Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

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Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

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

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. I got started in investment banking, focused on helping medical companies buy technology companies, and then later in the enterprise space and in the cloud.

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TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

There’s also a relatively modest request (of only $4 billion) for funding devoted to pilot projects, startup companies, and public clean technology investment initiatives (like LACI). “ This will also help dealerships increase sales and bring needed sales tax revenues to local and state governments,” Peterson writes.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability.

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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). So, now, as a VC, I swore I'd never treat entrepreneurs like those VCs treated me. I love entrepreneurs.

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InfoChachkie

JUNE 16, 2016

Entrepreneurs create their own jobs, why shouldn’t they also create their own degrees? As described in Should Millennial Entrepreneurs Skip College? most young entrepreneurs benefit greatly from the college experience. marketing, finance, sales, etc.). Writing / English / Public Speaking. Communication.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

You don’t need to invent an innovative product to be a real entrepreneur. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago, focused on a skill specialty. Now some never see the people they support, but are experts on the technology involved. Writing specialists. Information specialists.

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InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Once you prove that a substantial number of people are willing to pay more for your solution than it costs you to provide it, you can then consider licensing your underlying technology. Grant Exclusivity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

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Startup Training Services Writing 174

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 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. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

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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. This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore.

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Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Marty Zwilling

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Startup Capital Resource Research 142

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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socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2019

What's the hardest part of being a startup entrepreneur? We write checks from $500K to a million dollars, and we like to fund engineers turned entrepreneurs. We all have backgrounds in technology, and it's what we understand the best. We aren't just technology, exclusively, but we're definitely on that side of it.

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Southern California Startup Layoffs Venture Capital 133

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

You don’t need to invent an innovative product to be a real entrepreneur. Self-employed services specialists are just as important, and are a growing part of this new “ age of the entrepreneur ” that I discussed last week. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago, focused on a skill specialty.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more.

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Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Invoca is now doing 10s of millions in recurring revenue and is growing > 75% year-over-year but it took the first 3 years to really build out the technology and acquire our initial enterprise clients. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 15 million first checks but we also have three growth funds. $15

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2018

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

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Writing .Net Commerce Entrepreneur 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

Because it addresses an internal audience, it can use technical jargon and assume the reader understands the technology. Equally important, marketing and sales people should be able to identify benefits and marketing strategies, set prices, and validate a business model. Here are some key components: Problem statement and solution.

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Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Capital Resource Research 143

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

I actually like finding entrepreneurs who are more circumspect, less braggadocios and generally more planned about their actions. Where Stealth is Bad – I do meet entrepreneurs who clearly fall on the other side of spectrum and are totally closed. That’s fine if entrepreneurs are your target market.

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Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

Although many are entertaining, most fail to provide entrepreneurs with a sufficient return on their time investment. Unfortunately, most business books do not offer entrepreneurs an adequate payoff. At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.” I was not disapointed. Tricking The Jedi.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2016

These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500. Write down agreements. Record every expense. Keep a monthly profit-loss.

Writing 96

Writing .Net Commerce Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Entrepreneurs who run startups have to be generalists to survive. Yet I’m seeing another critical group of entrepreneurs, self-employed specialists, who are a growing part of this new “ entrepreneurial revolution ” that I discussed a couple of weeks ago. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago.

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Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Startup SEM 48

InfoChachkie

JUNE 11, 2012

For many entrepreneurs, college has little appeal. Academia’s arbitrary, bureaucratic structure, combined with its predominant focus on theoretical issues, causes many entrepreneurs to depart college early. Entrepreneurs are misfits. Others, such as Walt Disney and Richard Branson never even enroll.

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Tips Startup Education Entrepreneur 279

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. 1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

My starting line with every entrepreneur is that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned from F’ing it up on my first business. I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. In every sales campaign of any substance (e.g.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

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.

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Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Unless you are a serial entrepreneur with a string of successes behind you, you need a business plan to convince investors that you can build a business out of the dream that has been driving your passion to change the world. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost.

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socalTECH

MAY 10, 2010

For today's Insights and Opinions section, we have a piece from Aaron Fyke , who has been a clean technology insider and investor for many years. I wanted to talk a little about pitching for fundrising, although this applies to many sales meetings as well.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

Most entrepreneurs realize and budget for the additional costs of incorporating a business, marketing, equipment costs, and manufacturing. Every smart entrepreneur I know thinks he can do everything personally, perhaps with a few interns or family members to help. Unanticipated pivots, quality write-offs, and shrinkage.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

Vince: I’m an author, speaker and management consultant with a special expertise in online media sales. I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days. Vince: In addition to my management writing I’ve interview many CEOs and innovators.

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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.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

How do you take a business you started as your own personal web site, and turn it into an online powerhouse, completely bootstrapped, from the little town of Ojai, California--not exactly known as a technology town? We were writing lots of books, and we'd also started the video publishing business. At the time, I got Lynda.com.

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