Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte. What about if elderly people never had to ask a relative or healthcare worker to change the batteries on their hearing aids?

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence CTO Hire 418

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2015

He later co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU and then authored The Lean Startup. Back in 2004 when Eric and his IMVU co-founder Will Harvey approached me about investing in IMVU, I agreed on one condition – they had to take my Customer Development class at UC Berkeley Haas Business School. Taking My Class.

Lean 120

Lean Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Channel 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

We’ve been reading your blog about your Lean Launchpad class.” No, the conversation was about to get more interesting. Given that Silicon Valley had started with scientists and engineers not MBA’s, I thought this was a bet worth making. After 7 weeks they returned to Silicon Valley for their final presentations.

Incubator 301

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 301

View from Seed

JULY 31, 2014

We average eight to 10 total new investments per year as a firm, so this frequency is a typical investment pace for us. Furthermore, one of our recent investments was in Silicon Valley, as all three of us have lived and worked there. We opportunistically invest in other geographies across the country as well.

Seed Stage 272

Seed Stage B2C Technical Review Disintermediation 272

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Strangely, the best I’ve ever heard this exemplified is in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential - which is really a book about startups as told through kitchen stories. How about asking, “If we hired Susan could you imagine considering coming with her?” In many ways that can be way more telling.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

I make the case that optimism for new breakthroughs should be higher in the minds of those of us that watch from the sidelines rather than schadenfreude. But for the group of people who are always talking about doing it but never do, this sole act of being willing to jump ship separates “wantrepreneurs” from entrepreneurs.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review South Korea San Francisco Software Review 417

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 24, 2017

I’ve loved traveling to talk about the book and hearing what readers and supporters have to say and what their most pressing questions are. WSJ ) (nice piece about our efforts with The Long Term Stock Exchange) One final reminder! We’ve had an amazing first week following publication of The Startup Way.

San Francisco 107

San Francisco Los Angeles Software Review Silicon Valley 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Dana Settle (Greycroft) & I had led the first round of investment in the company in 2010 and we were looking for smart media investors to join us as investors in the company. Another major hire was Ryan Lissack who joined as CTO. I had written about Mike before but hadn’t disclosed his name. ” It’s true.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

. … our product is manufactured in Shenzhen, China … along with most of the high-tech electronics in the world, so we had to locate a factory, we had to find the right partner to build this product and work with us …. Steve : Did you personally know about any of this? It really opened a lot of doors for us. Orders increased.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Even back then the advisor was a well-known name in Silicon Valley. The conversation went great and everyone agreed he’d teach us a lot – until one of the board members asked, “How much stock do we have to give him?” I was about to get a few lessons that have lasted for a long time. I couldn’t have been more wrong.)

Advisory Board 260

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 260

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 25, 2011

Kent Beck himself helped us explain that “quality work” means something different when we’re facing the extreme uncertainty of a startup. And, most importantly, the Lean Startup idea is starting to take root in industries and contexts very different from it’s Silicon Valley roots. Design + Lean Startup = Lean UX.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Silicon Valley Lean Agile 146

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Tell me a bit about your background. My first job out of school was at one of the early bioinformatics companies in Silicon Valley, working as the head of technical services. I know you are still in stealth, but what can you tell us. And what do you think about the controversy about stealth vs. not for startups?

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

Version One Ventures

APRIL 11, 2019

Six weeks ago, we kicked off a new series where we profile an awesome operator in our network to learn about his/her work and contributions to his/her organization and community at large. When we interview managers, one of our standard questions is “How do you think about code quality?” How do you define code quality?

Part-Time VPE 100

Part-Time VPE Software Review Engineer Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Let’s talk about kids for a moment. I wasn’t going to write about it since he had just covered the topic and echoed my point of view. It is what I love the most about debates and one of the things I love most about blogging. Nature vs. Nurture. You’ve all heard the question before. Oh, gotcha.

Silicon Valley 289

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States Leadership 289

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

It was my ex boss from Convergent Technologies, “Steve we’ve all just resigned from Convergent and we’re starting a new company. I’ve convinced the team you’d be perfect, come join us as the VP of Marketing.” The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Life Beyond Code

JANUARY 1, 2012

is a brain-child of Joe Stump, who is well known in Silicon Valley. Most recently, Joe served as the CTO of SimpleGeo and now he is dedicating his time to Sprint.ly. I got a chance to talk to Joe about the creation of Lens.ly. RS: Joe, tell us in your own words what is lens.ly? Here is the Q&A. JS: Lens.ly

CTO Hire 76

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Silicon Valley Curation 76

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Consider the superb results companies are getting from this new way of thinking about customers: - Customer salespeople achieved, in effect, 80 percent close rates for Salesforce.com , which was key in growing their business in the face of much bigger, better-funded competitors. - But it does require some new thinking.

Customer 154

Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 19, 2012

My personal highlight was watching newly-appointed United States CTO Todd Park receive a standing ovation from a crowd that is decidedly skeptical about government. He told us stories of specific examples of "lean government" in action, ranging from HealthCare.gov to a new approval process for medical devices at the FDA.

