Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2013

I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. Obviously, a key factor is always the state of the economy and the mood of the venture capital community. The good news is that both of these are looking up these days. No surprises here.

Venture Capital 95

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 95

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

So it’s really hard to draw too many conclusions about whether the investment really makes sense because often you learn stuff in the fund raising about the future strategy of the company that might make you much more excited than somebody on the outside might be. Others I have not. LendingClub. 24.5mm in Series C. 14.7mm in Series D.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. It is to out friend. Enjoyed this post? Disruptive. We get it! I Be specific. Tesla is not.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. She hasn’t raised any venture capital. She leveraged herself and even sold many of her possessions to get started.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

San Diego-based biotech startup Biolinq , which is developing wireless-enabled biosensor patches for continuous monitoring of biomarkers, has raised $4.75M additional Series A funding, the company said this morning. The funding came from JDRF T1D Fund, Aphelion Capital and LifeSci Venture Partners. READ MORE>>.

Marketing 168

Marketing San Diego Venture Capital Study 168

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

When the masses start all running one way without questioning “why?&# – and when it defies any logic I can figure out in my head – I call bullshit. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments.

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Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 22, 2019

The Los Angeles-based company’s public offering should be a nice windfall for the Chicago-based investors DNS Capital, an investment firm managing the private wealth of the Pritzker family, and Cleveland Avenue, founded by former McDonald’s executive Don Thompson; as well as the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Obvious Ventures.

Pricing 236

Pricing Los Angeles Venture Capital Study 236

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.” I have to back up and give you more context. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.” Some people find this elitist?—?I It doesn’t.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2019

AngelList claimed in its report, Startup Growth and Venture Returns, that someone who "blindly invests in every credible deal" would do better than an angel investor who happened to miss "the best-performing seed investment". AngelList's service is aimed at promoting seed investment. READ MORE>>.

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Invest Report Angel Research 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2010

I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. But until now, I’ve never seen a study of exactly how that plays out for startup founders for current venture-backed companies, specifically: race, age, experience and the number of founders per company.

Venture Capital 88

Venture Capital Capital Startup Study 88

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. But today I want to give you advice on how to decrease your odds of failure in a startup. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. Their data looks at tech VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

VC's love to talk about their successes. Yet most VC's bury their failures under six feet of denial. 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 retrospect, our decision was both perfectly rational and completely lame.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Applied research is still primarily scientific study, seeking to solve practical problems, but doesn’t yet focus on a commercial product. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

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Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2013

There''s been a lot of activity over the past two years in the Southern California accelerator/incubator market, with numerous groups (Amplify, EvoNexus, K5, LaunchpadLA, MediaCamp, Science, StartEngine, and many, many others) looking to help entrepreneurs start and fund their companies. where we totalled up $33.85M in funding.

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Southern California Incubator Report Startup 222

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. How did you start blogging? “My In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2012

During the fall of 2011, Steve wrote a controversial post entitled, Why VCs Should Be Startup CEOs. Steve identifies the following skills as necessary for success as a venture capitalist: People skills (ability to recognize patterns of success in individuals and teams). free weekly Infochachkie articles! Fundraising skills.

Venture Capital 239

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur SaaS 239

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

She started with a story — a parable — as Jewish people are wont to do. You should be asking yourself … how could two boys go down the chimney and one ended up dirty and the other ended up clean?!’ Learning comes from starting with a point-of-view that says, “I don’t know.”

Entrepreneur 337

Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Startup Venture Capital 337

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. Here, we have the thoughts of Clinton Foy , General Partner and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscut.vc).

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Riot Games Southern California Startup Santa Monica 133

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It Kobe is famous for waking up crazy early every morning and practicing for longer and harder than nearly anybody else in the NBA. I absolutely loved the film.

