Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The best and most consistent funds in Silicon Valley (e.g. But my conversations in the private corridors on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is that many fund sizes will be smaller going forward. You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. Others will, too. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

” Sean is somebody widely respected in Silicon Valley (although he now lives in SoCal) for having helped many early-stage companies go through major growth periods by quantitatively testing features with audiences to help diagnose what led to growth. I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.”

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

I think you have to listen to the queue’s.” “…if you look at a lot of the early stage investors, whether it be Union Square Ventures or First Round or Jeff Clavier at Softtech or Dave McClure – we want to try the product, we want to experience the product, we want to get a sense of how the entrepreneur is thinking about it.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Genuine VC

JULY 9, 2013

Andrew Goloboy KLR PAYROLL & BENEFITS Most popular: ADP TriNet EMSI Bruce Crohn OTHER COMPLETELY UNPROMPTED MULTIPLE PROACTIVE SHOUT-OUTS Silicon Valley Bank for banking was most popular by far Bruce McDougall at WGA and EBS Capstone for insurance Scalar Analytics and SVB for 409a valuations HUGE DISCLAIMER.

Early Stage 246

Early Stage Boston Portfolio Silicon Valley 246

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? They want to lock in future clients at an early stage. So I tell you this because if you build a strong relationship with an early-stage VC they can be a great source to help you with your funding.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Version One Ventures

MAY 24, 2016

Just a few years ago, if you wanted to do something big, you needed to go to Silicon Valley. Yet, having a vibrant ecosystem to seed early stage startups is one thing. If we try to dissect the magic of Silicon Valley, I think there are five key factors at play: Great schools.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley San Francisco Startup DC 113

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

He’s as good as any startup CEO in Silicon Valley. You couldn’t be more wrong. The Energy Storage division is acting like a startup, and Prescott Logan its General Manager, has lived up to the charter. GE’s performance in implementing Customer Development gives lie to the tale that only web startups can be agile.

Silicon Valley 222

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of VC funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. cities (outside of Silicon Valley and the East Coast), to build your startup.

United States 113

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The legends of Silicon Valley?—?two We back very early stage companies and work alongside executive teams as their build their teams, launch their products, announce their companies and raise their first downstream capital rounds. The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. 1 year in you stop catching early morning flights.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Blame it On Marketing In the next 3-6 months, a new VP of Sales is hired. I think Customer Development (iterative model) helps by putting a strong thought in the mind (at a very early stage) that you could be wrong unless the customer agrees; this helps the mind to be more receptive. innovation. Order Here. Now In Print!

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

If you hire a VP of Sales with the idea that they can do customer discovery you violated the first principle of Customer Development – this isn’t a step the can be outsourced to a non-founder. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back. Find out Memorex’s position in Silicon Valley.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

And I think of it as a failure of Silicon Valley startups (and occasionally SV VCs who lack an understanding of enterprise purchasing) to assume you don’t need a sales process and sales reps. Or thinking about how much capital you have and therefore how many people you can hire – you rigorously prioritize.

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Competencies? Eventually the company should graduate to hiring senior expertise across these functions.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Then Liana Thompson pitched Trendy Loot , a very early stage deal site for low-end jewelry.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Hunter Walker

JUNE 26, 2023

Hunter Walk: So why venture capital, why early stage, and why Canada? At 500, I had the opportunity to work with early-stage founders from around the world and quickly realized that this was where I wanted to spend my time. After DataHero was acquired, I felt like it was time to try something new.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Canada Founder Early Stage 114

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

They allow you to hire more people, purchase new technology, and establish new business connections, among many other benefits. million early-stage raise that involved pitching to over a dozen PE firms, which took months to negotiate. Capital investments are like gasoline on a startup business’s metaphorical fire.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

Well, I have coached early stage entrepreneurs for a couple of years now - diligently, patiently - and have learned a few things. We're trying to bring the lessons we have learned in Silicon Valley to a million entrepreneurs. Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line. Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. Have they added value?

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. All of these things aside, one of its biggest attractions may be what is not: Silicon Valley.

