Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

Overnight success. It’s one of the biggest myths in the tech industry. It’s a ongoing struggle to overcome this bias. I say “struggle to overcome&# because I care about young people entering our industry with a set of realistic expectations about what “normal&# is. If you take a snapshot during an extraordinary surge in valuations, M&A activity, IPOs and thus wealth creation you’d echo John Doerr’s famous quote from 1999 that, “The Internet is the gr

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Examples 331

Examples Startup Course Networking 331

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2011

Last night, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill which taxes Internet retailers if they have California affiliates, a move which looks to have major impact on local companies who use Internet affiliate marketing. As part of that, Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and a large number of e-commerce retailers have cut off their California affiliates, saying that they will immediately stop paying them for referrals due to the move.

CPC 279

CPC Santa Monica Southern California Sales 279

InfoChachkie

JUNE 9, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ranker is a social site/platform for ranking anything, powered by semantic technology that aggregates opinions into ‘wisdom of crowds’ rankings”. Clark Benson is the Founder and CEO of Ranker.com. Prior to Ranker, Clark founded four other successful companies, including eCrush, which he sold to the Hearst Corporation in 2007.

Google 264

Google Organic Search Sites Startup 264

Advertiser: Aggregage

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

Company

Berkonomics

JUNE 17, 2011

You may be an architect or doctor or other professional managing your business, knowing that the end game value of your client or patient list is small and not easily transferred to any buyer without attrition. In such a case, there is little advice here unless you think outside of your day-to-day profession and create a valuable leave-behind encasing your knowledge and experience that can be replicated and scaled to a large business – even if by others.

Equity 209

Equity Class Email Competition 209

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2011

One of the most common complaints I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are overwhelmed by the workload and stress of starting their company. Then there are the additional challenges of balancing the demands of family and friends. Having too much on your plate can turn your dream into a nightmare. Some people will tell you to just get a bigger plate, meaning hire some help.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Tips Mentor 110

SoCal CTO

JUNE 13, 2011

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. Some common themes from the discussion: Know Where You Are Going Before you can possibly make a choice around language and framework you need to ask all the important questions that are talked about in Startup Software Development – Do Yo

Framework 330

Framework Startup Java PHP 330

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

In the rush toward the daily deals space, it seems like there is at least one, new, daily deals site created every day. It's an incredibly crowded industry, which not only includes giants like Groupon and LivingSocial, but countless smaller sites, newspapers, and others all looking for a piece of the action. However, San Diego-based Deal Current (www.dealcurrent.com) appears to have found a sustainable niche in the industry--not providing daily deals, but powering those multiplying deal sites, i

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

InfoChachkie

JUNE 16, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : Ad.ly helps brands start conversations with target audiences on Twitter. Our celebrity influencers drive awareness and inspire engagement. You can watch the video below or on YouTube here: [link]. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Arnie’s responses. For exact quotes, watch the videos. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Social Media 252

Social Media Platform Media Networking 252

Berkonomics

JUNE 30, 2011

And d oing both well usually wins the day. This is one of those arguable insights, where both sides win. Dell is a great example of emphasis upon fast, creating a customized computer in 48 hours or less, bringing in assemblies and components just-in-time to make the assembly line. However, if Dell quality were poor and returns high, the company surely would not have survived on speed of response alone.

Competition 197

Competition Examples Pricing Customer 197

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2011

Investors are people too. They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. What are your credentials? What have you done that would convince me that my money is safe in your hands? Only after they see you as fundable, do they want to assess your plan for fundability, not the other way around. Even with great credentials, it is all too possible for an entrepreneur to come across as a high risk investment.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Ideas Customer Custom 107

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. 2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I acknowledged this in the article. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Examples 323

Examples Startup Course Networking 323

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2011

Los Angeles-based BLANKSPACES , the coworking space run by Jerome Chang, is getting set to open up a second location in Santa Monica in the next week, along 2nd street. The coworking operator said it will have over 20 offices and 65 workstations in its new location near the 3rd Street Promenade, located in an area populated by a number of early stage startups, venture capitalists, and others in the high tech business.

