Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

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TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

As part of the onboarding process, the app asks both job seekers and employers what they’re looking for - in a text box - while providing a few suggestions in a pop-up. This isn’t just our opinion - our startup metrics prove it! Even with the pop-up suggestions, we saw significant drop-off during user onboarding.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. So back to MBAs.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2023

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. Most investors tend to think of startups without a plan as expensive hobbies. I hope not. Marty Zwilling

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2023

A common question I get is “How do I get a bank loan to fund my startup?” The default answer is that it probably won’t happen, because most banks just don’t make bank loans to startups. The failure rate is just too high, and startups typically don’t have the assets or revenue stream to back up the loan.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2023

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million-dollar investment before they even have a business plan. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

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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? There was no money train.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2020

They become frustrated when they are unable to build their startup over a weekend, and give up way too soon when the path to real success seems to be interminable. A successful startup needs to be a daily task, with consistent focus. Getting started is always a challenge. Frequency keeps insights current.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Startups that are backed by professional financial investors almost always have a Board of Directors that consists of some set of founders, investors and sometimes independent directors. It is worth pointing out that there are actually three levels of governance in venture-backed startups. This is often called “corporate governance”?—?in

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

In the comments section a clever question popped up about whether I would have invested in myself before I became an investor. In fact, my salary never caught up with my pre startup salary across 2 companies and 8 years. Sometimes the discussion veers over into whether or not he or she should get an MBA before trying a startup.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2024

And if you spend much time in LA, you’ll quickly realize that we’re in a groundswell of space and defense startups. Is it because SpaceX spearheaded a pool of startup-minded thinkers who are now starting their own businesses? Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Ian on This Week in Startups.

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TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

500 Startups is scrapping its cohort model for accelerating companies and moving to a rolling admissions process, the accelerator said during its latest demo day. “Demo is changing the way it runs its accelerator to be rolling recruitment,” said Aaron Blumenthal , a 500 Startups venture partner.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. For starters, once you announce your competitors instantly will start tracking you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2021

A common challenge faced by every entrepreneur is that they don’t have the bandwidth, interest or skills to do everything that is required to build their startup. Two heads are always better than one in a startup. Your best friend, spouse or a family member is the least likely candidate, so don’t start there.

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Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

Preparing for the game… If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing. It can be years before you start seeing returns.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Some entrepreneurs start polling venture capitalists for that multi-million dollar investment before they even have a business plan. It’s helpful to think of startups as proceeding through several stages, which I have defined a long time ago from a funding perspective. Don’t waste your resources on the wrong ones.

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TechCrunch LA

JULY 21, 2020

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise. “We’re venture capitalists. ” Nortman said.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Even the strongest relationships are often tested and broken by the stresses of a new startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. My message today is to avoid the consultant stigma by signing up to do the job, not just talk about it. But certainly the Internet doesn’t do the job for you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2022

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, costs, and tasks you don’t like. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. Most startups can’t afford that. All decisions will be made jointly.”

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

“he quit his job and threw himself into a start-up company, which has him on the road in constantly changing environments. My whole life I have surrounded myself with what I call “completer-finishers” because I know my weakness for giving up when the task is at 80% and I know the importance of 100%.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs. I launched my first startup in 1999 so I know the economics of launching from first-hand experience.

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Startup San Diego

OCTOBER 31, 2023

Day three of San Diego Startup Week took place at The LOT in Liberty Station, and we held the Sip N’ SaaS networking event Powered Logicboost Labs. We held a quick lightning round of “Ask/Offer,” with attendees writing down what they’re asking for (ex.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2022

In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. If your startup team is highly technical, an advisory board member with a strong financial and business background clearly adds value.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to failure that are inside the entrepreneur decision realm. I certainly agree that starting a business is fraught with risk, and none of us get it all right the first time.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. You took the risk to start your company. ” Your peer group is envious of your finally doing what they’ve always wanted to do but found it too hard to give up the golden paycheck and predictable future.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2020

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. Technology experts tend to have a very deep level of knowledge, but not very wide.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

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Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Our interview today is with Amos Schwartzfarb , the author of Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups , which comes out tomorrow, Wednesday. We caught up with Amos to learn about his new book, and to gain some tips for startup entrepreneurs on how to figure out when you're actually ready to scale your sales team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2023

They become frustrated when they are unable to build their startup over a weekend, and give up way too soon when the path to real success seems to be interminable. A successful startup needs to be a daily task, with consistent focus. Getting started is always a challenge. Frequency keeps insights current.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2020

One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “ terror barrier ,” as popularized by Bob Proctor, a 85-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. If you want to be an entrepreneur and start a new business, you must be willing and able to break through your terror barrier. Work on one step at a time.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. Don’t start by committing more than you can afford to lose. Testing for real is the assumption behind approaches such as Lean Startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2022

In my consulting work with small businesses and startups, I find that real teamwork is still a rare commodity. Fortunately, it’s a skill you can start to develop at any stage in your career, which will pay off now, as well as in future leadership roles. The days of a single autocratic leader are gone.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Should You Allow Board Observers on Your Startup Board? Note: This is part of a series on Startup Boards. Often partners like to bring along an analyst or associate both as a way to help train younger staff (it’s an apprentice business) and also to have somebody to follow up on action items. Types of Board Observers 1.

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