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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). And they have access to some of the most talented technology entrepreneurs so this is a worthy goal for them. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I spent time on college campuses. I attended events.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

This was in part due to a tremendously busy 30-day period for me (in which my overall writing has been down) and in part the inevitability of knowing that weighing in just tees me up to take abuse on one anonymous app called Secret. But my job is to understand technology and therefore you must use it to understand it. So so funny.

Blogging

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 7, 2013

Stained Glass Labs (SGL), the first Glass and wearable technologies accelerator has launched the world’s first comprehensive app directory and a self-service app publishing portal for Google Glass pre-launched applications. Comprehensive App Directory. SGL says the Comprehensive App Directory launched is a simple 2 step process.

Google

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. 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. Fair enough. But everything has intrinsic value.

Pricing

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. Also, because the entire industry has changed because it is cheaper to start a tech company these days – there are simply way more angel rounds. Why prorata rights are becoming a bigger deal to angels.

Guide

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2021

In fact, according to the latest trend data and press reports , these Baby Boomers have grown yearly to 41 percent of small business owners, second only to Gen-X, at 44 percent. Some people are calling business ownership the ‘new mid-life crisis’ for the 72 million-strong demographic once thought to be over the hill.

Technical Review

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. It’s worth a quick read. My argument is pretty simple. But it wasn’t to be.

Marketing

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. Some people are calling entrepreneurship the ‘new mid-life crisis’ for the 77 million-strong demographic once thought to be over the hill.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). And they have access to some of the most talented technology entrepreneurs so this is a worthy goal for them. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I spent time on college campuses. I attended events.

Venture Capital

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. As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. As an early-stage VC I love this phase. Seriously, this happens.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

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.

Marketing

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2010

Marc Friedmann: SciVee serves the STM - Science, Technical, Medical - market. It's a pretty established, mature market, which has existed since the beginning of the printing press, but has evolved forward for hundreds of years and has been going through a lot of changes in the last twenty years. How did you get involved in the company?

Journal

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Silicon Valley may still be the capital of technology with a mix of new (Google, Facebook) and old (Apple, HP) sprinkling the landscape. However, Silicon Valley isn’t the only place to grow technology innovators from the ground up. In other cases, it’s strip malls and shopping to generate foot traffic.

Social Network