Santa Monica 257

Santa Monica High Tech Los Angeles Startup 257

InfoChachkie

JUNE 20, 2011

“If I had to, I could clean out my desk in five minutes… and nobody would ever know I’d ever been here. And I’d forget too.”. Ryan Howard, the fictional Intern on the TV comedy, The Office. Michael Scott, the fictional head of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton office, hires an Intern for all the wrong reasons. Driven by low self-esteem, the hapless Mr.

Startup 244

Startup Software Review Technical Review Class 244

Berkonomics

JUNE 4, 2011

This insight addresses the amount of risk you and your company are willing and able to tolerate over time. Most people believe that early stage companies should take risks aggressively because there is less to lose and much more to gain with each risky bet or decision. Common thinking goes on to address large, public corporations by expressing that the relative tolerance to risk is decreased, in favor of protecting the brand or financial health of the enterprise.

Resource 197

Resource Email Pricing Design 197

Jason Nazar

JUNE 11, 2011

I eat out almost every meal. I’ll spend time on Citysearch and Yelp trying to find good new spots to try, but my preference is still to get great recommendation from friends. Enter Leslie Wade, who put this list together for me below in an email (including the cute commentary), and I feel compelled to share it with the world since she’s not yet doing her own blogging.

Los Angeles 108

Los Angeles Angel CitySearch Hollywood 108

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. Specifically, Amazon has changed our entire industry in profound ways often not attributed strongly enough to them. I believe the changes to the industry will be lasting rather than temporal change.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2011

All true entrepreneurs operate off a set of tenets that are built into their psyche, or drilled into them from training and mentors. These are represented by sayings like “You never get anywhere unless you take a chance” and “Passion and persistence are the keys to success,” Unfortunately, there are still other old, reliable tenets that don’t work anymore.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Design Ideas Competition 103

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Have you ever wondered what to do with that last generation iPhone you have in the closet, or those shoes you bought and never wore, or other unwanted items you might have--but didn't want to bother selling on Craiglist, because it just wasn't worth it for the money you would earn? Well, Los Angeles-based KarmaGoat (www.karmagoat.com) has figured out a way to help people get rid of those unwanted items they have--and provide those proceeds to charity.

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

InfoChachkie

JUNE 30, 2011

Messenger : Benjamin Satterfield , Co-Founder & CEO TestFlight , Founder Rootdown and Twiddla. Value Prop Twitter Style : TestFlight helps developers build better apps. You can watch the videos below or on YouTube here: PART I and PART II: What follows is a summary which paraphrases Ben’s responses. For his exact quotes, watch the videos. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Outsource Development 229

Outsource Development SaaS Tool Summary 229

Berkonomics

JUNE 24, 2011

At many board meetings, I can be counted upon to ask, “Where’s the bottleneck this month?” Senior management is usually prepared with an answer, and a good discussion of resource availability and application follows. Sometimes, the bottleneck is not so visible to the CEO. In those instances, I follow with: “Do you notice people waiting at your door, telling you that they were waiting for your response or decision, even if you were unaware of this?

Resource 179

Resource Statistics Email Software Development 179

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 17, 2011

The Spotlight: LA Tech Summer event is turning to be the best one yet! Excellent companies being submitted and most of which I wish could all be part of this amazing night. To help curate and show off the best that LA has to offer we called in a few friends. So with out further ado I present the Spotlight: LA Tech Summer 2011 Judges! Zao Yang, COO at BetterWorks Inc ,/ Co-Creator of Farmville.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Idealab Angel Design 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2011

An edited version of this post originally ran on TechCrunch. This version has some additional details on a portfolio company I’ve invested in, which are disclosed below. WWDC. The annual Apple event where no real hints about what products they plan to release are floated in the public domain in advance. No private head nods are given to small startup companies to help them prepare.

Google 325

Google Press Marketing Content 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2011

One of the toughest and yet most important questions you will be asked by savvy potential startup investors is “What is your sustainable competitive advantage?” Yet many entrepreneurs, maybe in their passion for their new product, gloss over this one, or even announce that they have no competition. Think about each of the three words for the full meaning of the phrase.

