Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. The moderator asked the question, “if an entrepreneur writes an email to a VC and doesn’t hear back what should they do?&# This VC responded, “Move on. If you fold at the first un-returned email what hope to you have as an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 13, 2011

With all these companies vying for attention & others just here to soak up the vibe I thought I’d write a much broader piece on how startups can make the most of their attendance at conferences & events. Be very targeted in which events you attend. Plan out your most important events to attend.

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Conference Startup Technical Review Writing 289

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

So I recommend a high-level “state of the company” email a couple of times a year but a message that you assume might get shown to others. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. Attends 500startup events. Let me give you a real world example from this week.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Guy, how would your 2004 book, Art Of The Start , differ, if you were writing it today? If I were writing the book today, there would be a whole chapter or two…about how to use Facebook and Twitter. In Art Of The Start , you encourage your readers to be responsive and to strive to return emails within 24-hours.

Santa Barbara 262

Santa Barbara Technical Review Social Media Startup 262

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In addition, the discipline of producing it, like writing a business plan, will help you immensely in understanding the key elements that drive you and your business. I often hear the excuse that writing a book takes precious time away from building and running your business, which you cannot afford.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. Dave is terrible with email. He’s so bad that his email auto-responder tells you he likely won’t email you back. He doesn’t email you. I’ve been told so. Not the Dave I know.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We’re expected to be at conferences, events, sales meetings and be publicly visible. It’s why sometimes I respond to emails in 5 minutes at other times I go dark for a week at a time.

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Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2013

This shows itself when people try to do an elevator pitch, send concise, actionable emails or have a quick phone call with you to ask for help. . Write your set of bullet points on paper before the call. Now go pick up the phone and stop hiding behind emails. How can I best help you?” ” It’s what we want.

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Startup Writing Help Email 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. Collaboration in business starts and ends with email. Really!). LendingClub.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA. So I thought I’d write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation. Before the event I wanted to find out what I could about the students. I spoke about this yesterday on Fox Business News. But seriously her book is spot on.

Startup 362

Startup Twiistup Slides Screening 362

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Getting involved with political events and fund raisers. And still able to make it out to LA networking events. Soleil returns emails at 1.30am. She helps write press releases. Somehow she was always on a flight up to Seattle or San Francisco. Always meeting her product ship dates. million Twitter followers.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2013

Mark granted me read/write access to his calendaring system. Don’t email him unless you have to. Most startup execs are barraged with hundreds of emails and they spend hours trying to reach the elusive Zero Inbox nirvana. Emailing – even when well intentioned – just adds to this to-do list.

Tips 418

Tips Startup Email Blogging 418

Berkonomics

JUNE 2, 2010

I discovered the power of employee feelings of ownership early in my management career, establishing an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), once popular as incentive compensation as well as a tax write-off for corporations and even a way to slowly transfer ownership of a company from the founders to the employees.

Slides 216

Slides News Equity Writing 216

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. And I spent time with Dena Cook, Adam Lilling and Dana Settle this morning discussing how we’re going to take our events to the next level in September & October. I visualized. We debated. We planned.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

It starts in a crowded room at a conference or networking event. I’ve met Sam several times and each time I’ve been at an event with him I’ve heard his opening line, “My name is Sam Jones. I was at a crowded event, Launchpad LA, at the SLS Hotel and had drunk several beers and as the host had a ton of people waiting to chat.

Startup 315

Startup Content Conference Media 315

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2010

“Thank you for writing to me – it’s nice to hear from you (or meet you) via email. I do try to get to tech social events from time-to-time so I hope we can catch up there. I told him it was best if he had a standard line he could send out when he gets these kinds of requests. I hope you’ll understand.

Startup 305

Startup Venture Capital Writing Conference 305

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

Want to take a year pursuing your dream to write a screenplay, travel through Asia, run a triathlon or start your own fashion line? Getting Your Work Schedule on Your Terms – Many people in America sit at their desk much of the day and have email open. And from email we added IM, Facebook and LinkedIn where people contact us.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. That is where a “compelling event” comes into play. It’s true that some solutions are really hard to quantify and the most obvious example people point to is email. Maybe they don’t?

