Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok. otherwise I prefer to invest less and risk less).

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

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. The single biggest mistake most product teams make is building technology for what they believe the user would want rather than what the actual end-user needs. Design products for your mom.

Product 408

Product San Francisco Green Technical Review 408

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). If you are interested the Vimeo is here. And so on down then line. If a company that would traditionally raise $500k at a $3.5

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2016

If you still don’t get Snapchat please read the primer or follow me on Snapchat for a week or two because how I create “stories” on Snapchat is more of a use case for modern media than perhaps some teens use the product so it may resonate more with you what the future could bring. Engagement. Users are highly engaged.

Advertising 150

Advertising Iowa Campaign Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

.&# I took it to mean, “making decisions with small amounts of money (pennies) that end up making bad sense for affecting larger amounts of money (pounds, as in Great British Pounds).&# I thought of it as people who cut corners on small costs but paid dearly in terms of lost productivity on expensive staff. I Love Scrappy.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when. I spent time with the folks (Klaus Schauser and Brian Danahoo) at AppFolio before they ever launched their products. They recorded it.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

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. We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. Like any sale you first need to plan your “prospects” and qualify whether or not they’d be a good fit for your product?—?an To be clear?—?your

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2013

I’m sure you’ve all heard saying derived from Voltaire, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good” which in a way is encapsulated in the lean startup movement and the ideology of shipping a “minimum viable product” (MVP) and then learning from your customer base.

Viral 371

Viral PR Lean Founder 371

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

But my take is this: We know that B2C crowdsourcing of tasks and products has started to play a transformative role in our economy from everything from Uber to Airbnb to TaskRabbit to DogVacay. I guess he’s one step ahead of the rest of us in being super lean. Or what TechCrunch thinks. Take for example retailers.

B2B 331

B2B eCommerce B2C Differentiation 331

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. He thought, “This way any product you launch you can talk instantly with and get feedback from customers.&# They would give companies $250,000 to launch their products.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Sheryl Sandberg leans in? Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She speaks about ethical sourcing of eco-friendly products. Great moms, both.

Haiti 398

Haiti San Francisco Startup Turkey 398

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

You have to decide where to lean in on follow-on rounds. Products that ship late and place entire companies under serious stress. When they really start working you have asymmetric information and can “lean on your winners,” which is an inviable investment position to be in. Co-founder discontent.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

They know this model of YouTube production & distribution better than anybody else that I’ve met in my 5 years in Los Angeles. Maker Studios is the ultimate “lean startup.” It was founded by Danny Zappin, Lisa Donovan & Ben Donovan. Sound familiar?

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Los Angeles Distribution Internet 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Costs of product on YouTube content is literally 99% cheaper than traditional TV and; Distribution of content can now go viral and can predictably distributed via social networks. No matter how much it bothers you, people do like to entertain themselves with a “lean back” experience. Yes, CPMs on YouTube are lower today.

Silicon Valley 374

Silicon Valley Los Angeles Distribution Java 374

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Staying “lean&# is not an option. Try selling your product at a fair price when you have 4 competitors who’ve each raised $10 million in VC and who expect it will be easy to raise the next $10 million. If FourSquare wants to dominate it’s market it’s time to GO FAT.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. You need product / market fit. Product / market fit is everything. ” True.

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2010

In the presentation I also discussed why the fail fast mantra needs to fail, fast , why financial models still matter , why the lean startup movement needs to be careful about changing the definition of the adjective “lean&# and why Silicon Valley could learn a thing or two about branding from Madison Avenue.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Cofounder Lean Venture Capital 312

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Mike built a white label product that let large publishers leverage text based ads by building their own marketplace rather than using Ad Words. The second phase will be who can get the right combination lean back, lean forward, interaction, enhanced data, and make it fun. ESPN, Forbes, AOL were customers. 34:30 – 37:00).

