Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

We are in phase three of the influencer economy,” Bain Capital Ventures senior principal Jamison Hill, who led the firm’s investment in the influencer shoutout marketplace Cameo , tells TechCrunch. 2020 will be a watershed year for investment in businesses around the creator economy,” Neil Robertson tells TechCrunch.

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

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. an investment in your company.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Let’s take a few minutes to examine the kind of equity financing available to small or early stage businesses. In most cases, these applicants for equity funding must be rooted in technology to apply to this limited discussion. Angel investment groups or funds. Friends and family investors. Individual super angel investors.

Equity 156

Equity Technical Review Class Organization 156

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2020

In reality, the opportunities are greater for starting with a micro-business , ideally from your special expertise or passion, with fewer than five employees, and just enough sales to comfortably support you and your team. Just because you want to start a business doesn’t mean you are entitled to outside equity, loans, or crowdfunding.

Customer 125

Customer Custom Tool Writing 125

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”. Over-promise And Under-deliver.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

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. Should entrepreneurs have convertible debt or priced equity?

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

.&# This means that the investment does not have a valuation placed on it. a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Marketing, sales, and customer experience. Project revenues, costs and investment needs. When sizing your funding request, be aware of the value of your startup today, since most investors expect an equity share for their contributions. Current and past titles don’t convey this information.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Yesterdays’ equity round of $1.6 CapLinked says the round of funding and new appointment are an advancement in their move to displace the legacy left by Virtual Data Room (VDR) with their intuitive new product for coordinating on complex business deals such as asset sales, financings, and mergers and acquisitions.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

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.” At Upfront we invested in such a company. ” The punch line from this post was “angel yourself.” He still has the dream. He has the hunger.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2016

Of course, you can’t predict everything, but writing down what you know will identify existing problems sooner, and allow other team members to help. Seasonal sales fluctuations eat cash. Fluctuating sales means more inventory is required to cover the ups and downs. You can be on budget, and still run out of cash.

Startup 64

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 64

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Should VC’s really be impacted by public market valuations when the money that they’re investing today should be for returns in 7-10 years?

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

We want to invest in early-stage technology enabled startup businesses – upfront in the funding cycle. In fact, 90% of our investments are either Seed or A-round investments (10% are B-round). We’re a national venture capital investment firm but with our roots firmly in Los Angeles. That’s healthy.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. Don’t get me wrong – I still feel the pressure to ensure that the companies I’ve invested in perform well. I get to choose what I write about.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. Greathouse: Having run these groups, I know all about the inherent friction between sales and marketing with regard to lead quality, volume, etc., We both made personal investments in the company.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2011

Jeff Zwelling is the co-founder of Convertro (www.convertro.com), a Los Angeles company focused on helping companies track how their marketing efforts are leading to sales conversions. That's important, because it allows marketers to re-invest and give credit to that marketing event, so they can buy more of it and get more customers.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Customer Custom 210

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). So people sell or at least don’t invest. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Each of your angels or seed investors may have 20-30 investments. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Most advisors will tell you to write the business plan first (20-30 pages), then distill the key points into a set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides for standup presentations to potential investors. Marketing, sales, and partners. Describe marketing strategy, sales plan, licensing, and partnership plans. Exit strategy.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Berkonomics

APRIL 3, 2014

There are three classes of equity investors for early stage businesses that we have not yet considered. First, angel investment groups come in all sizes from a few organized angels to large groups of three hundred or more. Angel groups invest from $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more in qualified investments.

Equity 232

Equity Startup Organization Invest 232

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. You are either bought for stock or for equity. When I write quick posts and don’t have much edit time I feel I am often misunderstood or misquoted. Think about it.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

agreeing whether or not to top up a founder’s equity. negotiating with other VCs over who gets to invest how much. As a result I’ve really resisted writing about negotiations. If I forget to write, “Don’t Negotiation Piecemeal” after that then remind me. submitting term sheets.

Pricing 305

Pricing Startup Examples Writing 305

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The recent firing of Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is a cautionary tale of the increased scrutiny and heightened expectations that come from accessing increasingly larger amounts of investment capital. Thirteen months after raising more than $10 billion in the public markets the board forced Mason out after another dismal financial quarter.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Consider it a sales & marketing expense for them.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

In this instance my personal style is to have entrepreneurs in whom I’m considering investing to call my good references and those where we have gone through some tough times so in that sense I end up in the 0.05% but I tell entrepreneurs I’m doing this and why. . The person lacks some judgment in whom they listed.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. Starting small and nimble allows you to adjust and be flexible as you gain experience instead of being tied to a large concept by heavy investment in upfront costs.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e. The board is where large equity investors get their representation. I really like it when independent directors write a check into the company. That way somebody who writes $25,000 gets $50,000 worth of stock plus warrants. obviously make an exception.

Startup 187

Startup Writing Venture Capital Oracle 187

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. Some money out of every investment.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

The trouble is, nobody has an incentive to agree to write the first check. ” If you remember the three rules of sales : it’s. There is simply no reason for the first angel to write you a check until you have the whole round secure, which is why people herd cats. You can do it with equity & a price.

Pricing 294

Pricing Venture Capital Writing Equity 294

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors. In high volume startups starting to scale up, this will provide cash on your sales immediately, rather than waiting for 30 to 60 days or longer for payment.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all. How I Think About Seed Investing As A VC - Feld Thoughts , August 2, 2010 Last week saw an explosion of discussion around seed investing, including plenty of negative comments around VCs as seed investors. equity debate. What’s going to happen in the future?' Final Thought.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217