Sales 328

Sales Custom Customer Examples 328

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

I’ve known Chamillionaire for a couple of years and I’ve never been at a tech event where he HASN’T upstaged everybody with his marketing insights. As a teenager he experimented with writing & producing his own rap music and received a lot of feedback from elders that he had a talent with words.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

InfoChachkie

MAY 12, 2014

I recently received an email from a former student in which he described how he was able to secure a lunch meeting with a high-profile entrepreneur who is operating multiple ventures in parallel. I wasn''t surprised by Benedikt''s email, as I was aware of his confidence and politely aggressive personality. Benedikt Scholz.

Entrepreneur 211

Entrepreneur Santa Barbara Email Startup 211

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Fund raising is an ongoing process and not an event on a workplan. You should send “update emails&# that are very short but highlight some of the achievements you made with the intro saying, “since you showed interest in my company I just wanted to provide you a brief update on our progress.&# VC’s are the same.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Over the past 12 months, I've had roughly 284,000 people come visit that site and get exposed to things I write. Be interested in what they write. Plan out how you will interact with what they are writing. Use Feedburner or Feedblitz for Email. Send email to other bloggers when you post a really good post.

Social Media 222

Social Media Services Media Blogging 222

Berkonomics

MARCH 13, 2014

In a movie, the inciting incident is the event at the beginning of the story which causes the hero’s life to be completely transformed and irrevocably changed, and which makes the whole story unfold. This event totally changes the life of Michael Corleone and makes the rest of the story happen. Email readers, continue here.]

Invest 237

Invest Examples Networking Writing 237

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. Here's an example of that kind of email. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well. Ask them about your concept.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - If you’ve got good ideas for a story – shoot it over to them in an email. Be respectful.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 13, 2011

And once a month, while watching TV, I spend part of an evening writing personal messages to each birthday employee, recalling an event or complimenting a behavior or success. Such amazing accidental returns for such a small gesture.

Writing 159

Writing Email Entrepreneur Company 159

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 3, 2018

million to bring to market a service that basically hits pause on the execution of a contract so it can be arbitrated in the event that something goes wrong. 24 hrs) and users receive a text/email notification regarding the execution,” Wan wrote to me an email. Thus, we are dispute process agnostic.”

Software Review 159

Software Review Outsource Development Services Technical Review 159

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

A personal story as an investor … [Email readers, continue here…] My very first investment as a professional angel was in a small startup where the entrepreneur’s vision fueled my imagination in the audio market niche where I had run a business in an earlier life.

Invest 296

Invest Capital Startup Entrepreneur 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Vivek Wadwha - Campus Entrepreneurship , November 19, 2010 Best Practices for Introduction Emails - Israel Venture Capital 2.0 , March 25, 2010 Weekend Reading - The Mogul Mom , October 1, 2010 Make informal advisors part of the team. Berkonomics , November 29, 2010 Rice Alliance IT/Web 2.0

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

amSTATZ is an online community that brings fitness professionals, athletes and fitness events together into one place. Founded in the summer of 2011 and their first product out a few weeks ago amSTATS wants to help users to follow fitness events and programs near them and find a great fitness trainer to help them stay fit.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. If you don’t perceive that you have any potential “issues” (raised too much, price too high) then this should be a non event. is to start with just the data.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. A few deals have been funded through this program.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about. There is simply no way that an event grows from 400 people to 22,000 in 4 years without doing some things right. The founder of the event, Paddy Cosgrave, smartly responded to the critics in a post I just read this morning.

Web 150

Web Conference Technical Review Class 150

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Email readers, continue here.] Frank Peters made his money writing software for Wall Street. Frank speaks and networks at angel events around the world. I had no alternatives to success. I was not going back to corporate America. It wasn’t a fall- back position. I had to be successful at my new software company.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 21, 2021

The exact turnouts of the employee walkout and solidarity rally are unclear, but there was enough hype around the event that Preston preemptively moved it to a location with more space. But Sarandos doubled down on his defense of the special, writing an internal email that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”

Netflix 300

Netflix Demand Content Hollywood 300

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2011

Except that without providing the Twittersphere any scope for write-in votes 9 people actually said to go to Jim’s instead. From this list and one email that came in forwarding me a blog post by Joanne Wilson on what to do with kids under 10 in NYC I formed my “to do&# list. My son is addicted to Mario Bros.

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Startup Training Course Email 299