InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most newspapers are written at a third-grade reading level, White House press releases average a fourth-grade reading level and the New York Times is easily digestible by the average fifth grader. No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source. Distribution and Sales. Capitalization.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

Maybe they’ve hit a few set backs: They’ve struggled to raise money, they haven’t gotten press coverage or they haven’t gotten accepted to present at prestigious conferences. It ends up being a turn off to potential employees, investors, business partners and the press. It’s your job to persist.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?”

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. Gilt Group is currently the largest private sale web site in US.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. Have sales bonus plans based on more than just sales targets. These can’t be the main event – sales are sales after all – but can help shape good behavior. Sales Startup Lessons'

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2020

Vive's beverage brand focuses on "cold-pressed wellness shots" which it claims boost the immune system. Vive Organic was founded by CEO Wyatt Taubman, COO Kyle Withycombe and VP of Sales JR Simich in 2015.

Organization 113

Organization Venice Press Sales 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. Many businesses that pitch to me have White Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. He disarmed me.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

In my experience, here are some of the key elements of that “second-stage” of entrepreneurship: Move from small investors to major venture capital. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Working with the media is required, both social as well as the press, through public relations and internal channels.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

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

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). It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Much more data in the full post. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. This article originally ran on PEHub.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2009

Metagenics told Michigan's Grand Rapid Press at the time of the investment by Alticor that it had more than $200M in sales in 2008. Tags: metagenics venture capital amway alticor. A regulatory filing indicates the funding came on September 18th, and was for 1,878,255 shares of the firm's common stock.

Press 166

Press Venture Capital Report Sales 166

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

The fact is most start-ups that generate a positive return for their investors are acquired by corporations or financial institutions and the average time it takes a VC to make a return on their investment is more than eight years. Is outside capital really required? By this measure, Groupon was by no means your typical start-up.

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2023

If ten percent of these numbers, multiplied by your average product price, will get you the revenue you need to scale your business, you will get the love you need from angel and venture capital investors. The wealth of data available online is already much larger than the entire Library of Congress, and much more current.

Statistics 120

Statistics Research Report Newsletter 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

But the narrative in the press about Al Gore was that he was a smarmy know-it-all. Bush had the opposite narrative in the press. Obviously press narratives of people are characterizations that seldom match reality. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. Or what about your sales team? Be human.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. So while I highly recommend working with an external agency once you’ve raised venture capital I think you’ll waste a bunch of money and be less effective unless you first hire staff in-house.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Elect 1-2 representatives and even invite a local VC to invest personally and sit on the investment committee or be an advisor.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Many people agreed and added that even the best sales meetings are also discussions and not pitches. Both presenters are anonymized.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Yahoo 288

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. If it’s an enterprise software company you can no longer rely on tacit knowledge to win sales campaigns.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2010

Full press release with more details is here. When I kicked off Launchpad LA a year ago I had a few objectives: Create an ecosystem where all Southern California VC’s had the chance to work together more actively outside of the boards on which we mutually sit. Today we announced Launchpad LA V2. The rest is history.

Technical Review 259

Technical Review Venture Capital Southern California Tech Coast Angels 259

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. Get your press coverage. VC meetings going well. 2 million in VC. I swore never to do that as a VC. Holy sh*t!!!

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2020

If ten percent of these numbers, multiplied by your average product price, will get you the revenue you need to scale your business, you will get the love you need from angel and venture capital investors. The wealth of data available online is already much larger than the entire Library of Congress, and much more current.

Marketing 157

Marketing Statistics Research Report 157

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Sales lagged. While other groups tested other fish oils and found no evidence of concrete cardiovascular benefits , Amarin pressed on with a massive study, bleeding cash for years. But Amarin didn’t have the evidence that lowering triglycerides with fish oil would really help people. Amarin’s shares sank.

News 73

News Study Press Sales 73

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. We didn’t collude (e.g.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

But it’s kind of hard to say “don’t plant near the big trees” when you just completed a big sale to Microsoft building an app that they should have created and dominated. I remember a discussion with an older VC who told me that in the early 90′s they wondered whether the VC industry had a future.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

– while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot. I have seen it first-hand in my VC career many, many times. The CPO went on to found his own company and the CEO went on to grow this business into a success that is now doing North of $25 million in annualized sales.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

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. Ask for help reviewing your press release.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Also be careful about VCs. But once a VC has heard your idea he can’t “un-think&# it. Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. You’re reading their press releases or blog posts.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. Speaking at a “city tour&# in which Salesforce.com sales reps and executive management were present. Tags: Sales & Marketing Advice Startup Advice.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

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 jockey to make sure the press release has our names on it. For venture capitalists this isn’t troubling. This is the time it takes for a bankruptcy or asset sale to occur.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? Are You a VC? Whatever amount you’re getting out and talking with prospects, customers, employees, recruits, competitors, press, investors, potential investors … it’s never enough. Imagine the human progress you could make with 250 short, relationship-focused meetings. Recruiting.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital?

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

And yes, VC’s, too. I doubt they’d be willing to press harder in questioning and/or be more attuned to negative signals that the reference might be implying but not actually saying. Negotiate directly with your VC or acquirer with lawyers present in the room. What might the VC do against your interest?

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Technology Council

JULY 31, 2008

Check out the newly released August edition of the SCribe Newsletter. Catch up on the latest news, see our upcoming event schedule, or visit the Website of the sponsors that make this all possible.

Newsletter 100

Newsletter Press Tech Coast Angels News 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I know this category has gotten a lot of press. And Austin Murray runs sales & marketing – a role he also held at JAMDAT. Management, SVP North American Sales and SVP European Publishing. When I started blogging as a VC I had zero idea it would lead to my current audience level of 350,000 page views / month.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2015

As we went from a small band of missionaries hell bent on making our idea a reality, raising capital, getting press, and selling to customers – we were all having fun. In my personal case I knew that my company had outgrown both my skills and my desires. But at 90 employees in 5 countries my job became less fun to me personally.

Demand 150

Demand SaaS Startup Sales 150