Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I save room in literally every deal to invite angels (or seed funds) to co-invest with me. Even if one disagrees with the premise, why would anyone feel the need to attack Mike for writing it? With strong leads (VCs, seed funds or large angels) there is an unwritten Pottery Barn Rule. This is a hard one.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Last month, the product launched with $1.2 million in funding from Rebecca Minkoff and other unnamed investors. Creators and influencers like Bernstein are forging a path from content creator to full-fledged business, with multiple revenue streams via podcasts, licensing deals, branded merchandise and even software products. “A

Platform 170

Platform Marketing Tool Venture Capital 170

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Right now, there are no real efficient products in the dating market. As I was driving home from that meeting, I decided to work from there, and ended up writing a business plan and fundraising from family and friends. Constance Curtis: We just opened up our $2M seed funding round, which just opened last week.

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Amplify provides seed stage capital to the tune of $50,000 to $150,000 in companies with a viable product that are demonstrating some degree of traction. Although the first draft of this post began when Kluge was a proud member of NextSpace; as of this writing we have moved to a bigger office to accommodate our expanding team.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Design Seed Funding 103

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

It also allows us to do more late stage seed funding, and early A round, and enables us to set deal terms, board seats, and get a lot more sureness around the amount of money and the check we are able to write. if it's a yes, we move forward with all that normal VC stuff, the size of market, products and services, and so on.

Capital 164

Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 164

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. That changed very quickly. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

So to be clear I think in the overwhelming majority of cases these are diligence calls to feel out the opportunity in which price discussions exchange hands more as a by-product of the call than the intention of the call. When I was fund raising for my second company we had agreed a company-wide deal with Salesforce.com to use our product.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished. What is Your Risk Appetite?

Startup 150

Startup Capital Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Product : You should build a product or a prototype. You cannot be just a biz dev type, salesperson, marketing genius or whatever and divorce yourself from product. Great companies are built by having great products. And a great product starts with the founder. But for most businesses it is. Go research it.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

After leaving Jet Cooper, Peek decided to take his passion for product and do his own thing, starting Rocketr. Almost, two years since the inception, he has built up a team and product making a name for himself as one of the city’s most promising entrepreneurs. I met the team briefly while on the facility tour with Nasser.

Startup 109

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 109

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Amplify provides seed stage capital to the tune of $50,000 to $150,000 in companies with a viable product that are demonstrating some degree of traction. Although the first draft of this post began when Kluge was a proud member of NextSpace; as of this writing we have moved to a bigger office to accommodate our expanding team.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

They might decide to delay new product features or upgrading technology infrastructure. The sh** or get off the proverbial pot judgment calls and the answer isn’t always “let’s fund.&# I had a friend recently call me who had been offered a pier from his VC. But piers are often counter productive.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Members can also enhance their expert status by writing informative articles and position themselves as a contact person for other professionals to get information from. A main goal is to meet other people through the content they publish and find products and services you are looking for. Any funding yet? Challenges?

Networking 71

Networking Help Social Media Platform 71

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 17, 2012

Still with Jet Cooper, Peek decided to take his passion for product and do his own thing, starting Rocketr. Almost, two years since the inception, he has built up a team and product making a name for himself as one of the city’s most promising entrepreneurs. I met the team briefly while on the facility tour with Nasser.

Startup 56

Startup Incubator Seed Funding Platform 56

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

For a high-volume seed fund that adds many portfolio companies every year (such as our friends at 500 Startups who invest in over 100 distinct companies annually), the cost of a bad affirmative decision (a false positive) is quite low, since it accounts for a relatively small portion of their total fund.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Traditionally, business software products have been specialized and focused toward a given task, but I see a trend these days to highly functional “all-in-one” business tools. Raising money is difficult, even with the best idea, so don’t assume any entitlement to loans, grants, or seed funding.

Startup 114

Startup Tips Coach Satisfaction 114

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free! We write about $40 million of first-checks into new deals / year and about $40 million of follow-on investments. Of course a group of 10 seed funds can’t fix the prices of a market. But let me be even more clear.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Product Friday: Monetizing Content is a Product Problem - This is going to be BIG. m the f%*kin’ boss.”. Same goes for television.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. I learned how to better run a product management process. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process. I wrote a large check to one of them for a startup with no product and no real plan. We were family.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? ▼ 2006 (20) ► December (2) Just Say What it Is 12 Proven Guidelines for Rapid Product Development. I developed a technology product called DHARMA (stood for Dynamic Hybrid of Advertising and Response Management Applications). Build a SWAT team 3.

Startup 40

Startup Email Venture Capital CTO Hire 40

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issues, technology trends, funding rounds, etc. At Sony, he didn’t feel like he could “steer the ship” and get his ideas heard so he left and started GUBA, GUBA had no seed funding. Are there warning signs? (0:26:44).

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

This has been especially true for angels or seed investors as there is a new thesis that less capital is needed to start Internet companies so more money is being spent at this phase of the funding lifecycle. While not 1999 all over again but I am observing first-hand the signs of funding frenzy. We took $2.3 Sound familiar?

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

- A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , July 25, 2010 AVC regular Charlie Crystle asked me this question yesterday in the comments : Fred, it might be helpful to some of your readers to explain when a startup should seek angel vs seed/early stage VC. Showscase your products and services. About Quick-UX.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217