Competition 102

Competition Patents Startup Social Network 102

socalTECH

JUNE 29, 2011

Online retail giant Amazon.com is threatening to pull its California affiliates, as efforts to tax online purchases in the state gains steam. In an email to Amazon Associates who are located in California, Amazon said that it will terminate the associates program for California-based participants, as of the date of any law on the issue becomes effective.

Southern California 242

Southern California Commerce Sites Email 242

InfoChachkie

JUNE 2, 2011

Article first published as Isaac Garcia – Taking Down Microsoft on Technorati. Messenger : Isaac Garcia , Co-Founder and CEO of Central Desktop, former Co-Founder of Upgradebase. Central Desktop was founded in 2005 to provide an easy-to-use, SaaS collaboration solution to the SMB market. The company initially focused on self-serve users who purchased the solution online, competing with the likes of Basecamp and GoPlan.

Newsletter 213

Newsletter Conference Marketing Advertising 213

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 2, 2011

Several people have been asking me to weigh in publicly on the “20 under 20″ initiative announced by Peter Thiel in which he will award up to $100,000 to 20 people under the age of 20 who agree immediately to pursue entrepreneurship (the implication of which is that they’d drop out of university to do so). Thiel and friends will also agree to mentor these young entrepreneurs.

Education 322

Education Startup Incubator Class 322

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This post originally ran on TechCrunch. I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I asked what the audience most needed to hear. He said, “They need an unbiased view of the fund raising environment because there is too much misinformation and everything seems to be changing fast.&#. This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 16, 2011

I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. If you’re bullish you seem like a Cramer-esque cheerleader and if you’re bearish you sound like a party pooper. But Adeo asked so I obliged.

Venture Capital 307

Venture Capital Marketing Funding Slides 307

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 10, 2011

Twitter is an ephemeral service. It’s what I love about Twitter. When I’m in the mood to consume what my world is telling me right now I can “tune in&# to Twitter and digest the rapid stream. I don’t really worry about missing stuff. If somebody wanted me to see something they’d @ message me, which I always read. And as I’ve written about in the past, I truly believe that Twitter networks are significantly different from other social networks.

Email 296

Email Social Network Networking Mobile 296

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2011

This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. The series started here if you want to read from the start. Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs by 90%. The result was a massive increase in startups & a whole group of new funding sources: both angels & “micro VCs&#.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Capital Cloud Computing Marketing 289

socalTECH

JUNE 16, 2011

A report this week from the IEEE , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, says that photovoltaic power has the potential to become the most, economical form of generating electricity, compared to even traditional, fossil fuels, within the next 10 years. According to the industry group, the cost parity will come from improved efficiency of solar PV cell technologies, and economies of scale in manufacturing.

Report 239

Report Southern California Technology Product 239

socalTECH

JUNE 7, 2011

Proving that the market for the right domain name continues to be strong, Moniker and SnapNames , the domain name auction sites owned by Los Angeles-based Oversee.net , reported that they sold the domain Data.com for more than $1.5M on Friday. The firm said it sold the domain for an amount that "significantly exceeds" the $1.5M reserve that had been placed on the domain.

Oversee.net 238

Oversee.net Sales Los Angeles Pricing 238

socalTECH

JUNE 20, 2011

Santa Monica-based W4 , an online advertising marketplace founded by former Hydra Network executives, said this morning that it has raised $10M in debt funding. The firm said the funding came from Silicon Valley Bank. W4 is headed by Jason Durant Walker. W4's co-founders include three former Hydra Network founders. READ MORE>>.

Funding 229

Funding Santa Monica Advertising Networking 229

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

Those visitors you see wandering around the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles with their smartphones? They might not checking Facebook or surfing the web--they might be just be getting a smart phone tour of the art. Google said Monday afternoon that the museum has just gone high tech with its displays, with a new link to Google's "Google Goggles" mobile app.

Google 225

Google High Tech Mobile Web 225