Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters). But VC is like congress.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant. In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities.

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Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2021

Yet every business and every entrepreneur I know struggles with this challenge, focused on hiring the right people and implementing the right process. I was happy to see my own view reinforced in the classic book, “ Innovation Thinking Methods for the Modern Entrepreneur ,” by long-time entrepreneur and innovation expert Osama A.

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Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Design 158

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

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Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Being called a lifestyle entrepreneur should be a point of pride, not an insult. Of course, even lifestyle entrepreneurs want to be happy, and want their business to be “successful.” Enjoy being visible and active in the local community. It seems that more people are focused on money today. According to William R. Cobb and M.

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Entrepreneur Startup Equity Course 148

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 4, 2021

An entrepreneur lifestyle that continues to gain in popularity these days is being a “social entrepreneur.” Whether the objective is to generate profits or social capital, the common element for all entrepreneurs is the recognition that there is a problem which needs solving, or there is an opportunity to improve the status quo.

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Entrepreneur Funding Invest Activity 138

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2023

Over my many years of mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and business professionals, I often hear a desire to start a new business, with a big hesitation while waiting for that perfect idea and perfect alignment of the stars. Your time is precious, so don’t waste a minute of it on useless activities or dreaming.

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Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur Software Review 149

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. Planning for the future must be a regular activity, not just an early-stage or once-a-year event. Survival requires regular updates.

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Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2021

In my role as mentor to many of you aspiring entrepreneurs, I often find you convinced that all you need to start is a unique innovation or idea , and now you are ready to jump in with both feet and enjoy the ride. Remember that being an entrepreneur is all about starting and running a business, after the initial invention.

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Satisfaction Entrepreneur Startup Mentor 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2022

With the cost of entry at an all-time low, and the odds of success equally low, more and more entrepreneurs are starting multiple companies concurrently. Other prolific entrepreneurs, like Richard Branson and Elon Musk , simply have several startups on the table at any given moment. Many entrepreneurs love investing in other startups.

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Entrepreneur Startup Resource Course 145

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2022

I will outline here his six required activities of every successful business to get you started down the right path for you: Wonder: identify the value and need for change. Idea people often don’t get funded as entrepreneurs, because a new business is all about results, not just ideas. Discernment: evaluate and refine the solution.

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Activity Satisfaction Metrics Startup 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2021

You can’t win as an entrepreneur working alone. I hope all this seems obvious to you, but I still get a good number of notes from “entrepreneurs” who have been busy inventing things all their life, but can’t find a partner to start their first business, and others trying to find an executive, an investor, or a lawyer.

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Entrepreneur Startup Social Network Mentor 140

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

“I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. As a result of this activity I have now personally returned significantly more capital in my 5 years than I have invested. I have huge confidence in the companies that I’ve backed that are still active. None have exited. That’s normal.

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Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

Last year I wrote a blog post on entrepreneurs with a chip on their shoulders. A chip on one’s shoulder as in, “F**k the system, it’s broken and I want to fix it” is exactly the energy I look for in entrepreneurs. My point … We’ve all been there – every entrepreneur.

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Startup Press Blogging Entrepreneur 371

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 4, 2022

As a startup advisor and investor, I’ve met many aspiring entrepreneurs, and I often get asked the question, “I have a great idea for a startup – do you agree that it real potential?” If you are dreaming of an opportunity to get rich quick, the entrepreneur route is not for you. Not afraid to actively listen as well as talk.

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Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Sample 121

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. In Jason’s mind half of the VC industry will now disappear as entrepreneurs flock to him and to Dave Morin for their money. Less investments, more active. So What’s the Big Deal?

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Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2023

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and active angel investor, I often get questions about the realism of the Shark Tank TV series, compared to professional investor negotiations. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons. There is no substitute for knowing your business.

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Entrepreneur Sample Ideas Customer 111

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

However, most often, these funds are solicited by a well-meaning entrepreneur from investors who are not qualified as accredited investors under the law (currently requiring a proved income of $200,000 a year or $1 million in net worth for an individual investor).

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Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

According to most definitions, an entrepreneur is one who envisions a new and different business, meaning one that is not a copy of an existing business model. Many entrepreneurs have a passion and an idea, or even invent a new product, but are never able to execute to the point of creating a startup. Startup and development stage.

