Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

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

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. Invest your time in networking online, as well as offline. Every future entrepreneur should start by networking.

Product 127

Product Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Technical Review 127

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

Those cultural normals are established through human connections: the night we all stayed late to get that release out the door, the day we celebrated our funding round or the day we landed our first big account. If they’re not I won’t fund. If they can’t, I doubt it will become a big, important technical company.

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. If not, at least find someone really technical that you trust to help act as an adviser to you. It is hard enough to have a great financial outcome when you start with 100%.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2012

There were a few hours of just networking and playing an ice breaking game to get to know people. The team needed would consist of at least 1 non-technical business person (me) and 2 or more technical people—designer and developer. I was only able to create a team with non-technical business people and a designer.

Startup 99

Startup Technical Advisors Ideas USC 99

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

I spoke with an investor recently who told me that 1,500 deals get funded / year in the US, 80 (5.3%) eventually sell for $50 million and only 8 (0.5%) eventually sell for $150 million or more. I advised against the SF role because it was a bigger company and his role would be pushing paper from one side of his desk to the other.

Startup 418

Startup Technical Advisors Venture Capital Santa Monica 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Most people totally advise against stealth. I worked with an entrepreneur who was to appear at a startup networking event where he was to talk about his company’s plans. You always have too much technical debt, too many problems, staff members quitting, not enough capital, customer complaints, etc. You don’t.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. There’s a guy in Los Angeles that I met at several tech networking events. He would have found somebody technical and inspired that individual to work for equity or deferred payment. Making Things Happen.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

There is a second set of career discussions I have even more frequently than my “angel yourself” advice but this type is almost never discussed publicly in blogs, which tend to emphasize only billion-dollar opportunities, 20-something technical founders and Silicon Valley elitism. Being a CEO begets the network to be a CEO.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

He posted on several social networking sites the following message: If you know of a startup company that could benefit from the knowledge, experience, professional network and reputation of a globally recognized technology and innovation leader. Later he posted about his experience in Challenges of Startups.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Venture Capital Funding 7. Prior to raising $16M+ in funding from top-tier venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital and Evercore Ventures, StrongMail was self-funded and cash-flow positive. I decided that I was going to consult/advise a few companies and relax for a bit. Relaxing 2. Incubation 3.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Frank Addante

MAY 15, 2006

L90 was the premier advertising network on the Internet. In fact, we probably had hundreds of competitors including seven that were either very well funded with significant venture capital or publicly held (e.g. One guy was the creator of Microsoft Excel and the other created the first network for IBM. (No,

Advertising 40

Advertising Startup Chief Technology Officer Technical Review 40