Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? You’re writing a freaking blog post! Fund raising. I never get grumpy that people write.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

TechCrunch LA

JULY 2, 2020

In the past year, it’s seen one of the most profitable venture-backed exits of any tech ecosystem (with the $4 billion sale of Honey to PayPal) and investors are minting billion-dollar companies in the region at a torrid pace. When it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise.

Los Angeles 277

Los Angeles Venture Capital Capital Invest 277

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. Your culture suffers. Your CAC stinks.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Very few people fund individuals. Product : You should build a product or a prototype. You cannot be just a biz dev type, salesperson, marketing genius or whatever and divorce yourself from product. Great companies are built by having great products. And a great product starts with the founder.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. So I think it’s now fair to rate me at 9/10 on follow-on fundings. 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. ” Yup.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2012

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2021

Yet there are big challenges to hyperlocal, at least for consumer-focused hyperlocal startups, according to Sean Barkulis, Founder of UPlanMe, whose initial consumer-focused business model was an early casualty, writing in Street Fight : Every site requires real curated local content to engage users. This is not just a fad.

Startup 144

Startup Sites Content Sales 144

Berkonomics

MAY 8, 2014

I am chairman of a company that, as I write this, is twelve years old and has not yet taken a dollar of outside investment. The company has been funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all. Grant writing takes skill and immense amounts of time. .” .

Company 166

Company Companies Writing Education 166

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale. They might decide to delay new product features or upgrading technology infrastructure. He had raised about $500,000 in seed funding that lasted a long time.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

To grow faster businesses need resources in today to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. They don’t want high burn rates but they will never fund slow growth. Is it one product line or multiple? The example chart is not actually atypical.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. Obviously I’m assuming that you have a great product and/or strategy. So how does this apply to you?

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Last month, the product launched with $1.2 million in funding from Rebecca Minkoff and other unnamed investors. Creators and influencers like Bernstein are forging a path from content creator to full-fledged business, with multiple revenue streams via podcasts, licensing deals, branded merchandise and even software products. “A

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Custom 131

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2016

Not since the initial popularity of Twitter in 2007 has a product so befuddled people. I LOVE writing. But writing takes more time and some days I don’t have that. And I fund non-Snapchat users or people over 40 — I promise! — I’m We’re going to try and do some post-production if we can. Why would a VC do that?

Snapchat 200

Snapchat Blogging Venture Capital Writing 200

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

Your product demo crushed. 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. In fact, my personal fund raising strategy is to attend the first meeting by myself. I always tell people that fund raising is a sales process.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

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

JUNE 27, 2011

Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. It’s a buggy product but pretty damn cool.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

But then you can springboard from there to your next gig and you’ll be an experienced startup employee with functional experience at sales, marketing, product or whatever roles you played.” My starting salary when I joined a VC fund as a partner at the age of 39 (and after 2 exits)? It’s gonna suck, I know.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

I had an enjoyable conversation this morning with a young team straight out of college this morning and they were calling to ask advice on how to approach fund raising (angels vs. VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Connections?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

By 2012, total sales exceeded 50 million copies and founding band member Roger Waters was cited by Forbes as the second highest paid musician of the year, pulling in $88 million. Pink Floyd recorded DSOTM after a year of writing and performing the material in front of live audiences. Pay To Play.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

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 Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

And of course we help with business development introductions and with fund raising events. I have been meaning to write this for a while as I’ve noticed that much of my board time is involved in trying to be an independent referee for founders who themselves are trying to resolve their own conflicts. Those seldom get reported.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. ” Who cut you in on their bonus because even though you’re “just an sales engineer” they know you really deserved more credit for this deal. Writing a book will be fun. After 6 months – you know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2010

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 48

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 48

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out? Distribution and Sales. Who do I write the check to and where do I send it? Patents and Trademarks. Financials.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

Yager outlines in her book just a few of the reasons why an entrepreneur needs to overcome the fear, and master the art of speaking in public, and I’ve taken the liberty of adding a few occasions from my own business experience: You need funding, and have to address a group of investors.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Custom Customer 113

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

Harris writes: “The figures, dating back to 2016, paint a picture of a company desperate to meet over-ambitious autonomy targets and one that is willing to spend freely, even recklessly, to get there. .” Uber is in talks with Softbank Vision Fund and Toyota to raise $1 billion for its self-driving unit Uber ATG.

San Fernando 217

San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217