Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2019

Then you need creative problem solving to come up with a solution, and the ability to persuade others of the viability and value, and to join you on the journey. Elon Musk does this masterfully when he talks about SpaceX going to Mars to assure the future of mankind, and learn about the origins of life. The cycle repeats.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2020

In my work with new startups, I often find people who believe that the terms “ entrepreneur ” and “ inventor ” are interchangeable. Yet I find a big difference between “starting a new business” and “creating a new product.” A good entrepreneur starts with quantifying the problem, rather than a solution looking for a problem.

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Startup Entrepreneur Customer Custom 124

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 25, 2022

Now it’s picking up some funding along with an endorsement Europe to further its growth. The startup has received €50 million (just under $57 million at today’s rates) from the European Investment Bank, the funding arm of the European Union. People order Starship deliveries via the startup’s iOS and Android apps.

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Invest Technology Startup Los Angeles 233

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Santa Monica-based Graze , a new startup backed by Wavemaker Partners, said this morning that it has launched a new, robotic lawn mower targeted at the commercial market. According to the company, it is aiming at launching its fully autonomous, electric lawn mower by 2021.

Artificial Inteligence 113

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Santa Monica Press 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. By definition?—?I’m two founders in a garage?—?(HP

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TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Already a major hub for the space and aerospace startup industry, with companies like SpaceX, Relativity Space, Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab, Phase Four, and others calling Los Angeles home, the new accelerator will provide another booster for LA’s growing startup scene. billion over the last year.

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Los Angeles Angel SpaceX Entrepreneur 275

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Los Angeles-based startup Emotive, which develops conversational text messaging software, said this morning that it has raised $50M in its Series B funding round. Wald was previously at SalesLoft and Salesforce, and Pylnev was formerly at Honest Company and SpaceX. The company said the funding brings its valuation to $400M.

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Chief Technology Officer SpaceX Commerce Los Angeles 113

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

Startups across the nation and around the world are looking for ways to relieve shortages of much-needed personal protective equipment and sanitizers used to halt the spread of COVID-19. ” Against this backdrop local startups and maker spaces are stepping up to do what they can to fill the gap.

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Company Companies Mobile Organization 281

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. ” When Elon Musk set out to build SpaceX he wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm from the space community not used to having a private enterprise challenge the government funded space exploration of NASA. Obviously.

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Technical Review Startup Course Software Review 417

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2021

Elon Musk with Tesla and SpaceX may be the most current example of this phenomenon, but others often mentioned include Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Joe Costello (Cadence Design), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Joe Costello was known to dress up as Frankenstein and the Riddler for company functions, and wasn’t afraid to laugh at himself.

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Marketing Design Entrepreneur Ideas 157

socalTECH

OCTOBER 18, 2017

In the first product you can actually buy from Elon Musk's new tunnel-digging startup, The Boring Company , the company is now selling a hat with the company's name/logo on it. Musk's company--which has been digging tunnels beneath SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne--says the hat costs $20, including shipping and tax.

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Company Companies Hawthorne SpaceX 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

As an angel investor in startups, I always look for this self-confidence, no matter how innovative the solution. You must always stick up for yourself, just like you would for your best friend. Use acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion, to keep up your confidence. Always be your own best (and most honest) friend.

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Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction SpaceX 141

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

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Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Whether you are a business professional in a big company, or an entrepreneur with a startup, innovation is a key strategy. Developing the ideal product the first time around is unlikely, high risk, and very expensive in today’s chaotic market. Everyone has ideas, but only a few can make them happen. First, failure is not always bad.

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Artificial Inteligence Ideas Satisfaction Customer 114

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Matt Kozlov , the Managing Director of the new Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator , which just got started in Los Angeles. It used to be that investors just wouldn't look at a space startup. If you look at SpaceX, they recently put 63 satellites into orbit on one rocket, which is a new record.

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Southern California Startup Entrepreneur Los Angeles 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

The best and most successful entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk , known for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, routinely work hundred-hour weeks, but never complain about the hours, and don’t even think of their activities as work. As an investor, I’m not attracted to startups where the founder sends in a marketing person to do the talking.

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Ideas Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 78

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 1, 2019

The new financing will give Relativity the cash to fully build its “Stargate” factory, a semi-autonomous, full-scale production facility that will house the company’s massive 3-D printers and produce its first rocket, the Terran 1. “We’re really really truly focused on the rockets for now,” says Ellis.

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Chief Technology Officer SpaceX Los Angeles Venture Capital 168

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 20, 2013

Chris Johnson and his partner Tarek Pertew were once startup guys who founded a software company in New York, but within one year they lost their CTO three times. What we recognized is that startups by their very nature cannot be very good at recruiting because they simply don’t have the staff, “ said Chris Johnson. “And

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Startup UCLA Los Angeles SpaceX 76

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

In reality, that’s the definition of a successful startup these days, so every aspiring entrepreneur should take note, as well as every existing corporate executive. Elon Musk has done it with SpaceX and Tesla, and Steve Jobs did it on a regular basis at Apple. Announce and launch an operational product.

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Startup Metrics Entrepreneur Resource 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2022

By most definitions of the term, an entrepreneur is someone who starts a new business, incorporating innovative changes to existing products, services, business models, and creating new markets. Yet very few achieve that great aspiration of really driving economic, social, and environmental changes on a global scale.

