Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 If you invest early and then pull back in the next 3 rounds your multiples on cash invested are much higher than if you keep writing checks. As I tell our LPs, “if I’m not making you slightly uncomfortable when I’m writing my first check I’m not doing my job.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. But it’s hard to know that from the press. The press who trusted me enough to report on our successes. Entrepreneurshit.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. 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.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Robert’s article is worth reading. Total waste.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

The three largest webmail services had over 1 billion global users at the end of 2011. Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. People don’t want to speak to customer service reps.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For those not familiar with the writing process in Hollywood works, fill us in? We saw that there were a lot of talent discovery programs out there, such as screenwriting fellowships, labs, film festivals, workshops, and writing competitions. I had a screenwriter friend in Los Angeles, who asked me to work on a service for him.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

As Brian Solis is fond of saying, “PR stands for public relations, not press release.&# That’s right. If you’re a financial services firm blog about personal finance. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. Every time I write a post I send it out on Twitter. Be authentic.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. We know that many angels love the service. I enjoy that.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. But here’s the thing.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

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. Who do I write the check to and where do I send it? No VC Fit - Match your venture with appropriate funding source.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

We started building 4 products so that our end-to-end, supply-chain services would be complete (MVP? We listened way too much to what the press said. Create a great press-kit that you have easily accessible on your website. Just don’t believe what they write about you. We had 6 term sheets in no time.

Startup 310

Startup Press Venture Capital Journal 310

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2014

We caught up with co-founder Michael Womack to learn more about the service. We were sick and tired of writing up fake descriptions of places to make them sound like they were luxury, when they were not necessarily luxury. Michael Womack: A lot of this is organic, due to the press we''ve been getting. READ MORE>>.

Sites 213

Sites Startup Customer Custom 213

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. This revenue share comes after the YouTube split.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

In my opinion it’s the most natural fit and it would give Netflix a very strong presence in Los Angeles and in TV (obviously subject to getting the right writes from the studios). this service will continue. Who says that “all you can eat&# pricing is the right one for a streaming service? No time soon.

Netflix 329

Netflix Evite Pricing Hulu 329

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

A key deal not only helps you raise venture capital but it can help attract employees, garner press attention, help with product focus & importantly drive customer adoption and/or revenue. They can then direct staff, allocate budgets, talk to the press, connect you with politicians and attend events. Marketing Muscle.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. I think when the company has the complexity of large customers, customer service & SLA management, well established sales processes, continual recruiting because you’re growing, constant press, etc.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Lead investors and follow investors can both win equally but in each case you know why you personally are writing the check. I see this all of the time in financial services. Think you know a thing or two about location-based services? Basically, I’m talking about being an angel leader and not follower. Connections.

Invest 288

Invest Angel Web 2.0 SEO 288

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

San Diego-based Newsforce (www.newsforce.com) is a startup which is looking to take advantage of the hunger of the newspaper and media business for revenue, and has created a product which takes press releases and commercial content, and inserts them onto news sites in "sponsored content" blocks. Tell us a little bit about Newsforce?

News 124

News Advertising Press Sites 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

My own view is that for most services it is explicit actions (likes, shares, vote ups, etc.) I even had some reservations about writing this blog post this because I have no desire to p**s off other investors or great entrepreneurs. You may already know all this since it occurred a couple of weeks ago and was already in the press.

Blogging 328

Blogging Content Press Startup 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

Product is simply about defining a physical good or service that would be valued by consumers of the product more than existing alternatives based on functionality, quality and/or price. You might write a piece now and then that catches fire but there is nothing repeatable that would be useful for a business. Simply write a great book?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Sell one.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2012

Press, Pause, Play ‘s message of mediocrity is one that musical hardware device maker of this year’s SXSW, Miselu , plans to overcome. We can honestly say that it couldn’t have gone better for us with the phenomenal response we got from artists, press and potential partners. What are your next moves?

Press 100

Press Ideas Product Activity 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Steve is now in charge of Marina Del Rey-based TeleSign (www.telesign.com), which has quietly become a huge force in providing authentication services to nearly every major Internet service out there. Telesign provides authentication services for the largest web companies in the world. To learn more, we caught up with Steve.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. 4. This mention of journalists and how they frame stories led to a quick discussion of how it is important to build meaningful, real relationships with the press (i.e. “be I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2010

I believe that this is a major new area of growth & innovation for the Internet as Cloud Services start to form deeper & richer layers. I’m not covering the actual layers of the Internet (under the OSI model) but rather the Cloud Services layer. Let me explain. I’m just listed who I perceive as the market leaders.

Startup 343

Startup Technical Review S3 Services 343

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Sell one.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I was always in a “service&# industry. You call in from your vacation because you’ve had a service outage. When your site crashes and you get slammed by customers and in the press – you’re all in the sh*tter together. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 15, 2014

” Last year, I was introduced to Karma’s company and services from a friend. With more than capable service and coverage, Clearwire was able to get their product pushed out quickly with 4G capabilities. . With service and hardware out of the way, the team could step on the gas to get more sales and raise awareness.

Outsource Development 108

Outsource Development Startup Incubator Press 108

Jason Nazar

AUGUST 15, 2013

Referring Traffic / Press. Referring Traffic / Press. The type of sites that might link into you are blogs, traditional press online, forums or bulleting boards, or content rich sites that are focused on a similar topic.To There are 7 Ways to Get Traffic on the Web, in no weighted order they are: 1.) Search Engines.

Web 61

Web Social Media Content Sites 61

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

” They prefer to sit in front of a computer doing spreadsheets or coding or writing emails and working on marketing materials than they do investing time in human relationships. A regular dialog with peers can be more valuable than reading any amount of tech press and in many cases more valuable than even board input.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Sell one.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

The following was available: “I kept hearing about startups that raised VC funding, but which hadn’t filed Form Ds (nor issued a press release). Invidi – Provider of addressable television advertising and marketing services to cable, satellite and telco-delivered television carriers. Founded in 2006 by Aaron Finn.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

” It was meant both as a call to those writing angel checks into other people’s companies that they ought to think about putting that capital toward themselves either by becoming a startup founder or (and this was my real point) by taking an under-market salary in a company where they can learn the right skills to do it in the future.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Sell one.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. customers who paid for services often get burned.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

While it’s true that the basic service that we know and use today was the exact one that the founders envisioned, one of the most important components of it, “ link sharing ,” could not have been imagined. Twitter is a valuable and unique service. They spelled out their views in their terms-of-service for people to digest.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307