Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

If you’ve taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I’m talking about. The truth is that in my experience very, very few people really enjoy the “pure&# startup environment: months with no salary, months with no live product and lots of trial, error & rejection. Our user numbers are up.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. Erin’s main points: “As a former tech sales executive, I agree with many of [Mark's] lessons — when applied to later-stage, post-traction point startups.

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Startup Sales Course Competition 319

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The conversation centered around a founder who's key question is "Where Do I Find a Developer for My Startup?" His goal was to find a programmer who would come in as an early partner and work as an Equity-Only Developer. At that point, you can't really just try to find someone to build it on the side, do equity only, etc.

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Guide Startup Mobile Framework 349

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

We’ve grown accustomed to a professionalism where we know when a work issue comes up we can count on each other for a quick Sunday call between family time. And that person has almost certainly chosen specifically to be a startup lawyer over serving other types of customers because he or she enjoys working with entrepreneurs.

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Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I spoke at Stanford last year about starting a tech company. They really cleverly chopped the video up into small bite-sized segments. Here is a quick summary of my POV: When you start a company a 50/50 partnership seems obvious. One person gets married or has kids and starts to de-prioritize the business.

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Startup Equity Funding Summary 393

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

Team up with Black firms already doing the work. We’ve created the HBCUvc Donor Circle as an opportunity for supporters and individuals to engage in our work and join a long-term strategy toward racial equity in venture capital and technology,” she wrote in the post. Among the strategies? Read the whole HBCUvc blog post here.

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Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

TechCrunch LA

MAY 19, 2018

In startup-land, however, the presumptions about where housing demand is going looks a bit different. A Crunchbase News analysis of residential-focused real estate startups uncovered a raft of companies with a shared and temporary housing focus that have raised funding in the past year or so. This isn’t a U.S.-specific

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Startup Los Angeles Demand Social Network 272

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

According to more recent statistics , fewer than a quarter of all crowdfunding operations end up being successful, and the rest have to return anything they do collect. Have you ever wondered what professional startup investors think about all this? Lack of checks and balances on startup valuations. Risk is increased.

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Equity Statistics Platform Entrepreneur 164

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

An edtech startup called Entity Academy — which provides women with training, in areas like data science and software development; mentoring; and ultimately job coaching — has raised $100 million on the heels of strong growth of its business, and an ambition to improve that ratio.

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Mentor Training Startup Course 297

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity.

Startup 174

Startup Equity Patents CTO Hire 174

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

A large part of this conversation is what kinds of advisors startups should be looking for. A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. We both felt that most startups are not taking a very systematic approach to defining with they need in terms of advisors. Connected Advisors?

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CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

If you really want to start a business your way without a boss or professional investor hovering over you, then just fund it yourself or through friends and family, and grow it organically. According to Investopedia , over 90 percent of successful businesses currently start this way. Don’t assume you must plan for exponential growth.

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Equity Social Media Startup Summary 139

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 23, 2023

Here is the warning: The execution of equity allocations and of a good incentive program using equity is often mismanaged, damaging the corporate capitalization structure and even affecting the outcome of subsequent investment into the company. … Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun.

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Equity Class Pricing Sales 156

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. A co-founder who started by working hard but gets sucked into the tech party circuit and has more interest in socialize than building cool s**t.

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Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

What is Startup Boost , and how is it looking to help early stage startups in Los Angeles? We recently sat down with Matt Stodder , Co-Director of Startup Boost/Los Angeles, and Blake Caldwell , Global Director of Startup Boost, to learn more about the program, what it offers up to startups.

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Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. Last week, I profiled an e-commerce startup Part & Parcel. Startup Spotlight: Landline. IPO Update.

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Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

TechCrunch LA

MAY 8, 2019

GumGum , the Los Angeles-based startup that’s spent the past decade applying machine learning technologies to advertising and sports, has spun out a new healthcare startup focused on the dental industry called Pearl. “I started the process of collecting dental x-rays over three years ago.”

