Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 20, 2010
I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. I don’t believe that one exists. Every team configuration is different. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. This time I thought I’d try and address engineering talent.
socalTECH
APRIL 23, 2010
Santa Barbara-based Make It Work said today that it has signed a national syndication agreement with Envision Radio Networks , which will make the firm's technology radio show available to radio stations nationwide. According to Make It Work, the firm's Make It Work program--which currently runs on KSFO 560 in San Francisco--will be extended to two hours, and will be available in other markets.
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SoCal CTO
APRIL 23, 2010
I’ve come to realize that I have lots of posts around startup software development scattered around in different posts. Thought it would be good to capture them in one spot and also include links to related posts from other sources. Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Startup Software Developers Symptoms of a Weak Development Team Technology Roles in Startups Startup CTO or Developer Part-Time CTO Technology Advisor CTO Founder Acting CTO Software Developm
Eric Greenspan
APRIL 9, 2010
L-R, clockwise: Daryl Bernstein, Palmer Jackson, Mark Sylvester, John Greathouse, Mike Lewis and Eric Greenspan (cameraguy). A few months back I got an email from a producer of the show Private Chefs of Beverly Hills which will air on the Food Network this month. Her question to me, “We’re looking for a few executives to go ‘Glamping’ with our private chefs who will cook amazing treats for you…interested?
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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.
Berkonomics
APRIL 21, 2010
Time bankruptcy results from the deliberate over-commitment of core resources. . I created the term “time bankruptcy” almost thirty years ago when the computer software business was young, and I was a software developer building a young company based upon quality first. Asked to speak at a number of software industry events, I found my voice and immediate audience understanding as I described variants of the following problem to my audience.
InfoChachkie
APRIL 7, 2010
During the height of the dotbomb bubble, numerous companies struck Barney deals. These spurious partnerships had no substance and were initiated for the sole purpose of sending out a press release. They were dubbed Barney deals because the structure of such relationships was so lightweight that the underlying agreements merely affirmed the companies’ mutual affection, as articulated in Barney’s theme song, “I love you, you love me.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
APRIL 16, 2010
Los Angeles-based Break Media , the online operator of a network of sites focused on men, announced Friday morning that it has launched a new division focused on CPA, performance marketing. Break Media said that Apogee Media Network will focus on customer acquisition, email marketing, and social media for advertisers, on a CPA-basis. Break said it soft-launched the division in January.
SoCal CTO
APRIL 22, 2010
One of the common questions that I commonly get is: Tony, what inputs should we use as the basis for our matching algorithm? Every time I hear that question, it worries me a bit. eHarmony came with lots of research behind the dimensions of compatibility and how those related to marriage longevity and happiness. The people asking the above question don’t have that research and they also don’t really know how the matches should occur.
Eric Greenspan
APRIL 8, 2010
My wife, my son Jacob and I were very excited on Tuesday expecting our little Jackson to arrive. It was his due date, so we packed the car and waited. We took a long walk with the dogs. We went to the mall. It’s now Thursday night, we’re still waiting. Jackson is going to enter this world in a good way. He already has over 30 friends on Facebook, a Gmail account, Twitter handle and of course his own URL.
Berkonomics
APRIL 28, 2010
Second to visionary leadership, this is your most important job. . Many of us go through the motions of hiring to fill a position, trying to use our intuition and skills to find the best candidate for the job. Sometimes we use consultants or recruiters; many times we use internal talent to fill most positions. . And over the years, we students of business success have learned that there is a science to the hiring process that continues through the life of an emplo
Tech Coast Venture Network
APRIL 22, 2010
Virgina Lorimor There are several options for financing a start-up business that tend to follow a natural course in a business’ development: Personal Investment. This is where all entrepreneurs have to start. Everyone else is going to want to know that you have some skin in the game, but don’t take yourself to the verge of bankruptcy to get your business going.
