socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2016

Los Angeles- and Berlin-based eKomi , a developer of software to solicit ratings and reviews from e-commerce customers, has added Anastassia Lauterbach to its board of directors. eKomi is led by Michael Ambros, and says it is headquartered in Berlin and Los Angeles with additional offices in London, Paris, and Madrid.

Beverly Hills 100

Beverly Hills Software Review Invest Commerce 100

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

Note: I invest almost exclusively in b-to-b software companies. My “no demo” approach is clearly not appropriate when assessing the veracity of investments with a hardware component or with a consumer facing product. An interface that is engaging can fool customers into trying a sub-par product. Don’t Demo Me Bro.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today. The Wal-Mart home page is customized for each shopper based on location, local weather, and the customer search and purchase history.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Create a membership here Deadline: Applications are reviewed quarterly 3. Learn more and apply here Deadline: Varies Small Business Loans to Apply For Today If you're willing and able to invest in your business's future, take a look at these government and private small business loans below. Small Business Administration 504 loans U.S.

Technical Review 186

Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 186

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

In the early days this is expensive because the logistics & warehouses are amortized over a small customer base but with scale this infrastructure and the technology that drives it becomes a powerful moat and hard for new entrants to compete. years of software development.

Technical Review 268

Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Software Review 106

Software Review Funding Startup Seed Funding 106

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2014

On one end, entrepreneurs who have (at minimum) built something customers love and are willing to pay for, and the other hand, investors who are looking for the very companies who fit that profile. You’ve built a great business, your customers love you. The investment environment at large in light of the JOBS Act.

Invest 100

Invest Startup Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

For starters Uber itself has had to lay off 27% of its workforce due to the pandemic and has been severely impacted financially from the crisis with no immediate respite in sight. Customers were happy and restaurants focused on their in-store business. they just put up with the food delivery company fees. so, too, are restaurants.

SaaS 242

SaaS Customer Custom Technical Review 242

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Funding 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

The second is that the retailers were constrained by their high costs of local real estate and service staff relative to the costs of centralized warehouses where goods could be stacked high, sorted by robots, managed by RFIDs and then shipped via overnight to eager, cost-conscious customers across the US. 10x the experience.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Pricing Software Review Customer 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2011

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Software Review 98

Software Review Funding Seed Funding Startup 98

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. We only want software revenue.” How do you get referenceable customers? Let me explain why: 1.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2019

Stacy Stubblefield: We do two factor authentication, which basically means we send text messages with the codes you get when you log into a web site or even when you're just registering for a website. What enabled you to get that first customer on board? We were really focused on customer acquisition. How did the company start?

Marina Del Rey 113

Marina Del Rey Software Review Startup Incubator 113

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

Both programmers, the two reconnected after doing stints as custom developers during and after college, and then when they were developing tools for their families’ businesses as residential contractors in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. These kinds of technologies, unlike AI, don’t automate away workers.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. He came to work in our offices at Upfront Ventures as an EIR and immediately began building software to improve how storage was picked up, photographed, scanned and routed to a warehouse.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Once you build it, they will now ask you about the key metrics that they need proven in order to see if you really are a good investment. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. Review the code being built. To prove/disprove a hypothesis. Plan for past the initial MVP.

Technical Review 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

As more people spent time at home last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the startup saw its contract revenue spike by 5x, Wu says. We’re also helping these individual contractors increase the brand, and helping them with the administration and customer support side with our software.”. trillion-dollar industry.

Technical Review 185

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2010

Yesterday I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for due diligence. Not doing due diligence on the funding source.

Software Review 95

Software Review Startup Seed Funding Funding 95

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. Things happen, people tire, sometimes tragedies.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Jackson added, “FinTech has traditionally lagged behind the innovation that’s happening in other areas of enterprise software. 25 Years of Writing Code. The firm says its customers benefit from closing deals faster, exchanging files securely, and being able to manage more deals at any given time. Founded in 2010 by Eric M.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Tech.Co

JANUARY 3, 2020

Customers are happy, clients are beaming, and the revenue just keeps rolling in. As well as making purchases incredibly easy for your customers (encouraging more sales) you can offer loyalty initiatives on the spot, and track crucial details from inventory numbers to best-selling products and employee performance.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Software Review Social Media Platform 91

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Traditional business intelligence (and data mining) software does a very good job of showing you where you’ve been. The challenge is to increase response rates and propagate a single view of the customer, by integrating customer data from multiple Web and social media interactions. Investment risk management.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media Study Guide 99

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. This is equivalent to being handed a free customer for every ten customers you acquire.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. Before you act, shut up and listen to employees, customers, and futurists.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Metrics Resource Software Review 101

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

However, its unique-for-the-industry monthly subscription model has helped it maintain healthy profits from its loyal customer base in 2023. Not only has this helped to raise its profile, it's also allowed them to invest further into their science team, and their cloud-based planning and monitoring tool, Land Tender.

Startup 196

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 196

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

This is true of any buying process where a customer has to make a large investment decision on your software or when an investor must decide whether to give you $5 million. These are similar to the pipeline reviews I used to do with sales reps when I was a CEO. Do they have authority to invest?

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2013

We''re very much a global footprint company, and we have customers from all over the world who fit that type of description. Right now, we have around 380,000 customers, with about a third of those outside the United States. The investment was made to give some liquidity to one of the four founders.

Software Review 238

Software Review Cloud Computing Technical Review Platform 238

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. Look for validation from your mainstream customers. Growing too fast kills many new ventures, due to staffing costs, inventory, and funding delays.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2018

We caught up with one of the co-founders, Jay Goss, about what the new investment fund is looking for in a startup, and the types of investments it makes. First, tell us about the fund and what you are looking to invest in? Most of our LPs are healthcare industry executives, who wanted to invest in the fund.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Review Software Review Artificial Inteligence 113

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

The investment was led by Union Square Ventures and included participation from Eniac Ventures, Human Capital and Flexport. to develop some sweet inventory-planning software. Ghost itself closed on a Series A equity round of $13 million, along with $7 million in debt, in June. Syrup Tech bags $6.3M

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

We thought it might be interesting to talk with one of the fund's managing directors, Jeb Spencer about the fund's success in technology investments, plus how it managed to raise another fund in this kind of environment, plus its unique goal of getting companies to an acquisition--and not an IPO.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 27, 2023

During Anthropic's first funding round, which took place in early 2021, the company raised an impressive $124 million – which included investment from Skype Co-founder Jaan Tallin. Since then, Google has invested almost $400 million in the startup and holds a 10% stake in the company, while Amazon has pledged up to $4 billion.

ChatGPT 128

ChatGPT Artificial Inteligence Training Startup 128