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Artificial Inteligence Startup Yammer Los Angeles 200

Berkonomics

JANUARY 7, 2021

It starts with sharing the opportunity and upside. Think of startups and early stage businesses whose entrepreneurs you know. We should think of the creation and growth of a high valued company as the sum of three parts, with three distinct classes of participants helping to make real value out of a raw start-up.

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Startup Equity Statistics Entrepreneur 240

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

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Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Trade equity or services for startup help.

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Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

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Startup Ideas Equity Invest 148

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Investors love it when entrepreneurs draw little or no money from their startups. Email readers, continue here…] You could start by charging more for your executive salary, then paying out less in cash, accruing the rest into a payable amount due to you in the balance sheet or plan. What are you worth to the business?

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Equity Journal Startup Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

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Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

So I promised that I would provide a follow-up after the session. This is that follow-up and hopefully it’s useful to people outside of the session as well. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Have they considered everything?

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Develop Development CTO Coach CTO Hire 280

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2020

They know from forums such as Shark Tank on TV that asking for either too much or too little will derail credibility in the eyes of the investor, and leave the entrepreneur with no money and a struggling startup. If you have a good idea, but haven’t started yet, only friends, family and fools will likely be interested.

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Startup Equity Invest Funding 135

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

I often advise startup companies not to try and pin all of your brand equity into an announcement. It’s something you must earn over time by living up to the name you define. We are trying hard to live up to the guidelines we laid out for our investors, our portfolio companies and our community.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. So, the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity.

Equity 99

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 99

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies. In total, more than $60 billion was invested in LA startups in 2018. “It’s still really underserved from a capital standpoint,” Zhuo said of the LA region.

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Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2018

Los Angeles is becoming one of the more interesting destinations for startups and the investors that provide money for venture capital firms to place bets on young companies are increasingly starting to take notice. New funds are launching in Los Angeles at a pretty feverish clip, and the latest to plant its flag in the […].

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SoCal Southern California Los Angeles Startup 271

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

More than 5,000 startups were surveyed to create the data. According to the research, VC investment into London-based impact tech startups has grown by almost 800% (7.8 capital has produced 241 impact startups since 2006, with 95 companies founded in San Francisco. times) since 2015, compared to 3.1 times in Europe as a whole.

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Venture Capital Press Invest Research 357

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2018

Los Angeles is becoming one of the more interesting destinations for startups and the investors that provide money for venture capital firms to place bets on young companies are increasingly starting to take notice.

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SoCal Southern California Los Angeles Startup 217

socalTECH

AUGUST 3, 2020

A few weeks ago, Help With Black Equity (www.helpwithblackequity.com) launched an effort to help connect volunteers with efforts to help with addressing racial disparities, including here in Southern California. Deevee Kashi: This started as HelpWithCovid. What is HelpWithBlackEquity?

Equity 124

Equity Resource Startup Platform 124

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2021

For today's interview, we spoke to Dave Eastman, the Director of the Viterbi Startup Garage, a startup incubator that is run by the University of Southern California, out of its location in Marina Del Rey. What is Viterbi Startup Garage? The Startup Garage is located physically in Marina Del Rey, in the twin tower on Admiralty.

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Marina Del Rey Startup USC Incubator 150

TechCrunch LA

MAY 12, 2020

This morning, Snap joined a host of startup accelerators shifting its demo day online amid the COVID-19 quarantine. With its third class of startups, Yellow, Snap’s in-house startup accelerator that launched in 2018, brought investors and founders together in private slack channels after a live-streamed presentation.

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Invest Startup Artificial Inteligence Class 237

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2023

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. Bankers do not contribute equity. The short answer is that some banks will help, if you do your homework. Money from other sources.

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Equity Technical Advisors Funding Ideas 121

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. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. .” Who else does Clayton pray for? Stay Out of Jail.

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

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. Find a private equity firm or friendly individual.

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Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150