Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

There were many moments in each space when pioneers were funding startups and the press hadn’t written much about them and if you were a typical investor you were still funding the last trend while some VCs were trailblazing into new categories. Almost nobody believed and now look at it. Online education. 6SensorLabs.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. I believe entrepreneurs should, in David’s words, “build big businesses on the outskirts” but I don’t believe that Silicon Valley tech giants will outmaneuver startups.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

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

MARCH 30, 2011

It is often the fortuitous mixture of new technologies, customer awareness and then acceptance of the technology and then the slow adoption into our daily lives that leads to markets exploding. I recently read this anecdote in the press (withholding company name because I actually really love the concept). He was tech.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

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

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally. The ingredients are all here.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

We jockey to make sure the press release has our names on it. I believe that huge financial, productivity and technical gains come from new innovation rather than derivative thinking. He said that data suggests people prefer to “buy high, sell low.&# And so it goes in tech investing. There are too many deals.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2010

Full press release with more details is here. Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is @launchpadlad. Encourage the most successful LA tech entrepreneurs who had previously started companies to get involved as mentors, instructors or just informal advisors. We connected.

Technical Review 259

Technical Review Venture Capital Southern California Tech Coast Angels 259

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 3, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 -- Shaking the MoneyTree 2009 Q4 Review. The study is a staple of the financial community, entrepreneurs, government policymakers and the business press worldwide. The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States. See [link] (more).

LAVA 100

LAVA Study Venture Capital Press 100

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

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Yet talk with people at Twitter these days and many seem to feel like they are part of a movement – and that doesn’t just come due to product success. Those are the easy cases.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Who else can provide context if your portfolio isn’t growing as quickly as your peer group, if they believe you paid too high a price on a deal, if they question your due diligence in a given situation or whatever critique they might offer? The press don’t get your financials.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

some came from our customer service, some were to improve performance / scalability from tech ops, some were bug fixes, etc.) But it seemed strange to me that we would openly talk about stuff rather than waiting for a big announcement to the press. But he didn’t grow up with technology. But they went one step further.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. Tags: Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

I’m doing due diligence on a company of another entrepreneur in LA whose company was apparently doing very well. It’s far easier (and sexier) to spend your time working on deals – the chase, the negotiation, the secret dinners, the combination of assets, the PRESS STORY! Me: “Zero dilution.

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

If you press on the link to the company you’ll see a very cool, short video that describes the company). The industry feels slightly complacent due to the “cry wolf” problems of saying it’s right around the corner for nearly 20 years. The Internet changes all of that.

GRP Partners 371

GRP Partners Content Technical Review Press 371

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. This world of local meets retail meets digital advertising portends to technology disruption and with it VC opportunities.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Los Angeles-based 3D theater technology provider RealD has received an offer from one of its shareholders, activist investor Starboard Value LP , to take the company private for $12.00 In a statement released to the press, REalD said it will "carefully review and consider" the unsolicited bid from Starboard.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Yahoo Hollywood Press 138

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. Marketing is everything these days. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

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. We're here to serve, as a technology distribution platform, to help those insurance carriers become digital.

Southern California 244

Southern California Technical Review Startup Artificial Inteligence 244

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. If this is you I think it’s really important to get over this hurdle.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Custom 346

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. I saved my main point for last.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 10, 2020

Organizers of the 2020 New York International Auto Show have postponed the event until August due to concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak. Press days are August 26 and 27. “We The New York Auto Show, which is organized by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, was scheduled to begin April 10 at the Jacob K.

Technical Review 154

Technical Review Press Los Angeles Organization 154

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 6, 2014

Today, there are many companies competing for innovation in the field of wearable tech. Not only can wearable technology make our lives easier, but it can also help to make the lives of many with illnesses or disabilities more comfortable and productive. Google Glass is one of the most famous examples of wearable Tech.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Technology Software Review Google 88

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

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 1, 2013

If you caught the firestorm of protest from the tech sector against it, I am here to tell you, believe the hype — this show stinks. If that sounds pretty far removed from the actual start-up technology world — wait, it gets worse. Zuckerberg told press she wanted the show to encourage women to get into tech. Any takers?

Startup 90

Startup Technical Review Software Review Outsource Development 90

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

One of the biggest changes besides to the design on both was the addition of wireless charging using QI technology. Just as the new iPhones have, the Omnia uses QI technology to let you charge your iPhone 6 and iPhone 7, but you must use a special cover for it to work. Read more Gear and Gadget reviews by Elliot at TechCo .

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Design Snapchat Pricing 93

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

For starters Uber itself has had to lay off 27% of its workforce due to the pandemic and has been severely impacted financially from the crisis with no immediate respite in sight. Even more likely is eventual technology disruption where drones deliver foods and make it hard for existing car delivery services to compete.

SaaS 242

SaaS Custom Customer Technical Review 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. We also run annual CEO summits and topical discussions groups in marketing, technology, recruiting and the like. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million).

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2010

Twitter has has a huge advantage over Facebook in certain types of communication and relationships due to the asymmetric following model. Tags: Tech Market Analysis. I follow people like Steve Case, Bill Gates and Marc Cuban – none of whom I know. Shame about the English.

Technical Review 287

Technical Review Startup Press Guide 287

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” What I did see where several companies doing similar things and many taking off. Another firm funded them.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Tech.Co

JULY 28, 2020

All the optimism in the world couldn't make an in-person CES 2021 happen, as the world's largest trade show has officially been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The cancelling of tech conferences was one of the first signs that the pandemic was going to be disruptive, and not in a fun, entrepreneurial way.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Conference Press Help 158

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Reviewing financial & operational performance. Defections of large swaths of talented employees due to low morale. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

I remind founders that the no’s come early because it’s super easy to qualify out a deal that you know is unlikely due to stage, focus, geography, competitive deal you’ve done or even just the fact that you’re too busy right now. When you read about the funding in the press it sounds like it was a walk in the park.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Berkonomics

JUNE 30, 2012

Where content providers or publishers push back when seeing a press release, many will embrace a good story demonstrating a painful problem and a happy ending. Dave’s book: Positioning. But people still read, hear and see stories they can identify with, and content providers still need content.

Case Study 212

Case Study Study Social Network Advertising 212