Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

I was fortunate that I could write software and doubly fortunate that my despair at working for ‘the Man’ – and feeling compelled to strike out on my own – coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era. From this point the company grew like wild fire. I became an entrepreneur by default.

Custom 120

Custom Customer Writing Southern California 120

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. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. To put things into perspective, the company has 7.7 See, I originally lost this deal.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? You’re writing a freaking blog post! I spend tons of time each day on portfolio company issues. I submitted a term sheet to a company yesterday. Marketing.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

Months of submissions and the amazing help from our judges , the Spotlight is shinning down on awesome companies that were born right out of Southern California. For those who still might be wondering what Spotlight: LA Tech is all about, It’s a screening room for new technology homegrown in our region. SuperDemo: Bill Gross.

CalTech 91

CalTech Companies Company Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. M&A discussions (where your company is buying or being bought). So What’s the Big Deal?

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

It means the “ torso TV ” consumption patterns will be more important than the head or the long tail for the next era of media companies. You should only worry about this if you’re a large, traditional media company with fat margins. TV of the future will not always have linear stories. Harlem Shake. million views).

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

The “more traction&# feedback is a very typical scenario is a down market economy like the one we’re in. Now there are some firms that have strict rules about not funding pre-revenue companies – that’s different. Keep on the radar screen – I know the VC’s seemed to love you when they met you.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

That not only helps companies with things such as insurance and worker's comp, but from a more human standpoint, employees are not getting injured by vehicles such as forklifts. Gabe Grifoni: The most advanced companies today are using devices that are hand held, like a tablet or smartphone. Our tool does the same thing.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

And it’s the latest in a series of investments we’ve made in building out our practice as the LA technology market continues to grow robustly and attract entrepreneurs and investors. I was a proud angel investor in Jody’s company, EcoMom. He found creative ways to politely stay on my radar screen. Clever MoFo.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2008

to the business of script writing, and is looking to combine a free online tool for writing scripts with matching those scripts with content producers. We spoke with Sunil Rajaraman, CEO and co-founder of the firm, about the company. We're targeting any company producing any short form video. What's Scripped?

Content 138

Content Writing Software Review Hollywood 138

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2014

He started the group because he wanted to help companies succeed. The premise was, let''s help companies succeed, and cut ourselves a fair deal, and treat entrepreneurs in a decent way. We want to help companies find success, with our help on board, our connections, and advice. It''s more than money.

Pasadena Angels 162

Pasadena Angels Pasadena Angel Startup 162

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. No cookies for guessing which reason they use to market to us.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). What price? I hustled.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). What price? I hustled.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. I wanted to be sure that they knew how much all of our partners loved what they were doing with their company.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

It’s the hardest thing to teach people who come out of big companies, out of conservative jobs. At the big consulting firms, investment banks and established large technology companies we’re taught to produce long reports, make sure that every document is perfect quality and that every possible bit of diligence has been done.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. I wanted to be sure that they knew how much all of our partners loved what they were doing with their company.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2011

.&# And we’re here with Dan Martell , who like any great startup founder is wearing his company t-shirt for Flowtown. On the other hand, 10 years ago when we all felt like this last time the total market size for any company was at maximum 100 million potential users. Steve’s reply said it best, “Wow.

Ideas 294

Ideas Startup Marketing Pricing 294

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

I don’t think it takes book smart people to build great companies – sometimes it’s a hindrance. He told me that when the markets soured they were no longer hot. The reality is that the market has changed and I need to change to the new realities. He was at a startup that was in a super hot sector.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

We spoke with Josh Brooks , the founder and CEO of the company, about what the firm is doing, his background at MySpace, and what's next for the company. I ran program and marketing for MySpace for a little over three years. After that, I went to a company called Playlist.com, which is headquartered in Palo Alto.

Email 218

Email Startup Ideas Burbank 218

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Here are 4 areas / companies that I’m excited about: 1. Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. If you have an iPhone you can scan the UPC code on the food you eat and they will be entered directly into DailyBurn done through a partnership with a company called Occipital.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Either it’s a bunch of pictures or screen shots or it’s a bunch of words. A deep dive into the Foundry Group investment philosophy including an interesting discussion of their investing Themes. “… our lens is: Internet Software Companies anywhere in the U.S.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. First, if it’s an early stage company, I don’t need to see a powerpoint deck. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 6, 2013

” I’m not a morning person; in fact, it’s 2pm as I’m writing this and I’m still in sweat pants, but for this, I’ll gladly be there. Now, we’re at a point where large tech companies with huge R&D budgets are working directly with automakers to make functionality safe.

Advertising 97

Advertising Startup Marketing Mobile 97

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2017

Your company is growing rapidly. Without more talent, company growth will halt, stalling progress. Candidates are not able to learn anything of value about the company or position if job details are not specific and clear. This draws out the hiring process and costs the company a great deal of time and money. “If

Screening 203

Screening Web Writing Resource 203

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. I’m used to that refrain.

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 27, 2014

For our company, Pristine, Glass is an enterprise appliance, not a personal device. Remount your devices /system directory as read/write. $ If you don’t have any additional GDK app content inserted into the “ok glass” menu you might only see a blank screen on the “ok glass” menu. Take a look.

Google 89

Google Design Content Screening 89

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Facebook just hit 1 billion active users globally and that was great but a new social payment application is set to make Facebook users across the world get more from their connections and even allowing companies to sell or receive payments from their pages. This stimulates additional marketing and revenue for merchants. Why the name?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

They have a wide set of existing relationships, they have teams of junior staff that cull databases (or increasing pile through LinkedIn), they are skilled in approaching prospective talent and they can “pre sell&# your company to get the recruit to the table in the first place. They’re also good at screening candidates.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A This applies equally to VCs, startups & big company executives. The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. So no whinging about what a long post this is!

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

We don’t mind investing earlier if the situation warrants and we don’t mind leading a B-Round if we know the team well or the market. We’ll invest in about 15 new companies every year or just over 2 per partner. Overall we write about $100 million of investment checks every year.

Funding 287

Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2010

One of the companies that just announced $10 million in funding was a company I had never heard of called Huddle. With Huddle, you can manage people, projects and information inside and outside your company, securely.&#. I always worry about companies that spread themselves too broadly. So Skype was ubiquitous.

Screening 266

Screening Screencast Web Yammer 266

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

I’m still planning to write some in depth pieces on the topic but I thought, “given that this is about how video will consume the Internet over the next 5 years, what better way to exemplify this than with a 10-minute video.” I recently gave a talk about the Future of Television. It’s not as easy as text.

GRP Partners 371

GRP Partners Content Technical Review Press 371

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

We spoke with Zach about the company and its technology. Zach Zalon: Super Hi-Fi is a platform to help music experience companies, like digital music services, to deliver much more compelling, much higher quality music experiences to their audiences. That's why we set up Super Hi-Fi and its technology, to help companies manage that.

Startup 113

Startup Artificial Inteligence Content Platform 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

We spoke with Zach about the company and its technology. Zack Zalon: Super Hi-Fi is a platform to help music experience companies, like digital music services, to deliver much more compelling, much higher quality music experiences to their audiences. That's why we set up Super Hi-Fi and its technology, to help companies manage that.

Startup 100

Startup Content Platform Artificial Inteligence 100