Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion.

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Funding Venture Capital Santa Monica Invest 287

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. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.”

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Last week, we talked about about the “de-stonkifying” of the market. The company’s stock tanked by more than 26 percent, representing a $230 billion reduction in market cap and a $31 billion drop in Zuckerberg’s personal net worth. Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review ! Image Credits: TechCrunch.

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Marketing Newsletter Technical Review News 246

socalTECH

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Pasadena-based Thin Line Capital announced this morning that it has launched a brand new, energey and sustainability fund, which will invest in cleantech investing. The new firm, led by serial entrepnd investor Aaron Fyke, said its seed stage fund has had its first close of over $5 million.

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Capital Funding Idealab Venture Capital 213

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

I pointed out that the storage market in the US alone is ~$30 billion / year and there is no dominant provider — the largest player has < 10% market share. But finding a market which is large, out-dated, has zero tech and is ripe for disruption can lead to very large outcomes. years of software development.

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Technical Review Funding Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

A new program, run by the Alliance for Southern California Innovation, is looking to connect startups with Series A funding, according to the group. According to the two, the program recruits and selects top SoCal-based startups that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides introductions to leading venture funds.

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Southern California SoCal Funding Startup 197

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 26, 2022

Food Rocket has taken an unconventional route, striking a funding deal with Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. At the time, the company raised $2 million, and Alexandrov said about the perceived competition, “The level of competition in this market in the U.S. Are rivals snacking on Instacart’s core grocery delivery market?

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Funding Demand Los Angeles Competition 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

As a frequent advisor to new entrepreneurs and startups, I often hear your frustration with being treated differently from other startups by investors, on expectations for valuation , traction, and market size. On the other hand, if the market is super-hot, many will be willing to jump in to make your case.

Marketing 174

Marketing Startup Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 174

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 28, 2020

Soros Fund Management, the financial investment vehicle led by famed investor George Soros, is placing a small, $13.2 Amply has more than its fair share of competitors vying to give the electric vehicle fleet management charging market a jolt.

Funding 267

Funding Pricing Los Angeles Customer 267

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

AOL co-founder and former chief executive officer Steve Case’s venture capital fund, Revolution , deploys capital to companies “outside of the hotbeds.” Today, Washington, DC-based Revolution is announcing its latest fund. Since Revolution launched in 2005, venture capital activity in underrepresented markets has grown significantly.

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Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. What should be in your deck? A deck is a deck.

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Yves Sisteron , Stuart Lander & I (depicted in the photo below) have worked together for more than 22 years now and that has taken us through many cycles of market enthusiasm & panic. Considering that many of our funds are in the $200–300 million range, these returns were more meaningful than if we had raised billion dollar funds.

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Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

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Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

The 29 year-old CEO has, indeed, built a decentralized ghost kitchen — and managed to convince Softbank’s latest Vision Fund to invest in a $120 million round for that the company announced today. We took it to market at the end of last year prior to COVID. Nextbite is something we’ve been developing for a while now.

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Funding Los Angeles Technical Review Training 263

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Today, one of the companies that is supplying produce and other items both to consumers and other services that are in turn selling food and groceries to them, is announcing a new round of funding as it gears up to take its next step, an IPO. Its opportunity comes in the form of disruption and a gap in the market.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

The platform is going after marketers with a Canva-style drag-and-drop interface. It has so far raised around $9 million in funding from investors including IDG, Sequoia Capital China and, most recently, Baidu Ventures. How China’s synthetic media startup Surreal nabs funding in 3 months.

Generative AI 182

Generative AI Marketing Artificial Inteligence Template 182

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. What gives? The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

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Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it’s planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year. And it sounds like he isn’t in a rush to launch in a bunch of new markets. Image Credits: Good Eggs. Glade Brook’s J.P.

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Southern California Orange County San Diego Commerce 318

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 16, 2020

Milken is taking the plunge into institutional investing, joining Norton as a partner in Watertower Ventures just as the firm prepares to close on a $50 million new fund. These opportunities are creating an opening for Watertower Ventures in markets far beyond the Hollywood hills. “I see two things happen. .

