Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As an investor, I sometimes see CEOs who negotiate to send their VP of Marketing to talk.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2013

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

Mentor 102

Mentor Startup Coach Entrepreneur 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2012

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

Mentor 94

Mentor Coach Entrepreneur Press 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Troy represents what I believe the best magic of Los Angeles is – the merging together of creative talent with technical talent and he brings the lessons learned from these two fields into investments nationally. So I guess Troy and Lady Gaga were touring in search of this product / market fit. It’s the same story.

Mentor 150

Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

The core of the investing job of course is investing dollars into startup companies and helping as a mentor, advisor and board member on the companies in which you’ve invested. Marketing, recruiting, building data products & tools, event management, analyzing the portfolio, etc. So What Does All This Mean?

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

” Most VCs view it as their responsibility to mentor, debate, cajole and generally assist with investments they make. Tomorrow I’m meeting with a senior exec who is considering joining a company in which we’ve invested. Thus, a desire to invest more locally where I think I have a competitive advantage.

Venture Capital 365

Venture Capital Marketing Santa Barbara Startup 365

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Explore solutions, outcomes, and options calmly.

Startup 135

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million-dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Usually these will not give you money, but will provide inexpensive expert mentoring and office services. Support organizations are investment banks, similar to the preceding stage.

Startup 122

Startup Funding Organization Incubator 122

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2020

I realized it was consistent with my own view as a former angel investor, that investors invest in you, more than your solution. Entrepreneurs with a strength in social intelligence are better able to use these to their advantage, in selecting the right solutions, the right market segments, and implementing effective marketing strategies.

Entrepreneur 168

Entrepreneur Mentor Metrics Customer 168

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

He is a talented investor and longstanding leader in LA’s Techstars community, and has been an essential and valued mentor for the program for the past four years. Collectively, the 40 alumni companies who have participated in Techstars Los Angeles accelerator program have raised over $126 million and have a combined market cap of $328.6

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Los Angeles Angel Southern California Social Media 191

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Venture and angel investing has long been considered a man''s world--with domination of the industry, executives, financiers, and others by men, with only a few exceptions. The Pipeline Fellowship--founded by Natalia Oberti Noguera--says it has been running angel investing bootcamps for women, looking to active more female angel investors.

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Angel Invest Mentor Technical Review 276

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Some get stuck in a rut and get run over by competitors with new technology, like Eastman Kodak, and others get pushed into a crisis, like Apple did, before they reinvent themselves into a new market. Here are the key recommendations from both of us, based on my own business mentoring insights: Re-launch using your enhanced core competency.

Technical Review 99

Technical Review Marketing Mentor Entrepreneur 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2021

Some get stuck in a rut and get run over by competitors with new technology, like Eastman Kodak, and others get pushed into a crisis, like Apple did, before they reinvent themselves into a new market. Here are the key recommendations from both of us, based on my own business mentoring insights: Re-launch using your enhanced core competency.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Customer 167

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. In addition to locking in his leadership position in electric vehicles, he has also used his patents to negotiate faster growth in his market.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Thus began my marketing campaign. Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Wonderful human being who is civically engaged, mother of 3, mentorer of younger founders, hard worker and arguer extraordinaire (so says her current Twitter bio). She is a coach and mentor to team members.

Venture Capital 408

Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2010

At VT KnowledgeWorks we screen prospective clients for their Market opportunity, for the Magic that they offer to their prospective customers, and for the Moxie displayed by the start-up team. There is a growing fellowship of special-case start-up programs operated by closely-knit, permanent groups of angel-mentors.

Incubator 80

Incubator Mentor Capital Startup 80

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2016

According to Startup Next, it helps startups prepare for accelerators and seed investment, using mentors and other founders to help startups with pitches, and puts them through a series of weekly seminars around pitching their company, market sizing, finding product/market/fit, and other topis.

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Startup Angel Mentor 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. If you can explain the problem to a mentor, or even write it down, you will more likely get to the root cause quickly, and avoid emotional and blame-infused responses. Explore solutions, outcomes, and options calmly.

Satisfaction 53

Satisfaction Marketing Mentor Entrepreneur 53

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. Pivot early, as required, to tune your features and marketing to meet the market and technical realities.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

As the rate of change continues to increase in business and technology, the more I’m convinced that marketing is the primary key to success for a new venture. Yet I find that many technical founders don’t feel they need it at all, or at best point to one person on the team who is marketing.

