Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. I had to laugh a bit reading it.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

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. Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. To be fair to Ben Horowitz – I think he thinks this as well.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

JULY 15, 2010

Los Angeles-based venture firm GRP Partners is backing a prepaid card firm, Wave Crest Holdings Limited , based in Gibraltar. in a Series B funding round led by GRP Partners, which also included Park Ventures. As part of the funding, Brian McLoughlin of GRP Partners joins the firm's board of directors.

GRP Partners 140

GRP Partners Monrovia Venture Capital Los Angeles 140

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. Greg was the first person to share with me the insights of mobile conversion and why with a simpler product selection and conversion funnel they would get higher conversion on mobile than on the web.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Short summary of my posts: 1.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. The consumer product they’ve created is called TrueCar.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

It’s why I talk about building VC relationships early – Lines, Not Dots. Fill your VC good will, build relationships, be helpful to them not just asking for things. Early in his days when he was raising capital for DocStoc he came to see me a lot. “I’ve never been a VC before. Be helpful.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

socalTECH

JANUARY 19, 2011

Pose is headed by Dustin Rosen, formerly an associate at Los Angeles-based venture capital firm The Mail Room Fund. The funding came from GRP Partners, True Ventures, and Founder Collective, along with angel investors Dave Morin and Shawn Fanning. in a funding round. READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 133

GRP Partners Santa Monica Venture Capital Mobile 133

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

According to Lehmbeck, in an interview with socalTECH, the company's software takes key specifications from products such as televisions and other consumer electronics, and applies them to ads automatically, so that instead of just advertising a big screen television an ad might contain key terms and information about those products.

Yahoo 145

Yahoo Paid Search GRP Partners SoCalTech 145

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

The round comes from GRP Partners, Greycroft Ventures, and Matt Coffin, the founder of LowerMyBills. Singh was most recently EVP of Product, Technology, and Operations at News Corp.'s Mark Suster led GRP's investment in the company, with Dana Settle leading Greycroft's involvement. s Fox Audience Network.

GRP Partners 154

GRP Partners SoCalTech Advertising Venture Capital 154

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

The funding was led by GRP Partners, and also included Redpoint Ventures and August Capital. Gravity said the new funds will help it expand its operations in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, as well as scale its publishing partners and deploy its platform. READ MORE>>.

GRP Partners 178

GRP Partners Redpoint Santa Monica Web 178

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. My Obsession With The Product - Feld Thoughts , May 3, 2010 For some reason I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately. SlideShare: VC signaling in seed rounds. Tesla is not.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2013

To that end, Venice-based Epoxy announced this morning that it has raised $2M in a funding round, to help build out its product suite to help grow, engage, and monetize online video channels. The new round was led by GRP Partners, which adds Mark Suster to Epoxy's board of directors.

Bertelsmann 191

Bertelsmann Downey GRP Partners Southern California 191

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Having street smarts with no inspirational ability to build teams can yield a great small business but will be difficult to scale into a large VC-backed business. So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. In the book they profile how VC worked in the early days (60s / 70s).

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

socalTECH

OCTOBER 21, 2011

The round came from GRP Partners, True Ventures, and Mousse Partners. The firm is headed by Dustin Rosen, formerly a venture capitalist at The Mail Room Fund, and who was also at the William Morris Agency. According to Pose, it will use the new funding to develop its product and grow its engineering team.

Mobile 157

Mobile GRP Partners Santa Monica Funding 157

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

million led by GRP Partners, with participation from Baroda Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), Daher Capital, Double M Capital, Karlin Ventures, Clark Landry, Andy Rankin, and Launchpad LA. The product integrates with Salesforce, Twitter, Zendesk and many other popular SaaS products.

