Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC. Startup Advice'

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. You’ve found a VC partner or principal who has invited you to the Monday partners’ meeting. tip: write it down when asked / parked).

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Guide

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Every time I think to write a post about this I figure the most recent board meeting I’ve attended will think it’s about them so I don’t bother. So I’m going to write a series of board meetings posts unrelated to anybody or maybe an amalgamation of them all. should we charge for our product or be freemium?

Writing

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. I talked with a few VCs and batted around the idea of becoming a VC. No prizes for guessing how my VC chats went. But you don’t really have VC experience.”

Technical Advisors

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

What is the True Sentiment of VCs? I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” But not a VC or Bill Gurley or myself would have spooked it 2 years ago.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. Let me give you an example.

Funding

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. My first company launched in 1999 and we were offering a SaaS document management in the cloud (we were called ASPs back then). It will be controversial – I know. I know this stuff cold now.

Entrepreneur

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

Join us for a special evening with InfoWorld’s Dave Linthicum as he delves into global enterprise software trends with some of LA’s most successful SaaS and cloud computing companies. The opportunities cloud computing and SaaS afford management. Paths to SaaS and cloud computing that will work for your enterprise. Scott Kriz.

SaaS

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

This is important because when you have too many VCs on a board you only bring one kind of thinking to the board. Independents are critical to avoiding “VC group think.” They also get huge value from somebody who has run a large business and dealt with scaling challenges more than any VC on the board ever has.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

As a result, I'm looking at a lot of software-as-a-service companies, and have run a number of SaaS companies. What's your thoughts on the local venture market? We have a regional focus here, and the market is underserved in venture capital, yet it's the second largest metropolis and DMA in the country. That as unhealthy.

GRP Partners

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

There have been a lot of entrepreneurs here in software and other industries, and interestingly enough there seem to be more self-funded, bootstrapped firms here, rather than those looking for venture capital to get off the group. The traditional way to handle that is to write code.

Networking

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Those were the early days of SaaS and you might remember that even Salesforce.com has major outage problems. I have written about how to do a demo before (even though this was in the context of a VC pitch much of it applies). So we thought we were just managing our economic risks. A good demo tells a story.

Sales

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. Consequently, Jeff is a big believer in B to B opportunities or SaaS platforms, like Jeff’s own Leads 360.

Web Design

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2. That led us to venture capital as opposed to trying to bootstrap ourselves. Most big companies initially rejected use of the cloud, just as they rejected SaaS solutions when we launched GoToMyPC in 2001.

Cloud Computing

Steve Reich

JUNE 6, 2012

The stories are everywhere…VCs and Angel groups are passe’–the cool kids are raising money from “Super Angels” Just go talk to a friendly millionaire, and he/she will simply write a check to finance your “A” round. The ones that can (and will) write a seven-figure check are rare.

Angel

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?

Venture Capital

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. Consequently, Jeff is a big believer in B to B opportunities or SaaS platforms, like Jeff’s own Leads 360.

Web Design

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.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. why do I write p.s.’s sometimes?

Funding

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

We talk a lot about his schooling, his early jobs as a developer and then as a VC and we talk about his decision to spend winters in Los Angeles. Fred is generous with his time and advice and I hope has shaped a generation of VCs for the better. You can’t time VC investing markets. VC investing is hard work.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

This is why investors really like SaaS software companies where you have recurring revenue and your largest customer accounts for < 5% of your revenue and your renewals rates are > 90%. The reason is that no VC wants to see the venture debt provider get burned if you become bankrupt.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - If you’re Yammer , Mint or RedBeacon (all winners) you’re knighted with wonderful coverage.

Tips

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. We discussed why in Q4 you will see large renegotiations of SaaS contracts and increased churn rates. We Talked About VC Reserve Strategies This is an “inside baseball” topic for VCs.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. PHONE CALLS.

Email

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot. So, I’ve had about 4 years on the “inside” of a fast-growing, venture-backed B2B SaaS startup. Angel vs VC? - Here’s why. Not so bad.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

Of course there is no right answer but it’s a function of how much capital you have raised, your prospects for raising more capital in the future, your growth rate and your company’s risk tolerance. Each investor would need to write $1–1.5 If you are burning $250k / month then you need $3 million to fund a year or $4.5

Startup

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. We build product roadmap software – it’s a SaaS company based here in Santa Barbara, California. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital