Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

But when I’m looking to write my check I need to look in the eyes of the captain — the maestro who brings the whole orchestra together. If your idea is so amazing that it warrants my hard-earned angel money or the money of my LP investors from our fund then why should I take a risk on you if you won’t take a risk on yourself?

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. Don’t just mentally write off their features or marketing as “dumb” – ask internally what you could learn from it. Understand what they do well and why.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

As I write these words I already imagine my next deposition in which I’m asked to read this out loud. I angel funded a company 5 years ago. Because no VCs would fund them with a pending lawsuit of this nature. I funded a company where the CEO stepped down. *. Lawsuits. Lawsuits are becoming so prevalent these days.

Startup 150

Startup IP Writing Ideas 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Compelling. whether they invest or not.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

For those who still don’t know the origins, the Harlem Shake started as a small skit from a YouTuber named Filthy Frank (10 million views as of this writing) on January 30, 2013. As of this writing nearly 50,000 versions have been created and uploaded and watched by some 200,000,000 people. Harlem Shake. million views).

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

We can tell that they're using a voice-over-IP phone number or prepaid mobile phone, and we might not allow them to register because their experience is that a majority of their fraudulent activity comes from those type of phone numbers. One of the partners, Greg Goldfarb, was really excited about Telesign. I was introduced to the founders.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. I know that Founder’s Coop has a fund as does TechStars Seattle. Seattle has its patrons. Elder Statesmen.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I save room in literally every deal to invite angels (or seed funds) to co-invest with me. Even if one disagrees with the premise, why would anyone feel the need to attack Mike for writing it? With strong leads (VCs, seed funds or large angels) there is an unwritten Pottery Barn Rule. All of my partners at Upfront do.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. But the firm that funded my first startup was loyal to me for having stuck around in what they knew to be pretty tough times and having suffered much dilution. They seed funded my second company and even let me buy some IP in exchange for debt to get started.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation. In the old days there usually weren’t convertible notes on early-stage deals and there weren’t party rounds with 20 angels or 6 seed funds. It’s worth reading his post to understand the problem. I can boil it down to how this tension plays out.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2019

We write checks from $500K to a million dollars, and we like to fund engineers turned entrepreneurs. Sometimes what I say, is if brand is your moat, and you're a direct-to-consumer company, versus where you really have some technology, and you have some IP, that's the side of the spectrum we play on.

Southern California 133

Southern California Startup Layoffs Venture Capital 133

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2010

Plus, there's always shoulder surfing--when people write them down, and are grabbing for your daytimer or spreadsheet for passwords--that's treating passwords like it's the 1950's, and leaving your front door key under a door mat. It's a very different approach, but is more secure and more intuitive.

Technology 124

Technology Web Sites Orange County 124

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 3, 2015

I often write about the best strategies for startup fundraising or how to manage startup financing and optimize for growth. To make sure your IP is protected — As I’ve written before, failing to develop an IP strategy, including a plan for protecting your IP as well as avoiding unwitting infringements of someone else’s, is a huge mistake.

Startup 40

Startup Outsource Development IP Outsource 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

I then had to review a nefarious IP lawsuit filed against another company and help the CEO figure out whether we should just pay it or join forces with the other companies named and fight it. At night I had a group dinner where I met 6 new entrepreneurs and hung out with some old friends from law firms, banks and other VC funds.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

It’s what signals to existing investors how quickly their teams need to be fund raising and the level of risk the company is facing and also it signals to potentially new investors both how quickly you need to raise (ie you have less leverage if you’re in a rush) as well as how much cash you’ll need if they fund you.

Startup 383

Startup Companies Company .Net 383

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Thus, follow the guidelines outlined in IP – Worthless To A Startup and only spend significant time and effort protecting your intellectual property when it is clear what you are trying to protect. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 15, 2010

While handling bots, you should detect search engine crawlers, too: /* lookup your crawler IP database to populate $isCrawler; then, if the IP wasnt identified as search engine crawler: */ if ($isCrawler !== from the IP address range 65.52.0.0 Other rogue bots identify themselves by IP addy, user agent, and/or referrer.

SEO 37

SEO IP PHP Blogging 37

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issues, technology trends, funding rounds, etc. At Sony, he didn’t feel like he could “steer the ship” and get his ideas heard so he left and started GUBA, GUBA had no seed funding. at a level of specificity you don’t always find in VCs.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302