Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2012

When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. And for which I was sure were designed to screw me. Like most first-timers, I learned the hard way.

United States 322

United States Software Developers Software Development Developer 322

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features. I used to always tell my development team, “you need to design a product that my dad could use.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

So when they spoke about character development, repeatable gaming experiences, bringing games to multiple platforms (in the industry we call this “ Transmedia “) and physical products my ears naturally perked up. It is what Seriously was designed to do. We all loved Andrew & Petri and their vision. And Seriously.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review Los Angeles North America Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Because I knew that Ethan was on to a powerful idea and one in which he had developed huge competence and domain knowledge in. But more importantly Ethan developed the belief over time that consumers really needed a service that would allow them to book across many different service businesses from one convenient location.

Southern California 359

Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

This post is designed mostly for non-technical founders. Some CTO’s swear that it is a huge improvement in development timeframes and doesn’t cause performance issues. They often aren’t great at planning development work. They should be setting the standards for how code is developed.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

He’s focused on that sector (not exclusively but predominantly) and therefore has an amazing network at large financial services firms to help you with business development. So they develop short-hand ways to qualify things better. They’re the place focused on design. They think design wins.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

The world is adopting smart phones and for many young people and many people in the developing world this will be one of their first computing devices. I think it’s a beautifully designed product that is also tremendously useful and focused. I know that “Mobile First” has become engrained in developers minds.

Web 334

Web Mobile Software Review San Francisco 334

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Here is where having Marc Berte and a team out of MIT who have designed systems like this for years gave one confidence we could do something others couldn’t copy and at price points that could make us market leaders over night. Could we produce this at cost? Did anybody hold patents that would prevent us from using this technology?

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence CTO Hire 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Many companies don’t reach the next phase either because their leadership doesn’t adapt as an organization or because they don’t design processes that lead to scaled outcomes. Startups are messy and development is seldom linear and up-and-to-the right. They are filled with growth spurts and setbacks.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

My partner Greg Bettinelli is an avid sports fan who throughout his career has developed an expert understanding in online ticketing (at eBay has was a champion of the StubHub acquisition) and online marketing. Draft is a Fantasy Sports app designed for the mobile world and the busy lifestyle founded by Jeremy Levine.

Southern California 150

Southern California Philadelphia Mobile Stock 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people. One of the most important movements in software design in the past few years has been a return to simplicity – a move away from the Microsoft era of every release adding a new 150 unused features. Similar with product features. I love that saying.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

And we chose to locate ourselves 3 blocks East of The Third Street Promenade where much new development is taking place. We will retain the cement interior and exposed feeling and complement it with wood. We want a place that feels approachable – not stuffy. What’s up with that?

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Gross margins at 66% is fine (they’re selling through a reseller who takes a 33% margin) but their sales aren’t yet large enough to cover the costs of their IT development team + management + marketing + office costs, etc. In many Internet startups 80% of the operating costs will be people. So which company is better run?

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

The Dave I know is very insightful about marketing, channel management and building developer ecosystems. He had a philosophy that the future competition for startups would be design led and based on data analysis. So he made a special trip to LA to be there for me. Brad does this kind of thing for people. Sounds obvious.

China 309

China Incubator Email Portfolio 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Before they’re presenting I want to know “what unique experiences you bring to the table that are going to give your business a faster time to market, a better designed product, more knowledge of your customers problems – a higher likelihood of success.&# It’s what many VC’s call, “An unfair advantage.&#.

San Diego 267

San Diego Entrepreneur Philadelphia Cloud 267

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

MySpace was: scantily dressed, teenaged, middle-America, design chaos and on ad steroids. It launched open API’s and created a platform whereby third-party developers could come build any app they wanted and Facebook didn’t even want (yet) to take any money from them to do so.

Social Network 297

Social Network Networking Internet EC2 297

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

In addition they are a platform (the OS part) where they’re encouraging developers to build third party apps on their platform. They walked through 4 minutes of PowerPoint garble (of a 5 minute pitch) before unveiling a beautifully designed UI. The pro’s (for me) – the UI was simply beautiful. As I’m sure Pip.io

San Francisco 254

San Francisco Technical Review Los Angeles Software Review 254

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

TWTFelipe is the founder of TWTApps , who had developed some really cool add-on applications for Twitter to extend its functionality. In 2005 he was graduated and took a job in South Carolina working for technology company while he started his own web design company on the side. He spent a bunch of this time in Canada.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Canada Green Vietnam 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. Inevitably as a society we began “teaching to the tests” and we design curricula around proficiency in these basic skills.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Differentiation Design America 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

