Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. I spent time on college campuses. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I attended events. I did speaking gigs.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

You should be actively listening the whole time (actively listening as in listening, writing important things down and asking relevant questions as they talk about their problems). The end goal in your meeting is to get the customer to trust you enough to talk about their existing problems. We found some success when we tried D, E, F.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. I spent time on college campuses. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I attended events. I did speaking gigs.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

It also means that the publisher (person writing the status update) can share in the monetization. Often these were things that would make Salesforce more competitive vis-a-vis Oracle and Microsoft. I believe this is important because it means that Ad.ly is integrated with the content while being specifically denoted as an ad.

Acquisition 287

Acquisition Develop Development Conference 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. I prefer not to do any angel investments because I focus on my VC funds but it was gratifying to write some small checks to support local teams. I’d LOVE to see it become more of a national vehicle. How do we make that happen? It’s important.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. That stuff is for Oracle or IBM. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. They want junior staff to work on proposals for them.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2010

When you sit down to start working on a business plan, grab four blank sheets of paper and write the words Opportunity, Solution, Execution, and Outcomes across the top. If your company becomes successful, what are the viable ways for your investors to cash out? Use these cornerstones to organize your thoughts. Now, start brainstorming.

Startup 91

Startup Oracle Entrepreneur Ideas 91

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

We'll even write a half a million check. Because, who it takes to develops successful software-as-a-service is someone who has come through Oracle, Seybold, to some extent SAP or PeopleSoft. An A-round investment in the late 90's, or even in 2005/2006, or 2007, was a $5-8M check. That as unhealthy. Why do I say that?

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

InfoChachkie

MAY 23, 2011

Write this number down. Just because two companies compete at a macro level, such as Oracle and Siebel or Apple and Google, does not mean they are true competitors in every sub-market in which they are engaged. In this context, your Bro Foe is inclined to communicate a very large number.

Technical Review 183

Technical Review Marketing Sales Competition 183

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

We write and create our own content for the game. All of TriNet’s services are supported by a team of dedicated human capital consultants and experts, and enabled by best-in-class HR technology from Oracle-PeopleSoft. Rapid Fire Trivia is a game owned and operated by Danger Room Gaming.

CalTech 91

CalTech Companies Company Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Obviously they wish they would have figured this out a bit more quickly, but as a young team I personally cut them a little bit more slack than I would if it were Oracle, for example. Journalists write stories that have an appeal to readers whether the accusations have merit or not. How do you lose that debate? You just burned a story.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2010

When I started my first company in 1999 we spent more than $2 million on technology infrastructure including Sun servers & Solaris operating system, Oracle databases, EMC storage, load balancers, app servers, back-up devices, disk mirrors and on and on. I’m just listed who I perceive as the market leaders.

Startup 343

Startup Technical Review S3 Services 343