Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. My best advice is to stick to the middle ground.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. Link has a summary of his argument plus a great video). While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. It’s worth a quick read.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. If you spent the 3 years perfecting some hugely differentiated technology IP that may also be different. Fast early growth in a market is often eroded when competition gets fierce and prices are forced down due to competition.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 8, 2018

Steven Johnson, author of How We Got To Now , analyzes technological breakthroughs, looking for patterns that allow entrepreneurs to identify “How We’ll Get To Tomorrow.” We all have hunches, but if we do not diligently document them, we risk losing them. This is a lead up into an executive summary. Who Has This Problem?

Ideas 69

Ideas Startup Technical Review Santa Barbara 69

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. We have well financed competitors whom despite competing with we respect deeply and when you see your competition launching in many markets it’s tempting to follow suit.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.” Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Technical Review Statistics Startup 119

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

are eliminated during due diligence. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Build an investor presentation and summary. Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I don’t intend either, Burstly has respectable and strong competition. He’s a natural leader, appropriately competitive, very customer focused and a pleasure to work with. But I believe it’s a very comprehensive solution and our due diligence with large app developers confirmed as much. What does it do?

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2013

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition.

Startup 103

Startup Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2014

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2012

Every serious investor, on the other hand, has a stack of these in their in-basket (email or real plastic) awaiting review, and is looking for the flaw or less-capable entrepreneur in each that predicts failure, allowing them to discard it like another piece of junk mail. Send the plan without a summary. You lose in either case.

Summary 97

Summary Technical Review .Net Ideas 97

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

People said this about Ring (which went from startup to selling to Amazon > $1 billion in around 5 years), Facebook, YouTube, Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Instagram and many other great behemoths of the technology industry. You can expect some strong competition, but it’s unlikely that there will be 5 great scooter companies. Not really.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Every serious investor, on the other hand, has a stack of these in their in-basket (email or real plastic) awaiting review, and is looking for the flaw or less-capable entrepreneur in each that predicts failure, allowing them to discard it like another piece of junk mail. Send the plan without a summary. You lose in either case.

Summary 97

Summary Technical Review .Net Ideas 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

are eliminated during due diligence. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Build an investor presentation and summary. Reserve the company name on social networks to protect it.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary that I agree with of the five lifecycle phases every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Startup 142

Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 142

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2013

Yet 2013 is still projected by The Fiscal Times as a difficult IPO opportunity for startups, due to choppy markets, continuing fiscal uncertainty, and the Facebook fiasco. Follow with a killer executive summary, investor presentation, and financial model. For the full year 2012, venture-backed initial public offerings raised $21.5

Venture Capital 101

Venture Capital Startup Capital Seed Funding 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2010

Here is a summary of the steps I recommend along the way: Turn your dream into a vision. Do not fail to review the assumptions underlying your initial strategy. Of special importance are changes in the following areas: technology, competition and new legislation affecting your planned business.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Summary Entrepreneur Coach 91

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

A business needs technical, marketing, financial and many other skills. These are required to show that you have a defensible competitive advantage or at least a barrier to entry. Prepare an executive summary and investor presentation. Assemble a team with the requisite expertise and experience.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2015

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary that I like of the five lifecycle phases every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Startup 98

Startup Marketing Web 2.0 IBM 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2019

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary that I like of the five lifecycle phases every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Startup 89

Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 89

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2013

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary of the five lifecycle phases that every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Company 75

Company Companies Startup Web 2.0 75

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2018

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Funding 62

Funding Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 62

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

What neither group seems to fully comprehend is that retail needs to fundamentally change to succeed, far beyond the addition of an online component, to meet the experience expectations of today’s generation, an oversupplied global marketplace, and technology for instant pricing and distribution.

Customer 52

Customer Custom Technical Review Summary 52

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary that I like of the five lifecycle phases every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Startup 53

Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 53

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 9, 2014

In the startup world there’s been a culture of solution or technology first, whereas I believe we should be taking a more people-centred approach to building products and services. Unless the thing you’re building has real value to someone, it’s just a vanity project, no matter the technology. Startups are next.

Startup 78

Startup Design Customer Custom 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

Usually after a Monday partner meeting you get a pretty strong: Yes, term sheet coming No, sorry we’re passing Maybe, we need to do more due diligence / analysis / work I always counsel founders that “good news comes early” so if you haven’t heard by Tuesday at noon chances are it wasn’t likely a clean “yes.”

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). When you think about the trends of faster-growing startups due to social networking, credit card enable and mobile first consumers – the reality is that many startups are becoming very large financially before needing to go public.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

But more broadly it got me thinking to one of the biggest mistakes tech executives get into in the first place. But you’d be surprised how much tech folks either hold journalists too much on a pedestal or disdain them. Given a choice of your marketing person or talking to you (the founder) there’s no competition.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307