Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. Too many angel deals just means more to watch and invest in for the ones that do succeed (if the VCs can get in at reasonable prices).

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

The process for retailers and brands to liquidate excess inventory hasn’t changed very much, if at all, and while some retailers were able to build operational infrastructure to service the off-price channels, it continues to be a constant pain point. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. At Upfront we invested in such a company.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. Often times you find the CEO who really just likes to do product or tech. Similarly I talk to CEOs who can’t do a sales pipeline review with me.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in Orange County, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! Thursday, June 13, 2019 -- Orange County FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. We're doing it again!

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Tech Coast Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

If this isn’t you, we’d probably still have a look if you did something truly exception – probably at startup or tech firm. The chosen candidate will probably have worked for a very reputable firm that is either in technology, consulting, investment banking, media or a startup. Plus, show my you can write!

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. Yet, most good business people I know agree, but don’t know where to start.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in San Diego, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! Tuesday, June 11, 2019 -- San Diego FundingPost VC and Angel Investor PitchFest + Pitch Workshop. We're doing it again!

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. Similarly I liked to keep myself apprised of the technical decisions we were making. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California. Before booking a hotel I always check out Trip Advisor and read reviews. Nowhere is social proof more prevalent than in angel investing.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

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 27, 2011

I attempted to do a fair balance job of an increasingly important service – AngelList – started by a friend of mine – Nivi with the feelings of a colleague who I respect – Bryce – who has opted out of the service. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. So why I am writing it then?

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. I was always in a “service&# industry.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology. Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. We know that many angels love the service. I enjoy that.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2018

Richard Wolpert is a well known investor in the Los Angeles technology community, through his own fund, Chance Technologies; as a Venture Partner at Amplify.LA and Venture Advisor at Accel Partners; and has a long history in the tech community, having been Chief Strategy Officer at RealNetworks and President of Disney Online.

Startup 147

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review 147

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 will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. Exactly the opposite of what a rational investment strategy would advise. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. 5) Rincon Venture Partners recently invested in The Resumator , which we identified via AngelList. Long-term, we may start investing in some of these companies as they go through. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

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. We wanted to be able to invest in our software and our learning tools. We started in 2000.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. Product is simply about defining a physical good or service that would be valued by consumers of the product more than existing alternatives based on functionality, quality and/or price. Simply write a great book? It’s worth a quick read.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

Value is created through diligent hard work. Once you prove that a substantial number of people are willing to pay more for your solution than it costs you to provide it, you can then consider licensing your underlying technology. In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. Fallacy: Yes.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

He kicked off the fest with his opening keynote, saying LA is a unique city of mash-ups, where tech, startups and entertainment – plus creativity, cultures, and passion – mix with successful results. RT @OEInnovation #SBF why I live in #LA: intersection of #beach #tech #entrepreneur #entertainment. & Women 2.0:

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# Mike Stern (wasn’t sure which one so leave a comment if it’s you): Q: “is it possible to sell your startup without venture investment if the company has big traction and a large user base?&#

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less). Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. You technically have more gas left but you never know if some unexpected circumstance causes you to run out of gas.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 3, 2015

I often write about the best strategies for startup fundraising or how to manage startup financing and optimize for growth. Equally important, is an area many startup founders don’t always prioritize: choosing the right service providers and understanding the value they can bring, especially to early-stage startups. HR Partner.

Startup 40

Startup Outsource Development IP Outsource 40

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Value is created through diligent hard work. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements. Thus, I will let my Big Dumb Company (BDC) partner write our agreement. In addition to paying the consultant, you must invest time to educate them. 8 ) Grant Exclusivity.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

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

InfoChachkie

JUNE 20, 2011

Due to their lack of practical experience, this delegation/efficiency tradeoff is especially acute with respect to hiring Interns. As described in Beware The Consultant , startups should strive to conserve their most precious assets, time and money, by avoiding paying fees to third-party service providers, such as recruiters.

Startup 244

Startup Software Review Technical Review Class 244

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

How do you take a business you started as your own personal web site, and turn it into an online powerhouse, completely bootstrapped, from the little town of Ojai, California--not exactly known as a technology town? million in revenues, all on a $20,000 investment. At the time, I got Lynda.com. In our first year in businss, we had $1.7

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

The result is that the Main Street Venture Fund consistently has more money available than good opportunities for investment. After considering about 200 investment opportunities over the past two years, we have established a decision making process to identify trophy entrepreneurs and startups. Participation. Partnership.

Funding 106

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Activity 106

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

so compelling (other than the fact that the CEO Sean Rad is a great young technology leader and his advisers – Brian Norgard , Dan Gould and Evan Rifkin - are some of the guys I respect most in the LA tech market.). Wordpress), video (YouTube), pictures (Flickr), review sites (Yelp) and collaborative content (Wikipedia).

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

ZunguZ is a global social payment platform that integrates deeply into the social graph of Facebook and financial service providers. Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Integr8 Group – one of the largest private owned Information Communication and Telecommunication Managed Service providers in South Africa (Annex.13). What is Zunguz?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. He said, literally, I sh*t you not, “well, my report was due and I didn’t have much time.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. in Computer Science.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

We've basically taken advantage of all the new technology out there--especially, the web-based service model. It's started with managing courses and grades, on to a whole array of other services. After that, I was involved in a lot of angel investing, starting companies, and helping entrepreneurs to get going.

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124