Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

The reality is that as a result of two major trends the costs of starting a technology startup went down massively. So What Impact Did the Drop in Tech Founding Costs Have on VC? Traditional VCs have raised larger funds that allow them to pay slightly higher prices and still hit preferred ownership sizes.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review ! This writeup from industry analyst Karl Guttag showcases how Magic Leap has turned away from several of the key technologies it raised billions of dollars to develop with its latest hardware which he nevertheless believes will “blow away” the HoloLens 2 in image quality.

Marketing 246

Marketing Newsletter Technical Review News 246

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. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. ” Therefore one goal of Y Combinator appears to be “get the highest price and best terms.” What kind of deals should I be doing?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

The prices of angel deals have recently crept up, VCs have also gotten their checkbooks out again, frothy deals are happening and people are feeling bullish. VCs have also gone back to writing checks because as an industry we can’t be seen as “sitting on the sidelines” for years at a time. VCs get paid to “put money to work.&#.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. Sales people will often blame your pricing. They lost the deal because your competitors dropped price.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

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

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. Rational people can disagree and some may argue that today’s prices are rational and under-pinned by economic drivers. I believe that. That’s fine.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

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. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally. The ingredients are all here.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

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. If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. They will have to negotiate price and terms. million round I might write $1.8 – 2.2

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

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

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

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. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. We in the tech world extol the virtues of lots of product releases and rapid innovation.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

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. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. We in the tech world extol the virtues of lots of product releases and rapid innovation.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. So don’t raise money at a cheap price, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself either. Pricing high also takes exit options off the table. But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. And the starting price for WW is $18 / month … DailyBurn is free.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. We short-handed this marketing mix as “ the four P’s ” – product, price, promotion and place (distribution) – this was devised in 1960 and while a little bit dated is still a useful framework. Simply write a great book?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. You should read this post. Deep pockets.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

The process for retailers and brands to liquidate excess inventory hasn’t changed very much, if at all, and while some retailers were able to build operational infrastructure to service the off-price channels, it continues to be a constant pain point. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission. On the SAT/ACT side, in classroom tutoring, we have used our technology to automate the back office.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2015

Thus founders seeking funding for a good cause or a new technology often seize on grants from universities, government agencies and philanthropic organizations as free money to solve their problems. After months of preparation, you should expect another six to nine months for reviews and funding cycles. Technology is not enough.

Pricing 100

Pricing Equity Technical Review Research 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Microsoft Office ended up beating its competitors because it was able to read and write to file formats other than its own.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Verifying Looking for regular tech news straight to your inbox? Source: gumroad.com Gumroad really started to take off in 2023, smashing revenue records for three months straight, a feat that was attributed to a price hike it carried out at the start of the year. million site visits in October alone. Gumroad homepage.

Startup 194

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 194

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. High burn-rates fueled by over investment – One of the most damning things that happened to the start-up markets in 97-00 and 05-08 was the overfunding of technology companies.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

I would start by asking the candidate, “How did you decide on these five people” as part of your review process. Most people delay reference calls until that point both due to expediency of time (why make phone calls unless you think you might hire the person?) You expected no less. Having an accomplice. They hold out.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I have been meaning to write this for a while as I’ve noticed that much of my board time is involved in trying to be an independent referee for founders who themselves are trying to resolve their own conflicts. I saw this first hand with a CEO who tried to get into numerous company-betting lawsuits that we knew weren’t in his best interest.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. They controlled distribution to the masses. Google acquired YouTube for $1.65

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Nobody commits, nobody wants to set a price, nobody wants to stick their neck out then BOOM! I remind founders that the no’s come early because it’s super easy to qualify out a deal that you know is unlikely due to stage, focus, geography, competitive deal you’ve done or even just the fact that you’re too busy right now. Happy raising.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Jamie’s ethos led him to price at just $3 / user / camera / month at a time when traditional home security companies’ monthly fees were so unaffordable.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

How Most Board Meeting Prep Works I’ve been sitting on tech boards for two decades so I have some experience with what goes wrong. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. There is limited way for board members to read them, digest them, compare them to the last board meeting, write up questions.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

We helped the write out their requirements for a system. They hired a consultant to help them with the review. And surprise, surprise the decision came back 3 weeks later than none of the preferred 3 vendors had won but rather this tiny little competitor owned by the consulting company charged with doing the review.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about. ” So how should you feel about Web Summit, DreamForce, TechCrunch Disrupt, CES, SxSW or any of the myriad of tech events that are put on every year? It’s why I really try to focus on smaller events.

Web 150

Web Conference Technical Review Class 150

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 27, 2014

Your finance professional should support you with day-to-day budgeting to lower your cash flow, helping you refine your accounts receivable and accounts payable systems, and maximizing your pricing strategy—to name just a few tasks that greatly impact your cash flow. How can I minimize my income tax burden?

Venture Capital 93

Venture Capital Outsource Help Writing 93

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. …But LPs Have Been Putting Out More Money Than They Are Getting Back.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. A host of bloggers and publishers are seeing their revenues massively dented, from tiny BBQ grill review sites to the hugest media organizations around.

Buzzfeed 128

Buzzfeed Technical Review News Networking 128