Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 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. As I tell our LPs, “if I’m not making you slightly uncomfortable when I’m writing my first check I’m not doing my job.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “ 10,000 hours.&#. Talented brand sales people? If you wait until you need to fill somebody in a roll you’re losing valuable time as an entrepreneur. Help them write other stories. One day they’ll write yours. Recruiting. 50 coffee meetings.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

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. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

Hint: He was an entrepreneur. A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their friends that they are “a writer”. The same is true of entrepreneurs. These would-be entrepreneurs are best classified as Wantrepreneurs, as discussed in Entrepreneurial Enterviewing.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As noted in Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Pitch Their Ideas To Venture Capitalists , most sophisticated investors place their bets on people rather than opportunities.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2010

I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read. It might be a VP of Sales, Marketing or Technology. Or it may just be a junior programmer, sales rep or accountant. When I started blogging I had an idea.

Startup 294

Startup Press Course Writing 294

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Now, I’m pretty on the record that being an entrepreneur is about being great at The Do. I have written about the need for entrepreneurs to take inventory in themselves before deciding whom to hire as the rest of the team. I’ve written about these sales mavericks before. I get sucked up in “Do” mode.

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. It sure wasn’t when I was a first-time entrepreneur.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective?

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. As Brian Solis is fond of saying, “PR stands for public relations, not press release.&# That’s right. I was an entrepreneur. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. Some search. Both Sides of the Table.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get paid (well) for interesting people to come in and tell me how they want to change the world – Being an entrepreneur is like having blinders on. At least for the best entrepreneurs. Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. I love it.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2015

My Forbes co-contributor Geri Stengel concurs that something is happening in the Volunteer State, writing last month about that state’s emerging women entrepreneurs. Savvy entrepreneurs - seek out programs which incorporate these post-graduation activities. Provide High Impact Exposure Beyond Your Hometown Press.

Startup 100

Startup Class LAMP Santa Barbara 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? I know this category has gotten a lot of press. And Austin Murray runs sales & marketing – a role he also held at JAMDAT. But wait, there’s more!

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

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. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. I read Andy’s post with a knowing smile on my face.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

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. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. What a bubble means for each entrepreneur. Fair enough.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her generation. When I began gathering examples of Oprah’s wisdom, I expected to identify a handful of quotes relevant to entrepreneurs. From these, I collected 23 insightful missives of interest to aspiring entrepreneurs. Her fans knew that she was not “for sale.”

Tips 279

Tips Startup Networking Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We try to hire people who we believe will be upfront and respectful of entrepreneurs and know that it’s far easier to judge ones decisions on the outside than it actually is to have to make the tough decisions inside of a startup every day. We could all do better – I’m sure. Conviction. Winning paves over any flaws.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 15, 2014

From building companies to providing insights across different industries, she’d gotten the full suite of experiences at Techstars (and encourages participation for any entrepreneur). That’s what drew me to them as I hopped on board for PR/marketing, and a little bit of sales and operations.”

Outsource Development 108

Outsource Development Startup Incubator Press 108

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

We jockey to make sure the press release has our names on it. This is the time it takes for a bankruptcy or asset sale to occur. Yet nearly any entrepreneur who has an idea that other people aren’t doing will tell you that it’s hard to get investors excited. I will write about some of these topics soon.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

They don’t show up in a calculation that says I spent $7,000 and I got X-thousands inches of press. Fund Raising – No self respecting VC would admit (even to themselves) that they are influenced by what they read about you in the press. Press matters. Just like negative press hurts. They are silent.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

There have been a lot of entrepreneurs here in software and other industries, and interestingly enough there seem to be more self-funded, bootstrapped firms here, rather than those looking for venture capital to get off the group. The traditional way to handle that is to write code. That's been because of our ability to do two things.

Networking 214

Networking IBM IBM Pacific Palisades 214

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. o Huge on PR, “Be Everywhere” is his motto – fly to NY, proactively everywhere he could get press. o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing. On Entrepreneurship: What makes a great entrepreneur? He told them it was now or never.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Yet a critical mistake I see many entrepreneurs make is that they hand over too much control to their third-parties. I doubt they’d be willing to press harder in questioning and/or be more attuned to negative signals that the reference might be implying but not actually saying. We’re both principals in a sale.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

That ended up as a $200 million sale to Microsoft. If you look at our web site, there is Charles McColgan, who is the CTO; Forrest Hobbs, who is VP of Sales; Terry Somers, who is VP of Network Services; Max Powers, who is VP of Client Services; the list goes on and on. In 2011, we had two of our patents approved.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

Yet despite his ability to raise over $1 billion of private equity and to build an organization that is worth $5 billion as of this writing, Mason was shown the door. So, whether an entrepreneur raises money or not, they have to have a long-term vision. By this measure, Groupon was by no means your typical start-up.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - I think Robert’s right. .

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2013

Many first-time entrepreneurs have grown up digital natives so have a really good intuitive feel for technology & design but don’t yet have the business basics down. . I’m not talking only about a sales call, getting past the assistant or anything like that. Write your set of bullet points on paper before the call.

Startup 364

Startup Writing Help Email 364

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Many entrepreneurs let the early rejections get to them and it’s normal because when you hear “no” you think “what’s wrong with me!?” Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you. Happy raising.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. I learned how to get press coverage when we were no longer “hot.&# I learned how to manage costs effectively. But in our first year of sales (and those were really shitty years to be selling software) we sold $2.1 I never built Google.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 2, 2011

Thiel and friends will also agree to mentor these young entrepreneurs. In Poly Sci I learned critical thinking and writing. If you’re excellent at what you do (coding, sales, marketing, leadership) and you can demonstrate that, I really don’t care if you went to or dropped out of college. So is this a good idea?

Education 322

Education Startup Incubator Class 322

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

I’m looking for somebody who can sell, but not better than our head of sales. You want somebody who can raise $15 million to build out your R&D, business development and sales organizations. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. I wasn’t sure whether he was an entrepreneur.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

He went from recruiter to IT manager to technical sales… Then, he did such a great job in sales that we had to build up more infrastructure for our ad-serving and email delivery platform to support the increased demand. Additionally, entrepreneurs get tired. We invested the first $1 million to develop version 1.0

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40