Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Wouldn’t we be a bit hypocritical if we talked with entrepreneurs about innovation and change but we weren’t willing to take it on ourselves? Why should investors know all the tricks of the trade while first-time entrepreneurs operated at a disadvantage? What’s up with that?

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy. 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! 44:45 Telling an entrepreneur to focus is like telling a fat person to lose weight. 46:50 Engines of Growth. Timecodes: 00:00 Welcome, our guest is Eric Ries, founder of the Lean Startup Movement.

Silicon Valley 301

Silicon Valley Lean Social Media PR 301

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 I will quote a prominent, well-known entrepreneur whom I like and respect and who told me when he was raising money, “I don’t know how much I’m going to charge for my product so why should I create an artificial spreadsheet?

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

Two weeks after Brad’s post I was at the 140 Conference in LA and I held open office hours for any entrepreneur who wanted to spend 15 minutes talking with a VC about their business. But it turns out I met a bunch of really interesting entrepreneurs. But TWTFelipe is an entrepreneur. Felipe grew up in Brazil.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Canada Green South Carolina 282

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. was starting.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2016

We know that to be successful we need to fund truly transformational entrepreneurs grounded in unique academic skills and with the self confidence and ambition to try and achieve results in which the market will naturally be skeptical.

Cofounder 207

Cofounder Differentiation Hosting Design 207

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

Perhaps the most misused terms I see these days from entrepreneurs involve CAC (customer acquisition costs) and LTV (life time value) and a lack of understanding these critical components is driving many companies to premature failure. So I spend an inordinate amount of time with entrepreneurs focused on payback. End of story.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I’d say about 80% of the experienced entrepreneurs & VCs I know privately agreed with me. Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. Naturally some didn’t. Functional roles provide more clarity around roles and responsibilities.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

I actually like finding entrepreneurs who are more circumspect, less braggadocios and generally more planned about their actions. Where Stealth is Bad – I do meet entrepreneurs who clearly fall on the other side of spectrum and are totally closed. That’s fine if entrepreneurs are your target market.

Early Stage 380

Early Stage Stealth Marketing Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. Keeping a blog has been great because so many entrepreneurs have written me with questions about their companies and I’ve gotten to know many of you personally through the process. There are many great VCs. Let me explain.

Pakistan 297

Pakistan India Technical Review Software Review 297

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things. It surprises me that this is even controversial but in this day-and-age it sometimes is.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Equally, I encouraged entrepreneurs to spend time getting to know their future VCs early because getting a feel for your chemistry is far more important than how the VC is ranked in some survey. Equally, I encouraged entrepreneurs to thoroughly reference check their VCs – you’ll learn much more from this than anything else.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Tunisia Egypt Iran 330

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Most technology startups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Sales & Marketing Advice. Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. LOVING Balsamiq!

Early Stage 350

Early Stage Startup Sales Campaign 350

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs play to win and they take losing seriously.

Entrepreneur 296

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Term Sheet France 296

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It’s true that we also fund more mundane stuff like B2B software aimed at productivity improvements but we want some big bets in every fund where we feel we can contribute to “making our own little dent in the universe” as the saying goes – by backing ambitious entrepreneurs with that same goal.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Software Review Founder Boston 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. What a bubble means for each entrepreneur. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I believe that.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Yesterday I had lunch with a really interesting and capable serial entrepreneur who is raising his A round. Many serial entrepreneurs who have been burned would use something less kind than quotes. But even he would feel conflicted when I had to cut the engineering team because he valued our product more than his investment.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2014

We graduate more engineers in our greater region than anywhere else in the US. We have top 25 engineering schools than anywhere else, too. We have a large number of highly talented engineers and entrepreneurs now developing companies in our local market. Buying local teams with talented engineering groups.

Los Angeles 318

Los Angeles Silicon Valley LP Warrant 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2010

I wrote several of the characteristics when I did the Top 10 (11) Attributes of an Entrepreneur. Your sales team is pounding the table because engineering won’t ship new features fast enough. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Zynga and others. And yet you still have scarce resources.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley United States Technical Review 330

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

In most cases if you can’t get a prototype done you’re probably not an entrepreneur. Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more. Surround yourself with great advisors or other entrepreneurs.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

It’s the nature of most entrepreneurs, honestly. Another thing entrepreneurs f**k up? Most entrepreneurs would like to stick their heads in the sand or would rather hear fingernails on chalkboards (there still are chalkboards, aren’t there?) It’s the norm more than you think. They can help you with pricing.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

He knew he was an entrepreneur because he couldn’t stop thinking about ideas. In addition to Seth, the core team he pulled together consisted of Elaine, a product person with front-end engineering skills and sharp design sense, and Sandy a back-end server engineer. What is the reaction when you first tell people a concept?

