Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

As money poured into our industry, it encouraged many VCs to write $20–30 million checks at increasingly higher and higher valuations where it is unlikely that they had substantively more proof of company traction or success. Some investors may have succeeded with this strategy but at Upfront we decided to stay in our lane.

Startup 408

Startup Venture Capital Writing Invest 408

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Write a blog entry and post the Round. For weeks, we have been stuck at step 4 waiting on me to write something, so I'm going to keep it short and sweet to get this out before Halloween. Select a continuous run on the physical hardware (named "Citrine") that looks good and identify its Git commit. Run the same commit on cloud (Azure).

Framework 75

Framework Software Review TechEmpower Writing 75

Eric Greenspan

OCTOBER 22, 2018

I looked at it for a bit and started thinking about writing it. Why did I write a book? I’m going to keep writing books; many of them. Give it a read, a review, help me write more books. Woke up and there it was, my book cover. She just made it and sent it to me. Then I did. Smart lady this Angela.

Pricing 186

Pricing Writing Social Media Ideas 186

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

million, our Seed Funds mostly between $200–300 million and have delivered median ownerships of ~20% from the first check we write into a startup. By 2021 we had to write a $3.5m It forced extreme disciple to “stay in our swimming lanes” of knowledge and not just write checks into the latest trend.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

So the user can write its business code with high level of abstraction and safety, but the framework core could be tuned to the assembly level, to leverage the hardware it runs on.

Framework 410

Framework TechEmpower Java Paramount 410

TechCrunch LA

JULY 21, 2020

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise.

Writing 171

Writing Los Angeles Equity Startup 171

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Profile Blurbs and Writing Prompts Let’s look at our job matching site in more detail. This gives Mark more control over the process, without requiring him to write much, and gives the LLM more to work with. The LLM didn’t just write a blurb for Mark, it wrote the blurb that Mark would have written, if only he’d had the words.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence TechEmpower Tips 297

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. If you’re going to play in the big leagues you need to be writing checks from a $700 million?—?$1 Are we in a bubble?” By definition?—?I’m of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

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%). You now own 20% of a company valued at $50 million but you’ve put in $4m to get that. Maybe take some. Maybe take none.”

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2014

40 threads and 256 connections Thread Stats Avg Stdev Max +/- Stdev Latency 247.05us 3.52ms 624.37ms 99.90% Req/Sec 27.89k 6.24k 50.22k 71.15% 31173283 requests in 29.99s, 3.83GB read Socket errors: connect 0, read 0, write 0, timeout 9 Requests/sec: 1039305.27 Running 30s test @ [link]. Transfer/sec: 130.83MB.

EC2 514

EC2 TechEmpower Java Google 514

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field. Last week’s obsession was about obsession itself.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” You’re thinking about one bullet at a time. When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.”

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Berkonomics

MARCH 23, 2017

Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead.” It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Writing 243

Writing 243

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Of course you need a new angle to get a journalist interested because they don’t simply want to write what everybody else has covered. In the write up of our success I was quoted as saying, “If I had $1 dollar left to spend on marketing I would put it to PR.” Press loves company as much as they love exclusivity. .”

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. Don’t write sentences on them – only key words to help you remember what you’re going to say. If you write sentences you’ll read them and you’ll … suck. Show some energy! One strategy I sometimes employ.

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 31, 2020

June 2019 (left) and November 2020 (right) I’ve been reluctant to write this blog post because historically I don’t like talking about weight. I’ve been reluctant to write about weight in part because I don’t want to sound self righteous. Then should write down your “target goal.” I figured out something that worked for me.

Startup 526

Startup Course Writing Help 526

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

But at the end of the year you write your own ticket if you’re talented because now you have experience and it cost you less than your law school loans! Before you start writing your friends checks for their startups, get out your checkbook and bet on you. Promise them you won’t ask for a pay increase for 12 months.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.” Many pension funds are simply too large to write small checks and favor the ability to write $50-100 million checks to funds. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2024

Apex builds satellite buses quicker and more affordably than ever before, allowing companies to rapidly expand critical satellite deployment. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Ian on This Week in Startups.

