Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

I have been saying privately for years now that I believe online video will evolve into fragmented distribution (my next online video post) and vertical production. So they began signing up Spanish-language content producers in Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and so forth.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. It usually implies an opportunity to win big, like a lottery, or experience something sensational, like an incredible video or free product.

Marketing 107

Marketing Invest SEM Startup 107

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

In 2006 I started using Facebook and most of my friends & colleagues thought I was strange. They thought it was like MySpace and why did I need a MySpace page? In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. In 2008 I started VC blogging.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Product Startup AMA 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence. I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. When I think about the people in our generation I most respect: Elon Musk, Larry Page, Richard Branson – they are optimists to a fault. But “what is wrong with tech investing today?” Time will tell.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2022

Starting a new business is a serious undertaking. As an entrepreneur, you need to start early to implement the discipline and business practices that will lead to success. Startups always involve risk, but should not be risky. Put your risk capital into a separate checking account before you start.

Startup 122

Startup Ideas Framework Entrepreneur 122

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business If you have a unique product or service, and you are not selling it around the world on the Internet, now is the time to start. Anyone can be an entrepreneur today, without a huge investment, bank loans, lawyers, venture capitalists, or Angels. Start simple. Download free website tools.

Startup 100

Startup Commerce Sites Blogging 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

As the number of sites on the Internet floats around one billion, the challenge with every new startup is to be found and stand out. Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. A great solution is necessary, but not sufficient, to build a great startup.

Blogging 110

Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. On measurement.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

They also look for entrepreneurs they know from past experience and warm introductions, or for evidence that you have previously built a successful startup, and sold your last one for maybe $800 million. Every pitch should start with a concise statement of the problem and your innovative solution.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2021

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on paid search results (appear on the first page of search results, despite low SEO rank). If you sell widgets, and a user is searching for widgets, your ad will appear on the first page.

PPC 154

PPC SEO Paid Search Search Engine Optimization 154

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". It''s gonna highlight our emotions, our ups and our downs.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. If things do fail harder and faster than before, the question is how quickly young startups and crypto communities can adjust to shifting fortunes. NFT infrastructure startup NFTPort raised a $26 million Series A round led by Atomico.

Newsletter 278

Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.) But when you’re serving up 10 minute bites of content you can’t launch with just four shows.

Content 244

Content Netflix Platform Mobile 244

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. Every entrepreneur starts with an idea that they believe makes sense.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. But higher value product sales often require a phone call.

Advertising 284

Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2015

Starting a new business is a serious undertaking. As an entrepreneur, you need to start early to implement the discipline and business practices that will lead to success. Startups always involve risk, but should not be risky. Put your risk capital into a separate checking account before you start.

Startup 109

Startup Ideas Framework Entrepreneur 109

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2019

Starting a new business is a serious undertaking. As an entrepreneur, you need to start early to implement the discipline and business practices that will lead to success. Startups always involve risk, but should not be risky. Put your risk capital into a separate checking account before you start.

Startup 127

Startup Ideas Framework Entrepreneur 127

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. I arrived at 12:50 PM in the afternoon, 10 minutes before my start time.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. This was certainly the case when I invested in a small YouTube video production company called Maker Studios that recently sold to Disney for just shy of $1 billion.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back, it is relatively rare. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 128 in 2012 (compared to 675 in 1996). Expensive new IT systems, consultants, and investment bankers are usually required. Loss of control.

Startup 89

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

They also look for entrepreneurs they know from past experience and warm introductions, or for evidence that you have previously built a successful startup, and sold your last one for maybe $800 million. Every pitch should start with a concise statement of the problem and your innovative solution.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

If you have a unique creation or invention, and you are not selling it around the world on the Internet, now is the time to start. Anyone can be an entrepreneur today, without a huge investment, bank loans, venture capitalists, or Angels. In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites cost a million dollars to set up.

Commerce 99

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to see how the process works, several times from the startup side, and more recently from the angel perspective (as a member of an angel group selection committee). Line up an experienced team.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

Building a startup business is not the same as corporate executive experience, so prior titles in a big business may actually be seen as a negative. On the other hand, having failed in an earlier startup may be an advantage, if positioned properly, and some learning is evident. Focus on prior results, not titles.

Startup 60

Startup Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the most important things you need is a memorable “ elevator pitch ,” to communicate your startup value proposition and leave a great first impression on friends, investors, employees, and future customers. It’s better to start with a hook than to assume that people will stay with you to hear it at the end.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". It''s gonna highlight our emotions, our ups and our downs.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

It’s a great topic, his post is well written and given that he’s going through it right now in his startup it’s worth reading his point of view on the topic. Startups often make this mistake. Like everything, I screwed this up in my first startup. I was too much Accenture, not enough Startup.

Startup 333

Startup Class Conference Product 333

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

If you have a unique creation or invention, and you are not selling it around the world on the Internet, now is the time to start. Anyone can be an entrepreneur today, without a huge investment, bank loans, venture capitalists, or angels. In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites cost a million dollars to set up.

Commerce 88

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 88

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

As our first time covering a 500 Startups demo day , we could only imagine the stratospheric levels of stress our Batch 8 founders must have gone through to get on stage and present their progress from their last four months of startup bootcamp. In true 500 Startups fashion, Demo Day had an almost cathartic feel.

Startup 111

Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

of all statistics are made up. Here’s how I learned my lesson: I started my life as a consultant. I had to read each report, synthesis it and then come up with our best estimate of the markets going forward. I know it sounds like I’m making this sh*t up but I’m not. I say it deadpanned. OK, yes.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

It's a huge development task to develop your own mobile application, connect into Facebook, and create an online ordering system--unless you use the software from ChowNow (www.chownow.com), one of the newest startups to get funding here in Los Angeles. Christopher Webb: ChowNow is a startup here in LA, and it's a few years old.

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2011

Even though the Initial Public Offering (IPO) alternative for a successful startup seems to be coming back into vogue, it is still extremely rare. companies made the IPO transition in 2009, out of thousands of startups. Expensive new IT systems, consultants, and investment bankers are usually required. Only about a dozen U.S.

Startup 94

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 94