Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. 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.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” If you don’t create the message about yourself, the market will. As I talked about in “ Is it Time to Learn or Time to Earn ” – overwhelmingly the best economics go to those that start successful companies. And if you want to be a CEO one day you need the messaging to reflect that.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. 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.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. The most effective new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2016

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. 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 55

Equity Startup Technical Review Statistics 55

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

There’s a lot of mystique about what happens at board meetings and a lot of imagined board-room drama. 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. ICOs certainly have a place in startup financing.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

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. Investors expect to hear annual revenues, average margins, customer acquisition costs and sales pipelines.

Ideas 53

Ideas Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 53

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

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

was still a term being bandied about. I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 4, 2012

At the inception of a company the entrepreneur typically focuses on product development, RandD, customer relationships and sales and marketing.Often, accounting and taxation are overlooked. Join us to learn how to minimize future headaches and risks and maximize potential future benefit, by taking simple, yet cost-effective measures.

OCTANE 100

OCTANE Startup Equity Sales 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# One of the things that I’m loving about this side of the people is that it really satisfies my intellectual curiosity. We have debates about how the industries will change / evolve.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Running that effort is Kevin Hell , the founder of DivX, who we caught up with to learn more about EvoNexus and how the group is trying to help grow technology startups in San Dieog. We'd love to learn about EvoNexus and what you are doing - can you talk about the program a little bit?

Incubator 212

Incubator San Diego Technical Review Development Team Review 212

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2013

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. You need a prototype.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Technical Review Equity 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. I said that he had been talking about doing this for too long.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. 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.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 115

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

You know, they get so excited about doing deals all the time instead of doing the hard work of figuring out their businesses. A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5 I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. They get premature merge elation.

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. You need a prototype.

Technical Review 95

Technical Review Startup Equity Entrepreneur 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. 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.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

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.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

My friend Jason Hirschhorn Tweeted about this today. Don’t worry about the fact that these are the references that the candidate has hand-picked – that’s part of the process. I would start by asking the candidate, “How did you decide on these five people” as part of your review process.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity (coming soon). Apply for contests and business grants.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

They are usually offered around 0.25% of the companies equity in exchange for their role and I’ve seen many companies hand out a total of 2% to advisers. My main advice to you if you’re considering it is don’t waste much equity on it. The week before your meeting 2 people need to cancel due to travel conflicts.

Startup 306

Startup Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 306

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. You need a prototype.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Equity 102

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Value is created through diligent hard work. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Evaluate their sincerity by asking them to accept equity in exchange for all or a portion of their overall compensation.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity (coming soon). Apply for contests and business grants.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in. if you have a good use for it and we’re excited about your company – fine. But what IS the right amount of burn for a company?

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. The hottest new way of funding startups is to use online sites, like Kickstarter , to request donations, pre-order, get a reward, or even give equity.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53

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. They could chat about it with their peers or mentors. I enjoy that.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

To say that the tech elite were cynical of Hulu’s launch would be an understatement , but by the time it launched just a few months later it was getting great reviews. They are nervous about “trading analog dollars for digital pennies.&# So advertisers have to buy “run of site&# ads rather than show specific ones.

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about a lot of things during the keynote. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

They expect to hear about founders and team member’s prior experience in building a startup, and knowledge in the relevant solution domain. 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.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98