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Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Satisfaction 108

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2022

One of the attributes that I often recommend to the business professionals and entrepreneurs I mentor is to always be totally accountable for your actions and ideas. I too often see people who are quick to make excuses, blame failures on peers or customers, or see management as the reason for their lack of productivity.

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Activity Organization Mentor Training 109

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. Investors and strategic partners look for entrepreneurs who can execute.

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Startup Entrepreneur Activity Ideas 171

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. For seed stage funding, entrepreneurs should be looking to friends and family, crowd funding, and relevant institutions.

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Entrepreneur Invest Funding Patents 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2022

Most new entrepreneurs don’t anticipate the burdens of being the leader, including the sense of loneliness and isolation at the top. Even in a single entrepreneur startup, the leader carries a heavy weight. Even in a single entrepreneur startup, the leader carries a heavy weight. Actively improve your charismatic image.

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Activity Entrepreneur Organization Course 152

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Alumni activities. Great networking skills, which are critical when you want to be about to reference entrepreneurs & concepts and bounce your ideas off of other people in the industry. And we’ve begun relaunching our “platform services” for entrepreneurs. Portfolio company support & analysis.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

However, most often, these funds are solicited by a well-meaning entrepreneur from investors who are not qualified as accredited investors under the law (currently requiring a proved income of $200,000 a year or $1 million in net worth for an individual investor). Dave’s book and ebook on raising money available on Amazon.com.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Kara will now be really involved with what goes on to successfully create and run a firm but while still handling her core duties of funding great entrepreneurs. He’s helped me run the Upfront holding company activities for all of these years and will continue to do so. Does This Mean You’re Retiring? I’m only 52!

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Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

High-profile entrepreneurs and investors, Peter Thiel, for example , have left. “It’s hard to make a difference in San Francisco as a single entrepreneur,” said J.D. “It’s not as a hard to make a difference as a successful entrepreneur in Columbus, Ohio.” ” J.D. Here's why.

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Venture Capital Startup Capital Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, But it’s very easy to be flattered into “here’s why we want YOU as an investor” by entrepreneurs and earlier-stage investors alike.

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Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2020

One of the characteristics that every good investor looks for in an aspiring entrepreneur is resilience , or the ability to learn from and bounce back after a failure. With startups, almost every entrepreneur I know has failed at least once, often several times, but never gave up, and ultimately achieved their goal.

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Startup Mentor Activity Entrepreneur 173

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. But I have always warned of the consequences of not very well regulated situations in wish investors (and even entrepreneurs) produce information bordering on financial malfeasance. Is this investor on AngelList? You betcha. Speaks on CNBC.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2023

Most of the time, I’m all about providing encouragement and inspiration to entrepreneurs. They need it and they deserve it, because entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy. Entrepreneurship is an outward-focused activity. The question of defensibility is one of the toughest for an entrepreneur to answer.

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Entrepreneur Startup Sample Guide 99

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Spaces like LACI, Vector90, Toolbox, Grid110, and Hub101 are vital to the economy and the communities. Im a huge fan of hardware as well.

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Startup Thousand Oaks Mentor Ventura 196

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Whereas we had four partners investing Fund IV we now have six partners actively looking at deals for Fund V. As I like to say when asked, “For entrepreneurs you generally need to go to 2-3 cities max and probably pitch 5-15 investors. Just like with entrepreneurs – you know that raising money is just the start.

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Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Every entrepreneur I know is short on resources, including time, money, and skills. The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Focus on activities rather than results. Too many entrepreneurs confuse action with momentum and results.

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Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And there is so much money around being thrown at so many entrepreneurs that many firms don’t even care about board seats, governance rights or heaven forbid doing work with the company because that would eat into the VCs time needed to chase 5 more deals. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way.

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Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2021, from 280 to 360 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. The cost of social media done well is low.

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Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Mom’s struggle to plan events and activities for their kids. Most products out there suck so mom gets stuck with angst of wanting to have decorations, activities and chatzkies for other kids to take home. The thesis was simple. Along came Seedling.

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Startup Southern California Marketing Activity 296