TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should a VC invest? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. Between TechCrunch today and my former roles in venture capital, I’ve had the opportunity to practice timing a lot.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

We spent a lot of time talking about what type of company we wanted to create, how many employees we’d eventually have, whether we would take funding, our lifestyle, and a dozen other things that had nothing to do with writing software. Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Or if you’re a VC raising from LPs you have to list all of your deals, your investment value, your carrying value, your multiples, your IRRs, TVPIs, DPIs, etc along with net cashflows plus your previous LPAs. So what does a VC do when he or she isn’t ready to say “no” or perhaps might like to talk with you in a year but not now?

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

I got three calls from another big name, big check VC. I got an email recently from a VC who had invested in a company a small amount in a seed round. I’ve seen you write a $10 million check before. He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5 He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” Should I write off my $2.5

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. why do I write p.s.’s sometimes?

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

I interviewed Eric for an hour for - This Week in Venture Capital. 41:00 Transitioning from software to writing. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. ” This week was no exception. 40:05 What happened after Imvu. 46:18 iOS Vs. Android.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital Blogging 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. ” Your VC friends have been egging you on. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. The don’t understand VC liquidation preferences or multiple return expectations.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

I’ve tried over the years to write many times about the realism of the downsides of being an entrepreneur because there is a complete cognitive dissidence between what you read about yourself in the press and what you feel internally about where you’re at in the journey. . — Mark Suster (@msuster) July 19, 2015.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

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!” Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. Their writing style, even for a mainstream publication, is they write with lots of testosterone. They write about the transmission, the brakes, and the suspension, and that creeps into all of their evaluations of cars.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

You are writing about the essentials of business. Any thoughts on my recent post Startup Metrics ? The Startup Metrics post is a good example of what I call “holocognics.” Startup Metrics discusses what a Startup needs to consider before “going live.” A few years ago “venture capital” was a revenue model.

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2021

I mostly talk about startups, technology & venture capital. Noom worked really well initially because it dealt with the psychology of why people make bad food choices and forced me to write down what some of my bad behaviors actually were. Mental Psyche [If you want to sign-up for my free newsletter you can click here.

Coach 538

Coach Startup Guide Journal 538

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

What you Before Sets the Course for How Well the Day Goes Make sure you send your financial and operating metrics no less than 72 hours before the board meeting — even better if it can be a week in advance. Sometimes it’s because the VC brings associates to the meeting. So here’s a short guide to achieving that. Here’s the reality.

Guide 196

Guide Startup Metrics Conference 196

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

As I have pointed out in previous posts , 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding will take longer than it has in the past. If they’re only 1 of 5 they might rather just take the write off. And recaps hurt founders so often people just avoid doing them.

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Steve Reich

AUGUST 15, 2015

If you can’t raise from a few strong angels, from seed funds or from a VC then raising from a ton (let’s say 20+) angels is a perfectly acceptable strategy. ” Everyone has a vision that one or two “Super Angels” will write million dollar checks and all will be well. ” Well said, Mark. . The bad news?

Angel 40

Angel Pasadena Angels News Seed Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? We discussed NY vs. Silicon Valley and NY vs. Boston.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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. Kevin Federline Search Engine Realistic Entrprenuer's Guide to Venture Capital Time Rich, Time Poor and Apple F2F Still Matters 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing. And, I dont like to copy and paste.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. But this isn’t likely to be a VC-backable business (which to be clear is totally ok). Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. He believes that one of the financial metrics taught at business schools and reinforced by Wall Street has accelerated offshoring of industries. He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed). Venture Capital.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. So I’m going to write a series of board meetings posts unrelated to anybody or maybe an amalgamation of them all. I have much more to say on the topic.

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Any great board member should tell you, “please don’t create any performance metrics or materials that analyze the business that you’re not already creating for your own management’s use.” Sometimes they don’t even know.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

We write and create our own content for the game. We make it trivial to quickly aggregate and monitor your key metrics in real-time! Idealab also continues to partner with leading venture capital firms and other strategic investors to provide the resources to maximize the potential of these companies.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Let’s be clear: AngelList doesn’t scare a single VC I know. But it’s not cutting VCs out. It is additive.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Write me an e-mail and let me know what youre up to! I’ve been asked a few times recently, “Wow, these analytics you write about are great, but how does a startup begin to bite off the relevant parts? First, let me recommend reading a previous blog, called omg I’m just a startup, I can’t do those fancy metrics.

Startup 29

Startup IP Email Report 29

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. We found a way to make our venture capital last when it shouldn’t have, at around the same time one of my all time favorite New Yorker cartoons was published on this topic.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Metrics availability. Angel vs VC? -

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217