SoCal CTO

MAY 14, 2012

Ben Kuo just posted on SoCalTech: Are the good times for startups back? That seemed to be the mood running through the cloud at the more-than-sellout crowd at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica Thursday at the first LA Demo Day. At the event, the enthusiasm for startups was palpable. Are others seeing this as well?

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Los Angeles Angel Startup Miramar 254

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. Erin’s main points: “As a former tech sales executive, I agree with many of [Mark's] lessons — when applied to later-stage, post-traction point startups.

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Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. For years I saw myself as the new guy in VC but then you wake up one day and realize that 50% of your peers have been doing it for less time than you and time has moved on. And so forth.

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Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

If you’ve taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I’m talking about. The truth is that in my experience very, very few people really enjoy the “pure&# startup environment: months with no salary, months with no live product and lots of trial, error & rejection. Our user numbers are up.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I’m comfortable with introductions and then getting into the demo.&#. I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. Can you just show up without one? If you want to go quickly to the demo – knock yourself out. Mobile app?

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Some readers have commented that in today’s world you shouldn’t even need a PowerPoint presentation – in this era you should always just demo your product. I also recently wrote a post about a company that came in for a presentation and never even got the slides out or presented a demo. Act III – The Demo.

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Venture Capital Slides Startup Sales 238

socalTECH

JANUARY 30, 2013

StartEngine , the startup accelerator headed by Howard Marks, is launching its newest class of startups today in a private event in Santa Monica. The eight startups are pitching their investors to startups at CrossCampus in Santa Monica this afternoon. READ MORE>>.

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Santa Monica Startup Activision Commerce 178

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. You already know it from your personal lives.

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Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

socalTECH

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Flinja , the startup developing an online marketplace for freelance college students and alumni, has launched to the wider world, after graduating from the StartEngine startup accelerator in Los Angeles. READ MORE>>.

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UCLA USC Class Conference 145

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Most technology startups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. Here’s mine: Let me start with a few biases.

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Startup Sales Framework Organization 350

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Teams usually start with terminology that is very insular and less relevant to customers. You’ll need it so that you can work on “objection handling” when prospects naturally bring up these areas. If you need demo tips I’ve covered that before. Startup Advice' But how would I use it?”. You should never do this.

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Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I think my mentality to banker pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. start-ups are overvalued. The other quote from the article is this: “The other thing they say is that they can’t tell on Demo Day which are the good start-ups.

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Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. I’ll start with an obvious one – I talk with the entrepreneur about competitors. I once had a startup team pitch me for an investment where the President of the company led the first call with me on his own.

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Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Before I tell you the reasons I’m concerned about investment banking intros, I should start by saying I think bankers are enormously helpful for entrepreneurs in raising money. start-ups are overvalued. And I’m seeing this even at some really well run startups. It’s a Demo Day thing.

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Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2012

How do you get above the noise of the many startup accelerators and incubators in Los Angeles, and convince investors--many of them on Sand Hill Road--to look at your firms? In the case of Westwood-based StartEngine , you head up to Silicon Valley and run a joint demo day with another accelerator, YouWeb.

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Incubator Activision Los Angeles Startup 160

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

500 Startups is scrapping its cohort model for accelerating companies and moving to a rolling admissions process, the accelerator said during its latest demo day. “Demo is changing the way it runs its accelerator to be rolling recruitment,” said Aaron Blumenthal , a 500 Startups venture partner.

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Startup Los Angeles Invest Platform 177

SoCal Tech Calendar

JULY 25, 2017

Wednesday, July 26, 2017 -- Startup Demo Competition. 805 Startups is partnering with the City of Thousand Oaks to hold a startup demo competition at their beautiful Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

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Competition Thousand Oaks Startup Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

There’s a healthy balance between allowing a design team to dream up functional requirements, talk with customers, analyze competitors and for technical projects – research the latest cool-kid tools to play with. If you pull hard at the time end of the spectrum you end up shipping inferior product.

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Software Startup Design Course 344

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

It’s a conversation that creeps up from time-to-time. For a combination of reasons I didn’t end up talking with the CEO in time and the company quickly became over subscribed. They might want you to start lean. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. That’s OK, too.

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Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2014

Santa Monica-based startup accelerator MuckerLab unveiled its latest class of startups yesterday at its Demo Day, showing off the third class of companies out of its program. demoday demo incubator capital venture software accelerator startup muckerlab' READ MORE>>.

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Class Startup Santa Monica Incubator 174

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 4, 2012

Thursday, May 10, 2012 -- LA Demo Day (featuring 20 new LA startups). Come see the next crop of great LA tech companies demo their startups to the LA community of entrepreneurs, investors and techies as well as a number of esteemed guests. LA Startup Demo Day will showcase the latest batch of up-and-coming LA Startups.

