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). What's the theme of your investments? That's why we have investments in Heal, Saucey, and FragMob.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

In the startup world, the former happens when a VC makes a bad investment, and the latter occurs when they miss a great opportunity. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. In fact, the headline of one read, “How Putting $10m into uBeam illustrates everything that is wrong with tech investing today.”

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. “My Brad on blogging.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2010

Jody--an experienced entrepreneur who was most recently co-founder of a firm he sold to the Virgin Group, and has been involved with such firms as Lycos, Buydirect.com, and Xoom--told us the story of EcoMom, plus how he connected with McClure on the investment. What EcoMom is all about?

Software Review 200

Software Review Commerce Startup Sites 200

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. But on the other hand if you have a product with a very high gross margin (software, virtual goods, etc.) Try reading a bunch of reviews, checking 5 different restaurants to try and compare the differences.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. These days, thanks to code and community, we can productize almost any process done by humans. 5) Rincon Venture Partners recently invested in The Resumator , which we identified via AngelList. AngelList is the productization of that.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2018

I have sold companies of my own, companies I have invested in, and helped companies I've run or invested in with corporate development partnerships to help their business. Steve was trying to show that the Mac was just as much or better software than Windows. It was a big deal.

Startup 147

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review 147

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to invest. Investors are giving you a version of the “soft no,&# which basically means that they’re not prepared to invest now. They get positive product reviews on TechCrunch, GigaOm or Paidcontent.org.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2010

And to give credit where it’s due (in addition to the content that Fred producers) a lot of the discussion works well because of the Disqus commenting platform. Fred talks about it here – he beat me to the punch because I always wanted to write about how awesome this is. It’s an awesome implementation. Engagement.

Blogging 301

Blogging SEO Startup Writing 301

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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!” If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. My favorite new software tool is DailyBurn. Problem is – Weight Watchers software TOTALLY SUCKS. The other key is making your goals public – at least to someone else who can help keep you accountable.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

InfoChachkie

MAY 18, 2015

I reviewed and approved hundreds of employment offer letters at my various startups, all of which included stock option grants. To help the CFO understand your request, indicate that you are seeking a “fully diluted” view of the company’s capitalization. You just received a job offer from a startup which includes 50,000 stock options.

Startup 100

Startup Software Review Pricing Capital 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Not too many people are aware of the success and story of Lynda.com (www.lynda.com), started by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin , and how the firm's now grown to a double-digit, multimillion dollar business which is known as THE source for online training on such things as web design, graphics software, animation, video editing, and much more.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We helped the write out their requirements for a system. We felt this was a marquee account and one that would help us take our collaboration tool global as Thames owned assets all over the world. Two weeks after winning the deal and well into implementation planning we released a new version of our software.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

For parents, if you're interested in how your kids are doing, you can find out what their schedule is like, what homework is due when, what their grades are, and how they are progressing, plus you can communicate with their teachers. They were looking for someone to help and guide them. Talk about your background?

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I’m a software guy so I’m sure there are cases where building isn’t feasible. They know that the money they invest may be lost. The key to getting money is that the people writing the check trust you. Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. They exist in every town.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. Either you’re not a good leader and he shouldn’t be investing at all, or he has no clue what it takes to build a startup.&#. They knew enough about your project to have an opinion but not enough to help. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Yet I can’t help thinking there are many predictable failures that come from a lack of basic planning. It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

to help bloggers and blog readers with comments. Ive not found that much use for LinkedIn to help my blogging, but Im starting to think about this. Maybe this meme will help. I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. I definitely check people out using LinkedIn.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

Unpaid Search – Never pay a consultant to help you achieve a higher search ranking. Affiliates invest the up-front marketing expenses required to attract customers. As Marketing Guru Guy Gabriel of Idea Engineering points out in Max Brand , viral marketing has made many an entrepreneur terminally ill.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Yet, despite his exceptional courtroom theatrics, you would be foolhardy to hire good old Johnnie to review your software cross-licensing agreement. Working with startup lawyers also minimizes the risk of losing control of your adVenture, as they can help you avoid common fundraising and investor pitfalls.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

BTW – if anybody at Twitter reads this you need to fix your “embed Tweet” code because as you’ll see from above it doesn’t properly embed when you have a quoted Tweet. **. How do you have the time to help them hire? I just write. I told her I need “20 minutes” to write a blog post.

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

If u see an article or write a blog post, email us or leave a comment below with a link to your story and we’ll add it in. Code Monkey Hackathon song (VIDEO ABOVE). Due to overwhelming support of everyone asking “When’s the next SBF!” . & #celebrity to pull off anything! Kindling’s: L.A.

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio? I see this emerging in Seattle and the passion of “a few key individuals&# who can help shift the game.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - The more she got to know more the more she called me for help with stories. It started socially.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

One the one hand I feel great because we went out and built software that solved an industry problem. This includes writing product specs, going on sales calls, handling customer complaints, building the financial model and a host of other activities that will ultimately owned by functional experts. I did all of the sales myself.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. He launched a business called Unsubscribe, which helped consumers deal with the deluge of email lists that one gets signed up to and get rid of them all.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. Was it massively better software, better companies, better markets? It was mostly timing.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

I’m in the team centric sphere so every investment decision I make first & foremost centers on this plane. I made an investment in a company with deep domain knowledge. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. How come you guys only invest when you have proof of success?&#

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Between this blog and reviewing applications to Capital Factory I see hundreds of pitches a year. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2010

We have doubled our national investments per child in education (in real terms i.e. adjusted for inflation) and our scores have remained flat. Pouring more money into the system isn’t helping because THE SYSTEM is broken. Lawrence) both helped me master the rules of writing and tap into my creativity.

Class 340

Class Education Technical Review Writing 340