Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. an investment in your company. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. This is where most founders err.

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste. Nobody cares. No VC will be so naive as not to see straight through it. .”

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Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.” against a broad range of similar companies.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. The best entrepreneurs in our industry focus on it year-round as opposed to just once every 18 months. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. After we sold that company, we look at each other, and decided to become part of the solution. Goop is the lifestyle brand founded by Gwyneth Paltrow.

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Help Entrepreneur Capital Startup 224

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

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund. Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies.

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Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

socalTECH

MARCH 29, 2019

MiLA Capital , the venture capital firm that is behind the Make In LA hardware accelerator, says it has raised its first official venture capital fund, officially closing its first fundraise. Size of the fund was not announced. Source of the funding for the new venture capital fund was not announced.

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Capital Funding Startup Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2014

In my Twitter bio is says that I’m “ looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs ,” which almost sounds like I was just looking for a cliché soundbite to describe myself. Yet along with “authenticity” they are two of the key attributes I look for when I meet with companies I may consider funding one day.

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Startup Entrepreneur Design Funding 419

Berkonomics

APRIL 12, 2018

Small companies most often scrape by with borrowed or invested funds, doing everything possible to grow and prosper with limited resources. So, it is like a punch in the gut when an employee makes a claim against the company for a perceived or actual but unintentional violation of a law or regulation. So, my advice is simple.

Entrepreneur 226

Entrepreneur Class Resource Email 226

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

You have cash in the bank, a monthly burn rate and a “cash out” date that few in the company truly comprehend. Fund raising is hard for everybody. Fund raising is like a funnel where you need a bunch of potential leads in the top end and only a few will reach the bottom. When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

A new program, run by the Alliance for Southern California Innovation, is looking to connect startups with Series A funding, according to the group. According to the two, the program recruits and selects top SoCal-based startups that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides introductions to leading venture funds.

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Southern California SoCal Funding Startup 197

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

The benefits you will receive from doing even some basic planning before you hit the fund raising trail are enormous. Many points will seem obvious but since I observe many fund-raising processes as a VC I can tell you that most people get even the basics wrong. Let’s say the C list is probably your “safety schools”?—?not

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Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

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. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. By definition?—?I’m dot-com bonanza. Seed has become an option factory for many.

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Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

I was recently with an entrepreneur and talking with him about his fund raising process. Some started asking him for very specific analyses to be completed on his data and wanted his company to crunch the numbers. link] Another entrepreneur was recently in my office. But confidence is CRITICAL in fund raising.

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Funding Newsletter Venture Capital Email 217

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur?

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

In an attempt to boost diversity and inclusion efforts and civic engagement between the growing technology industry in Los Angeles and the community that surrounds it, over 80 venture capitalists and entrepreneurs joined the city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, and the non-profit Annenberg Foundation to announce PledgeLA.

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Los Angeles Angel Entrepreneur Orange County 249

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” If you have the urge to be an entrepreneur, I encourage you to think seriously about each of these, before you zero-in on one or two, and get totally discouraged if those don’t work for you.

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Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital.

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Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

I started my first company in 1999 and was admittedly swept up in all of this: Magazine covers, fancy conferences, artificial valuations and easy money. Between 2006–2008 I sold both companies that I had started and became a VC. Starting in 2009 I began writing checks consistently, year-in and year-out. And it changed the culture.

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Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 16, 2020

Over their longtime personal and professional relationship, the two Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneurs have invested in each other’s companies and investment firms, but never worked together until now. We’re seeing a lot more companies that are starting up now as a result of a [the pandemic],” said Norton.

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Funding Southern California Los Angeles Invest 230

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. So I recommend a high-level “state of the company” email a couple of times a year but a message that you assume might get shown to others.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

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Funding Tips Startup Statistics 173

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

It’s only 12 minutes long and if you’re a first-time entrepreneur (or second time, frankly) I encourage you to watch it if for nothing else than to get a sense that your struggles are universal. This naive optimism is why I believe younger entrepreneurs are more likely to produce insanely big outcomes. We learn from losses.

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Startup Press Course Entrepreneur 412

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2021

The best part of being an entrepreneur is having the independence to make your own decisions, the flexibility for a better work/life balance, and personal satisfaction from driving change. The road to business success is filled with challenges and frustrations that most aspiring entrepreneurs never even imagined.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Social Media 174

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Not all of these products & companies came from Silicon Valley but the overwhelming majority did. Open source computing, which reduced costs to start a company by 90%. To be clear we will continue to see great infrastructure companies built and these will mostly come from Silicon Valley. All great communication companies.

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. If the entrepreneur wants total control of their own venture, with no one looking over their shoulder, they should work within the limits of their own resources, a process called bootstrapping.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Report 173

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs. After my board meeting I had to do an interview with a CFO candidate that one of my portfolio companies asked me to speak with. Wednesday I have 4 companies coming in to talk about their companies.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. Here I make the case that entrepreneurs must stay focused on the prize, not the doubters. Entrepreneurs. ” **.

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Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2021

Many years ago, John Hamm published some definitive work on this subject in " Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale " in the Harvard Business Review. This is generally a required quality for a successful entrepreneur, but it can turn into an unhealthy stubbornness during the scaling stage. Investors don’t want to fund your stumbles.

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Entrepreneur Startup Coach Mentor 169

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2021

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). I still don’t see it happening any time soon. Neither does David S.

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Funding Startup .Net Invest 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

A continuing question I hear from young entrepreneurs is whether a university degree is important to startup success, or just a distraction in achieving their purpose in the world. Both provide entrepreneurial “head start” programs for aspiring entrepreneurs, free legal guidance, and access to experienced staff members.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

Berkonomics

MARCH 18, 2021

Even using one of the strategies just mentioned, the risks of having enough cash to fund daily operations or growth can be daunting. Here’s the ultimate thing about entrepreneurism. The post Entrepreneurism is all about personal risk. But the risks don’t stop there. The same is true about marketing.

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Entrepreneur Resource Statistics Customer 156

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. Optimize your advisers and investors.

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Entrepreneur Startup Resource Course 145

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup. There is a lot to say about retaining control.

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Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

.” Struck Capital, which is currently investing out of a $55 million second fund, would not disclose the size of DiCaprio’s stake, but said that the investment is significant. DiCaprio has already made a number of investments in startup companies that have done very well for the Academy Award-winning actor.

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Capital Funding Los Angeles Invest 188