Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

The Emergence of “Open Cloud&# Infrastructure. The biggest change in the software industry beyond open-source was “open cloud.&#. Platform cloud players like Salesforce.com provide compute resources so that third parties can build applications that integrate with its core product. These are very different.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Back then there was no “cloud” so we had to plow money into hardware, software licenses and web hosting. I tell them that they don’t have the experience to charge a startup $200k and even if they did no early-stage startup would want to bring on an in-house general counsel very early.

Founder 409

Founder Salary Startup Early Stage 409

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Avoid elephants in your early stages. I personally felt that we would have been better served putting more resource into building out cloud services, for example, to make Salesforce more scalable in terms of our user base. That’s why I believe most early stage companies should be deer hunters.

Startup 389

Startup Early Stage Demand Channel 389

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. But not many others.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

We pride ourselves on being early-stage (thus the name, Upfront) but in this case it’s as early as it gets. The journey just under 18 months ago with a coffee meeting with my friend Sam Rosen in NYC just after Hurricane Sandy.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

We spent the first 45 minutes or so talking about industry trends (in this order): The history and background of True Ventures, one of my favorite early-stage VC’s (and the one with whom Om is a venture partner). Offers cloud-based web analytics software provider. Founded in 2000 in New Brunswick, NJ. 406 Ventures.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle. That will be “the decade of the cloud&# where it really starts to become a truly connect resource that continues to accelerate innovation. Who’s in?

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Industry change allows the entry of newer players at earlier stages – It doesn’t take as much money to launch a startup anymore. You have an open source stack, cloud services for storage, processing & management and APIs for just about anything you want. We all know that.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Cloud computing and the open source movements have brought down the costs of starting a company by more than 90%. We have lower costs to create companies – leading to more early stage innovation. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

If you’re an early-stage startup and even contemplating acquiring other companies slap yourself in the face and focus on your own business instead. A lack of confidence will also cloud your ability to take positive steps in tough times.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. Cloud-based systems is compatible with major existing systems. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. Many VCs who do lots of seed stage deals are very supportive and active. They do many early-stage deals.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Open cloud led by Amazon with their AWS services drove total operating costs down by 90%. Amazon in turn led to the formation of an earlier stage of venture capital now led by what I call “micro VCs&# who typically invest $250-500k in companies rather than the $5-7 million that VCs used to invest. There are also others.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 9, 2019

The only other significant cost item that I see in some early-stage startups is inventory (for hardware or eCommerce companies). In the earliest stages of a company a startup will often cram as many people into small rooms as is possible in order to conserve on office costs.

Product 214

Product Software Review Technical Review Security 214