socalTECH

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

The debt market has pretty much shut down for people, though there is some money coming out of the SBAs that have been somewhat helpful. And, the equity markets are certainly a more challenging environment. The venture capitalists we look at to fund our deals are certainly tightening down, there's no question about that.

Tech Coast Angels 231

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Angel Southern California 231

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2022

For example, Bill Gates founded and grew Microsoft, and Michael Dell built a great technology company, both with no outside funding until they went successful enough to go public years later and sell shares to common stockholders. Many times friends and family have been broken by failed investments.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Satisfaction Venture Capital 107

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions for 2019 from Southern California's technology industry. There was no monetary reward for those who participated (and Startup Boost does not take fees or equity from the companies that we help).

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Software Review Startup Coach 157

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. Building models to evaluate the deal and/or reviewing customer files, company financials, business plans, etc.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 21, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009 -- TCVN Deal Review. Need to raise funds? Attend the TCVN Deal Review and learn how to put money into your piggy bank. Entrepreneurs interested in becoming the market leaders in their industry or anyone interested in seeking equity funding should attend See [link] (more).

TCVN 100

TCVN Equity Entrepreneur Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until real revenue flows. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding to build reserves. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

A critical stage for most first-time entrepreneurs is getting their idea developed into at least a prototype to validate their technology. Acquiring seed-stage funding is admittedly tough, but a source that I find often overlooked is government grant funding, accessible in the U.S. The approval process is long and bureaucratic.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

By way of a definition, a business or startup incubator is a company, university, or other organization which provides resources to nurture young companies, usually for a share of the equity, hoping to capitalize on their success, or at least strengthen the local economy. Initial funding. Follow-on funding and connections.

Incubator 146

Incubator Technical Review Entrepreneur Mentor 146

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

James (chairman of the Althea Foundation) and appointed Adam Sroka as Senior Vice President of Technology in a move to make business transactions simple and secure. . Jackson , “This financing round, coupled with hiring Adam Sroka as our head of technology, puts CapLinked in a position to further enhance our enterprise product offerings.”.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” ” If you don’t create the message about yourself, the market will. He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Solicit funds from friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use crowd funding. Join a startup incubator.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. We spent our future since the equity was artificial. When the market run started in March people were relieved that “the world wasn’t ending” so they started spending again. So why the ’09 bounce?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. Unless you have a co-founder or two with the business skills to complement your technical ones, you need a friendly Advisory Board. Learn how to build and manage a small team.

Startup 142

Startup Technical Review Equity Entrepreneur 142

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until real revenue flows. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding to build reserves. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. I usually envision a 50-50 ownership split for their efforts, but every engineer believes the technology side deserves the majority share. Fabulous solutions require great technology.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Patents Entrepreneur Customer 101

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. What's you believe is your biggest technology risk, if any? What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? What Is This?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Solicit funds from friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use crowd funding. Join a startup incubator.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. What's you believe is your biggest technology risk, if any? What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? What Is This?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

And of course we help with business development introductions and with fund raising events. Boards are not appointed to be founder-friendly lapdogs for the 1–3 founders who start companies and usually own the largest equity positions in the company. Often we are asked to get involved in executive-level recruiting.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2016

Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Equity investments are not loans, so there is no loan payback period or interest payments. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

Equity 55

Equity Startup Technical Review Statistics 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. The easy answer of splitting it equally among all co-founders, since there is minimal value at that point, is usually the worst possible answer, and often results in a later startup failure due to an obvious inequity.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

Kleiner Perkins , one of the most storied franchises in venture capital, has already invested much of the $600 million it raised last year and is now going back out to the market to raise its 19th fund, according to multiple sources. Kleiner Perkins gets back to early-stage with its $600M 18th fund. We went out to market to LPs.

IBM 164

IBM IBM Venture Capital Invest 164

InfoChachkie

MAY 6, 2013

This is due to a fundamental disconnect between the increased activity of high-volume seed investors (that fill out lots of Seed rounds) and the relatively small number of Series A investors, who only make 1 or 2 investments, per partner, per year.". A from a new outside lead. Turtle Eggs And Startups.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Capital 246

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 1, 2013

The platform allows investors to do their due diligence on their own time, network with other investors and execute deals with little overhead.” It also has free virtual due diligence sessions, investment dashboards, an advanced data room and virtual boardroom features.

Software Review 69

Software Review Platform Equity Tool 69

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Even non-profits need money to scale, but their pitch should be to philanthropists, not equity investors. Terms “paradigm shift” or “disruptive technology” used more than once. Target market sizing higher than $10 billion. Sales projections are less than one percent market penetration. Skip the hype.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Southern California's technology community--despite all of the recent excitement around Silicon Beach--continues to be underserved in terms of capital, with a lack of venture capital funds (with money), and other private technology investors. Jeb Spencer: We consider ourselves a private equity firm.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

As an angel investor, I’ve learned to believe in this approach, since I have seen great ideas go astray, due to poor execution and I have seen apparently marginal ideas make millions, managed by a savvy entrepreneur. Similarly, mentioning viral marketing without specifics won’t assure fundability.

Ideas 53

Ideas Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 53

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

Dave Eastman: For one thing, although we're not completely unique in this, is we don't take equity. Plus, I'm also direction of the Innovation node here in Los Angeles, as well as the Managing Director fo the Viterbi Venture Fund, which is a fairly small fund, which makes passive investments in teams that are affiliated with USC.

Marina Del Rey 150

Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Every investor in your startup, even friends and family, normally expects a share of your company (equity), which means your return for all your effort goes down quickly. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. Seek funding from multiple sources concurrently.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. When should you start a company?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Solicit funds from friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use crowd funding. Join a startup incubator.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There are many things a VC is looking for in reviewing your business plan but beyond things the like the quality of revenue, margins, OPEX and CAPEX there’s a really simple rule I call, “Cash In, Cash Out, Milestones Achieved.” Let me check my plan.” If you don’t have a firm grasp of these concepts and how a VC thinks your meeting is dead.

Venture Capital 247

Venture Capital Capital Funding Demand 247

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. I argued it in my post on how social proof helps fund raising with angel investors. Markets always evolve toward higher resolution. Photo credit: D.

Venture Capital 286

Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

For example, Bill Gates founded and grew Microsoft, and Michael Dell built a great technology company, both with no outside funding until they went successful enough to go public years later and sell shares to common stockholders. Many times friends and family have been broken by failed investments.

Startup 124

Startup Satisfaction Venture Capital Entrepreneur 124