Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

I’m a very big proponent of the “lean startup movement&# as espoused by Steve Blank & Eric Ries. In the late 90′s I saw a dangerous trend creeping into the startup world, which was that companies were suddenly raising huge amounts of money too early in their existence. This post originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. In other words, if it seems this obvious to us then it must be this obvious to many other investors and probably to many other teams gearing up to compete.

Funding 363

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 363

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

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. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 I will start recruiting soon.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 318

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

I’ve written a lot about recruiting and hiring at startups including my controversial post on whom not to hire and my rapid response to the flame war. We will have to build (or buy) technology in this area.” She might gladly tell you who gets decisions made, who is a pain in the arse, who is super technical, etc.

Sales 375

Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

When the masses start all running one way without questioning “why?&# – and when it defies any logic I can figure out in my head – I call bullshit. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. “ Question Authority.&#.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Startup 287

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 287

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. The world has changed much since I started my first company in 1999. some came from our customer service, some were to improve performance / scalability from tech ops, some were bug fixes, etc.) Tim started to change our processes. Turn Your Organization Inside Out.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 1, 2013

The final episode of Bravo’s Start-ups: Silicon Valley aired recently, wrapping up an 8-episode run of what could be considered the most bizarre depiction of entrepreneurs and start-ups to date. They sound serious about start-ups, however actions speak louder than words. What was that ?

Startup 90

Startup Technical Review Software Review Outsource Development 90

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Starting with a positive. The press don’t get your financials. ” I can’t make this stuff up. You’d be very wrong.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Let’s start with the fund. If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. Santa Monica is the place where the highest concentration of early-stage startups are created if you consider also the contiguous geography of Venice Beach. What’s up with that?

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same four questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next week.

Dollar Shave Club 272

Dollar Shave Club Technical Review Santa Monica Southern California 272

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

But then Marc Andreessen weighed in – as did I and several others – and the media picked up on his comments. David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. billion less than 5 years after it was created. Laughable now.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

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. Reviewing financial & operational performance. As You Start to Mature.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I think my mentality to banker pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. start-ups are overvalued. How good they were at follow up. I attended events. I hustled.

Startup 362

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 362

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. Then I spent many years as a startup CEO.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business. I understand this.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 277

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2016

How do you apply technology to help improve that industry? We want to handle everything from helping them with due diligence, making offers and making counteroffers, reporting to sellers, checking out analytics, figuring out how well deals are tracking, and everything to manage properties, to best and finals with buyers.

Technical Review 189

Technical Review Startup Mobile Marketing 189

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! Today’s Normalization.

Venture Capital 348

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 348

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). Before I tell you the reasons I’m concerned about investment banking intros, I should start by saying I think bankers are enormously helpful for entrepreneurs in raising money. start-ups are overvalued. I spent time on college campuses.

Venture Capital 348

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 348

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2010

Full press release with more details is here. We will be selecting 10 startup companies to participate. Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is @launchpadlad. John Morris from the Tech Coast Angels was encouraging me to do something similar. We connected.

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Venture Capital Southern California Tech Coast Angels 260

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2017

The insurance industry today is one of the last industries to fully jump into adopting technology for offering up their products, says Wayne Slavin , CEO and founder of SURE (www.sureapp.com), and just needs some help in getting there. It's not a disruption being caused by startups, it's a change in the evolution of this market.

Southern California 244

Southern California Technical Review Startup Commerce 244

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. would you want to give up the right to invest in subsequent rounds? Do investors always take up their prorata rights in later rounds? ” Some do, some don’t.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

It influenced a generation of tech marketers. The book popularized the technology adoption lifecycle curve that originally came out of Iowa State University shown below. So the early part of a technology company is about finding your hard core group of early adopters and making them passionate about your products.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I never implied that startups are all great and job hoppers are all at fault. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers.

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

This applies equally to VCs, startups & big company executives. When I need to give a speech and I’m writing a slide for my deck, I think up the story in my mind that I’m going to tell for this slide. I want to know how many people, their level of tech sophistication, their age and their interests.

Writing 357

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 357

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2019

In fact, according to the latest Index of Startup Activity by the Kauffman Foundation and recent press reports , these Baby Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom. With longer life expectancies and greater health in later life, older generations are moving to start new firms -- and mentor young entrepreneurs.

Startup 119

Startup Technical Review Technical Support Entrepreneur 119

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. It shows a lack of interest.

Startup 176

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 176

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Start networking smarter and smaller.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. People get too worked up over the word. Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.”

Venture Capital 241

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 241

socalTECH

JULY 8, 2013

If there were such a thing as a "Dream Team" for mobile advertising, you would be hard pressed not to pick the founding team of Los Angeles-based Gradient X (www.gradientx.com), whose founders include Michael Lum (formerly of OpenX), Brian Baumgart (formerly at Adconion), and Julie Mattern (formerly of Rubicon Project). Why tackle mobile?

Advertising 253

Advertising Mobile OpenX Software Review 253