Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

Below is a nice summary of our interview with some great quotes from Joanne. I think this video should serve as an inspiration to any young aspiring female entrepreneur (and male!) You already know that&# ), in sales and more broadly as an entrepreneur. Not enough entrepreneurs dedicate enough of their day to this.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. What makes up revenue?

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. When I first started as a startup CEO in 1999 there were no guides on raising venture capital. I was significantly wiser by 2005 when I started my second company. This series inspired me to start my blog as a VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

“Hi [entrepreneur], I hope all is well. I know the firm well and I know the entrepreneur & his business well. These kind of companies were seldom startups. As a former startup CEO I fraking hated receiving these calls. Here is the email he received (reprinted without names with his permission).

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. Or read the quick, informative summary below the image!

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

Brad wrote up his answer here – you should read it because it’s very instructive for how I believe communities ought to think about naming conventions. I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand. This is the list I would start with.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I spoke at Stanford last year about starting a tech company. They really cleverly chopped the video up into small bite-sized segments. Here is a quick summary of my POV: When you start a company a 50/50 partnership seems obvious. One person gets married or has kids and starts to de-prioritize the business.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact). By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

conversation literally every week with startups. What felt great when you raised it $5 million on $20 million now feels like a noose around your neck because raising at an up-round of $8–10 million at a $40–50 million pre-money valuation is stratospherically harder than raising at a $20 million valuation. million or $4 million.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Get your product/market fit working before you ramp up your costs (or raise too much money). Let me start by saying two things: Events like this are invaluable to startups because the significant value comes from building the network across portfolio companies and the discussion one can have with your peer group.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2012

I recently read Brad Feld’s thought provoking piece encouraging founders to sit on the board of another startup company. I found it thought provoking because I’ve always believed startup founders need extreme focus on only their company to succeed. But for now, the summary is: You’ll extend your network. .

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. In bringing up the issue I wasn’t “hating on COOs&# – I’m just challenging you to think about whether your CEO + COO structure really provides the right amount of clarity in your organization. I find them strange.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. When I first read this post I immediately filed away in memory that there was important information to impart on entrepreneurs and led to this post.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

I was recently interviewed for an article that appeared in Fast Company titled, “ Why you should start a business in LA.&# If you’re interested in the topic it’s worth a read, but I thought I’d elaborate on the topic since it comes up all the time. We have universities like CalTech, UCLA, USC and many more.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2010

I know that this will sound like a random post topic for startup advice but I promise it’s relevant. When I started blogging I had an idea. I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. How did you start blogging? “My In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. was starting. But, in fact, I would rather have an executive summary than a pitch deck. Brad on blogging.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. There is no crowd of successful entrepreneurs. Successful startups are all about the right people with the right stuff.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2021

The message I hear publicly from most entrepreneurs is that you have to think outside the box and take big risks to ever beat the odds and be among the less than ten percent that experience real success. Serious entrepreneurs will privately admit the business is first, and the family second. All risks are not the same.

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Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

My experience personally reviewing over three hundred executive summaries each year, all sent to me unsolicited, seems to bear out the truth in Tyson’s statement. Starting up' “Everybody’s got a plan – until they are punched in the face,” stated boxer Mike Tyson. Anyone can build a good – or great – plan.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. Importantly we also discussed: should startups raise small amounts of money or large? how should you organize teams in a startup? And make sure to pick up a copy of his book.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California. I recommend starting the meeting with a VERY brief introduction of your company, your background and why it’s relevant to the job you currently have.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog? The new stuff: How do I get started? I was an entrepreneur. Slice it up enough to do many posts.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below. Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. .” Who else does Clayton pray for? Have a Happy with Career.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I just had to line up behind him. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. We then started talking about Dave McClure. I know this guy is a money maker. I love the concept.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know. (if 1:00 – 3:40).

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

We had a training session from somebody who put up the four-quadrant graph you see above. This is really important as extroverts like to have the answers presented to them up front. For extroverted people I recommend that entrepreneurs have an “executive summary&# slide up front that cuts to the chase.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

What people don't know is how First Round got started and often people know less about the amazing background of one of its co-founders, Howard Morgan (everyone tends to know Josh Kopelman as one of the highest profile players in our industry overall). Josh and Howard began co-investing as angels and in 2005 they started a $10 million fund.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time. If you haven’t checked that out you really should.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. As You Start to Mature. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by the fact that some never seem to be able to that first startup going, while many others never seem to stop, starting their second or third initiative before the first one is fully hatched. You can’t win a race that you never start.

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InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Value Prop Twitter Style : AngelList is the productization of raising startup funding. 6) Naval, why does the startup world need AngelList and Venture Hacks? “As of the last the 9 to 12-months, AngelList is actually my fulltime endeavor. It’s actually quite common.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs.

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InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

These courses all proved to be serious influences on turning the dream of starting their own company into a reality. The biggest motivator for starting brightblu was John Greathouse’s Entrepreneurship class. Ben, Sid and Taylor started BrightBlu while still students. Share and Enjoy.

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socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2013

The San Diego firm is headed by Ethan Senturia , who sat down with us to tell us how Dealstruck is trying to help build small businesses and jobs--and also tells us a bit about what it''s like to come from a family full of very successful, and high profile entrepreneurs, and how that has influenced his experience as an entrepreneur himself.

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InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As noted in Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Pitch Their Ideas To Venture Capitalists , most sophisticated investors place their bets on people rather than opportunities.

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