socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Blackline Systems - This maker of accounting software apparently has just filed, or is about to file confidential paperwork for an IPO, being managed by Goldman Sachs. Snapchat - Snapchat--or as it calls itself now, Snap Inc.--is The company has been rumored to be seeking an IPO since last year.

Southern California 100

Southern California Dollar Shave Club Acquisition Snapchat 100

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2018

We love Omar, our partner at Sequoia, who is an entrepreneur himself, and sold his last company to Google for $700M. He's a very sharp entrepreneur, and shares the same vision. At the beginning, we did see some pushback, but the software really helps truck drivers. We actually got multiple term sheets from Tier One VCs.

Startup 173

Startup Pricing Marketing Entrepreneur 173

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

We sold Velocloud to Vmware, in the software defined network (SDN) area. Our strategy is to get into a company, sometimes early, in the A, B, or C round, in a theme or entrepreneur we really like. Something like a CrowdStrike might be worth more than a Snapchat, in the end. Those investments have really broken out.

Funding 160

Funding Capital Artificial Inteligence Startup 160

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

San Diego-based Wildfire Systems , led by startup veteran Jordan Glazier , has developed software which product referrals and automatically transform them into trackable links across email, text messaging, chat, and social messaging. Our software just has to be on a user's device, and we have lots of ways to get there.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

socalTECH

MARCH 11, 2014

Venice-based Zefr (www.zefr.com) got its start in the content world--licensing movie clips and posting them online--but soon, figured out there was a whole different opportunity in developing software tools to understand exactly what was happening on YouTube. That''s what we call our rights ID or rights management software stack.

Hollywood 159

Hollywood Help Media Content 159

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Or you know the other one — the one where Snapchat lost $2 billion in just one quarter. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? The first company represents a normal software company that sells its products directly (either via sales staff or directly off of the internet). Two-f **g-billion!

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Prime examples include Uber, Airbnb and Snapchat.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things. Unless you’re SnapChat, Instagram or similar this is probably 3-5 years into your existence. In the Growth Years.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Wednesday November 20 th , 2013 was a special day for the technology entrepreneurs at the University of Southern California. The USC Entrepreneur Club and the Kairos Society brought Howard Marks , a successful entrepreneur and founder and CEO of StartEngine , on campus to speak about his past experiences. The Time Is Now. “We

Startup 107

Startup Los Angeles USC Southern California 107

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Traditional software vs. SaaS. Most entrepreneurs I encounter seem to make their decisions more on perceived brand, past successes and ability to intro. The problem with this is that past successes aren’t always relevant to future ones as the methods and environment of the past may no longer apply. Think of web vs. mobile.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

To build applications we needed databases (Oracle), browsers (Netscape), servers (Sun Microsystems), storage (EMC), security (Semantic), application servers (Apache), caching software, load balancers, hosting facilities, programming languages and methods, CDNs, DSL equipment, Wifi routers and so forth. And then the world changed. KickStarter?

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

When I counsel startup entrepreneurs I give them my blunt dose of reality, “If you can’t easily identify target leads who have a problem you can solve then hang up your cleats – you’re not going to succeed.” I built my first software company in the early days of SaaS and there were few models to go by.

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150