Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Several years ago I made an appearance in a burgeoning new podcast called “20 Minute VC,” which by now needs no introduction. Food production and distribution, group collaboration, remote training or education, sensor technology (tracking people movement, temperatures, etc), certain biotech deals. It’s hard being a VC right now.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Congrats on the new name for your venture capital firm. It's always hard with venture capital. It's so obvious and so simple.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2013

For our Insights and Opinions section today--where we feature the thoughts and opinions of the local high tech community--we have an article from Jeff Grabow , of Ernst & Young, talking about the changing world of venture capital : The VC environment isn''t what it used to be. Guess what? That''s not a bad thing. Contact us!

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. Of course there’s no exact number of VCs you should meet?—?these

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. It proved to be fortuitous because it allowed me the time & space I needed to get to know tons of founders and VCs and to hone my craft.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

You company is the product and you’re selling an equity ownership in your company but much more broadly you’re selling trust & confidence that you’re going to build something enormously valuable and that you’re going to be enjoyable to work hand-in-hand with over the coming decade of each other’s lives. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Here's Marc Averitt of Okapi Venture Capital (www.okapivc.com). The biggest news this year for Okapi, Southern Californias original seed stage venture capital fund, is that we ramped up the deployment of our 3rd fund and saw its portfolio grow by another 10 companies! What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 16, 2019

With a focus on female venture capitalists and founders, All Raise hosts an annual conference, several in-person and virtual fundraising workshops and networking sessions and, recently, the group began creating curated peer groups for investors. It’s highly concentrated. All Raise members.

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Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. There is an art to efficient management of a process, whether that is the process of bringing a product to market from R&D to production or developing a new product’s launch program.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? Until we weren’t.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. And SEO juice of sites with no value makes searching for real product feedback suck. Also in the video: - Is it a good idea for VC’s to pay stratospheric prices? -

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InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

The entrepreneur cannot wait to show me their product via a demo. Most entrepreneurs seem confused by my reaction and often say something like: “VCs love demos. You’re the first one I’ve met who didn’t want to see our product.” An interface that is engaging can fool customers into trying a sub-par product.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. Golden rule of branding for me: 1) name your company or product your URL and 2) don’t paint yourself into a corner. &# Tweet&# = corner. I found this investment strange since normally VC’s hate to bet on gaming companies.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges?

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. You’d be surprised how many firms are “dictator VCs” – even those that don’t formally acknowledge it internally. ” Some firms are collegiate.

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socalTECH

APRIL 2, 2018

San Diego-based Ligand Pharmaceuticals said on Friday that it has entered into a deal with venture capital investor venBio Partners , which will allow venBio's portfolio companies to enter into a pre-agreed worldwide OmniAb platform license agreement.

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socalTECH

APRIL 23, 2013

Despite the level of venture capital activity in Southern California, the region--according to informal discussions with venture capitalists over the years--continues to suffer from a dearth of local, indigenous capital--at least, compared with the hundreds of investors along Sand Hill Road. READ MORE>>.

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socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2019

Los Angeles-based SHO Products , which is a manufacturer and distributor of products for the growing cannabis (legal marijuana) market, said today that it has raised $3.6M The funding was led by New York philanthropist and venture capital investor Ann Tenenbaum, along with other, un-named investors.

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Product Southern California Venture Capital Equity 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. Let me explain: 1.

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socalTECH

JULY 13, 2020

--who is based in Los Angeles--has launched a brand new startup accelerator called Product Club , which is aiming itself at accelerating a small class of product-focused startups. Morris is currently a venture investor at Chapter One Venture Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. So my gut says this will be a youth-oriented product.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 29, 2018

Accoding to Bonfire, it invests in early stage startups with a software-based product and a business buyer, and will make seed state investments with a typical initial check size of $1M, with initial investments as low as $250,000 and as high as $1.5M.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

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Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. Products that ship late and place entire companies under serious stress.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

I also talked about Virgin Money , a product that I have used to lend friends money in the past. I know the product intimately and it rocks. Assistly’s main competitor is ZenDesk, whom I’m told also has a great product. I played with both products and had good experiences. 2.2mm in Series A.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. But what was the VC like when the chips were down?

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2011

This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. The result was a massive increase in startups & a whole group of new funding sources: both angels & “micro VCs&#. But … Downsizing Venture Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I’m a product geek more than a spreadsheet ninja.

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socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2010

General Motors announced Friday morning that it has entered into the venture capital industry, and created its own transportation venture capital arm called General Motors Ventures, LLC. Lauckner, former GM of Global product Planning.

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socalTECH

APRIL 23, 2013

Despite the level of venture capital activity in Southern California, the region--according to informal discussions with venture capitalists over the years--continues to suffer from a dearth of local, indigenous capital--at least, compared with the hundreds of investors along Sand Hill Road. READ MORE>>.

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Venture Capital Southern California Capital SoCal 145

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. And covered we did.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Kardashian is launching private equity firm SKKY Partners in conjunction with ex-Carlyle consumer head Jay Sammons to invest in business across consumer products, hospitality, luxury, digital commerce and media, the Wall Street Journal first reported. Serena Williams’ next act in venture capital is essential in this moment.

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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.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. Heck, stick around and watch me discuss the seed funding debate that is going on right now and what is happening in the VC industry overall. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Don’t.

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