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Insights and Opinions: Response to 3 Things to Avoid When Fundraising in LA

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have a response to yesterday's (very controversial) piece in this section from Ryan Born, expressing his opinion about his experiences raising money in Los Angeles. The response is from Tom Tierney, an angel investor from the Tech Coast Angels San Diego. Tom--who responded originally to this in comments signed "Brontosaurus with Velociraptor tendencies" gives his 3 things to avoid:


1. DON'T DITCH YOUR "REP" FOR RE-TWEETS

It's enticing in the "blogosphere" to be controversial for "controversy sake" to up your page views and re-tweets, but remember internet data is cached... forever. Value your reputation over transient internet analytics.

In this case, the TCA has invested in consumer facing internet companies over the years: "myShape" is doing well, we've had recent investments in "Vokle", "MasherMedia", "Loop'd Network" and "ElephantDrive" which have consumer facing components. There are probably many more investments that I can't think of off the top of my head that also fall in the internet space. In addition, we've invested in software, hardware, bio tech and even more exotic investments in MEMs and nano technology. Not bad for "dinosaurs".

Some of these investments will succeed, some will fail, such is the nature of early stage investing.

2. DON'T BURN BRIDGES UNNECESSARILY

If you have a problem with a person or organization, confront them with the criticism directly to hopefully be a change agent. Don't unnecessarily burn bridges.

In this case, (Continued...)


Read all of Tom's response, A Reponse to 3 Things to Avoid When Fundraising in LA.