Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2016

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Funding 107

Funding Startup Equity Examples 107

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Huddlewoo a live video platform set to launch early 2013 to give people the ability to access extraordinary people for one-on-one conversations and mentoring. Any funding yet? We have received seed funding from a friend and it is personally funded. Our revenue stream will come from huddles that are paid for on the site.

Mentor 94

Mentor Platform Social Network Chief Technology Officer 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2023

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Startup 106

Startup Capital Equity Funding 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2014

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Startup 113

Startup Entrepreneur Funding Equity 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

Based on my own experience as a mentor and angel investor, I find that as many as ninety percent of startups fail in the first five years, despite their best efforts. By far, the majority of new businesses I know are self-funding (bootstrapped) from your own savings and prior assets. Pick a name, location, and marketing strategy early.

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Tool 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

With the cost of entry to be an entrepreneur so low today, the common excuse of “lack of funding” doesn’t get much sympathy from me. People can build great ecommerce sites with free tools, smartphone apps in their spare time and use crowdfunding to bypass the dreaded angel funding and venture capital penalties.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Knowledge Base 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2021

I’ve always wondered if there was some way that I could quickly deduce a new entrepreneur’s “sweet spot,” and optimize my mentoring to those strengths and weaknesses, maybe similar to the Myers-Briggs type indicator for business professionals. Ultimately, most get the best help from business advisors and mentors.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Framework Mentor Web 134

Xconomy

JUNE 22, 2016

Radicle, a new accelerator fund focused on agricultural ventures, is launching today with plans to seed and nurture the next generation of agtech companies addressing global farming problems. So far, Radicle has closed on $6 million in funding, and the accelerator expects its pot will reach up to $15 million.

Funding 68

Funding Research San Diego Incubator 68

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Los Angeles-based Launchpad LA , the business mentoring and acceleration program which has been spearheaded by Mark Suster and Adam Lilling, looks to be gearing up for its third class. According to the group's web site, it will kick off the next class in November 2011, and continue until early spring 2012. READ MORE>>.

Class 208

Class Mentor Web Los Angeles 208

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

El Segundo-based iChange , the online community site focused on nutrition counseling headed by Stuart MacFarlane, has raised another $500,000, as part of an ongoing $600,000 funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. Source of the new funding was not disclosed. READ MORE>>.

El Segundo 147

El Segundo CitySearch .Net Incubator 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors.

Resource 159

Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Once off the ground she could attract mentors from her industry. She floundered a bit working with contractors before finally settling on an agency to build her first site for $20,000. I blog on entrepreneurship & VC precisely because entrepreneurs and other VCs are my customers.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

socalTECH

JUNE 1, 2012

There's an awful lot of check-in sites out there. Why would someone want to use your site? For local businesses, we're also giving them free mobile web sites, and working on other relationships. Since we started our free site last week, we've organically grown faster than we ever thought we would.

CTO Coach 223

CTO Coach Startup Mobile Artificial Inteligence 223

socalTECH

JUNE 20, 2012

There is a large menu of startup accelerators in the Los Angeles, but one of more established efforts in the area is LaunchpadLA ([link] The effort actually started as an informal mentoring program, but has grown and expanded to follow the accelerator model. It was really just something built for the community to help support entrepreneurs.

Class 261

Class Mentor Startup Santa Monica 261

socalTECH

JANUARY 27, 2010

The group also said it is focusing on its SeedTrack program, which is specifically focused on seed stage funding and extensive mentoring. The angel group also mentioned a web site design as part of its initiatives this year. Tags: tech coast angels funding venture capital seed fund. READ MORE>>.

Tech Coast Angels 157

Tech Coast Angels Orange County Seed Funding Santa Barbara 157

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

Those programs--epitomized by YCombinator in the Bay Area, and TechStars in Boulder, Colorado--attract newly minted entrepreneurs with a mixture of cash and mentoring, and a program which rapidly takes ideas and turns them into viable, executing businesses. Those mentors are not just Bruce and I, although we are full time on this.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans take too much time, are inaccurate, and rarely add value. Most of these scenarios involve attracting outside investors, strategic partners, or key team members: You are the team and you don’t need outside funding.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2015

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. This model facilitates donations to charities and creative projects, and has been around for a long time via sites such as Rockethub. Donation good-cause model. In the U.S.,

Venture Capital 108

Venture Capital Angel Satisfaction Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2019

With the cost of entry to be an entrepreneur so low today, the common excuse of “lack of funding” doesn’t get much sympathy from me. People can build great ecommerce sites with free tools, smartphone apps in their spare time and use crowdfunding to bypass the dreaded angel funding and venture capital penalties.