Marketing 71

Marketing Tips Technical Review Social Media 71

socalTECH

AUGUST 25, 2015

Tucker Kain: In 2012, when the current ownership group bought the Dodgers, the group they pulled together was pretty heavily investment focused. They all had come from backgrounds as investment professionals, which is how they had built their own businesses. How did the idea to launch your own accelerator come about?

Startup 100

Startup Invest Resource Entertainment 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. The feedback was always universal, “that was the most helpful marketing meeting I’ve every had.”

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Growth stage investments from VCs are usually $5 million and up.

Funding 125

Funding Startup Ideas Equity 125

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. Usually these will not give you money, but will provide inexpensive expert mentoring and office services. Support organizations are investment banks, similar to the preceding stage.

Resource 171

Resource Startup Organization Incubator 171

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2022

Many of you business leaders I work with, and entrepreneurs I mentor, have a great strategy and an innovative solution , but struggle with building and motivating the team necessary to run your business. Spend time coaching and mentoring team members. Help them learn more about your vision and future market goals.

Mentor 108

Mentor Social Media Coach Customer 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

They rarely highlight their marketing and relationship skills , even though, in my experience, these are more often the key to success in business than product skills. In addition to listening, they spent much of their time communicating their vision and marketing themselves to everyone they encountered.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2021

The issue in these cases was usually not the technology per se, but the bigger business picture of marketable prices, ease of use, and support infrastructures. Even the best have mentors they really use. A mentor is someone who will tell you what you need to hear, while friends and associates often tell you what you want to hear.

Mentor 139

Mentor Entrepreneur Ideas Networking 139

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2014

Disney is providing $120,000 in investment capital to startups to help them develop their ideas, and also provide mentoring from Disney executives. READ MORE>>. disney startup accelerator walt angeles entertainment consumer funding venture capital techstars'

Class 173

Class Entertainment Venture Capital Mentor 173

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

They de-risk hardware companies by focusing on the team, the technology, the market, and the manufacturing with their in-house experts as well as their global network. Perks include office space, prototype lab, production facilities, mentoring, and investments up to $150,000 in the first 4 months.

Startup 40

Startup Invest Chatsworth Mentor 40

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

Those programs--epitomized by YCombinator in the Bay Area, and TechStars in Boulder, Colorado--attract newly minted entrepreneurs with a mixture of cash and mentoring, and a program which rapidly takes ideas and turns them into viable, executing businesses. Those mentors are not just Bruce and I, although we are full time on this.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

LaunchpadLA, which is among a number of startup accelerators which have emerged over the past few years and turned Los Angeles into one of the hottest startup markets in the nation, offers up $100,000 in an investment, free office space for four months, and access to mentors.

Class 168

Class Startup Web Design Mentor 168

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Huddlewoo a live video platform set to launch early 2013 to give people the ability to access extraordinary people for one-on-one conversations and mentoring. His main company Providence Holdings has invested in real estate and several small businesses. Based in Columbus, Ohio and community management in Washington, D.C,

Mentor 94

Mentor Platform Social Network Chief Technology Officer 94

socalTECH

DECEMBER 6, 2011

Los Angeles-based Start Engine , the business accelerator being spearheaded by Activision co-founder Howard Marks, said today that it has created a new, $15M investment fund for its portfolio of startups, and added former Governor Gray Davis as an advisor. Start Engine did not provide deals on the structure of its new $15M investment fund.

Funding 214

Funding Southern California Activision Class 214

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 10, 2013

has appointed Matt Monahan as its VP Social Media Marketing to stir its digital business acceleration. He understands the nuances of social media marketing and his expertise in advertising technology, particularly across Facebook, will serve to further accelerate our portfolio companies’ growth.”. LA-based Science Inc.,

Social Media 82

Social Media Media Marketing Startup 82

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2020

    We became the largest accelerator in Southern California with 80 investments in over 30 countries globally. We now invest in more companies, include better trainers and involve 3 times more investors in the demo days. it's hard to describe just how good our investment, growth, operations and outreach team is.

Southern California 113

Southern California Technical Review Santa Monica Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2017

In my role as a mentor to entrepreneurs and an angel investor, I find that too many are stuck in this myth that a good pitch, and good marketing content, should consist of more product features, and more hype on customer benefits. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. We need more than facts to convince.

Marketing 69

Marketing Startup Social Media Guide 69

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

The concept, is we want o get them to an accelerator, get them investment, or get them to revenueany one of those paths would be great. Most of our mentors are people who have been successful entrepreneurs and investors, who have been there, and understand how to get a company to the next sage. That was Startup Next.

Startup 172

Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172