TechEmpower

MAY 1, 2014

'The latest round of our ongoing Framework Benchmarks project is now available! Round 9 updates several test implementations and introduces a new test environment using modern server hardware. Since the first round, we have known that the highest-performance frameworks and platforms have been network-limited by our gigabit Ethernet. For Round 9, Peak Hosting has provided a high-performance environment equipped with 10-gigabit Ethernet at one of their data centers.

Framework 546

Framework TechEmpower Examples Web 546

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2014

'In my Twitter bio is says that I’m “ looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs ,” which almost sounds like I was just looking for a cliché soundbite to describe myself. Yet along with “authenticity” they are two of the key attributes I look for when I meet with companies I may consider funding one day. Passion is also the featured heavily in nearly every presentation I give to entrepreneurs or on college campuses or in talks with MBA students.

Startup 419

Startup Entrepreneur Design Funding 419

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

'This is our second year of creating our list of the top 50 people to watch in Southern California''s technology industry, and it was NOT an easy task. As we found last year, it''s a tough, unforgiving task to narrow down a list of the folks in Southern California''s technology industry to just fifty to watch. There were many, many people who are not on the list who indeed deserve to be on this list -- in fact, we had so many names from readers and our nominating committee, we were forced into t

Southern California 279

Southern California SoCalTech Technical Review USC 279

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

'There was a lot of passion in the room last week when I presented Working with Developers at the Stubbs Precellerator. I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. So I promised that I would provide a follow-up after the session. This is that follow-up and hopefully it’s useful to people outside of the session as well.

Development 280

Development Develop CTO Coach CTO Hire 280

Advertiser: Aggregage

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Company

InfoChachkie

APRIL 21, 2014

'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. I have a confession: I used to quickly become frustrated whenever I tried something new and I didn''t quickly excel. Rather than attempting to master the new activity, I would moved on to another task, seeking a gentler learning curve. If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles!

Activity 275

Activity Santa Barbara Startup Tips 275

Berkonomics

MARCH 20, 2014

'Here’s more advice from professional investors for aspiring entrepreneurs. Each of us has a list of things we look for early on when identifying whether we want to go to the next step in analyzing a plan. Come to think of it, these are good for challenging any business plan. First: You must address a big market, large enough to allow a new entrant to have a shot at making a dent with a great product or service, and growing to a size that will make the company valuable at the exit.

Marketing 263

Marketing Email Entrepreneur Activity 263

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2014

'As we and our collaborators prepare Round 9 of our Framework Benchmarks project, we had an epiphany: With high-performance software, a single modern server processes over 1 million HTTP requests per second. Five months ago, Google talked about load-balancing to achieve 1 million requests per second. We understand their excitement is about the performance of their load balancer 1.

EC2 514

EC2 TechEmpower Java Google 514

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

'The story on Uber has been written about ad nauseam, which is why I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. But enough people have asked my perspective so I decided to weigh in with my non-conformist view. I love Uber and I don’t believe there has yet been a real scandal. Grievances – yes. But scandal? I’m not so sure. For starters – I’m not an investor in Uber.

Press 418

Press Journal Startup Training 418

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

'When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

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. The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

'This week. On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Him: Yeah. We raised a seed round. About $1 million. Me: At what price? Him: It wasn’t priced. We raised a convertible note. Me: With a cap? Him: Yes, $8 million. Me: Ah. I see. So you did raise with a price. It’s just a maximum price. You’ll find out the minimum when the next round is raised.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

'This weekend I was reading the NY Times online and I came across this excellent piece about ADHD written by Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry. In the article the author talks about the condition of the brain – which affects up to 11% of American children in which people with ADHD (or ADD, which doesn’t have hyperactivity) – in which people with ADD have a low tolerance for routine tasks and thus they seek out “novelty” The author believes this ma

Startup 416

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Help 416

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2014

'Tom Perkins is one of the founding members of the venerable venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins. He just had his Mitt Romney moment and his name will forever be etched in the collective consciousness of the tech community for this terribly insensitive and tone deaf letter to the Wall Street Journal. The headline of Mr. Perkins letter to the WSJ?