Lean 165

Lean Silicon Valley United States Government 165

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

People often ask us why firstcheck.vc or what is first check and our response is that the seed landscape is so confusing, and what founders need is an investor with courage and conviction to lead their rounds and support them from day 1. Consider this a back to basics approach the way VC used to be in the Arthur Rock days.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. My blog was wiped out.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

At NextView, we invest across the US. We have companies in Chicago, San Francisco (and elsewhere in Silicon Valley), Omaha, and New York. If we don’t talk about it, it won’t grow” – @NRellas #BostonB2C — Andy Cook (@AndyGCook) July 21, 2015. ” — @Bijan at #bostonb2c.

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

thebarefootvc

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

But those were quaint ideas in the midst of an escalating cold war, for it was apparently different when the US was fighting the Soviet Union. Yes I was gifted with talents but so are EACH of us, including the millions, billions of others who were just unlucky to be born in different circumstances.

Silicon Valley 45

Silicon Valley India Africa Burma 45

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

You also might enjoy hearing him talk about his background – including the fact that he was actually the executive assistant for Condoleezza Rice during one of the more historic and controversial periods of time in recent history! On the show I’ll I could get him to talk about was his travels on Air Force One.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Our fall webcast series concluded on a high note with three extraordinary conversations about the origins and implications of Lean Startup. And you couldn''t sign up for insurance in those days, it simply gave you information about the insurance options in your jurisdiction.

Lean 165

Lean San Francisco Cofounder Programming 165

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. 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. Of course I have.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2016

He also founded and served as chief technology officer of Life Magnetics. Brandon’s biggest takeaway from the NSF program had nothing to do with technology: I’ve learned that business is about relationships. I thought it was all about the technology, “Oh, if I could just get this technology to work.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Michigan Detroit 120

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 10, 2010

I’m in Washington DC again – this time to talk about innovation. I’ve been here three times in the past year – the first time was to hear Bilski at the Supreme Court in November and then I was back in March to talk about and promote the Startup Visa. Create a meaningful entrepreneurs visa. I strongly agree with each of these.

DC 123

DC Silicon Valley Colorado .Net 123

Growthink Blog

JULY 2, 2014

Great for those of us in America, but life-changing for the three billion people around the world without daily access to electricity, heat, clean water, and reliable food. An overly optimistic take? To Your Success, read more. Investing Jay Turo'

Internet 101

Internet Silicon Valley Aggregator America 101

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

Using my own image as I wasn’t sure about TechCrunch’s rules/policy around using their media for the blog post). Not only because IMHO they so deserve it, but for one other reason that nobody talked about, or potentially even knew about at the conference. What was that about immigrants getting the job done ?

Lebanon 104

Lebanon Cofounder United States San Francisco 104

Austin Startup

MARCH 29, 2011

For chief information officers (CIOs) and other IT professionals, a couple of recommended groups are the ATC’s CIO/CTO roundtable and the Association of IT Professionals (or AITP). These two jointly conduct regular meetings and, as one would expect, nearly every one of them touches some aspect of mobile in the enterprise.

Mobile 72

Mobile San Francisco Silicon Valley Texas 72

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. Think about how much more value was created for all these constituencies (and society) by Snap staying independent vs. Instagram selling to Facebook. The abundance of late-stage capital is good for us all. It literally drove FOMO.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

The Next Web

JANUARY 24, 2014

At the same time we have several culturally-driven attitudes holding us back. Our population churns out 181 patents per million inhabitants ranking us #8 in the world – ahead of the US, South Korea and Norway. It was the first foreign loan in US history. So is the Dutch tech startup story sold short? Not in my view.

Netherlands 143

Netherlands Technical Review Stock Silicon Valley 143

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

While Foundry invests across the US, we’re based in Colorado and do our best to support the local startup ecosystem. I’ve railed against the “if you’re serious you move to Silicon Valley” myth so many times (and called the purveyors of that falsehood more names than I care to remember) that I can’t even believe it still ever comes up.

Colorado 52

Colorado Silicon Valley Azure API 52

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

While Foundry invests across the US, we’re based in Colorado and do our best to support the local startup ecosystem. I’ve railed against the “if you’re serious you move to Silicon Valley” myth so many times (and called the purveyors of that falsehood more names than I care to remember) that I can’t even believe it still ever comes up.

Colorado 52

Colorado Silicon Valley Azure API 52

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

” In it Brooks talks about his recent trip to Africa with his 12-year-old son. When we’re shopping for a vacation we’re primarily thinking about Where. I wrote about my experience in this post and why I enjoyed this event more than most. But summarizing what I liked most about SxSW? Office Space. Nom nom nom.

Los Angeles 319

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Fractional CTO New York City 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

It is an LA-based company that was recently acquired by Amazon, which you can read more about in this incredibly well-researched article. Founder, Founder, Founder At Upfront we talk regularly about how 70% of our investment decision in Seed and A rounds is the quality of the entrepreneur and 30% is the quality of the idea.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247