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Examples Entrepreneur Technology Resource 131

Tech.Co

JULY 24, 2017

Especially in the early days of your startup, when you’re often only months from running out of money, hiring the wrong person can be disastrous. And if, like us, you spend the first six months of your startup under a rock, your social capital may begin to dry up. 4 Ways Startups Can Structure Job Interviews to Avoid Bias.

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Networking Startup Software Review Conference 83

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

The best and most successful entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk , known for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, routinely work hundred-hour weeks, but never complain about the hours, and don’t even think of their activities as work. As an investor, I’m not attracted to startups where the founder sends in a marketing person to do the talking.

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Satisfaction Ideas Entrepreneur Activity 145

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 14, 2016

Our clients are large, Fortune 1000 companies, like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Nike, JP Morgan, Lamborghini, and SpaceX. How did you start the company? Ryan Costello: I started out as an event producer in Washington DC. So how did you end up in Santa Monica? So how did you end up in Santa Monica?

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Sales Santa Monica Startup Orange County 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2017

We also started offering Factory Tour Workshops to entrepreneurs, with nearly 100 applying for the pilots. 2017 was the year SpaceX demonstrated their premise of reusability to bring down the cost of satellite launches and space travel, with multiple Falcon rockets and a reused capsule giving repeat performances.

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USC Startup News Entrepreneur 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Most technologists have little interest in the mechanics of starting and building a business. Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Most founders bootstrap product development. Fabulous solutions require great technology.

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Technical Review Patents Entrepreneur Customer 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2018

As a small business advisor, I always recommend that being “self-sustaining” requires taking frequent and aggressive measures to step out ahead of the pack, including yourself, before you start feeling the pain of change and new competitors around you. Too many businesses only think of new products when in crisis mode.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2019

I’m convinced this is happening because most companies don’t have the courage to keep up with the escalating rate of change in the market today. From my years of experience in big companies, as well as startups, I can attest that the courage to promote change is not something often seen, or even encouraged, in most employees or executives.

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Ideas Training Examples Organization 89

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2016

Have you noticed that the really big startup wins in the last couple of decades have come from creating and dominating new market categories, more than just new solutions? You can sell vision before you have a product, and the vision will make you the category king, and keep you there. Overtly design the ecosystem as well as product.

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Entrepreneur Marketing Design SpaceX 61

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2018

Elon Musk, for example, had no experience or training as a rocket scientist when he came up with the idea of reusing rockets, and the innovative idea for SpaceX. Schilling and I do agree that you have to start with people who possess substantial intellect, so the conventional indicators of skill and accomplishments cannot be ignored.

Training 57

Training Ideas Startup Activity 57

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

The most common question I get running a college talent startup is: “What is the entrepreneurship culture like in schools? Many believe the same culture will be essential to the success of growing Southern California’s own startup culture. LavaLab is USC’s first product design incubator program run for students by students.

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Incubator Southern California LAVA Los Angeles 40

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2019

By most definitions of the term, an entrepreneur is someone who starts a new business, incorporating innovative changes to existing products, services, business models, and creating new markets. Yet very few achieve that great aspiration of really driving economic, social, and environmental changes on a global scale.

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Resource Entrepreneur Social Network SpaceX 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2016

Elon Musk seems to be highest on this list these days, with his record-setting order rate on the new Tesla Model 3 all-electric car, and well as groundbreaking progress on SpaceX and SolarCity. Steve Jobs never denied his failures, but didn’t hesitate to risk it all on a next turn of technology from computers to consumer products.

Entrepreneur 56

Entrepreneur Marketing Design Satisfaction 56

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Whether it be in a startup or a large enterprise, everyone can name those few individuals who stand out as unstoppable, and always seem to be in the forefront of results. These accelerate your productivity, but must be continually updated from positive experiences, prior failures, and active listening. Superstars never stop learning.

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Resource Entrepreneur Examples Satisfaction 62

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

As you can imagine, it is human nature to look for a stable and unchanging business process, after all the pivots and chaos of starting your business. Apple needs a product that jumps to the next curve. He didn’t wait for competitors to prove current products obsolete. Isolate new product teams from decimation by daily crises.

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Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

The best and most successful entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk , known for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, routinely work hundred-hour weeks, but never complain about the hours, and don’t even think of their activities as work. As an investor, I’m not attracted to startups where the founder sends in a marketing person to do the talking.

Ideas 108

Ideas Satisfaction Entrepreneur Activity 108

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Tech startup accelerators dot the landscape, feeding investments into the waiting arms of the nation’s most intelligent and driven entrepreneurs. Founder and CEO since starting the company back in 1999, Miller has led Cornerstone through 11 years of consecutive growth. 27 on the list of Most Valuable Startups. I’d say yes.

Technical Review 75

Technical Review Entrepreneur Riot Games Southern California 75

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2016

The best and most successful entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk , known for PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, routinely work hundred-hour weeks, but never complain about the hours, and don’t even think of their activities as work. As an investor, I’m not attracted to startups where the founder sends in a marketing person to do the talking.

Entrepreneur 62

Entrepreneur Tips Ideas Satisfaction 62