Quirky - Platform facilitating collaborative design of consumer products through an online community. My take was that this follows three trends: a) customer involvement in product design, b) mass customization [e.g. On the first point – think of Steven Blank’s customer development but for physical products.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I know he’s smart but you wouldn’t hire a Javascript developer to do your database design – would you? But as with consulting, PR, web design and even VC – it’s not just the firm it’s also the individual. Your cousin specializes in entertainment law – that’s different.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

better than anybody we had spoke with and she had the marketing chops to know how to communicate this to her market once she designed & built her products. and a differentiated feel in terms of fabric, design, sustainability, etc. Ariel understood her customer?—?the the modern buyer of home products?—?better

Curation 296

Curation Los Angeles Differentiation Channel 296

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. We couldn’t cut product development (we had 23 people!) .&# They know instinctually how customers buy and how to excite them. They have a sixth sense for the competitors’ weaknesses.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

There’s an old joke in software development, “How much time does it take to design software?” ” Answer: As long as you have scheduled for the design phase. Design with no constraints becomes a research project. In summary – I have been involved with software development for 25 years.

Software 344

Software Part-Time VPE Engineer Leadership 344

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

I use technology precisely to try and develop an intuitive feel about what will work and what won’t” The management team got it. Let’s see if there is anything we can learn about our behavior – good lessons or bad ones – that will inform our product design in the future.” The VCs snickered a bit.

Startup 313

Startup Guerilla Silicon Valley Portfolio 313

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

developing a product you might like to survey prospective customers without biasing their answers. It is designed to get the person your asking to reveal more than they would if your question directed them toward a more narrowly defined path. If you’re: raising money you might like to ask how the investor makes decision.

Churn Rate 311

Churn Rate Due Diligence Dividend Conversion 311

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

But I would point out that these days there are really talented tech developers & teams everywhere. It’s a very smartly designed debenture program. You can read Brad’s views of how to do it in his book. Here are mine: 1. A Strong Pool of Tech Founders – Stating the obvious. And I really mean everywhere.

Community 378

Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2013

I’ve been involved with technology product design in one form or another for nearly 25 years and seen one mistake consistently repeated. ” Most technologists design for themselves and then test with uncorrelated user groups only months after product launch – if ever. Design for the Novice, Configure for the Pro.

Product 408

Product San Francisco Green Technical Review 408

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

I think this is a perfect way to think about the world when you’re designing your product / company. Quite honestly I see way too many company pitches that are designed for Techies but I only want to invest in products designed for Normals. This is one of my favorite topics on good product design.

Product 348

Product Silicon Valley Oauth Design 348

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

It’s what I call “ the evangelical phase ” of a company in which you’re out trying to persuade customers that a product you’ve designed is going to meet their needs better than other solutions on the market. Steve Blank calls this “ customer development ” in which you built an initial product that is in search of “product / market fit.”

Sales 393

Sales Startup Framework Search 393

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Initially as a systems designer and programmer and post MBA as a strategy consultant. It soaked up all of our development resources and didn’t allow us to focus on what we felt our company strategy was. Some companies / products are designed for large organizations from day 1. Avoid elephants in your early stages.

Startup 389

Startup Early Stage Demand Channel 389

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

I work hard to create working relationships with my fellow non-management board members in the same way that every investor ultimately works to develop strong working relationships with founders. As an investor board member I see this as my immediate goal, too. What are the kinds of difficult tasks that need to be solved by boards?

LP 269

LP Startup Burn Rate Stock Options 269

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. So we discussed his moving to LA for a while and working in our offices and developing his ideas and we decided to formalize it. So if you don’t know, now you know … Cham & Nsilo.

Houston 150

Houston Cofounder Audience Business Model 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

It requires writers, actors, film crews, lighting, costume & set designs, make-up artists, post production, sound, editors and so on. Hits driven businesses come when production costs or distribution costs are so high that you need a home run to cover the huge costs of development. As humans we like story telling.

Silicon Valley 374

Silicon Valley Los Angeles Distribution Java 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

LA is the largest metropolitan area in the US for people employed in art, design and media and the local creative economy of LA generates more than $140 billion in economic output – more than the GDP of many countries. In fact, 1 in 7 or nearly 15% of Angelinos are employed in a creative field.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals. For others it feels like a two-speed economy, where rules apply to hot tech startups that don’t apply elsewhere. You feel it, too.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

At the margin you can make yourself better at sales, product design, marketing, leadership, capital raising, etc. You’re not born into being a world-class software developer. So going into a startup scenario you bring these innate skills or you don’t. so it’s not pointless to want to improve.

Silicon Valley 289

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States Leadership 289