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Funding Southern California Los Angeles Invest 230

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

million in new funding for its predictive inventory recommendation platform, joining other similar companies, including Zippedi and Inventa. The company raised $5 million in equity last November from Equal Ventures and Eniac to give it $28 million in total equity and debt funding. Last week, Syrup Tech raised $6.3

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Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

L.A. Business Journal

OCTOBER 6, 2021

has raised $10 million to further develop and market its technology that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by injecting the gas into concrete. Westwood-based startup CarbonBuilt Inc.

Funding 254

Funding Marketing Startup Technology 254

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

But LA-based performance marketing agency MuteSix didn’t wait that long to build its business around scaling DTC brands. If you have growth marketing agencies or freelancers to recommend, please fill out our survey !). Why do you think that performance marketing is the right fit for DTC?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2014

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. This is how Upfront Ventures came to fund Tristan Walker – one of the most talented and passionate entrepreneurs with whom we work whose new company is called Bevel. And we did.

Startup 419

Startup Entrepreneur Design Funding 419

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 12, 2021

The company closed on an $18 million Series B round of funding, led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Telstra Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Maverick Ventures and Second Avenue Partners. I saw a change to democratize fitness when I saw that no one was going after the mass market.”.

Platform 208

Platform Capital Funding Beachbody 208

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

The other side of the business is a new monthly subscription service for stylists that helps them market their handcrafted wigs, beauty and other digital products and services. All of this is courtesy of a new $1 million seed extension from initial seed leads The Artemis Fund and Mercury Fund, with Bracken P. Remember Mary J.

Tool 179

Tool Custom Customer Marketing 179

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2021

Just over three months after its last funding round, European fintech giant Klarna is announcing today that it has raised another $639 million at a staggering post-money valuation of $45.6 Overall, Klarna is live in 20 markets, has more than 90 million global active users and more than 2 million transactions a day conducted on its platform.

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Los Angeles Funding CIO Marketing 266

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. Taken together these “mega rounds” represent nearly half of the funding in 2018. More on that later.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2021

If you are a passionate technologist , it’s easy to forget that marketing is required to sell even the most compelling solution, to cut through the information overload everyone sees today on the internet. If marketing is not your thing, then you need to find a partner or outside expert to help you.

Technical Advisors 154

Technical Advisors Tips Marketing Case Study 154

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

TrueCar, an LA-based company, sells more cars now than any physical dealer in the country and recently went public and has a $1 billion market cap. While the costs of starting a tech company have plummeted it still does take money to hire a team, launch products and market oneself. million under management across three funds.

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2021

Creating and growing a business requires creativity beyond the product, in the areas of finance, marketing, and operations. Markets and industries are always more complicated than they seem. Curiosity provides the incentive and determination to learn and adapt as your market and environment changes.

Funding 152

Funding Startup Ideas Resource 152

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. Has it begun to mature or is it just better marketed than in was say 5 years ago? Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly.

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Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Great marketing is required to generate revenue and grow every business, especially new businesses which have no brand recognition nor loyal customer base. I also look for a commensurate portion of the plan describing the specific innovative marketing deliverables, beyond the traditional marketing items.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. The trends are well understood: more angels, more seed funds, more crowdsourcing and so forth. They asked LPs to rush to get into their next side-car fund to have access to this great deal plus the LPs also get the “benefit” of investing in their next fund.

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Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

My view: “Spending any time or energy trying to game the ‘definition’ of your round of fund raising is a total waste. There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.).

Seed Funding 399

Seed Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 399

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

I second his list of top innovation challenges and strategies to capitalize on untapped global startup opportunities: Create new markets rather than disrupt existing ones. But for many other innovative startups in emerging markets where shocks are frequent, a focus on sustainability and the longer view are more key to success.

Capital 138

Capital Marketing Ideas Venture Capital 138