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. That’s why I started the Sales & Marketing Series and at one point I will do a bunch of posts on the sales methodology we developed at my first company called PUCCKA.
socalTECH
APRIL 14, 2010
Our interview this morning is with Lolita Carrico, founder of Gloss Network for Women (www.mygloss.com), an online network of sites focused on women. Lolita was founder of ModernMom.com, which she sold to Richard Rosenblatt's Demand Media last year, and we caught up with Lolita to learn more about her newest venture. What is Gloss Network? Lolita Carrico: After I sold ModernMom last year to Demand Media and Richard Rosenblatt, which they merged into Brook Burke's company, BabooshBaby.com, I stay
SoCal CTO
APRIL 21, 2010
I guess it was bound to happen, I now seem to be writing a series of posts around Matching. This is where I’ll keep my list of these posts, related articles and posts from other sources: Social Media Matching – Looks at how in many ways, everything is matching. The BIG value lies not in “deep relationships” brought online, but in leveraging the breadth and time-and-place independent access to other people.
Eric Greenspan
APRIL 12, 2010
Now Syndicating Nationally. Today, Make It Work entered into a national syndication agreement with Envision Radio. “ Make It Work &# (with Jeremy Anticouni), currently a one hour show on KSFO 560am in San Francisco, will be converted to a two hour show for Envision and will begin airing on stations throughout the country, in addition to KSFO. Make It Work Media, a division of Make It Work, Inc., will produce the tech news radio program and Envision Radio will distribute the show to its net
Berkonomics
APRIL 13, 2010
Let me illustrate this insight with a personal story. As my enterprise computer software company which produced innovative lodging systems for hotels and resorts grew quickly, we found ourselves straining to keep up with the hiring and training of good customer support representatives, a critical part of the equation then and still so today in the 24 hour environment of hotel front desk operations.
SoCal Tech Calendar
APRIL 11, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010 -- Social Media + Innovation: When Is It a Business? Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum. What are the ingredients of opportunity in the social media space? Our speakers will draw on extensive experience to explore the attractions and dynamics of community ventures - gaining interest, sustaining it, and making a profit too. See [link] (more).
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 14, 2010
Clean up your own shite. Ok. I know that the tone of the title and post will seem a bit aggressive for a post from a venture capitalist on fund raising. It’s meant to be a bit provocative but the reality is that I give this advice to entrepreneurs all the the time and I usually leave the “e&# off of the end. I learned all of this myself on your side of the table raising money at my first company.
socalTECH
APRIL 21, 2010
Lake Forest-based storage manufacturer WD has rolled out a new, iPhone/iPod Touch application which connects its My Book World Edition and WD ShareSpace network drives with the popular Apple devices. According to WD, its new WD Photos photo viewer application allows users to access up to 250,000 of their favorite photos from anywhere in the world, remotely logging users into their hard drives from anywhere.
SoCal CTO
APRIL 20, 2010
I’ve had several recent conversations with startups who are building companies based on matching. One of the things that I think gets commonly missed by these companies when I first talk to them is that they need more than providing matching, they need performance support. What do I mean by this? Let me go back and do my classic search for "eHarmony of" startup and find a few examples to use: People to Projects (Managers) People to Jobs (Hiring Managers) Students to Tutors Each of thes
Eric Greenspan
APRIL 19, 2010
Heather, mom’s closest friend was in the delivery room with us. Jacob, my 13 year old, was in the waiting room with the family. Watch Jacob become a big brother, right before your eyes: April 16, 2010 12:54 AM: JAG: Anything? HMB: Ya she is doing great at pushing. Making progress. JAG: Good how long u think? HMB: Hard to say bud. JAG: OK have u seen the baby yet tho any parts of it.
Berkonomics
APRIL 7, 2010
Here we examine the relationship between time, quality and competitiveness. If you are getting the impression from these many insights that complex relationships cause simple problems, you are right. We have heard the “haste makes waste” ditty since childhood. There is little need to reinforce the obvious. On a larger scale, there are epoch stories of giant companies eating massive losses in a recall of product, often based upon limited testing before release.
SoCal Tech Calendar
APRIL 10, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010 -- Linked in Live Los Angeles. BizSoMe Seminar LinkedIn has more than 61 million users, Facebook over 300 million, and Twiter amassed over 21 million unique visitors in February of 2010, but how does this afect your business? Do you need to be part of the Social Media trend? Can you use social media efectvely to promote your business?
