Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

We have significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. To provide an opportunity for VCs and senior executives to engage with the community by giving back rather than just attending more cocktail parties.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Funding Startup GRP Partners 287

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. VCs collude all the time, it is only fair that entrepreneurs compare notes every now and again as well.”. Even the most jaded VC cannot resist authentic flattery.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# And the VC job has plenty of admin and minutiae.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures).

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. I’m an investor at [Big Name, Large Fund VC] and recently came across [Your Company]. Often these businesses have little or no press so it’s hard to tell what they’re doing and how well they’re performing.

Venture Capital 294

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Email Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

Had a great chat with Jim Armstrong who is a General Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners today on TWiVC. It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. Segment Three: “VC Deals Funded this Week”.

Clearstone 236

Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

With VCs my strong suggestion is that you be open & realistic. Leaving your real competitors off of you presentation to a VC is not recommended. Think back to the slides in the VC deck where you define the customer problem you’re solving and what your solution does.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. 5 years ago.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

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. Capitalization. Management Team.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Landline , the operator of a bus network in the Midwest, is one of the latest companies to raise venture capital. Ginkgo Bioworks raises capital at a $4B valuation.

Services 207

Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

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. ” This is the norm.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

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. Does he blog about venture capital and try to advise entrepreneurs? Has written a book on venture capital.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2018

The company said the strategic funding came from Mintel and SPH Ventures. Mintel is a marketing intelligence agency, and SPH Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Singapore Press Holdings, the publishers of The Straits Times.

Santa Monica 113

Santa Monica Press Venture Capital Capital 113

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. I would also note that they claim 2.1

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2010

In today’s post I want to talk about the concept of a VC flightpath. This is my description of a VC process, not one I’ve heard from other VCs so don’t expect it to be accepted nomenclature. Even when you’re getting the VC love this reality I imagined couldn’t be further from the truth.

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Ideas 275

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). If not, somebody else will.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2014

million US dollars at press time--the first, dedicated fund for its BitCoin investments. bitangels investment terpin bitcoin venture capital' BitAngels , the angel investment group which invests in BitCoin related startups, has launched a new, 10,000 BTC structured fund--approximately $4.1 READ MORE>>.

Invest 244

Invest Funding Press Venture Capital 244

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

It’s why I talk about building VC relationships early – Lines, Not Dots. Fill your VC good will, build relationships, be helpful to them not just asking for things. When you want press, it will come. Early in his days when he was raising capital for DocStoc he came to see me a lot. And don’t ask for 10.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. She was lamenting that some startups simply see their PR company as merely somebody who corrals the press when you want to get some inches. She felt that her firm provides significantly more value as an advisor than simply a press shop. VENTURE CAPITAL.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Xconomy

MAY 18, 2017

But some details were offered yesterday by Kirby Brady, the EDC’s director of research, following a press conference intended to promote. Final results of the EDC study won’t be released until June 19, the first day of the Bio International Convention, as part of a panel discussion on the local genomics cluster.

Study 97

Study San Diego Venture Capital Press 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 27, 2013

I mostly like to have coverage in the tech press where most of my customers (entrepreneurs) and business partners (other VCs) are. But I also need to address the other side of my customer base – the people who fund VCs (they are called LPs). Frankly, every VC’s, too. Kind of obvious. Build Your Search History.

Blogging 309

Blogging Journal Press Startup 309

socalTECH

MAY 22, 2018

Santa Monica-based Halogen Ventures , the female-focused venture capital fund run by Jesse Draper, has made an investment in email newsletter and millennial women's news source TheSkimm. Halogen Ventures recently raised $10.4M as part of its first fund, Halogen Ventures LP. TheSkimm is based in New York City.

Draper 100

Draper Newsletter Santa Monica USC 100

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

MAY 13, 2013

It has even gone so far that we now have evocative headlines in the tech press such as “ Buy or Die ,” which is what got me thinking about this post. But the press (and I suspect many of the senior execs of these companies) don’t really explore the corrosive downside of these acquisition. Woo the press.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

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. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. But it’s hard to know that from the press. And why I woke up at 4.50am. Entrepreneurshit.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

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. Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too.

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

I recently was reviewing a press release for a company in which I’m an investor. I told him that I thought the press release was crap (I think my words, exactly). Of course I can’t write every press release for the company nor would I want to. VC Pitches. ” My response?

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

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. Deal with your White Elephants.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” Venture capital isn’t right for many business but if you do want to raise from a VC at some point you need to understand that often investors care more about growth than profits. They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens. One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

All the confusion you hear from friends or read in the press is related to this nuance that early investors demand prorata rights and sometimes fight like hell to maintain them (Facebook problem) and sometimes prefer not to take them (overvalued company that they perceive isn’t doing as well as new investors coming in think).

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

Stop reading their press releases or hearing their founder talk about he is crushing it. You see them in their tuxedos or cocktail dresses because you’re reading their press releases or following them on Instagram. getting too much press before we were ready. Inside your own corridors you’re naked.

Startup 412

Startup Press Course Entrepreneur 412

socalTECH

JANUARY 12, 2017

Barber--who has been in LA for 17 yyears--previously was GM and VP at Fingerprint Digital, and was founder and CEO of Scribble Press, and also served at McKinsey & Co., and was a corporate lawyer.

Press 100

Press Venture Capital Los Angeles Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? Here’s what’s going through his/her head: Is this story “newsworthy” or am I being asked to publish a press release? I am a VC. Mostly it’s because your marketing campaigns suck.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389