Rustic Canyon 113

Rustic Canyon Startup Entrepreneur Product 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Rarer still is the startup CEO who can make the transition effectively on their own. Unwillingness to devolve power is the bane of many management teams at startup companies. I see the problem directly at many startups I know. The problem is that we started with an SLA that was too favorable to us. This seldom works.

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Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 7, 2013

If their first companies don’t work, it’s totally fine, because they built… muscle around creating a startup that would take many years and lots more money to create.” Region - An advantage of a regional Accelerator is the exposure to local investors, employees and other startups. One such program is Tennessee-based The TENN.

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Incubator Startup News Entrepreneur 238

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Justin Bieber is unbelievably entrepreneurial and most of you will never know it because he serves a target demo that doesn’t include you. I was initially skeptical, but it was a pure delight for me from start to finish. It all has to start from talent. Usher worked hard to set up meetings (including L.A.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

socalTECH

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Los Angeles-based AppOnboard , the developer of mobile app demo technology led by Jonathan Zweig, says that it now has such app developers as FoxNext Games, Game Insight, Superheart Studios, Jam City, Huuuge Games, and Simple Habit using its tools. READ MORE>>.

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Technical Review Mobile Technology Customer 133

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 -- StartEngine - Summer 2012 Demo Day. StartEngine Summer 2012 Demo Day event on Wednesday, September 19 at CrossCampus in Santa Monica. This latest batch is comprised of 14 startups who have been immersed in the StartEngine program since the session began on July 2nd.

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Santa Monica Email Platform Startup 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2014

The Disney Accelerator , the startup accelerator sponsored by Walt Disney and being run by TechStars, had its demo day Tuesday, showing off the nine companies to emerge out of the accelerator. Disney offered up up to $120K in investment capital, access to entrepreneurs and executives at Disney, and other resources to its startups.

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Class Startup Seed Funding Entertainment 185

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

As our first time covering a 500 Startups demo day , we could only imagine the stratospheric levels of stress our Batch 8 founders must have gone through to get on stage and present their progress from their last four months of startup bootcamp. In true 500 Startups fashion, Demo Day had an almost cathartic feel.

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Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2012

One of the most recently graduates of the DreamIt Ventures accelerator in Philadelphia--which is holding its Demo Day today--is none other than Los Angeles company NinjaThat. The startup operates an online marketplace that allows businesses and individuals to hire students "on-demand" to accomplish tasks for them. READ MORE>>.

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Los Angeles Demand Startup Help 252

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

MuckerLab , the Los Angeles startup accelerator headed by Erik Rannala, is presenting its newest startup class today in a Demo Day. MuckerLab's prior class included such hot Los Angeles startups as SurfAir, Retention Science, Wallaby, and InstaCanvas. READ MORE>>.

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Class Startup Incubator Los Angeles 159

SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

I recently posted about the Increase in Early-Stage Startup Activity in Los Angeles. In that post, I mentioned how one of the signals is the big increase in number of startup events and the number of attendees at those events. Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these.

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Los Angeles Southern California Angel Enterprise Forum 198

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 1, 2017

Thursday, September 7, 2017 -- Startup UCLA Summer Accelerator Demo Day. After 10 weeks of intense preparation, Startup UCLA's Summer Accelerator teams will be showcasing their startups to Los Angeles and the surrounding community. Don't miss your chance to see UCLA entrepreneurs pitch their latest innovations.

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UCLA Startup Los Angeles Entrepreneur 100

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2017

Los Angeles-based AppOnboard , a startup led by AdColony founding CEO Jonathan Zweig, announced Wednesday that it has raised $4M in a funding round. The round came from Troy Capital Partners, London Venture Partners, Ophir CG, Abstract VC, 500 Startups, angel Eytan Elbaz (Google Adsense), and others. READ MORE>>.

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Venture Capital Google Los Angeles Software 113

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 20, 2017

Thursday, March 23, 2017 -- TCVN VR Demo Night - Eat + Talk + Demo. At the TCVN VR Demo Night, VR/AR industry professionals will be on a panel to share current thoughts and challenges. Also, innovative companies will showcase and demo the latest in VR/AR technology. See [link] (more)

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TCVN UCI Entertainment Entrepreneur 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 29, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012 -- aunchFEST Demo Night. Angel Launch, a new event for startups and investors, is producing a networking venture pitch, networking dinner and party the night before E3 Expo in LA for digital media, mobile and tech startups. See [link] (more)

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Tech Coast Angels Pasadena Angels Clearstone Pasadena 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

uBeam’s tech does work and I have safely seen it demo’d in the real life many times. Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. She has never given up despite setbacks. And for entrepreneurs waking up everyday to backbenchers public and private?

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Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 17, 2016

Thursday, June 23, 2016 -- Preccelerator Program Demo Day. Preccelerator® Program Demo Day kicks off on June 23rd @ 5:30pm, and you're invited to take part in the festivities. Clear your calendar - It's going down! Party on the Patio to follow! See https://precceleratorprogramdemoday.splashthat.com.

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Class Startup Company Companies 100