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Are you in the “lean&# phase? I’m a very big believer in the “Lean Startup&# principles as espoused by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. When you see evidence that there is this so called “product / market fit&# then you may be ready for larger amounts of capital. They evolve the product faster.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In my mind, the best VCs actually deliver outsized returns by “leaning on the scale” not by “deal sourcing.” And I’ll know in 18 months whether we have product / market fit. VCs often don’t use the products of the companies in which they invest. I asked him what he’s learned as a VC.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

If you buy into the argument that a strong board can actually help you then this post will lay out how to help you have more productive meetings by preparing properly in advance. This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

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APRIL 2, 2014

If you pull hard at the time end of the spectrum you end up shipping inferior product. We live in an era of more product-dominant companies where a perfection complex for features and design delay business realities of shipping products. You see there is a creative tension along the spectrum of time and scope.

Software 344

Software Part-Time VPE Engineer Leadership 344

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2015

So with 80 minutes of sunk-cost into my WaPo relationship I decided to invest another 40 minutes: In sharing what a horrible experience it has been to try and buy the product they no doubt spent millions to build and then leaned into PR to tell us how great it was. It’s a shame you didn’t think to make it easy to purchase.

DC 150

DC Washington Mobile New York 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

And if you’re lucky and hit product/market fit straight out of the gate – awesome. Money when you find product / market fit is an extreme differentiator. Overfunding after product / market fit is essential to competing and winning. You grow from 8 to 45 people over night. Your culture suffers. Your processes creak.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Silicon Valley Brazil Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I would argue that this mostly consists of consumer Internet companies (although not exclusively) and it is predominantly early-stage people who are product gurus and have a mildly technical bend to them. I’m a product geek more than a spreadsheet ninja. The product feedback will be invaluable. Beautifully written.

Early Stage 299

Early Stage Venture Capital B2B Sales 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

Nanea help leadership roles at EA (SVP, COO Global Online), Gaikai (Chief Product Officer, Chief Strategy Officer), JAMDAT (SVP), Machinma (COO) and currently textPlus (President & COO – including leading engineering and product). Here are some things we discussed: User experience focused product management.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Leadership Engineer RSS 315

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT. If I see your alpha product then I can judge how it develops over time. I’m personally 70% management, 30% product.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you have board members you respect you owe it to yourself to run more productive sessions where board members contribute. It ought to lay out the key issues, provide 3 options per issue and state which one management is leaning toward. So here’s a short guide to achieving that.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2010

You can’t help but lean forward and want to hear what the next line is. My partner was in product management at Demand Media. If I’m interested in your product I naturally will check it out. The last one was to Salesforce.com where I was VP Product Management.” I buy dead magazines.” He gets a stare every time.

Elevator Pitch 315

Elevator Pitch Southern California Media Hosting 315

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

I like to describe tenacity as “leaning forward.&# It’s those things that you push for – in which you never accept “no&# for an answer. You’ve got less than 6 months’ cash in the bank and your product isn’t really fully baked. I then covered Street Smarts , Ability to Pivot and Resiliency.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Early Stage Leadership Salary 288

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Much credit for the mindset of keeping companies lean, having them launch & experiment on products and trying to “find product / market fit&# goes to Steve Blank (author of the much respected Four Steps to Epiphany ) and Eric Ries , spiritual leader of the “ Lean Startup &# movement.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

In this post I advocate taking a harder stand on where your product or solution differentiates in the market – even if it means you lose some deals as a result. So we did the opposite and leaned into it adopting the “Why Buy Me” strategy of seeking people out who either understood the power of LA or were persuadable.

Sales 150

Sales Silicon Valley Las Vegas Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2015

I believe it is what drives my huge bursts of creativity and productivity that what Stephen Covey called “The Urgency Addiction.” I’ll lean forward, lean back. But I’ll give you complete rundown below. ADD can be a blessing. So chill, sometimes people literally can’t help being late.

LP 150

LP Lean Chicago Video 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 18, 2014

” What is charming in your lean first year because you’re feeling like a true startup begins to become annoying when you’re tired of a loud work environment, a single bathroom stall for 40 people or uncomfortable chairs, bad lighting or old computers. .” It helps with productivity and output.

Seed Stage 352

Seed Stage Startup Retention PR 352

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

Open standards that make it easier to plug into other products & services, creating a global bazaar. Socially connected individuals and platforms that enable faster roll-outs of successful products. Does your product dramatically reduce costs in an industry with large incumbents and fat margins?

Non-Compete 386

Non-Compete Startup Internet Cost 386