Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. when to build out our offices in Silicon Valley, New York & Los Angeles. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

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. There is also True Ventures that does early stage, seed investments. Others will, too. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. And there are very few people who so consistently exceed my expectations when I hear them speak. ” This week was no exception.

Silicon Valley 301

Silicon Valley Lean Social Media PR 301

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

I hear tons of ideas for early-stage apps. 12m on a $60m for an early-stage business is a not a bet that most LA firms could or would take. Are you beating up every Silicon Valley VC that didn’t do Facebook or Google or Uber early? I simply couldn’t see it. I should have.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

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.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California. Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

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. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. I acknowledged this in the article.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

And while there is a narrative that most LPs only want to invest in the long-standing Silicon Valley brands that have existed for the past 40 years, there is evidence that many LPs understand that it is possible for new entrants in our industry to stake out grounds of differentiation.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more. Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. Also, make sure that your investors are accredited. They exist in every town.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

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. These all involve becoming part of a sales process.

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. We both loved this company (and lamented the fact that we weren’t investors since they were founded in LA before relocating to Silicon Valley). When the show has been processed it will be available here (estimated 8pm PDT). If you want the easy version you can read that story here !

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Robert Scoble has weighed in calling AngelList, “ The New Silicon Valley Hype Machine. &# I’m not sure if that’s how AngelList would like to be branded. I’m sorry, but that’s dumb. Isolated incident? I don’t know. But worth a moment of caution? The post is balanced and worth reading.

Southern California 267

Southern California Angel Investor Early Stage Silicon Valley 267

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I believe the middle isn’t being “gutted” but rather is being supplemented by “opportunity funds” and “growth funds” that sit side-by-side “core funds” allowing the firms to stay small and nimble while still being able to grab prorata rights of their best early-stage investments.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Early Stage. So Silicon Valley massively shifted to San Francisco. Thames Valley shifted to East London. The first step we took was to choose a brand name that we felt represented our shared values and that we felt helped force us to live our values. Transparent. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Jordan Los Angeles Technical Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

In this capacity I can tell any entrepreneurs raising early-stage capital that I would have Matt on my short list if I were raising. Gogii [the original company name] was an early leader in the free text messaging space and we had tens of millions of downloads of our product. He’s with you in good times & bad.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley Los Angeles San Francisco Architecture 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

First, I’d like to quote (paraphrase) Brad Feld speaking at Twiistup in LA in 2009, “I keep hearing people in LA talking with a chip on their shoulders about building a tech business here relative to Silicon Valley. But LA is not Silicon Valley and we don’t need to aspire to be so. Come join us.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

Mike Lincoln (on my list) had previously had huge success with Cooley (long considered a platinum-status Silicon Valley firm as depicted in the image in this post highlighting some of their clients) in expanding their presence outside their traditional NorCal stronghold. And then today. The magic all came together. There’s more!

Los Angeles 299

Los Angeles Early Stage DC Silicon Valley 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

He’s backed so many of the Silicon Valley’s young elite tech professionals. He gave them early breaks. I remember 3 years ago when I lived in still lived in Silicon Valley and I was on the board of advisors of an early-stage, super-angel / early-stage VC backed startup.

Silicon Valley 280

Silicon Valley Early Stage Portfolio Chad 280

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). A rounds back then seemed to be anywhere from $2-3 million (LA or NYC) or up to $5 million in Silicon Valley. $5

Cap Table 399

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Unfortunately nearly every investor “thinks” that he/she has access to great entrepreneurs, but think about the people who are sprouting up in Silicon Valley now that are developing great track records in angel investing: Keith Rabois, Reid Hoffman, Dave McClure and Peter Thiel – all part of the “PayPal Mafia.”

Silicon Valley 306

Silicon Valley Deal Flow Angel Investor Cofounder 306

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. Let me take you back just 10 years ago to 2005 in Silicon Valley where I returned after 11 years of living in Europe.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. Many buying companies price these deals on the basis of $1 million per engineer on the team for an early-stage deal. has now employed the same strategy.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

We had an excellent opening panel on early-stage investing with Dave McClure (Founders Fund – NorCal), Brad Feld (Foundry Group, Boulder) and Andy Sack (Founders Co-Op, Seattle). The tone of the panel was set by David’s announcement that he was relocating to Silicon Valley (and dragging Geni & Yammer with him).

Silicon Valley 228

Silicon Valley Cofounder Hawaii Semantic 228

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable. The investment will be used for product development initiatives.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

If anything using the word “Silicon” seems a bit derivative to NorCal. Interestingly, nobody I know in NorCal EVER calls it Silicon Valley, “Silicon Valley.” Don’t you think? ” To me, LA will always be a creative hub for TV, film, music, video games and now technology.

Community 304

Community Los Angeles Startup Silicon Valley 304

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. And this Silicon Valley bias isn’t limited to any single meeting – it has been a recurring theme in my time as a VC. Funding is different outside of Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 313

Silicon Valley Southern California Los Angeles Semantic 313

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

So embedded is this conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley that it feels like heresy to even question it. I wrote about many of the early-stage startup mistakes here. So for anybody who reads my “This Week in VC&# transcripts but doesn’t watch the video – this one’s for you!

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

So if a VC wants to work with really talented early-stage entrepreneurs there are times where they have to be willing to seed fund them in order to be in the deal. A very well known early stage fund used to have a rule that they didn’t do follow ons. True was my top pick in Silicon Valley.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

Start by defining the problem you’re solving – I see way too many early-stage entrepreneurs who start their companies with a product definition rather than a market problem. It seems to be the meme of Silicon Valley these days. Here’s my take on the topic: 1. Launch a product, iterate, fail fast.

Product 348

Product Silicon Valley Oauth Design 348

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle. The ingredients are all here. The answer seems obvious (to move) but it’s not.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Before explaining “super” pro-rata rights it’s important to understand the tension that often exists when you have a company performing very well and raising money from a large, brand name Silicon Valley investor. “It’s 20% or nothing. They had a free option. You allowed it. Now you’re forked.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Dilution Finance Silicon Valley 310

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

I have never been more optimistic about the impact that the tech startup community is having on cities in America or about the role that cities outside of San Francisco / Silicon Valley can play in our future. Not all of these products & companies came from Silicon Valley but the overwhelming majority did.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Kansas City Startup Venture Capital 390

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

My wife worked at Google so while we had good income in Silicon Valley it’s hardly the life of luxury given the costs of housing. This is evidenced by the current price creep that we’re experiencing for early-stage deals. I had two kids and a rental house.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

And trust me, if you’re early stage you DO want to meet Bryce. He’s awesome for early-stage entrepreneurs. Meet early. Conventional wisdom says that you can only build big businesses in Silicon Valley so as a VC you need to be there. Not so much. There is much controversy on this topic.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

I find no better way to get a feeling for local communities than to sit with a group of early-stage entrepreneurs and talking about the local scene. .” In stead of just calling up buddies who live in the area or inviting out the most senior person in town that I know, I opt for random interactions. The Haimish factor.

Los Angeles 319

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Fractional CTO New York City 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

There was one in Silicon Valley, unsurprising, one in Chicago, and there was this group out of the south of France that served all of Europe. You’ve got entrepreneurs and founders who are really – a lot of them are in the very early stage of their startup. So what are some of the things you could do?

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337