GRP Partners 96

GRP Partners Startup Tech Coast Angels Bertelsmann 96

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. Get your product/market fit working before you ramp up your costs (or raise too much money). My action item – I will soon announce the GRP Partners CEO Summit.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

It also has to be said that bad apples on teams bring down productive even if that person is individually a superstar. Stuart is well worth following on Twitter & now that’s he’s a VC he is likely to share his wisdom more freely. Many teams pay bonuses to employees who bring in people they know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. These trends have put pressure on traditional VCs. So VCs spent a couple of years experimenting with earlier-stage investing, which is OK. Funny, that.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. He founded a company and tried to persuade me to use his product (and invest). I told him that he needed to ship product before we could fund it.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. I think it’s a beautifully designed site and product.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

socalTECH

JULY 9, 2009

in a venture round Wednesday, telling socalTECH that the Series A-1 round was led by GRP Partners , with participation by First Round Capital. Tanz said that GRP's Mark Suster will be joining the firm's board along with the funding. Tags: gumgum venture capital photography photograph. READ MORE>>.

Invest 100

Invest SoCalTech GRP Partners Geni 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them. Never say never – GRP Partners is actually looking very closely at a company in its A round that is raising a large sum of money. my firm, GRP Partners, was an investor).

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

My personal favorite and best fit for GRP Partners was Thumbtack. Marco Zappacosta served up an cogent, business focused and nicely demo’d pitch of their product. The game then interacts with the physical world product. Their product direction and demo increased 10x. Pretty cool.

Angel 254

Angel Technical Review Software Review Platform 254

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC funds) called Fort Washington. They’ve been a long-term investor in our fund – GRP Partners – and it was important to me to spend time with them in their home market and meet the people with whom they deal locally.

Press 364

Press Course Startup Email 364

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 16, 2013

Venture Capital: Upfront Ventures. Previously known as GRP Partners, Upfront Ventures has focused on early stage investments since 1996. Product Development: philosophie. Today’s startup innovators come from about six hours south of Silicon Valley. Events: Digital LA / Silicon Beach Fest.

Startup 111

Startup Snapchat Venice Social Media 111

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

My firm, GRP Partners, invested in the company that innovated this entire category – Overture (formerly known as GoTo.com). The configuration of the team was: 1 CEO, 1 Product Lead and a tech team of 6 people. The problem is that the average value of products that sell on affiliate networks is sub $100.

Advertising 284

Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

In attendance we had startups galore with VC's and Angle's mixing and mingling all through the night. TechZulu captured the entire VC/Angle panel and we also had a chance to interview every StartupDemo startup company that participated. VC/Angel Panel. Allen Morgan , Mayfield Ventures. Mark Suster , GRP Partners.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Venture Capital 60

SoCal Delicious

AUGUST 23, 2010

Southern California companies are second to only Silicon Valley in raising venture capital , there are three major universities to recruit talent – UCLA, Caltech, and USC – and a thriving startup community to mingle with. Los Angeles offers a great deal, both in terms of business opportunities and lifestyle awesomeness.

Guide 42

Guide Startup Mahalo GRP Partners 42

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

This is especially true for companies with expensive and complex products or services that are more consultative in nature, like insurance, financial services, home services, education and travel, etc. At CallWave, Colin was CTO, Jason was CFO and I was in charge of product marketing and customer acquisition. Scuba or skydiving?

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

For those of you who may not know about StartupDemo, it is an event that TechZulu and Schmoozd have partnered up to bring you some of the hottest startups around. StartupDemo is an opportunity for early stage startups to showcase their new products and/or services. Allen Morgan , Mayfield Ventures. Mark Suster , GRP Partners.

Social Media 71

Social Media Technical Review Mixergy Tech Coast Angels 71

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). And this part of the product is entirely free to use.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? She has a quote from literally every major VC from whom you’d want to hear. million in costs over 18 months to launch our products. Please watch this. Every single one.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Blogging 341

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. That’s convenience when your VC is hoping to write the next $20 million check.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. I need to take some VC meetings. But it did take Brad as a public spokesman, consummate networker and successful VC to help create legitimacy to let David’s ideas flourish.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373