Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Harry was gracious enough to invite me back so this past week we recorded an episode discussing the current market environment. Nobody will be immune because in a bull market executives are paid to “innovate” so they sign software contracts and run projects. If you’re a clear “market winner” like Stripe, Robinhood or Airbnb.

Marketing 263

Marketing Valuation Churn Rate Balance Sheet 263

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Mostly it’s because your marketing campaigns suck. Or more directly – they are likely narcissistic resuscitations of your newest features or bragging points that nobody but your marketing team and your mom care about. Plus they run conferences with the top people (which is another form of POV marketing by the way).

Campaign 389

Campaign Marketing Widget Analytics 389

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 9, 2013

Declining prices & margins in a small market is much less interesting. I believe that market conditions drive innovation as much as great entrepreneurs do. Market meet reality. They are also driving down the margins they make and are offering products that are initially lower functionality than their competitors.

Syria 361

Syria Marketing Libya Los Angeles 361

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2012

I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon.

Marketing 297

Marketing Metrics Campaign Portfolio 297

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Since 2009 we’ve been in an unequivocal bull market. You’d imagine that companies selling tons of shelfware would quickly meet their deserved fate in the market, yet the spin around a category of software can fool buyers into thinking they “must have this product to compete.”

Marketing 354

Marketing Incubator Turkey Metrics 354

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

It is simply the most important way to proactively control your career development and how the market perceives you. That was fine with me – the market is the market. That was the market. In today’s market you can prove your worth, in 1991 that was a bit harder. It is neither. She was paid 15% more.

Marketing 385

Marketing Europe Engineer Networking 385

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 16, 2011

I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. VC Funding in a Frothy Market. I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. But Adeo asked so I obliged. I don’t know whether they shot video.

San Francisco 307

San Francisco Marketing Video Founder 307

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

Her argument is that if Uber buys Grubhub (which itself once merged with Seamless) it would mean that Uber Eats / Grubhub would control half the market and that with DoorDash the two together would control 90% of the market. You lose the ability to up-sell and cross-sell products.

Technical Review 242

Technical Review Software Review Australia Aggregator 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? But expanding beyond our core customers was going to take more effort than simply launching in new markets. We realized that operating a business in distributed markets presented multi-city coordination efforts that we weren’t prepared for.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2019

An Insider’s Perspective “Bird Zero” that are custom designed by the company There is a story arc of the electric scooter market that took the world by storm in 2018, was second-guessed late in the year and has quietly re-emerged as a powerful force of growth where few really appreciate the speed and scale of what has happened.

South America 250

South America Global New York City Software Review 250

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. In this post I set out to explain why the seed market emerged as its own category in the first place and why it’s declined as of late. ( The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

I pointed out that the storage market in the US alone is ~$30 billion / year and there is no dominant provider — the largest player has < 10% market share. But finding a market which is large, out-dated, has zero tech and is ripe for disruption can lead to very large outcomes. years of software development.

Technical Review 268

Technical Review Los Angeles Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation. And by this I assume he meant that “market prognosticator twitter” was vomitous. It was a nerve racking morning. Neither do I.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2015

As an active investor in the Los Angeles technology market we’re always seeking to better understand the data and trends of why our market has grown so rapidly since 2009. The report on the LA Tech Market can be found on this link. And the first report released is this one — > The State of the LA Tech Market.

LP 150

LP Los Angeles Marketing Partner 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

Plus, they know the local market better and therefore don’t have the uninformed biases of those that don’t. Next I’d research every VC in the country and find people who grew up in or near KC. Because you know they must already come back 1-2 times / year anyways.

Kansas City 365

Kansas City San Diego Kansas Dallas 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

You will build out features or expend to platforms — often before you have enough market feedback to warrant it. My analogy was that there are markets where it’s relatively easier to raise capital and therefore you should take a little bit more but you should create a budget where you only spend 70% of what you raise on a pace of 18 months.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. Of if your VP Sales isn’t complaining about marketing she’s trying to get the function reporting to her. Marketing of course often feels the opposite. More developers?

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. Has it begun to mature or is it just better marketed than in was say 5 years ago? Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly.

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

I actually really enjoyed many of the points Muhammad made about marketing in general and I found myself nodding through the entirety of the article except for it’s core premise. It’s about looking out for and catching the next major marketing wave before others have grokked it. I laughed as I did at much of his rant.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). But markets value high growth over short-term profitability. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

They have seen one side of a market where many of us have seen the ebb and flow multiple times. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I believe a bubble occurs when a market is willing to pay greater than intrinsic value for an asset class. I spoke about a lot of things during the keynote.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Nascent startup markets are like fine wine, they take time to develop.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Bulgaria Lean 374

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Companies like DogVacay solve a real need in the market. We got along and shared stories about the startup market. Like most markets online it will likely be a ‘winner take most’ category so if you’re going to go for it … you better be prepared to win.” Tech Market Analysis'

San Diego 344

San Diego Technical Review Seed Capital Sacramento 344

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because?—?no founders, marketers, investors?—?and no surprise?—?that’s that’s where the customers are. For these companies, it looks like a rosy picture. Why Did I Invest in Trust?

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

As I like to say, “If you’re really on to an enormous idea then other people in the market are going to spot that and want to compete with you. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!”

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2014

So amazingly you had a company with 350+ sku’s wanting capital to build its eCommerce capabilities and scale sales & marketing and on the other side this other great company with eCommerce expertise and a great product but not a broad enough sku set. Startup Lessons Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures'

Merger 296

Merger Southern California eCommerce New Zealand 296

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FEBRUARY 7, 2013

And we wanted a head of global marketing. I wanted them to have a market lead before others could try and build what Ethan was working on. Ethan recruited a great team of people to help build this proposition including Lisa Robinson running marketing and Rahul Thathoo as CTO who have been working tirelessly for the past year.

Southern California 359

Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

By now you have many smart people around your board but probably people who don’t totally understand the nuances of your employees, customers, sales reps, marketing messages, technology challenges, competitors and strategic choices. how to market our products and company. So our board meetings consisted of discussion about.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

In an eCommerce or Internet Services business it is often the marketing costs (if purchased online) and in an enterprise software company it is often marketing plus enterprise sales reps. The first mistake that mostly only rookies make is to measure the CAC by looking at the attributable marketing costs of acquiring a user.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 20, 2009

It reminded me of the way that the ringtone companies marketed themselves 10 years ago and the articles about lower-income mothers having to foot the bill for hundreds of dollars for their kids. It absolutely disgusts me. But this is a new low.

Direct Marketing 263

Direct Marketing Private Equity Sacramento Marketing 263

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. The new hires that you pick up will use your same sales decks created by marketing but will have less impact and you often don’t realize it’s happening. We then brought the number up to 8-10 and even hired an SVP of global sales & marketing.

Sales 286

Sales PR Forecast Technical Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising. This is one book-end of the cycle.

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

If they’re not buying you need to be marketing to them not selling to them. Not to mention it would be nice to have the CEO on your marketing reference list! Sales & Marketing Advice Startup Advice' You need to align your selling cycle with a buyers purchasing cycle otherwise you’re wasting your time and theirs.

Sales Cycle 375

Sales Cycle Sales Technical Review Campaign 375

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. This only becomes noticeable in down markets.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311