Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog was wiped out. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Too Techie - Tone down emphasis on the technology underlying your venture; an interested investor will perform tech diligence at the appropriate time. No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. Distribution and Sales. Capitalization. Patents and Trademarks.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. I recently wrote a post on how to Deal with your Elephants in the Room during your VC meetings. Elephants being big issues that the VC will be thinking whether you bring it to his/her attention or not. Skeletons in the Closet are these types of issues.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Examples 311

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Venture Capital is a game of pattern matching. Whenever a VC assesses a potential investment opportunity, they attempt to match the entrepreneur(s), their solution, and intended markets with a pattern they have previously encountered. A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Hairy Pattern Matching.

Technical Review 244

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital RSS 244

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. Once you’ve been around for a few years, attracted some great people, landed real, paying customers and raised venture capital you’ve likely got a talented team around you.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until real revenue flows.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). Ryan Blair: The theme around the fund is pretty simple. I'm a bit of an anti-VC, as you know.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. Why did the VC markets freeze so quickly?

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Very few people fund individuals. I know you’re not a tech guy and haven’t done anything other than an HTML course you once took, but if you’re inspirational and a leader you’ll find somebody to moonlight for free to get your prototype built.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Fortunately, for those headed to SXSW, Startup Night SXSW 2018 , presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo, will be filled with investors from a multitude of industries who are looking to discover and fund startups building the latest solutions and tech innovations. Ashley Bowling, Founding Member of NextGen Venture Partners.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

According to Eric Robison, the firm's CEO, the funding round will go towards increasing the firm's global reach and expanding content. Meritech Capital also participated in the funding. The business saw a dramatic growth when--due to the downturn of the dot com crash--the company started to post its video online.

Funding 178

Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator. This is all explicit decision making.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. ” Harsh, but reality.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2010

Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is @launchpadlad. When I kicked off Launchpad LA a year ago I had a few objectives: Create an ecosystem where all Southern California VC’s had the chance to work together more actively outside of the boards on which we mutually sit.

Technical Review 259

Technical Review Venture Capital Southern California Tech Coast Angels 259

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until real revenue flows.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Reviewing financial & operational performance. In the Early Days.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

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

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. That would mean that the increased number of new business startups will lead to a “funding gap&# of deals that can’t get financed. Or a quick flip. This requires novel thinking.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

According to a Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don''t attract investors failing within the first three years. Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Use crowd funding.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Solicit funds from friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use crowd funding. Commit to a major customer.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. This has led to the creation of incubators, accelerators and seed funds. The Funding Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. Hopefully it’s not as a way of avoiding fund raising or finding quick pockets of money. In the Ad Tech world PS revenue often means providing “media services” as a value-add to using your product.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Company 321

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. It influenced a generation of tech marketers. The book popularized the technology adoption lifecycle curve that originally came out of Iowa State University shown below.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I’m not even talking about your 12-page Powerpoint presentation that you need to raise venture capital or to talk with potential biz dev partners. Why do VC’s care about these years?

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC. Here’s what those VCs (and us entrepreneurs, myself included) didn’t understand: 9 women can’t make a baby in a month. Over funding often produces bad behavior in early-stage companies. It takes options off of the table.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Our interview today is with Andrew Schydlowsky , the CEO and founder of Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet (www.trackstreet.com), a startup which is backed by Okapi Capital, The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners. What is TrackStreet?

Artificial Inteligence 140

Artificial Inteligence Startup Commerce Sales 140

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2017

The insurance industry today is one of the last industries to fully jump into adopting technology for offering up their products, says Wayne Slavin , CEO and founder of SURE (www.sureapp.com), and just needs some help in getting there. We're here to serve, as a technology distribution platform, to help those insurance carriers become digital.

Southern California 244

Southern California Technical Review Startup Commerce 244

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

In the world of mobile app and Internet startups, it''s not that often that you see companies who touch the hardware side of the world get funding nowadays. The firm recently raised a $15M series C funding, and we caught up with Kevin to learn more about why its customers, and investors, are interested in its technology.

Technical Review 213

Technical Review Software Review Networking Technology 213

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Southern California's technology community--despite all of the recent excitement around Silicon Beach--continues to be underserved in terms of capital, with a lack of venture capital funds (with money), and other private technology investors.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

Self-funding or bootstrapping is still the most common and safest approach for startups Keep your day job until revenue starts to flow. Solicit funds from friends and family. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use crowd funding. Commit to a major customer.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 8, 2011

For those who still might be wondering what Spotlight: LA Tech is all about, It’s a screening room for new technology homegrown in our region. It’s a gathering of friends and tech enthusiasts of all stripes. This Spotlight takes place Thursday, July 14, at The California Institute of Technology (CalTech). RSVP: AGENDA.

CalTech 100

CalTech Technical Review Company Companies 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have never felt prouder of the team & product at awe.sm ( please visit to check out our latest & be ready for our next big product announcement due out in next month or so) and yet we just brought in a new CEO to the company, Fred McIntyre. I know because I marked the occasion with a blog post on how to have a great VC meeting.

Startup 303

Startup Technical Review Product Blogging 303