Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. Often times you find the CEO who really just likes to do product or tech. Similarly I talk to CEOs who can’t do a sales pipeline review with me.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

Berkonomics

JANUARY 16, 2014

Taking on a business partner can be an excellent strategic decision in helping move the business forward. Access to new technologies. Perform preliminary due diligence: Review the business plan including marketing, sales strategies and financial needs. Review financial statements – up to 3 years if available.

Technical Review 204

Technical Review Startup Examples Metrics 204

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

If this isn’t you, we’d probably still have a look if you did something truly exception – probably at startup or tech firm. The chosen candidate will probably have worked for a very reputable firm that is either in technology, consulting, investment banking, media or a startup. Plus, show my you can write!

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. Similarly I liked to keep myself apprised of the technical decisions we were making. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. So I spend much time with them and trying to help.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. Social proof can be helpful. They will have to help get the next round done.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2010

I stumbled upon the Question, “ What-is-the-motivation-behind-writing-public-reviews-and-tips-as-on-Amazon-Yelp-Foursquare-StickyBits-etc &# and took the bait. Or let’s face it – writing lots of answers on Quora. T-shirt can be ordered here: Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Writing Content Sites 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

The main thrust of the post is that with YouTube taking a 45% of revenue and talent taking 70% of the remaining revenue, YouTube Networks didn’t have sustainable businesses unless they invested heavily in technology as a tool to increase margin and provide defensibility. That is the definition of Disruptive Technology.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio?

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Guy’s latest book, Enchantment , was released in March of 2011, to overwhelmingly upbeat reviews. Of the 225 customer reviews currently posted on Amazon, over 90% are highly positive. I enjoyed the book as well, as evidenced by the review I wrote at the time of its release, which you can read HERE. It wasn’t the Guy fan base.

Santa Barbara 262

Santa Barbara Technical Review Social Media Startup 262

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A Visualization is so important to help yourself & others conceptualize ideas. The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. For others they swear by music.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%).

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

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. - But more broadly it got me thinking to one of the biggest mistakes tech executives get into in the first place.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. But, they could not write, and did not know what to write from the travel perspective.

Demand 240

Demand Media eHow Content 240

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. Before booking a hotel I always check out Trip Advisor and read reviews. So how does this apply to you?

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

These two questions/answers can help define the early proof points for your company. Proving your Business Model Works - Build, Define, and Review But how do you prove your numbers? Finally, review the numbers with your partners. Please write us at blog@techempower.com ! Apply costs to each channel.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Slides Technical Review 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In my experience as a business advisor, one of the best ways to get all of these, is to publish a book on the technology, the journey, or some relevant lessons learned. 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.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

The short version of my review is: “Enchanting? At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.” He then helps readers evaluate their results with some amusing “grades.” Like King, his writing style is breezy and engaging. No doubt, he did. Prototype Your Work. Form Friendships.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. It will help you in your lunch time conversations.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. Mostly kidding. Another firm funded them.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

We hired a head of technology, a head of customer service, a head of marketing, a head of strategy (which no startup should ever hire) a CFO and, ugh, 33 developers. From then on I was forced to do detailed sales calls, get intimately involved with product management decisions and even make minute technical operation decisions.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Technical Review Training 299

InfoChachkie

MARCH 18, 2013

Ideally, such early-stage investors should have the experiences and motivation to help their ventures establish a sustainable business model, rather than simply writing a check before moving on to their next investment. In such instances, take their money and work diligently to convert them into a disengaged investor.

Angel 217

Angel Technical Review RSS Entrepreneur 217

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. Through his research he helped bring ARPANET to Philadelphia in 1973. In the early 80’s he left academia to work on venture capital investing with Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies. and Half.com. They have sixteen people on staff.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. Be gracious.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2010

I was an early user of Quora and like all new technologies they take a bit of playing with them for a while, discussing them with others and reflecting on them to let them sink in. Fred talks about it here – he beat me to the punch because I always wanted to write about how awesome this is. really understand it. Engagement.

Blogging 301

Blogging SEO Startup Writing 301

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2012

At best “over introducers” are driven by a sincere desire to help other people. ” That you’re helpful. Helping with a Sales Lead. After all, if your VCs won’t help you get access to potential buyers or business development partners – what will they do? Helping Access Money.

Email 359

Email Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 359

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

They had a prominent NorCal investor already so I thought a SoCal lead would make sense – that I could help them in a more hands-on way. China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Write things down. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. Be gracious.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

You need to be great at something: technology back-end, front-end design, usability, sales, marketing, quantitative analysis, leadership –> whatever. But if you’re not uber talented there is always a “Justin Bieber of technology&# waiting to kick your ass. To be a great entrepreneur you really do need talent.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Other times the partner wants to test whether there is support before sinking in tons of due diligence time. tip: write it down when asked / parked).

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Too Techie - Tone down emphasis on the technology underlying your venture; an interested investor will perform tech diligence at the appropriate time. Hopefully this straightforward format will help you avoid overly obtuse verbiage, while keeping your executive summary to two pages. Opportunity.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

SEEING THINGS FROM THE VC SIDE OF THE TABLE While I was a VC in 2007 & 2008 those were dead years because the market again evaporated due the the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Almost no financings, many VCs and tech startups cratered for the second time in less than a decade following the dot com bursting.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

There are many paths into the VC world, but they can generally be lumped into two categories: (i) serial entrepreneurship, and (ii) tech-oriented investment banking. All you need do to become an Angel is identify a promising venture and write a check. Hang Out With VCs - VCs love free help.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest RSS 242

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

I plan to write a whole separate blog post about this quote because it’s always stuck with me. An external consultant helping the procurement team overturned the decision and got the company to select a small software company owned by the consultancy. Tags: Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

Startup 247

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Writing 247

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” He or she has worked at some very successful big technology or media companies and went to a great school. the standard 4-6% for a hired-gun CEO).

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150