SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Tuesday, June 11, 2019 -- San Diego FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. At this San Diego Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! We're doing it again! There are only 15 spaces left in the Workshop.

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2019

Thursday, June 13, 2019 -- Orange County FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. At this OC Event, we will be showcasing some of the newest early-stage venture funds and angel groups in the San Diego area! We're doing it again!

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Tech Coast Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Scott Kupor of A16Z responded with a comprehensive overview of valuation methodology in a post that while accurate feels more targeted at sophisticated Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in funds. VCs strangely never seem to weigh in on other VC funds. As an entrepreneur I never really knew what to make of VC return data.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Invest Funding Competition 264

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Based on the final report for 2012 from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), it may appear that IPOs are back as a viable startup exit strategy. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5 Identify the right people in the right venture firms.

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. Clearstone currently invests out of a $200 million fund based in LA with offices in Menlo Park and in India. Some summary notes are below.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

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. But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.”

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Executive Summary. I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. maybe the best definition of ‘investing’ is ‘gambling with the odds in your favor.’ ”.

Invest 306

Invest Angel Venture Capital Slides 306

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Do they bet on the entrepreneur (jockey) or the business idea and plan (the horse)? If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. I would not, nor would most all of those I co-invest with. This is serious stuff.

Venture Capital 120

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Ideas Summary 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Do they bet on the entrepreneur (jockey) or the business idea and plan (the horse)? If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. I would not, nor would most all of those I co-invest with. This is serious stuff.

Venture Capital 120

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Ideas Summary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2011

I just read the Q1 2011 report from CB Insights , which shows venture capital is back. Sure, there is always some seed funding (10% of overall deal flow), but you can bet that this money goes to entrepreneurs who have been there before and won. Back to VCs, Silicon Valley venture capital firms are still the most active.

Venture Capital 93

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 93

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. As a summary, crowdfunding today can mean any one of the following five quite different models: Rewards model. In the U.S.,

Funding 141

Funding Startup Outsource Development Satisfaction 141

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2023

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

Statistics 98

Statistics Entrepreneur Funding Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.”

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Do they bet on the entrepreneur (jockey) or the business idea and plan (the horse)? My answer always varies as I examine each deal, sometimes deferring and passing on an investment because of an uneasy feeling about the entrepreneur, even if the business plan seems able to capture the market. This is serious stuff.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Summary Incubator 240

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

Funding 173

Funding Tips Startup Statistics 173

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know.

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development.

Invest 283

Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2016

GOAT just announced it raised $5 million in venture capital led by our friends at Matrix Partners. It’s a Chanukkah story where 18 months of venture capital funding ends up lasting more than 4 years and where against all odds the underdog succeeds. On the surface that sounds unremarkable — fundings happen daily.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital Summary Writing Funding 199

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2012

This is one of the best episodes of This Week in VC for a long time. And they invest n select VC funds. Here’s the summary and on YouTube the links to skip right to these moments is below the actual video. 45 minutes in: Andrew’s process for investing in startups. 30:30 Are you investing in email?

Media 285

Media Company Companies Venture Capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Investing Strategy. and Half.com. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). Short summary of my posts: 1. There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. It is election season.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He and I once took different sides of an debate about whether “VC signaling&# in early-stage deals is a serious problem or not. He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. Throughout all of these years I was a full-time VC so Launchpad really came out of evenings and weekends for me.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Think about venture capital. Those that were around 30+ years ago never had to think about branding – there were hardly any other VCs. But if you were going to start a venture capital fund today, you’d want to stand out. So no prizes for guessing what IA Ventures stands for.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a convertible note.&#. I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. Clearly this is is a trend and a topic that is interesting entrepreneurs.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

It’s easy to think that the wife of a well-known & successful VC ( Fred Wilson ) would have had an easy and storied life of wealth and privilege. That’s why I was so interested in having “ The Gotham Gal &# come on This Week in VC ( video link on YouTube , download iTunes, episode 15) ) and dispel those myths.

Startup 311

Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. I’ve been to similar events with First Round Capital and True Ventures. Entrepreneurs always walk away with new relationships, knowledge, deal discussions and enthusiasm.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

A popular myth these days is that successful entrepreneurs must attract investors to get their businesses going, when the reality has been that more than 80 percent of new businesses are started and grown with no outside investment at all. The first question from most investors is the size of your own investment.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity Summary 101

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase. And because as a VC or as a CEO or senior exec you get presented to all the time we’re extra sensitive to it. 25% of VCs are expressives, like you. Most entrepreneurs are.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

When I meet other VCs I’m constantly asking how they decide which investments to make, when to pass, when to do follow-on rounds, when to sell a company vs. when to go long, etc. Because I’ve asked more than 100 VCs similar questions I start to notice patterns in thinking. My job is just to be your sparring partner.

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407