Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Online marketing uses techniques for driving promotion and place.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2019

in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences from West Virginia University, and told us a bit about the fund, its investments, and his advice to entrepreneurs looking for investment from the company. What are you looking for in a company and entrepreneur? What's your biggest advice to an entrepreneur? What is OCV Partners?

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Invest SaaS Entrepreneur 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. Good marketing is not rocket science.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Yet in my experience on both sides of this equation, I find that many aspiring entrepreneurs focus only on the best idea , assuming that it will attract the right investors. Investors love entrepreneurs who come across as constantly on the lookout for new ideas, and able to grasp the larger implications for market change.

Ideas 140

Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 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.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I found some help from marketing coach David Newman’s new book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. entrepreneurs need to focus more on who they are marketing to and why.

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 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.

Innocal 255

Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. 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.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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.

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

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. We''ve helped close 34 seed and Series B deals over the last nine months, and we''re growing really rapidly.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Invest Platform Entrepreneur 174

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]. The only point we didn’t seem totally aligned on was what we happening to the “middle of the VC market.”

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

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.

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2015

By definition, every startup is predictably unpredictable, since new solutions have no proven track record, startups are usually building a new market, and the world around them is changing faster than ever. Five major elements of every business include your people, product, opportunity, money and marketing.

Startup 105

Startup Entrepreneur Marketing Satisfaction 105

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? I didn’t sleep much back then.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

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. It’s a market, after all. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. He said, “I prefer to do Enterprise A rounds and Consumer B rounds.

Venture Capital 374

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. Customers can be very tough bosses. Customers can be very tough bosses.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Statistics Startup Class 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

Of course the VC is looking to have specificity in how you plan to spend the money you’re going to raise and plans that show a pie chart that says, “25% on marketing, 30% on technology and R&D, 20% on infrastructure, 25% on G&A” do not get funded. Yes, I see plans this pedestrian. This is a red flag for VCs. You might not like this?—?but

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

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.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 176

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. The Dave I know is very insightful about marketing, channel management and building developer ecosystems. He’s loved by both sides.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. 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.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

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! Gender Bias.

Study 243

Study Advertising Research Customer 243

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. They hired a marketing team to promote their products more broadly. If there was strong market demand for their product then this investment might pay off handsomely.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

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. It’s part of what makes him so likable.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

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?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417

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. They must know their market and borrowers. Tell us a bit where PeerStreet is nowadays?

Funding 113

Funding Platform News Capital 113

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. What does the market look like for IPO’s and is this likely to improve?

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

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. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Companies like DogVacay solve a real need in the market. On the other side, animal loves in need of extra money or stay-at-home parents, the elderly, whoever – can make extra money while just carrying out their normal life routines. We got along and shared stories about the startup market. My Experience.

Venture Capital 344

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review San Diego 344

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.” VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. So why does a VC ask you?

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

That’s why I started the Sales & Marketing Series and at one point I will do a bunch of posts on the sales methodology we developed at my first company called PUCCKA. a) they don’t tend to make great heads of sales departments and b) they aren’t the people you want early in your company. LOVING Balsamiq!

Startup 350

Startup Sales Framework Organization 350

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2011

We also put together the Series B with Redpoint for Machinima. I think the benefit here we have in Los Angeles, unlike any other place in the world, is we have a skill set to understand those consumers, we understand marketing to consumers, and we understand the importance of customer experience. Now, time is on their side.

Riot Games 199

Riot Games Technology Los Angeles Entrepreneur 199

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.

UCLA 104

UCLA Southern California Santa Monica Pricing 104

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

We caught up with Jim Armstrong to learn more about the new fund, areas of interest, his insights into what makes startups successful, and where he thinks the venture market is today. On the B2B marketplace side, that area has been an interest of our fund, and has been for awhile. It's all about the entrepreneur.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 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. It's a known market with urgency, so we started there. READ MORE>>.

Southern California 242

Southern California Startup Cloud Computing El Segundo 242

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. I began asking around who the likely investors were for such a market. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves. I like to repeat the mantra, “necessity is the mother of all invention,&# meaning that because investors have this expectation you find entrepreneurs that focus on nearer term monetization.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290