Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. 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. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “ Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. After the sales meetings I would ask the exec afterward, “how do you think it went?&#

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges?

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Los Angeles-based venture investor Bonfire Ventures , the venture capital fund led by SoCal VC veterans Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen, has launched a fundraising effort for a new fund, Bonfire Ventures Select I , according to a regulatory filing from the firm this week. READ MORE>>.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

On Funding?—?Shots When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.” billion When Ring started, even the folks at Shark Tank wouldn’t fund it. the sale of the company for $1 billion. It was ~30 days from bankruptcy.

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Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. It is not a strong bargaining position for the CEO to ask for money to complete a product promised for completion with the previous round of funding. The art of good management.

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Venture Capital Product Marketing Resource 296

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds.

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InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Jason concludes that: A top founder takes much more risk, at least on paper, but can make a lot more than even the best VC of all time. A pretty good VC probably makes more than a pretty good and successful founder. Jason’s comments caused me to compare my career as an entrepreneur and a VC with Rincon Venture Partners.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

Fund raising is hard for everybody. The perverse nature of raising capital is that “no’s” almost always precede “yeses” because it’s very easy for a VC to tell you that you’re not a good fit without doing any real work to evaluate your company so you hear “no” far before others start doing more work.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2021

Los Angeles-based Endgame, a developer of software that links user behavior with sales opportunities, has raised $17M in funding, according to the company. The funding was split between a $12.25M, Series A funding round led by Menlo Ventures, and an earlier $5M Series Seed funding which was led by Upfront Ventures.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. What should not be in your deck?

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. This is not just the perspective of a VC although I can’t say I have zero VC bias. This is not just the perspective of a VC although I can’t say I have zero VC bias.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Santa Monica-based Tray , a developer of Android-based, point-of-sale (POS) terminal software, has raised a round of funding, according to lead investor Bonfire Ventures. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based RingDNA , which develops analytics software used for understanding the sales process and sales conversations, said last week that it raised $30M in a growth capital funding. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (GS Growth), and also included Palisades Growth Capital and Bryant Stibel.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.” I have to back up and give you more context.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. Below is the outline Upfront.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

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Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

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Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2021

San Diego-based Emerged, a new startup which provides qualified leads to healthcare organizations, says it has raised a seed round of funding. The funding came from Round One Capital. According to Emerged, Jay Love, the co-founder of Round One Capital, will join its board of directors.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

You can listen to the entire conversation above or via this link , but I also wanted to highlight one topic we discussed that I feel strongly about, which is how I think enterprise sales and venture fundraising are basically the same muscle. Research everyone who has raised a comparably-sized fund and find out who backed them?—?that’s

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Santa Monica-based Tuition.io , which helps employers offer up student loan repayment assistance as part of their employee benefits, has raised $7M in a Series B funding round, the company said today.

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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.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

LeafLink , a startup that develops e-commerce software for the cannabis dispensary market, has expanded its operations into Los Angeles ahead of the sales of recreational marijuana in January, with a $10M funding. LeafLink's software helps cannabis dispensaries with branding, marketing, and e-commerce sales. READ MORE>>.

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InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. VCs collude all the time, it is only fair that entrepreneurs compare notes every now and again as well.”. Even the most jaded VC cannot resist authentic flattery.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I funded them 8 weeks later. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

The benefits you will receive from doing even some basic planning before you hit the fund raising trail are enormous. Many points will seem obvious but since I observe many fund-raising processes as a VC I can tell you that most people get even the basics wrong. Let’s say the C list is probably your “safety schools”?—?not

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Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

The new funding came from Subtraction Capital, FF Angel, 500 Startups, and other investors. Jackson--said the funding is an expansion on its Series A funding it announced in the first quarter of the year. That funding was worth $3M. The startup--which is led by PayPal veteran Erik M. READ MORE>>.

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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.

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socalTECH

JULY 7, 2020

San Diego-based MemComputing , a developer of high performance computing technology, has raised a round of funding, the company said on Tuesday, from two investors. According to MemComputing, the funding came from Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, along with IT-Farm. READ MORE>>.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Irvine-based Cirrus Insight , a developer of software used to help sales people with managing their email inbox and calendar, has received what it says is a "significant" growth equity investment. The funding came from private equity investor Clovis Point Capital. Size of the funding was not announced. READ MORE>>.

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