United States 82

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 82

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. Supercomputers get Personal Back in Sunnyvale my friend had not only been hired but had convinced the team that we should be building hardware – making a new class of computers not a software application. Order Here.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. are much softer and much, much harder to measure (or believe) in a very early stage startup.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

They need the money to rent offices, hire staff, and establish their initial presence (website, incorporation, marketing). At this stage you’re essentially selling yourself and your cofounders. That’s why much early stage funding is “Friends and Family”; your friends and family naturally overrate you and/or can’t say no.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

But, getting in the doors of a Sand Hill Road VC in Silicon Valley can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. The Andreesen Horowitz blog is the work of the famous VC firm’s partners and covers all things software in Silicon Valley and beyond. But, he also has great advice on growth strategies for early-stage companies.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

In the 1990s when companies needed £2-5m to get a product to market they had money to hire a team of people to help them. That’s partly about educating the founder, partly about helping her employ a great designer when the time is right, and partly about supporting the new hire when he starts.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 18, 2013

from catching up with Silicon Valley and New York as a stronger startup region. The strongest impact on improving this situation is Silicon Valley and Seattle companies – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and others are making enormous investments in building So Cal as a software town. This imbalance keeps L.A.

Software Developers 22

Software Developers Software Development PHP Silicon Valley 22

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

In Silicon Valley, most boards ultimately make decisions based on a consensus. A startup may need to hire a lawyer to understand what the best strategy is given its particular technology space and to guard against being seen as an easy mark. Patent Trolls. “This is a shakedown,” said Schmitz.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Its easy to take Silicon Valley for granted. Ive written a little bit about the origins of Silicon Valley because I think its important for us to understand how we got here in order to make sure we preserve what is best about our community. Then, create an encouraging environment for early-stage companies.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

On the heels of our research on HBS entrepreneurs , NextView’s Dimitri Dadiomov (HBS ’15) interviewed several top founders on the early stages of their companies. On Launching and Finding Early Traction. Do you find yourself hiring operators or PMs with that background? Tom Eisenmann.

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Next → How to Hire for Sweat Equity…. Here is the original post: Early Stage Web Application Start-Up Seeking Developer/Designer. Build a team – we have plans to hire at a minimum 2 more engineers once funded with many more to follow and you will be hand selecting your team. Drowning American. Post navigation.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Hiring Technical Review 40

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 6, 2022

Well, Steve Hoffman (02:34): First of all, I did three venture funded startups in Silicon valley and two bootstrap startups. Steve Hoffman (06:08): If you don't get the right people on board, you know, hire them really hard to succeed, marketing, getting your name out. That is the role of the CEO in an early stage company.

San Francisco 97

San Francisco Technical Review Incubator Silicon Valley 97

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston. Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 29, 2013

And given the fact that the majority of top investors were congregated around Silicon Valley, many entrepreneurs felt compelled to move to the valley to start their business. One of the biggest advantages here is in hiring: you can pull from their local network and local investors can even interview key hires in person.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Global Finance New York City 161

The Startup Magazine

MAY 15, 2018

North America is not just about Silicon Valley. For years, Silicon Valley has been synonymous with the North American startup scene. Silicon Valley all about innovation and thinking big and yet, it’s cultivating this homogenous culture. Canada also gives young companies more opportunities to hire top talent.

North America 69

North America America Silicon Valley Los Angeles 69

www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Next → How we Hire for Sweat Equity (Part 2)… Posted on April 7, 2011 by Travis Biziorek. The first time we hired partners for Kibin was way back in late 2009. Surly, Silicon Valley wasn’t in a bubble. I’ve heard people say it’s impossible to hire good developers right now.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Hiring Technical Review 40

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2022

AD: I spent the early part of my career doing investment banking in Silicon Valley and healthcare consulting in NY. RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? Get to know the founders. RH: Alexandria, please introduce yourself. . And your least?

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Later Stage Early Stage Founder 156

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

This type of stock is typically given to founders and early employees with the stock value is near zero. If equity compensation is on your mind before you start hiring, make sure you’re good at hiring excellent candidates, especially if you’ll be offering restricted stock rather than stock options. Hire slowly, fire fast.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60