Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

Startup 122

Startup Funding Organization Incubator 122

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

Resource 171

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. To be clear – I’m not saying huge successes make a VC less likely to be helpful to you – I’m just saying it’s not a guaranteed predictor. I’m not afraid to help make difficult decisions.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Identifying your goal will help you avoid getting pulled into any drama and stay focused on constructive tactics. Write down your key goals and refer to this list before any interaction with your colleague. When seeking help on an issue, seek out people who are constructive, and stay positive.

Startup 114

Startup Examples Satisfaction Mentor 114

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

I would write the email and be as scathing as I wanted to be. Truthfully, it’s a great idea to write it if you can be disciplined and not send it. Sometimes it ends up being personal situations like when my wife had to leave town unexpectedly and I had to blow out some meetings to help with the kids. It’s cathartic.

Writing 292

Writing Email Startup Ideas 292

InfoChachkie

JULY 22, 2013

Brad is in the midst of writing a series of startup-oriented books. When writing Startup Life , Brad noted that he and Amy''s primary goal was to avoid a YARB (Yet Another Relationship Book). And on the other end of that spectrum, we didn''t want it to be a ''YARB,'' which we refer to as ''Yet Another Relationship Book.''

Startup 248

Startup Writing Santa Barbara RSS 248

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2020

But at the margin if there are things you can do to be compassionate about severance or medical benefits or helping people navigate government assistance?—?you If your company can help with job search, or resume writing or providing references or calling other companies to tell them you did redundancies?—?you

Demand 215

Demand Guide Customer Custom 215

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Peer Group – Meet with other emerging entrepreneurs who will help you objectively evaluate your experiences and provide relevant feedback regarding your successes and failures. Journal or Blog – Writing about your experiences will force you to be contemplative and thoughtful.

Startup 206

Startup Journal Writing Blogging 206

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

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. When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Just literally this week I had breakfast with a guy giving a reference who said, “He’s brilliant. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Those references drive trillions of dollars of commerce. We're really latching onto the growing trend of building products that detect product references in social messaging. We automatically add tracking and point those product references to e-commerce merchants. They're doing that billions of times a day.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

InfoChachkie

JULY 22, 2013

Brad is in the midst of writing a series of startup-oriented books. When writing Startup Life , Brad noted that he and Amy''s primary goal was to avoid a YARB (Yet Another Relationship Book). And on the other end of that spectrum, we didn''t want it to be a ''YARB,'' which we refer to as ''Yet Another Relationship Book.''

Startup 210

Startup Writing Santa Barbara Entrepreneur 210

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

It has also influenced my thoughts, as evidenced by the six infoChachkie blog entries which reference Art. At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.” For instance, Guy refers to an entrepreneur’s venture as their “cause.” Like King, his writing style is breezy and engaging.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

In 2014, a West Point buddy of mine, and also a serial entrepreneur, Craig Cummings started working together to find entrepreneurs we liked, to help them an invest in them, along with Luis Villalobos of the Tech Coast Angels. Finally, when that happened, we'd roll off the board and help in an advisory slot. or $2M on a round.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2012

At best “over introducers” are driven by a sincere desire to help other people. ” That you’re helpful. Helping with a Sales Lead. After all, if your VCs won’t help you get access to potential buyers or business development partners – what will they do? Helping Access Money.

Email 359

Email Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 359

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2018

Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined some time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

Funding 94

Funding Startup Organization Incubator 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Whenever you write your deck and send it out I think you should actually think to yourself, “my competitors are probably going to read this one day and this will be forwarded widely” and if your response isn’t “so what!” I’m sure that some VCs and others do love online viewers when they read a deck. Many of my colleagues do, too.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. You have to decide how hard to help with downstream marketing for your deals. You can’t reference check your way into a “yes.” A little Groucho Marx always helps. I don’t.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Eric Greenspan

AUGUST 6, 2012

As I write this, I’m getting ready for my first full day of work in my new career. It’s hard to refer to this as a job, as I can’t imagine anything I’d rather be doing, everyday, for the rest of my life. TRAVEL OFTEN; getting lost will help you find yourself. Life is truly remarkable. Life is short.