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 18, 2010
What do Google Analytics and print newspapers have in common? They’re both one day out of date when you read them. I’ve been using Chartbeat for over a month now to track performance of my blog and I find myself looking at Google Analytics much less these days. In fact, I’m surprised by how antiquated Google Analytics feels. Chartbeat is a relatively young company and product.
socalTECH
APRIL 8, 2010
A group of local technology entrepreneurs are getting the spotlight this week--not for their startups, but for their food aspirations, on the premier of the Food Networks' new series, "Private Chefs of Beverly Hills". Apparently, the premier episode features Daryl Bernstein of RightSignature , Eric Greenspan of Make It Work , Mike Lewis of SuiteArrival , Mark Sylvester of Intronetworks , Cogi 's Palmer Jackson , and John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners on a glamour camping - "glamping" - t
SoCal CTO
APRIL 8, 2010
Some great posts in March The following are the top items from featured sources based on social signals. If I Launched a Startup - The Startup Lawyer , March 17, 2010 Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup. 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 You would have met many smart people who live a mediocre life.
Jason Nazar
APRIL 7, 2010
This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Build a Great Technology Team”. It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation talking about the experience, process and skills need to build an all-star caliber technology team. We’ll be welcoming as our speakers: Alon Shwartz the Co-Founder/CTO of Docstoc , Nick Wilson the EVP/CTO of Break.com , Allen Hurff the former Senior Vice President of Engineering at MySpace , Travlin McCormack the CTO of Internships.com and former CTO of
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 10, 2010
So Twitter is buying and building Twitter clients. I don’t find this surprising at all. In fact, I said as much in September 09 at a Twitter conference in LA on a panel that Guy Kawasaki was moderating. I said in the following video that I thought Twitter would by Seesmic , the company that makes one of the most popular Twitter clients. (If you’re interested you can watch my comments by fast forwarding to minute 31.25 and listening for about 90 seconds.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2010
Oh, boy. Here we go again. Another post on job hopping. This will be my final word on the topic. I promise. My goal here is to move the debate forward, add my POV but not inflame things any further. Inflaming was never my goal. Let’s see if I can achieve that. My WORD of the day is “loyalty.&# It’s one of the angles that people who were angered by my original post the most found so offensive.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 25, 2010
On Thursday of last week I cranked out a post on job hoppers. To say that it was controversial is an understatement. I intended for it to be provocative but not inflammatory. So let me start with an apology. Not for my point-of-view (which I stand by and accept that not everybody feels the same way) but rather for making some of the language more inflammatory than it needed to be.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 17, 2010
Thursday night was the unveiling of the newest batch of Launchpad LA companies. We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. The VC’s & executives were then asked to make “commitments&# (in writing) to 3-5 of the companies that they felt they could make some sort of contribution to.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 1, 2010
In the past I’ve written on the topic of “ Raising Venture Capital &# but today I’m starting a new series called “ Understanding VC’s.&# My goal is writing this series of to make it easier for you as a startup needing to raise money to understand how venture capital firms work so you can be more efficient and more effective in your process.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 15, 2010
I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. He’s considering making me the permanent co-host so if you enjoy any of this episode or want to see me on the show on a more regular basis please Tweet @jason and let him know (he asked for direct feedback). I’m loving doing the show and I think that Jason and I have pretty good banter and rapport.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 28, 2010
Today we had another episode of TWiVC – you can watch the episode here. This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. This week’s guest was David Travers from Rustic Canyon Partners. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 2, 2010
This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5 billion under management.&# I don’t really understand why VCs do this since it’s mostly a meaningless number.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 21, 2010
OK, it’s official! I’m now the permanent host for TWiVC (until such time as they kick me off). Thank you to anybody who sent Jason a note on Twitter on my behalf. The episode isn’t yet live but it should be in the morning (probably when you’re reading this) – you can find it here. It was a fun show today, especially Jason’s story at the very end of the episode!
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