalable and investable. Just because all your buddies think an idea is cool, that doesn’t mean it is scalable.

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InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 28, 2015

One of the reasons I know way more about online sales taxes than I ever thought I would is due to Rincon Venture Partners’ investment in TaxJar , one of the leaders in this emerging space. Almost every online seller will have a sales tax deadline this upcoming January. Your Sales Tax Compliance Checkup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2023

Indeed, while the rules and technologies for lead generation have changed, Forrester and other experts still see it as the most effective way for businesses with limited budgets to maximize their return on marketing investment (ROI). One of these experts, David T. Cold calling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2022

titled “ The Intelligent Entrepreneur ,” outlining the keys to successful entrepreneurship, as follows: Make the commitment. It will likely take several ideas, with the learning process of failing on a couple, before you can call yourself a successful entrepreneur. Problem solvers make successful entrepreneurs. Learn to lead.

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 6, 2022

First, the marginal exit event: Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event for the early investors, including the entrepreneur or the founders. Most sophisticated investors will take either a promissory note or preferred stock, both of which come before founder or management stock in a sale or liquidation.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I had invested in myself for years.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. Strategic planning is a required ongoing investment. Even the best college degree is not a substitute.

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socalTECH

APRIL 24, 2020

Carey tells us a bit about what OC4 is doing, how it invests and works with companies, and also gives startups some advice about how to approach moving forward in light of the pandemic. Carey Ransom: The way I think about it, is it is really the culmination of almost two decades of software and technology company building and investing.

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TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. Social media facilitates marketing and sales. Minimize investment in prototypes and tooling.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. They did development in SF and had the ad sales team in NY. This is a big news day at Upfront Ventures. I’ve known Hamet for 5 years. The idea immediately resonated.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

I recognize that entrepreneurs tend to substitute vision and passion for formal processes, but using no discipline or process in building something new is a sure way to spend money, rather than see any return and build a self-sustaining business. Solo entrepreneurs, with a team of helpers, will be assumed to be a hobby rather than a business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Is it any wonder why so few entrepreneurs ever find the professional investors they seek? Executives, marketing & sales, financial projections, and funding.

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 7, 2021

Think of startups and early stage businesses whose entrepreneurs you know. One: The entrepreneur. First, there is the entrepreneur , the visionary, and force behind the venture from start to finish. That risk deserves reward if there is a profitable sale or even an initial public offering, rare as that event is.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Forecast sales-volume expectations. This should always be a “bottoms-up” commitment from your sales team, not your own optimistic guess.

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InfoChachkie

JULY 4, 2011

Man or woman, the tactics deployed by Sam are applicable to any sales situation and can be put to use by any salesperson, irrespective of their gender. Right from the start, Sam must endure the most painful of all forms of sales rejection, the personal attack. He continues smiling and deploys a rudimentary sales technique.

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TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 12, 2022

The company also has a proprietary “Monte Carlo Simulation” to plug in point-of-sale data to manage its inventory levels at stores and reduce food waste. It has since expanded its locations with them and are now in Bristol Farms locations, including 86 throughout California.

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Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Of course, you will find yourself in opposition to your investors and some of most of your board members if you do this after taking outside investment. I was able to negotiate a “put” of my shares back to the company at 5x my investment. Investors will not be happy and will usually react. A personal experience that relates.

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Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Relevant questions include the type of business entity (LLC or C-Corp), licensing or manufacturing, sales and marketing, and staffing. Investors learned this a long time ago, so most will tell you that they invest in people, not ideas.

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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.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 20, 2023

We have years of real data to call upon: data that impacts both investors and entrepreneurs. Fortune Magazine and Harvard studies Attempting to get to the number of real failures for all startups, not just those with angel group investments, Fortune Magazine published an article claiming that 90% of these startups do fail.

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Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Those of us in the business of calculating (guessing) this mythical peak in value often make the same mistake as our entrepreneurs. Companies sometime run out of cash in the midst of their increasing success, and often find that sources of loans or investment are not freely flowing at the moment of need. What about those unicorns?

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

Even with great credentials, it is all too possible for an entrepreneur to come across as a high risk investment. Here are some “rules of thumb” that indicate a marketable and experienced entrepreneur: Highlights team strengths, more than his own. Loner entrepreneurs won’t get their foot in the door with any investor I know.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Hodes talks about how you might position your company for a sale, and some of the things you need to do as part of that process. In times of recession there is pent-up demand by entrepreneurs to sell their companies. Even in good times investment bankers will tell a seller that the company must be positioned for sale to be successful.

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InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

For those who don’t have the time to listen to our entire talk, I’ve highlighted several key takeaways below, along with the corresponding video timestamp, to facilitate quick access to issues of interest to entrepreneurs. Like a true entrepreneur, even though she was young, she took control of her life and pursued an alternative education.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). He’s bound to be able to help a company or two at the time of a sale. It’s hard for me to imagine that angel investing outcomes judged 10 years from now will have a drastically different profile.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. The best entrepreneurs focus on details.

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Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

I immediately agreed to come aboard at no cost to clean up the corporation, deferring my investment until that was done. Offering to reincorporate the game company as a new entity to avoid any more surprises, the entrepreneur and I negotiated 10% for my $100 thousand, with the remaining 90% for the founder. Recovery and success.

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InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

However, certain questions can be tricky for an entrepreneur to answer. Below are five common questions an entrepreneur will encounter when seeking venture funding. Handled appropriately, these questions provide investors a window into an entrepreneurs’ soul, which minimizes the chances of a future misalignment.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. That used to be called A-round investing. The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier.

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Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For you who fit that description, nice work. There is a lot to say about retaining control. composed of these investors and management.

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