Startup 126

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Knowledge Base 126

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

The program is basically to take entrepreneurs, pair them with a mentor who is also an entrepreneur themselves, either a CEO or a CTO. It's structured so that they get funding, office space, all of the Internet resources, tools they need from mentors. There might be one or two mentors, one might be a CTO, another, a CEO.

CTO Coach 194

CTO Coach Startup Mentor Activision 194

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

You should also use these forums to test and hone your solution idea for general acceptance, before your risk your own money and investor funds to build a shippable version. You need to be an active member of LinkedIn, Meetup, or equivalent sites where influencers exchange ideas and discuss current business issues.

Product 127

Product Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Technical Review 127

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I challenge them to think beyond what I call linear extensions to a current trend, such as another “easier-to-use” app for smartphones, a new dating site for pets, or another niche social network. The difference relates to how you expect to get funding.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Ideas Resource Examples 126

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 8, 2021

This is an incredibly rewarding milestone and an apt tribute to the vision of my late mentor, Norman Rostoker,” said TAE’s current chief executive officer, Michl Binderbauer, in a statement announcing the company’s achievement. Over time, TAE hopes to license the D-T technology while building up to its ultimate goal.

Technology 354

Technology Artificial Inteligence Google Orange County 354

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2018

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” For example, professional investors put great priority on your previous experience in building a business, and they expect to own a portion of the business equity and control for the funds they do provide.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Funding 96

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

That's funding our new product, FanMix, which is a a social media tool. We had to figure out what would help the other 90 percent build better and more interesting sites. That's why we built FanMix, to solve our own problem, and help our SocialEngine customers to promote their own sites. We have some great mentors now.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors.

Incubator 87

Incubator Startup Resource Seed Funding 87

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Accelerator programs--like YCombinator in Silicon Valley, and TechStars in Colorado--have come to the forefront of the minds of entrepreneurs as a way to boost their ideas quickly into the market, find funding, and into existence. We're providing seed funding, office space, and put them through a three month, structured program.

Technical Advisors 176

Technical Advisors Startup Southern California Los Angeles 176

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2013

Keeping track of all the new companies, funding, networking and events going on across town is challenging. Which is why some senior tech leaders (that include Tony Pritzker , Howard Marks and Josh Berman ) banded together to bring the community online through a new site called Built In L.A. received funding, been acquired or exited.

Startup 105

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Platform 105

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2012

One, is the discovery of awesome content, two is a place to store and publicize that awesome content, and three is being able to save your usernames and passwords to literally any site on the web, and automatically log you into those sites. Both have been great mentors ever since. Scott Ferreira: Yes, it was part of it.

Startup 239

Startup CTO Coach Content Web 239

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Now they are coming back, and the best even provide networking, technical leadership, and seed funding, as well as investors waving money at graduates. TechStars has several excellent mentors on staff, led by founder and CEO David Cohen. TechStars has several excellent mentors on staff, led by founder and CEO David Cohen.

Entrepreneur 86

Entrepreneur Incubator Startup Seed Funding 86

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. We generally have a policy to only fund entrepreneurs once the first version of a product has shipped or it near to shipping. So I asked Ethan to build his product first and then we would fund. I think it’s a beautifully designed site and product.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

Even a million users on your social media site won’t pay the bills until you sell some advertising or a premium service. Distinguish growth opportunities from survival efforts, and make sure they are adequately funded, rewarded, and measured. Constantly scan the horizon for growth opportunities.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

A new startup Meritful, out of Michigan Univeristy and accelerated and funded through Ann Arbor SPARK has launched into public beta to unite both students and mentors or even teachers. Meritful is a professional network for students and mentors. Meritful is like LinkedIn for high school – with showcases and mentors.”

Help 68

Help Social Media Mentor Study 68

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2011

Now they are coming back, and the best even provide networking, technical leadership, and seed funding, as well as investors waving money at graduates. TechStars has several excellent mentors on staff, led by founder and CEO David Cohen. TechStars has several excellent mentors on staff, led by founder and CEO David Cohen.

Incubator 93

Incubator Startup Seed Funding Mentor 93

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

Unlike Yelp and listings sites that are focused on user-generated reviews or things like that, we're really a portfolio sharing site, and a tool of professionals. That's something you just can't find on Pinterest and other sites. That is all gearing up for a Series A funding, which will happen in the summer of 2018.

Technical Advisors 100

Technical Advisors Technical Review Metrics Startup 100