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

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

Berkonomics

JANUARY 14, 2021

In others, if you cannot find such a champion after initial presentations to a subset of the entire group, you will not be permitted to move from initial application to the next stages of due diligence and final funding. How to waste your fundraising effort. Together we fund, maybe, twenty-five of these.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

A closer analysis often indicates the cause to be a lack of diligence in handling common business finances. I found a good summary of the most common mistakes in a classic book by Kelly Clifford, “ Profit Rocket ,” written primarily to help you on the other side of the equation – skyrocket your profits. Wasting money unnecessarily.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Summary Pricing 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

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

Berkonomics

JUNE 19, 2014

In others, if you cannot find such a champion after initial presentations to a subset of the entire group, you will not be permitted to move from initial application to the next stages of due diligence and final funding. Together we fund, maybe, twenty-five of these.

Technical Review 207

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Summary Email 207

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? Or is your project a clean slate? Are there complexities revolving around algorithms or databases?

Software Development 295

Software Development Software Review Develop Development 295

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 14, 2024

Replacement Value: This is one of the best ways to create some minimum value, especially for young companies, where the investment in technology has been heavy and the life span of the technology is long. Replacement value goes up where there is a high barrier to entry due to proprietary tools or patents.

.Net 156

.Net Pricing Technical Review Sales 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

He found that the return was far greater than the cost of donated shoes, and his team became intensely loyal, due to the opportunity to travel and deliver shoes in other countries. Challenge yourself to delivering a technical innovation. Driven to reduce personal hardship and suffering.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Coach Mentor Customer 143

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2013

Southern California's Most Popular Tech Stories. LaunchpadLA Opens Up Spring Applications. In our features section: Interview with Blair Harrison of Frequency. 9 Ways socalTECH Can Help You With Your New Year's Resolutions. How to find a startup mentor.

Southern California 168

Southern California Technical Review SoCal San Diego 168

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. As such, the primary goal of your executive summary is to open the door to an in-person meeting. Entrepreneurs routinely seek my advice regarding their executive summaries.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). We feature a prominent speaker at every event.

Venture Capital 241

Venture Capital Technical Review Southern California Company 241

SoCal Tech Calendar

DECEMBER 7, 2012

Two keys communication tools are the Executive Summary and the PowerPoint Presentation (Pitch Deck). This forum will help you understand how these tools are used to generate a face-to-face meeting, make a persuasive and memorable presentation, and then follow through with the details needed for investors to begin their due diligence process.

TCVN 100

TCVN Summary Tool Resource 100

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. It's the same as when I've created financial models and then have it reviewed by a hard-core CFO, sophisticated investor or similar kind of expert. Conversations with a technical advisors or possible developers should be iterative. Go find a new technical resource.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 16, 2012

Peter Pham, of Los Angeles technology studio/incubator Science Inc., Los Angeles MiniTime debuted its service this week to help families find reviews and information for their family vacation. SpaceX tests its Grasshoppper, vertical takeoff and landing technology earlier this month. with Mario Andretti. SpaceX Grasshopper.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Santa Barbara Software Review Activision 157

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. I saved my main point for last.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

We will have to build (or buy) technology in this area.” The thing is … what I see many sales execs do is burn up countless hours on mid-level campaigns that get torpedoed when the go up the organization due to lack of budget, a desire to own that core IP or other more pressing organization priorities.

Sales 375

Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

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? As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Invest Seed Funding Startup 328

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

A closer analysis often indicates the cause to be a lack of diligence in handling common business finances. I found a good summary of the most common mistakes in a recent book by Kelly Clifford, “ Profit Rocket ,” written primarily to help you on the other side of the equation – skyrocket your profits. Wasting money unnecessarily.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Entrepreneur Summary Pricing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully. You need to convince them that you have been working on this vision for a long time, and have done the “due diligence” on all the potential knockoffs.

Invest 135

Invest Technical Review Startup Ideas 135

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2012

A closer analysis often indicates the cause to be a lack of diligence in handling common business finances. I found a good summary of the most common mistakes in a new book by Kelly Clifford, “ Profit Rocket ,” written primarily to help you on the other side of the equation – skyrocket your profits. Wasting money unnecessarily.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur Summary 109

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 7, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in Orange County, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. We're doing it again!

Orange County 100

Orange County Venture Capital Angel Tech Coast Angels 100

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. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. One such theme was “water conservation” and we morphed it into a broader theme of agriculture technology or “ag tech” for short. We look at stage, geography and of course sector. 6SensorLabs.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

Serious investors expect founders to have their homework done before the first interaction – documented executive summary, business plan, and financial model. Lists of project milestones and technical issues are created, but nothing happens on time, because follow-up on issues is missing. Product development.

Activity 133

Activity Startup Ideas Technical Review 133

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

When you think about the trends of faster-growing startups due to social networking, credit card enable and mobile first consumers – the reality is that many startups are becoming very large financially before needing to go public. From a technology perspective our journey is nowhere near over. 2007 was the watershed year.

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

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. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? What Is This? Who's the customer?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

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. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? What Is This? Who's the customer?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2014

Some get stuck in a rut and get run over by competitors with new technology, like Eastman Kodak, and others get pushed into a crisis, like Apple did, before they reinvent themselves into a new market. Use that same technical and business expertise that served you well on this startup to find the next opportunity.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Summary 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

“Attached is a copy of my full business plan for your review.” The first page of the business plan better be an executive summary which gives the investor a taste of the financials, as well as opportunity, competition, and key executives. “I I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

To set the stage for all the cultural issues and timing, the authors start with a summary that I agree with of the five lifecycle phases every company is likely to experience over the long-term or short-term, regardless of culture: Innovation. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts.

Startup 142

Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 142

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 5, 2019

Due to the overwhelming demand to pitch at our last event in San Diego, we're throwing an exclusive PitchFest speed dating event where you will be pitching to over 20 investors one-on-one! As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. We're doing it again!

San Diego 100

San Diego Venture Capital Angel Summary 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2021

Publish a regular blog, contribute to relevant social networks, and highlight several videos, podcasts, or eBooks of you and your technology. Highlight interviews and reviews from recognized industry sources, and news sources. In summary, a startup with no website, or a website with no credibility will kill your business.

Web 117

Web Search Engine Optimization eBook Advertising 117

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. Anybody who has worked in venture can tell you that if you took every intro that came your way you’d simply spend all of your time in meetings reviewing new deals sent to you.

Startup 317

Startup Technical Review Venture Capital Email 317

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

After some review of available resources, I’m convinced that problem solving is a learnable trait, rather than just a birthright. Whether you are charting new territory for pricing models or technology, there is rarely a perfect solution. This is where I say “two heads are better than one.” Work with a partner you can trust.

Startup 135

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Technical Review 135