Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). The world is going mobile. I’ll explain in detail below.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). Much more data in the full post. PHONE CALLS. Enter phone calls.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

We talk a lot about his schooling, his early jobs as a developer and then as a VC and we talk about his decision to spend winters in Los Angeles. Fred has of course been a public mentor to us all with his market-defining terminology that he popularized including “freemium” and “mobile first.”

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. 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. OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about?

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2018

Marlon Nichols: We are a three year old, early stage venture capital firm. When I joined Intel Capital, it was the largest and most active venture firm in the world. It was a great training ground to learn the business of venture capital. Talk about Cross Culture, what your investment areas are?

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Venture Capital Invest Capital Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

of all Statistics are Made Up ” My summary is an example I use often: when I consumed reports from Goldman Sachs about the future predictions of mobile phone penetration for a report I was working on for a client I would call the analyst to ask how she calculated her data because I wanted to be sure of my conclusions.

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Statistics Writing Report 182

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? I am a VC. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

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." What The Heck Does “Traction” Really Mean To A VC? Great analysis from John Greathouse: Do You Speak VC?

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

These are industries where structural impediments to technology adoption have only recently been broken down by the advent of incredibly powerful mobile devices. Finally for startups there’s a $31 billion available for programs that give small businesses access to credit, venture capital, and R&D dollars.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

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. We haven’t hit that wall yet for three reasons: 1) not enough elapsed time, 2) the VC market is frenzied now, too and 3) we haven’t seen a market downturn since the volume picked up.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

“If big companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are prevented from acquiring startups, that actually reduces competition,” Sirinivasan writes. The reason is that if there is less M&A due to legal uncertainty, there is a reduced incentive for angels & VCs to fund those startups in the first place.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 12, 2010

If I were to re-write the original post I would have taken out the section on “how to get better intro’s from VC’s&# and made it it’s own post. Once I was done writing my post and had re-read it I started thinking more abstractly about decision making. It was best practice then.

Startup 267

Startup Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur 267

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 4, 2009

msuster for me) the message you write appears in my @msuster inbox on Twitter.com and on any of the desktop or mobile clients. They’ll say “@msuster provides great insight into VC valuation discussions – see [link] &#. The basics: 1. When you use the @username (e.g. When does this come into play? I have 1,200.

Tips 291

Tips Social Media Social Network Venture Capital 291

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. What is your mobile strategy? Oh, yeah.

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

So why not announce big, hairy audacious goals on recruiting the best mobile talent with sign-on bonuses and retention plans? Acquihires and Venture Capital. I’m a VC. But that’s not how you make money in the venture capital business. And reward your existing top 10% of employees handsomely.

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Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

“I would far rather give out my mobile phone number than my email address.” You’re writing a freaking blog post! Can you please intro me to XYZ VC? I never get grumpy that people write. If you do randomly write me I have advice. They just don’t do it. “But WAIT !!! Should you?

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

She helps write press releases. Unsurprisingly for Kara is was the VC connections. They have designed a digital, mobile product that engages parents and kids. She runs a mom segment on the Today Show. million Twitter followers. Nearly all probably moms. She won me over at first meeting. Soleil returns emails at 1.30am.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. Even the VC who invested in your deal struggles to properly position why you’re going to be huge when they’re calling big tech companies or other VCs on your behalf.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

By technology, he meant the world you and I both live in, of digital, mobile, health related technology, transportation technology--all of those elements. Longer term, as you know, Los Angeles is something like the number two destination for venture capital. It has all of the assets to make a difference. What do you say to them?

Los Angeles 203

Los Angeles Technology Startup Examples 203

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Redpoint Ventures is one of the venture capital firms which has straddled both Northern California and Southern California, with offices in both locations. We can also write checks as large as $35M out of the Omega Fund. There are big companies being build around the mobile phone. Fouad ElNaggar: It's pretty broad.

Redpoint 154

Redpoint Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Invest 154

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

We'd do a Series A, and participate in the Series B, but when companies hit breakout, we would call a late stage VC and have them price the deal, and do all of that. We can now write $20M, $25M, and $30M checks to existing, breakout companies in our portfolio. With this fund, we do not have a cap limit on late stage investments.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2013

I spent more time organizing my tax forms, keeping them safe, getting invoices together, getting invoice templates, then getting them out there and tracking down my payment for writing the article. The article can take 10 hours to write a good article and the paperwork can take five hours. Where do you see mobile going?

Journal 90

Journal Startup Writing Media 90

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. We were looking at all sorts of strategic decisions that Sony was considering, which required analysis and data on broadband networks, Internet portas and mobile handsets/networks. So, where is this all coming from, Mark? What are you on about?

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. And we had these vans and mobile kegs in the back, and we would go to golf courses. So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” What’s not?

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

socalTECH

DECEMBER 9, 2010

Gil Elbaz: The primary developer demographic for our products is people building web and mobile applications. As you know, that's a very fast growing category, particularly in mobile, with interest in things such as proximity searches, and finding businesses near you for check-ins.

Artificial Inteligence 203

Artificial Inteligence Century City Web Santa Monica 203

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

6) Naval, why does the startup world need AngelList and Venture Hacks? . “As Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. We are productizing the raising of capital for startups. ”. 3) If you were writing your book Pitching Hacks today, how would your advice differ

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2011

Then, Bruce and I met about four years ago, at a company called Evryx Technology/SnapNow, which was a mobile marketing/mobile search firm using visual recognition. Bruce Brown: I was working in 1985 writing keyboard and mouse drivers for Windows version 1. Bruce was an investor in the Series A round there.

Startup 221

Startup Mentor Southern California Incubator 221

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

Mobile Web America, Inc. has created a simple to use, online application for your business to create a mobile site and secure its mobile presence. We utilize the content of your existing website and create a mobile version on-the-fly. We write and create our own content for the game.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. GRP Partners last fund is the single best performing VC fund in the US (prequin data) for its vintage year). Absofuckinglutely.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I’d link to it but it’s behind a paywall.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2012

They're all chasing the next mobile app or Facebook app. Another challenge with fundraising, is with a hardware company it takes much more seed and Series A funding that a software company, and when you go to an angel group they write pretty small checks. Big venture capital firms are only interesting in big plays.

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Help Startup San Fernando Southern California 178

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. Over the past 4 years LA’s tech fundings have growing at a 30% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) which is > 4 times the US average VC CAGR (7%). In the last full year where we have data LA attracted $1.5

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

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

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. Are you launching a mobile application? So sticking to my definition of “attributes for success&# it had to be my Top 11 +1 rather than a Top 12. It will be controversial – I know.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

We've invested in a fantastic company called Mobiclip, which provides high throughput video with low battery consumption on mobile devices. What's your thoughts on the local venture market? We have a regional focus here, and the market is underserved in venture capital, yet it's the second largest metropolis and DMA in the country.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157