Education 417

Education Venture Capital UCSD Class 417

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

'I’ve been having this PR discussion with three separate portfolio companies at once so I thought I’d just publish my thoughts more broadly. I have written many times about PR so if you want a deep dive on the “how” of PR you may enjoy reading some of these posts. PR is an insanely valuable activity in early-stage companies. Very few investors understand this and even fewer startups.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

'This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I look for a lot of things, actually: Persistence (above all else), resiliency, leadership, humility, attention-to-detail, street smarts, transparency and both obsession with one’s company and a burning desi

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

'Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. I have known Kara for 7 years and knew almost immediately after meeting her that I wanted to work with her one day in some capacity.

Venture Capital 408

Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

'Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. WTF? There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. What is a founder to do? There are some smart if not somewhat cerebral bloggers I read who say that you shouldn’t take any startup advice at all because it’s too generalized to be useful

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

'Marc Andreessen kicked off another great debate on Twitter last night , one that I’ve been talking about incessantly in private circles for the past 2-3 years – what actually IS the definition of a seed vs. A-round. This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste.

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

'There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. On the surface the narratives have been. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The poor performance of the asset class (this analysis has largely been wrong as I pointed out here –> most analyses were clumsy rear-view mirror looks at the data).

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

'Whew! We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. We raised $280 million. Our last fund was $200 million but as you may already know since we raised that fund we added new partners Greg Bettinelli and Kara Nortman and Venture Partner Hamet Watt – all of whom are busy looking at new deals for the firm

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

'Obsession. The drive to succeed at all costs. When second place isn’t good enough because we live in winner-take-most markets. The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field. This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It would often make my colleagues laugh because they’d hear me like a broken record and then the next week read my ramblings in a post.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'I wrote this on my flight home from f.ounders & web summit in Dublin, Ireland late last year. I think I was too hung over to finish it, hit publish and move on. So here is attempt two now that the alcohol is mostly out of me. The Magic of the Irish. Scenes from my counter-top on my last night in Dublin. I recently returned from a 5-day visit to Ireland, my first time back in 10 years and the start of what I hope will be a more regular travel schedule there.

Conference 392

Conference Startup Web Truecar 392

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

'I just returned from 3 days in Cincinnati including attending the annual meeting of one of Upfront’s LPs – Cintrifuse. 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. Cincinnati, like many startup communities in the US over the past 5 years, has revitalized important regions in its urban core, created accelerators, built co

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

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. There is that rare breed that doesn’t accept “no” for an answer. It is impossible advice to give because there is such a fine line between being persistent and being annoying and it’s something you probably can’t teach.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

'I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 years ago. I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

'One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. How hard could it be? You just assign out tasks to all of us. In the early days the CEO is the jack-of-all-trades, doer-of-all, famously the “chief janitor” or coffee maker.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 2, 2014

'Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. Thus I hear many talk about “radical transparency” when virtually ever experienced operator in my inner circle talks knowingly about that naiveté. It’s not that I don’t love idealism – I was young once, too!

Startup 385

Startup Coach Course Snapchat 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

'There’s an article making the rounds in tech circles titled “ Growth Hacking is Bull ” written by Muhammad Saleem. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. I’d strongly encourage you to read it. I actually really enjoyed many of the points Muhammad made about marketing in general and I found myself nodding through the entirety of the article except for it’s core premise.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

'I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. ” I highly recommend reading it. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in.

Startup 383

Startup Companies Company .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

'Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

'One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. I also see companies as they move from having taken $1-5 million from me to their next round where they raise $8-15 million from Series B investors and sometimes I lead at this round (we’re stage agnostic but 8

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

'Amazon. It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? And could we then compete?” type questions. But what if you could do the reverse of Amazon?

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

'Yesterday I wrote a post about “ growth hacking ” and why I thought it was wrong that people were hating on the term unnecessarily. It’s worth a quick read. My argument is pretty simple. If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

'An abbreviated version of this post appeared yesterday on TechCrunch. If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. “There’s something going on in LA.” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. I hear it right after people have decided to come by for a few days to “check out what all the fuss is about.” I hear it when I visit LPs (th

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

'I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. 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.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

'We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013.

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373