Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. Now, most often technical advisors are part of a broader advisory board. In Why assemble an advisory board?

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Technical Review Technology CTO Hire 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2010

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 91

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

I'd suggest: Startup CTO or Developer , Startup Founder Developer Gap , Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO. Interviewing them is also tough, especially if you are not yourself technical. Get a Technology Advisor that can help. This happens A LOT among technical people. This is a must.

CTO Hire 282

CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review Startup 282

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

The most likely outcome if you manage to interest the senior exec (for the sake of this post let me call her the CEO) is that she will refer you down the organization to somebody who would be involved in the decision. We will have to build (or buy) technology in this area.” The benefits of this are clear: 1.

Sales 375

Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We did a full-court press led by Steven because once we decided this was the team we wanted to work with and this opportunity mapped to our belief system that content + tech will build a generation of great Internet companies. Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures' Clear path to execution. Ability to build without a massive budget.

Funding 373

Funding Technical Review Startup Screening 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

I have no reference point from which to judge whether you were higher on the y-axis 3 months ago or lower. You’ll be able to give them an update on key hires, pilot customers, key tech innovations – whatever. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry. Hopefully by then you’ve made good progress.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

Usually after a Monday partner meeting you get a pretty strong: Yes, term sheet coming No, sorry we’re passing Maybe, we need to do more due diligence / analysis / work I always counsel founders that “good news comes early” so if you haven’t heard by Tuesday at noon chances are it wasn’t likely a clean “yes.”

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 138

Technical Review Startup Innocal Offshore 138

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

I'd suggest: Startup CTO or Developer , Startup Founder Developer Gap , Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO. Interviewing them is also tough, especially if you are not yourself technical. Get a Technology Advisor that can help. This happens A LOT among technical people. This is a must.

CTO Hire 225

CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review Startup 225

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Push hard to set up the technical reviews, the due diligence meetings, the reference calls – whatever. If they want reference calls be ballsy. If they want reference calls be ballsy. I’ve done it.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

NASA has a big message for Elon Musk , the technology mogul behind Los Angeles-based rocket firm SpaceX : smoke marijuana on a podcast again, and SpaceX will lose its opportunity to launch astronauts into space. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review SpaceX Organization Examples 157

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

The short version of my review is: “Enchanting? It has also influenced my thoughts, as evidenced by the six infoChachkie blog entries which reference Art. For instance, Guy refers to an entrepreneur’s venture as their “cause.” Unfortunately, most business books do not offer entrepreneurs an adequate payoff. No doubt, he did.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! But until recently we had not made these tools available to non-technical people – namely marketers who want to control their campaigns without necessarily wanting to call in the IT team to implement tools.

Marketing 307

Marketing Technical Review Startup Tool 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Industry reviews. So the “VC associate” is largely a launching pad job for exceedingly bright and hard-working young tech professionals. a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially. Deal screening.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

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. I then did a pipeline review with the VP of Sales.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

It influenced a generation of tech marketers. The book popularized the technology adoption lifecycle curve that originally came out of Iowa State University shown below. So the early part of a technology company is about finding your hard core group of early adopters and making them passionate about your products.

Marketing 294

Marketing Custom Customer Technical Review 294

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

While I do fill that role at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to refer to myself as a CTO as we still haven't launched a product, acquired a single user, or turned or a penny in profit. What are the biggest areas of technical risk? What technology research is required? What technologies will we use?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

Proving your Business Model Works - Build, Define, and Review But how do you prove your numbers? Finally, review the numbers with your partners. channels (search, social, viral, new media), cost-efficient distribution We often reference Dave’s work when talking to innovators. Don’t worry about scaling just yet.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Slides Technical Review 260

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Who else is going to tell a VC if he got a bad reference from an entrepreneur or fellow VC? Who else can provide context if your portfolio isn’t growing as quickly as your peer group, if they believe you paid too high a price on a deal, if they question your due diligence in a given situation or whatever critique they might offer?

Custom 341

Custom Customer Venture Capital Software Review 341

socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2014

Los Angeles-based technology incubator and studio Science --headed by former MySpace CEO Mike Jones--has launched a new startup in the Internet marketplace area, called HomeHero this morning. The Santa Monica-based startup is initially targeting the Los Angeles region with its services. HomeHero''s founders are Kyle Hill and Mike Townsend.

Incubator 164

Incubator Santa Monica Technical Review Los Angeles 164

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Are specific technologies or platforms involved in your project? Do they have experience with the technologies involved in your project? What are the review periods and your responsibility in the process? References: The company should willingly provide references. Or is your project a clean slate?

Software Development 297

Software Development Software Review Develop Development 297

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. They are the lifeblood of many companies yet they are different than the traditional technology startup DNA so the ways that you hire, motivate, compensate and assess performance of these individuals will be different. Please call our references.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2012

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same four questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next week.

Southern California 173

Southern California Technical Review High Tech San Diego 173

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

In The Art of One-line Pitching: A Study of AngelList , Chris Eleftheriadis reviewed 1,700AngelList postings and identified the nine most common categories of positioning pitches (Chris'' list is edited here for brevity): 1. Google x Facebook x Amazon) + (Universal Reviews). AngelList Differentiation. But better. Math Doesn''t Lie.

Product 208

Product Yammer Technical Review Google 208

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2012

It’s best if you send a deck so that the investor can review it for a fit before the introduction takes place. This might be somebody I know well (thus the email will come very highly referred) or somebody I just met for which the company will get the “I just met this person. I haven’t referenced him/her.

Email 359

Email Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 359

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

In the Ad Tech world PS revenue often means providing “media services” as a value-add to using your product. The closest analogy I have for a PS person is a “sales engineer” who is normally a technical staff member who assists in sales campaigns. rollout support. integration with other systems. configuration.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Companies 321

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

In contrast, we value entrepreneurs' time and thus our diligence generally includes introducing them to potential customers and partners. Entrepreneurs often suggest customer references that arose from a highly curated introduction or prior relationship. Customers Are All That Matter.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. They are the lifeblood of many companies yet they are different than the traditional technology startup DNA so the ways that you hire, motivate, compensate and assess performance of these individuals will be different. Please call our references.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

SoCal Tech Calendar

APRIL 6, 2012

The Road to Smart Vehicles: An Industry Review of Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications. The objective is the ability of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-roadside communications (in combination referred to as V2X), enabling a range of features to warn drivers of upcoming dangers.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Technology Development Develop 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2013

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. This term refers to the penchant to add just one more feature to the product or service before first delivery, just because you can.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 110

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2010

All this week, we are sharing the opinions of some of the top influencers in Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're thinking about, and are sharing it here over the next two weeks. 1) Mobile web.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Southern California Cloud Computing Venture Capital 160