Writing 122

Writing Startup Conference Organization 122

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

They’re essential in helping us get our jobs done because they specialize in something we do not. Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. Unfortunately that’s how reference checking works.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Much of my traffic is through referring websites and/or social media. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. OK, well, actually the first thing I did is come up with a list of 50 posts that I wanted to write. I didn’t want to run out of things to write about in the first 6 months.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

socalTECH

MARCH 16, 2017

We are going to write checks of between $100,000 and $500,000, and we are going to invest in what we are calling first institutional capital. We're taking a bit of our playbook from First Round Capital, where, if you look at their website, they provide market help and raising their next round of capital.

Invest 145

Invest Funding Capital Startup 145

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 15, 2014

In their book, The Leadership Challenge , James Kouzes and Barry Posner reference three surveys, each of which lists honesty as the most admired trait among successful leaders. Write down the three things you want people to remember about you.” Unethical behavior might help you achieve a monthly, quarterly or even an annual goal.

Entrepreneur 189

Entrepreneur Sales Writing Customer 189

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

He can’t help himself: He’s Dave. I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. These engagements went well and he came highly referred by my friend Gary Swart who runs oDesk. How to help his companies. My pal Dave has problems.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

doing a reference call on a prospective employee. But more than anything I just wanted the nuggets of information to help me better target this individual in the future. My goal was to learn as much as I could to help inform my analysis. THE REFERENCE CALL: Reference calls are hard. Dumb, I know. Conclusion.

Startup 311

Startup Invest Course Research 311

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2013

.” In the article I discussed the downside of raising capital at a too high of a price and referred people to a previous article I had written encouraging founders to raise “ At the Top end of Normal ” as opposed to stratospheric prices. In the comments section Siqi Chen wrote a great question.

Pricing 302

Pricing Seed Funding Invest Venture Capital 302

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

Having a methodology instead of just going on random sales visits helped force a bit of rigor and honesty amongst team members about how well or not we thought we were doing. These references make for great discussions with customers. Write down the customer pains so you’ll have them for later. It’s just human nature.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2016

Every entrepreneur needs help and support along the way, from developing the initial idea, to selling off the successful business (exit strategy). It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined some time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

Organization 93

Organization Startup Incubator Ideas 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. The next logical piece of work is therefore to help your prospect quantify the problem so they can attribute economic value to your solution and help you complete your sale.

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

Experts are available to help, but fees are high. You need to make an ROI assessment of value versus cost on outside help at this stage. Phase III is all about helping you take your innovation to market, or commercialize it. Another alternative is to find an inexpensive class on grant writing.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

InfoChachkie

APRIL 9, 2013

They often write their own material, book their gigs, arrange their travel and negotiate and collect their compensation from club owners. However, soliciting their participation can help keep an audience engaged. Comedians often deploy the bookend technique, in which they reference their opening joke at the conclusion of their show.

Tips 241

Tips Entrepreneur RSS Startup 241

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2014

The message here is that if you don’t know exactly what help you need, you probably won’t get it. This is the arrogant position that you know more than anyone you could hire, so all you need is a helper, not help. Based on the glowing terms I heard from my friend, I’ll just skip the reference check.” Marty Zwilling.

Startup 96

Startup Statistics Summary Entrepreneur 96

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. The other worthwhile exercise is to write down what your competitors uses as its USPs – even ones that you don’t think are really valuable to customers.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 10, 2012

These highly-regarded workshops teach business professionals the science of usability which ensures that websites, applications or physical products do what they are supposed to do and that their users can succeed with whatever tasks these products are designed to help with. October 13: Usable Usability — Lean UX starts right here.

Culver City 105

Culver City Design Content Writing 105

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC. For instance, in a section describing the ramifications of a No-Shop clause, Matt writes, “Insist on spelling out key terms prior to a signed term sheet if it has a no-shop clause in it.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

The title was “The Jerk,” which is a reference to both the Steve Martin film but more precisely to Robert Scoble’s interpretation of Steve Jobs having just read his biography. Of course I can’t write every press release for the company nor would I want to. I view my job is to be your sparring partner.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2013

The message here is that if you don’t know exactly what help you need, you probably won’t get it. This is the arrogant position that you know more than anyone you could hire, so all you need is a helper, not help. Based on the glowing terms I heard from my friend, I’ll just skip the reference check.” Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Startup Statistics Resource 100