InfoChachkie

JULY 4, 2011

Man or woman, the tactics deployed by Sam are applicable to any sales situation and can be put to use by any salesperson, irrespective of their gender. He is so confident in his green eggs and ham product that he cannot help but smile. He continues smiling and deploys a rudimentary sales technique. Sam-I-Am Lessons Learned.

Sales 219

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Product 219

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). He’s bound to be able to help a company or two at the time of a sale. It’s hard for me to imagine that angel investing outcomes judged 10 years from now will have a drastically different profile.

Invest 280

Invest Angel Venture Capital Yahoo 280

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Many entrepreneurs struggle with their setbacks.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Startup Slides Seed Funding 288

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. The configuration of the team was: 1 CEO, 1 Product Lead and a tech team of 6 people.

Advertising 284

Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do. It was a young, first-time entrepreneur who wanted to meet.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence. The opportunity came up to invest in this one and I pounced. More on that later.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

What I’d like to do is tell you the story of how the investment came to be, what my thesis is / was and share some thoughts on macro trends. The Team – I’m on record as saying that 70% of my investment criteria are team related. I’m also on record as saying I invest in lines & not dots. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Invest 303

Invest Company Companies Web 2.0 303

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. That next round of investment is proving difficult. You’ve got to see your product weaknesses and plug them. It’s a gritty existence.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners Venture Capital 298

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs play to win and they take losing seriously.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. Or what about your sales team? It is election season. But here’s the thing.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. Too many angel deals just means more to watch and invest in for the ones that do succeed (if the VCs can get in at reasonable prices).

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. If they want to invest that’s great. ” I cringed.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. Is it one product line or multiple?

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. You’ve got the perfect product. You’ve invested $1 million in building the perfect application the meet a large market need. Sort of amortizing the costs of their sales reps over more products.

Startup 293

Startup Sales Marketing Product 293

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Naturally I’m excited about this investment or I wouldn’t have done it.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

The entrepreneur cannot wait to show me their product via a demo. Most entrepreneurs seem confused by my reaction and often say something like: “VCs love demos. You’re the first one I’ve met who didn’t want to see our product.” Note: I invest almost exclusively in b-to-b software companies. Don’t Demo Me Bro.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. For myself, I'm largely focused on investments in enterprise software, primarily in the areas of application software and intelligence.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. This is where she first developed sales skills. She doubled her salary by going into sales. to $12m in sales. “A lot of sales is innate.

Startup 311

Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. That used to be called A-round investing. The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. Selecting the right sales channels is one of the first strategic decisions that every startup faces. Lead management performance.

Marketing 174

Marketing Invest Demand Metrics 174

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". So naturally, we started getting all this product awareness, right?

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. Most top tier VCs return about 3x invested capital and outlier funds (the best of a vintage) might return 6-8x. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. This benefits you, the entrepreneur. Rinse & repeat.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. an investment in your company. friendly, but direct in my thoughts.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

InfoChachkie

JULY 16, 2012

In addition, a number of advertisers have invested significant resources into creating libraries of video content which effectively communicate brand and product attributes but are incapable of eliciting a particular action, such as: clicking to a landing page, completing a lead form, or initiating a purchase. Share and Enjoy.

Customer 226

Customer Custom Entrepreneur Advertising 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more. You need both to survive.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

VC’s keep different titles but the most common that I’ve come across that are investment professionals are (in ascending order of seniority): analyst, associate, principal and partner. The process for raising money from a VC is a sales process and as such much of what is taught in enterprise sales can be applied.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur Startup 308

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. This can often happen when there is a good product built but no real customer adoption yet. This is what happened to me.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For you who fit that description, nice work. There is a lot to say about retaining control. composed of these investors and management.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

There is a mythology amongst some LPs (funds that invest in VCs) and some VCs that “entry price doesn’t matter – only investing in the absolute best entrepreneurs.” You need to understand motives of buyer (talent, product, revenue, strategic purchase) and where you fit in. ” That’s b t.

Startup 323

Startup Technology Venture Capital Santa Barbara 323

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

And so do entrepreneurs who are quick to pivot to new businesses or to sell in an acquihire. LPs (the people who invest in VC funds) want to know what “hot” deals you’re in. It’s been high tide since 2009 so an entire batch of entrepreneurs don’t know what low tide even looks like.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. No pain usually means no sales. Customers set value based on similar products found.

Sales 139

Sales Training Startup Customer 139