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Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. Applied research is still primarily scientific study, seeking to solve practical problems, but doesn’t yet focus on a commercial product. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

Help 165

Help Research Startup Funding 165

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Use crowd funding.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

socalTECH

JUNE 24, 2019

San Diego-based biopharmaceuticals startup AFYX Therapeutics announced this morning that it has raised $13M in a convertible loan financing. The note came from Sofinnova Ventuers, which led the investment, and also included Nova Seeds and Lundbeckfonden Emerge. The company is currently in an ongoing, Phase 2B study.

Study 113

Study San Diego Platform Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2010

Last week at an angel investor forum I was privileged to meet Stephanie Spong, who is a Principal with EPIC Ventures, an increasingly rare early stage VC firm. Marty: Welcome to Startup Professionals interviews. Stephanie: I am a venture capitalist currently based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with EPIC Ventures.

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Venture Capital Capital Entrepreneur Competition 65

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. The company recently raised a round of funding from Santa Barbara-based ScOps Venture Capital. The second thing, is tools.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2018

Behzad Kianmahd is the co-founder of Los Angeles coworking space Cross Campus , which is one of the major centers of startup activity in Silicon Beachand also involved as co-founder and lead investor in a brand new, venture capital fund, TAU Ventures (www.ideasimmersion.com/tau-ventures/).

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El Segundo Southern California Startup Santa Monica 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

I’m not talking here about trying to be a stand-up comic, or weaving theatrical tales. Investors tell me that they invest in people, more than products. At least one study has shown that ninety percent of decisions are made based on emotion, but that people then go back to logic to justify their position.

Startup 145

Startup Competition Customer Custom 145

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 1, 2019

The husband and wife co-founders behind the direct-to-consumer cookware and dinnerware startup retailer OurPlace are big believers in the notion that the doorway to inclusive communities opens through the kitchen. . Two of the new products available from startup direct to consumer cookware and dinnerware brand OurPlace.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Education Venture Capital Study 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2014

I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. Obviously, a key factor is always the state of the economy and the mood of the venture capital community. The good news is that both of these are looking up these days. No surprises here.

Funding 108

Funding Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup 108

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way). And a great product starts with the founder. If you can’t get product released and validated then do user studies. I get that.

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Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

How do you come up with a compelling, mobile videogame title? We thought it would be interesting to hear the story behind Jonathan's startup efforts and where he hopes his mobile gaming startup will go. When we started the company, we wanted to make it the next generation, social video game developer. What is Playzon?

Startup 217

Startup Mobile Venture Capital Resource 217

Xconomy

DECEMBER 20, 2018

New biopharma company Aristea Therapeutics has raised $15 million from Novo Holdings, the Danish investment company, and secured global rights to an investigational AstraZeneca drug that’s ready for Phase 2 study. The San Diego, CA, company made its public debut this week after starting up quietly earlier this year.

Develop 67

Develop Development San Diego Study 67

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 31, 2022

Yet despite billions in VC money and plenty of hype , the future that micromobility companies promised still hasn’t quite arrived. Lime told TechCrunch that 90% of its fleet in Paris is used everyday, and a scooter trip starts every four seconds in the city. They muck up the air , driving climate change and health issues alike.

Los Angeles 257

Los Angeles San Pedro Santa Monica Study 257

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub.

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Venture Capital Slides Seed Funding Google 232

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. It always reduces risk to plan your business first. Use crowd funding.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Xconomy

MAY 30, 2016

Lita Nelsen has seen it up close—and played a part in its evolution—from her studies there in the 1960s, to her business-school fellowship in the late 1970s, to her 30 years working in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office. And so that’s what Stanford did, so it was set up in that model. That meant we were licensing.

Startup 67

Startup Compton Research Technology 67

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

At Silicon Beach @ USC, the Marshall School of Business Institute for Communication Technology Management, the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the USC School of Cinematic Arts' Entertainment Technology Center will host a series of panels to educate startups on trends in entertainment distribution, discuss the convergence of entertainment (..)

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USC SoCal Southern California Entertainment 113