Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. Because I’ve asked more than 100 VCs similar questions I start to notice patterns in thinking.

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Of course that’s not disputable. LA By The Numbers.

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Of course not. 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. So as a startup CEO you constantly have to suspend disbelief. Of course you need to be open.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

She started with a story — a parable — as Jewish people are wont to do. Of course the dirty one took the shower.’ You should be asking yourself … how could two boys go down the chimney and one ended up dirty and the other ended up clean?!’ ’ ‘No. How can you say that?

Entrepreneur 337

Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Startup Venture Capital 337

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

I have never been more optimistic about the impact that the tech startup community is having on cities in America or about the role that cities outside of San Francisco / Silicon Valley can play in our future. Changes in the Startup Ecosystem. Open source computing, which reduced costs to start a company by 90%. And on and on.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

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. ” **. It can be one of the strongest motivators.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” ” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. I often describe “chutzpah” as being able to skate right up to the line of acceptability without crossing over it.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. It’s the first EIR that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been with the firm and I hope will be the start of our investment in this program.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. Of course passion isn’t enough. So of course I want (need) to make money for my investors (LPs). But the two can of course go hand-in-hand.

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

Of course this can be done and of course I am a big proponent of the rise of startup centers across the country as the Internet has moved from the “infrastructure phase” to the “application phase” dominated by the three C’s: content, communications and commerce.

Company 369

Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2017

One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. The Basics The starting point — the 101 — is knowing the difference between gross burn and net burn. You start from the basics, which is if you raise $2.5

Startup 212

Startup Venture Capital .Net Capital 212

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2014

Of course it’s a universal lesson and one that I’m doomed to learn over and over. ” But I started thinking more about the role of a VC and the founding team or CEO. I think it’s healthy and ok to voice your opinion and stand up for what you believe. Startup Lessons' And I lost twice.

Venture Capital 346

Venture Capital Course Startup Examples 346

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I was telling him that it was much easier when I started because there were fewer deals, life was less public and somehow the world seemed to be spinning more slowly. Web Summit.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

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. We actually started the organization in 2013. What is the most difficult challenge that women entrepreneurs face?

Help 224

Help Entrepreneur Capital Startup 224

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. .” Who else does Clayton pray for?

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. If you’re an early-stage enterprise startup services revenue is exactly what you need. We like software.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2021

New entrepreneurs routinely jump into a startup with a full charge of passion and energy, but often find themselves drained of both after a few months by the workload and challenges. As a result, burnout and loss of passion are consistently listed among the top causes of startup failure, according to many experts. Don’t wait.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Startup Press Study 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2020

Thus smart business professionals are rapidly becoming the new entrepreneurs. As a mentor to startups, I see more startups that are really an individual professional, marketing themselves as a consultant or freelancer in this new gig economy. For existing trained professionals, it’s an opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

Startup 164

Startup Social Media Course Entrepreneur 164

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

A few months ago I wrote about an entrepreneur, Sam Rosen, whom we brought on as an EIR at Upfront Ventures. I met up with Sam in NYC last year to talk about “what he was up to.” I met up with Sam in NYC last year to talk about “what he was up to.” I was in NYC and I lined up my usual 20 meetings on my trip.

UCSD 340

UCSD Startup Ideas Course 340

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Associates often shadow partners at board meetings so that they can help follow up with the company on important initiatives between board meetings. a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially. VC firm policy or fund analysis.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. start-ups are overvalued.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2021

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. All the skills and instincts you needed to get to this level can actually start working against you, and you can fail to scale.

Entrepreneur 169

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Mentor 169

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. She started it with a partner, 50-50.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. And why I woke up at 4.50am. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur?

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Almost anyone can start a company today on a shoestring budget, following these cost-cutting recommendations: Establish a solid legal structure for your business.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Very few investors understand this and even fewer startups. When you’re an early-stage business every dollar matters and because many startup teams these days are very product & technology centric they often miscalculate the importance of PR. PR is an insanely valuable activity in early-stage companies. They are silent.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

More recently, the desire for extra income has become the key driver in new startups, according to the popular press. 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.” Cobb and M.

Entrepreneur 148

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Course 148

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.

Entrepreneur 145

Entrepreneur Startup Resource Course 145

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

Every entrepreneur I know is dismayed by the number of friends who approach them with a line such as “I have an even better idea that will change the world, and one of these days I’m going to get around to starting my own business.” Others are debilitated by their fear, avoid risk at all costs, and never start.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Knowledge Base 153

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. My starting salary was $27,000. I, of course, knew nothing about business. I have published many of these PR Tips before.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2021

These days I see a surge of new startups as businesses seem to be recovering from the pandemic. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or as an early employee. It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate.

Tips 168

Tips Startup Coach Networking 168

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. Kara said “no” because she wanted to start her own company, which she did and I backed. In any job you either find leadership opportunities for your best people BEFORE they ask or other people start asking them to become leaders somewhere else. I’m only 52!

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. As You Start to Mature. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

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.

Satisfaction 135

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Startup Mentor 135

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261