CalTech 237

CalTech USC UCLA Los Angeles 237

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. I had an enjoyable conversation this morning with a young team straight out of college this morning and they were calling to ask advice on how to approach fund raising (angels vs. VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. You have to be able to communicate effectively in all the common forms, including business writing, as well as talking, presenting, and producing videos.

Tips 123

Tips Writing Startup Summary 123

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you know, VCs end up writing sizable checks into their own funds, which is important in better aligning interests. Therefore of course they need to be more selection when writing checks and can’t spread their bets across 75 deals. million round I might write $1.8 – 2.2 This is the same way VC firms, by the way.

Venture Capital 356

Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 24, 2019

. “As content production continues to accelerate across the globe, visual effects studios are increasingly turning towards the cloud to keep up with demand for high-quality content,” writes Google product manager Todd Prives in today’s announcement.

Google 261

Google Tool Los Angeles Entertainment 261

Tech.Co

JANUARY 26, 2024

To be considered for the contest, you will have to write a 100-500 word essay to enter on why you’d like to digitally detox and the positive impact it’ll have on your life – but that's all that's needed to apply. You’ll then be taken through to an online form.

Company 226

Company Companies Social Media Writing 226

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 9, 2021

Users don’t need to walk through the mechanics of setting up a wallet or writing down a seed phrase either. Users can purchase avatars on the platform with cryptocurrency through BitPay but they can also pay with a credit card.

Platform 308

Platform Framework Los Angeles Design 308

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I write this because I know how difficult it can be to find a potential investor and to decide with whom you’d like to try to work. And make sure when your investor agrees to write you a check you feel like somebody beautiful on the altar – not somebody being married for his or her money. Startup Advice'

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2021

It’s March 1st as I write this*. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing with somebody else write the goal down somewhere that you will see it daily. Write down everything you eat. In the middle of writing my post the power at my house went out, a transformer across the street blew up and the hill caught on fire.

Startup 347

Startup Writing Course Coach 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. If an accelerator is writing you they’re also writing 25 other VCs. They worry too much about missing out on a deal. I don’t. Pay attention. Be careful not to spend all of your time on inbound.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2020

“ This will also help dealerships increase sales and bring needed sales tax revenues to local and state governments,” Peterson writes. “Startups and small businesses are the engine of every local and regional economy,” writes Peterson. There’s $25 billion in money set aside for public transit and $12.5

Southern California 261

Southern California Los Angeles Rosemead Incubator 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 25, 2013

Write your set of bullet points on paper before the call. Write out the reason you’re calling, your key points and “the ask” in advance and your time allotment so you can always refer back and make sure you’re tracking to your plan. How can I best help you?” ” It’s what we want.

Startup 364

Startup Writing Help Email 364

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. The person writing things he or she is doing me a favor. They had to physically write a letter, address it, put a stamp on it (pay) and then put it in the mailbox. I’m on all of them and they’re all used in some form for business communications.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2023

Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead.” It has become a long running joke between us, as I often remind him that most of us have a very limited attention span and ability to recall important points from a presentation. Note the title and tone of these insights. Short, to the point.

Writing 177

Writing 177

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 19, 2017

I discovered the power of ownership early in my management career, establishing an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), once popular as incentive compensation as well as a tax write-off for corporations and even a way to slowly transfer ownership of a company from the founders to the employees.

Slides 243

Slides News Equity Writing 243

Berkonomics

MAY 11, 2017

Write these steps down in any form for now. Assess your current resources and attempt to calculate the resources needed to accomplish the goal. Do you need to raise money, focus spending upon only core projects that advance the company toward the goal, or bring in new management talent to make it happen?

Summary 243

Summary Resource Writing Email 243

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Starting in 2009 I began writing checks consistently, year-in and year-out. I admit that my writing style back then was a bit more carefree, provocative and opinionated. I was in it for the love of working with entrepreneurs on business problems and marveling at technology they had built.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466