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. I was in the midst of sizing the mobile handset markets in 3 regions: US, Europe and Asia.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. Are we right in all of our assumptions and diligence? Of course we threw at him every skepticism of the market that we had heard or thought.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. Not necessarily.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. I didn’t know the one that mattered most to their future. I will embrace my losses.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

I recommend you first review Dharmesh’s article and then listen to Naval’s thoughts. These days, thanks to code and community, we can productize almost any process done by humans. The core business we have built on is taking out-of-market startups and introducing them to investors. AngelList is the productization of that.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. I didn’t know the one that mattered most to their future. I will embrace my losses.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. What Is This?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

The “more traction&# feedback is a very typical scenario is a down market economy like the one we’re in. It is code word for “I’m not ready to invest for whatever reason … I need more proof.&#. They get positive product reviews on TechCrunch, GigaOm or Paidcontent.org. They hire key staff.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. We then moved our Chief Software Architect over.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. In April of 2010, we put up Dealcurent.com, and we started indexing number one on Google for daily deals software. That one client, plus a need in the market really drove the product. How do clients license your software?

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. What Is This?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. But on the other hand if you have a product with a very high gross margin (software, virtual goods, etc.) Try reading a bunch of reviews, checking 5 different restaurants to try and compare the differences.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. My favorite new software tool is DailyBurn. Problem is – Weight Watchers software TOTALLY SUCKS. Their first batch of shipping is due out in the next few weeks. We’ll see. Enter Withings. No keying in required.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

InfoChachkie

JUNE 11, 2012

Bill Gates – “The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. However, his first-hand knowledge of how to write, test and commercialize code facilitated his ability to lead Microsoft from startup to world dominance.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Education Entrepreneur 279

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Jackson added, “FinTech has traditionally lagged behind the innovation that’s happening in other areas of enterprise software. 25 Years of Writing Code. Established In 2010 By PayPal’s First Head of US marketing. Founded in 2010 by Eric M.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2010

It makes no sense to meet in August or December due to travel schedules of most investors. For the record, this is not a secret, coded messages to companies for which I am on the board! . They mostly understand your company, your customers, your competitors and your market but never as precisely as you do. That’s it.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Software Review Email 301

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2008

to the business of script writing, and is looking to combine a free online tool for writing scripts with matching those scripts with content producers. Sunil Rajaraman: We provide free, web-based screenwriting software to aspiring writers and professionals in the community. What's Scripped? That is the way to attract writers.

Content 138

Content Writing Software Review Hollywood 138

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. A deep dive into the Foundry Group investment philosophy including an interesting discussion of their investing Themes. “… our lens is: Internet Software Companies anywhere in the U.S. If you are outside internet software we are not going to invest. Is that when it became big?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

They have seen one side of a market where many of us have seen the ebb and flow multiple times. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I believe a bubble occurs when a market is willing to pay greater than intrinsic value for an asset class.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

This acquisition resolved the surgical robotic IP landscape and allowed Intuitive to dominate the market. Even if your company is not acquired and you elect to access the public capital markets via an IPO, the above tenets remain valid. Your solution will likely evolve as you gain market feedback and validation.

IP 256

IP Patents Companies Company 256

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio? Marketing Muscle. No Dave S. =

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). People buy companies for 3 primary reasons: 1) they want the management team / talent 2) they want the technology or 3) they want the market traction (revenue, customer base, profits, etc). they take time!!

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

What is it about the content delivery network market which has enabled Santa Monica-based EdgeCast to go from startup to over $100M in revenues in only a few, short years? We have 35 POPs all over the world, in every major market, and we have more than 6,000 customers today. We caught on with the right product, at the right time.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. If you have enough references in your arsenal you obviously want to pick out ones that you believe will resonate with your prospect due to job function or industry. Write down the customer pains so you’ll have them for later.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. I’ll publish the final post in this series this week and then move on to my next series – sales & marketing. It will be controversial – I know. Another example.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your “secret sauce,” you need to keep the work in-house. The same applies to manufacturing and almost any process these days.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

to develop some sweet inventory-planning software. Murthy and Kaplan intend to use the debt offering as a factor relationship to act as an intermediary and purchase receivables for brands that don’t have access to those kinds of relationships due to it being a nonfrequent sale for some brands. Syrup Tech bags $6.3M

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

While the market isn't short of spritely, innovative entrepreneurs, harsh economic headwinds combined with a pullback in investor spending have made it harder than ever for budding businesses to break through. Source: runwayml.com In June, Runway raised $141 million in funding, nudging its market valuation to an envy-inducing $1.5

Startup 194

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 194

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

TechZulu caught up with co-founder Calvin Schemanski chat about their upcoming launch, their product and why Long reviews suck. myfab5 is a platform that reinvents the restaurant review. Unlike typical review sites, our platform does not use star ratings or long reviews. What is myfab5?

Software Review 79

Software Review Technical Review Writing Startup 79

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

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2011

We spoke with Scott about GOGII and textPlus, the shifting mobile market, and also what lessons he's applied to his new startup. We loved the mobile space, and when we sold Jamdat we felt that market was just getting started. We called the company GOGII--literally, our short text code of 60611, which you can looks a little like GOGII.

Gogii 200

Gogii Mobile Activision Electronic Arts 200

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

You can do this by really understanding your target market and creating them a PDF outlining the solution you will be creating for them. Ask for is code samples. arcticempire.ca – mobile app development & code review based in Canada, Ask for Josh. Offer the customers a discount for buying in advance.

CTO Hire 81

CTO Hire Outsource Development Development Develop 81

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. But why did Ring succeed when the entire market kept saying that Nest was going to be the winner? Here are my views … 1. We weren’t sure.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2010

For our interview today, we caught up with Al Eisaian , CEO of Pasadena-based IconApps (www.iconapps.com), which is developing mobile applications for the iPhone market. The way we have build this app, is we can change the skins to go after different markets, like the college crowd, or high school crowd, or what have you.

Mobile 168

Mobile .Net Pasadena Software Review 168

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. Was it massively better software, better companies, better markets? It was mostly timing.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

If you have a software development background like mine, Im sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your secret sauce, you need to keep the work in-house. The same applies to manufacturing and almost any process these days.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95