Connecticut 286

Connecticut Cofounder Silicon Valley Web 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. We had a very sensible debate on the topic on VentureHacks sponsored by Nivi and including Naval Ravikant. If you haven’t checked that out you really should.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Cofounder API 281

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. Many buying companies price these deals on the basis of $1 million per engineer on the team for an early-stage deal. Usually the location of the engineers matters great so having offshore engineering makes acquihires unlikely.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

He wanted more ability to push the product & engineering teams harder – he was, after all, the CEO. If you give up after this you’re not an entrepreneur. He felt the CEO was willing to “sell his soul” for revenue and wanted things to be more pure. The CEO felt that the CPO had gotten lazy and unconfident.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

I helped make this decision by “triangulating&# between our DBA, lead technical architect and our VP of Engineering (who had a better grasp of the financial costs & development costs of each decision). Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. No leader wants his/her investor directing staff what do to.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

My colleagues that graduated with engineering degrees from UCSD were paid $31,000 – 15% more. I had a friend who joined at the same time with an engineering degree from the same university as me and held jobs in the restaurant sector in college. I struggled to get the group to take me – they only took engineers.

Marketing 385

Marketing Europe Engineer Networking 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

We only have 5 engineers, how can we do all that? I don’t yet feel strongly enough about tablets to encourage entrepreneurs with whom I work to put too many resources against with few exceptions. But I would never want to do my recruiting search campaign on mobile. I need more real estate for that. Come on, Mark.

Mobile 334

Mobile Web Software Review San Francisco 334

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. But while Net Burn is the more critical figure at first blush and what most investors will focus on, Gross Burn is not irrelevant. Think DropBox, Airbnb, Uber, Maker Studios.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

You need star power of entrepreneurs surrounded by star power angels & VCs who in turn get tons of press from adoring journalists who are insiders amongst this crowd of tech cognoscenti. Maker Studios is dedicated to working with “talent” in the same way that Silicon Valley is dedicated to working with engineers.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Los Angeles Distribution Internet 291

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

It’s only 12 minutes long and if you’re a first-time entrepreneur (or second time, frankly) I encourage you to watch it if for nothing else than to get a sense that your struggles are universal. Startups are filled with enormously talented people – often product people & engineers. But age brings perspective.

Startup 412

Startup San Francisco LP Bankruptcy 412

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

I was WAY off between my book research about what the engineering & construction market would want (my first company) and what they actually wanted. I find myself often saying to these entrepreneurs, “having watched you I can see why customers are interested in buying. I only found out through customer meetings.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “ 10,000 hours.&#. Are you looking for great engineers? If you wait until you need to fill somebody in a roll you’re losing valuable time as an entrepreneur. It should stick in your head as a metaphor for networking. For getting outside of your comfort zone.

Dividend 410

Dividend Deal Flow Hiring Advertising 410

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

A market leader in content, music, entertainment, textiles, engineering, aerospace and trade. The two managing partners are Eric Paley & David Frankel (both former entrepreneurs) but they have also aligned themselves with some of the best known startup savvy entrepreneurs including Chris Dixon (Hunch) and Caterina Fake (Flickr, Pinwheel).

Community 304

Community Los Angeles Startup Silicon Valley 304

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. It’s always such a pleasure for me to spend time with Farb because he has all of the enthusiasm and energy you love to see in entrepreneurs. He’s also candid, humble and helpful.

Founder 214

Founder San Diego SMS Los Angeles 214

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. We brought on Nanea Reeves as President to shore up quality on the product, engineering and ops side. She made an immediate positive impact on our culture, quality and overall product.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley Los Angeles San Francisco Architecture 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. How about teaching engineering at Stanford and seeing the best & brightest before they’re even out in the wild.

Silicon Valley 306

Silicon Valley Deal Flow Angel Investor Cofounder 306