Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

So many CEO’s just carry on being … CEO’s –> fund raise, get media attention, attend conferences, hire staff, “set direction&# , whatever. One of my favorite sayings in this area comes from a portfolio company, RingRevenue , who like to say “ease of use = use and use = revenue.&#

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

The chosen candidate will probably have worked for a very reputable firm that is either in technology, consulting, investment banking, media or a startup. What is the future of social media, digital television or mobile computing. Responding to portfolio company requests. Where do you think things are heading?

Los Angeles 290

Los Angeles Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 290

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Our investments focus heavily on the financial services industry, digital media, mobile applications & infrastructure, SaaS / Cloud and retail innovation. At GRP Partners our focus has always been on having a small number of investments in the industries we know well. And we’re not restricted to territories.

Partner 285

Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

We put together this really short, music video (less than 2 minutes)that gives you a great aerial view of the LA Tech ecosystem (plus a great aerial shot of Upfront Ventures HQ if you are interested) all shot with our portfolio company DroneBase.

Los Angeles 321

Los Angeles Portfolio Hosting Media 321

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

the people who buy companies) in Q2 of this year of technology & media companies. Buyers aren’t oblivious to the fact that funds need to sell older portfolio companies and an oversupply relative to demand means that prices should still be challenged going forward. with only 19% saying they would decrease levels.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

We have a few portfolio companies going through brand changes. We are trying hard to live up to the guidelines we laid out for our investors, our portfolio companies and our community. Be open & transparent (mimicking the greater social order changes that have come with blogs & social media).

Ireland 324

Ireland Jordan Portfolio Flash 324

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. in fact we still look at many deals in the media sector whose main objective is to entertain people. If the negative comments begin to erode his conviction he might withdrawal the deal on his own volition. 6SensorLabs.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America Partner United States 362

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

As I’ve highlighted I believe we’re in a unique period similar to 2005-08 where the biggest tech firms of Silicon Valley (and some media companies) are scooping up small software companies as “talent acquisitions&# versus accretive revenue / profit generators. And these are people with deep pockets.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Deal Flow 283

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

You may have paid marketing: SEM, Social Media Ads, Banner Ads, email lists, etc. Our portfolio company Ring had a new “security doorbell” which is truly a new market. That’s why Ring is amongst the fastest growing company in our portfolio. And influencers may help once or twice but ultimately nothing is free.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

As more consumers were skipping commercials the idea of authentically integrating brands into media seemed obvious to me and ended up informing a lot of my investments in 2009 and 2010. Media relationships. He reached out to younger founders and offered to help via his network at AT&T, Google, media agencies … you name it.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.)

Los Angeles 244

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Mobile Video 244

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2013

In today’s uber-connected, social media, everything-is-public, people tell you there’s killing it with these new features, investor & mentor whiplash – it’s hard to avoid the latest thing. Note to portfolio companies … I talk in terms of “shiny objects” with everybody – trust me.

Bandwidth 368

Bandwidth Social Media Portfolio Video 368

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. Social media users are over 60% more likely to check email at least four times a day than those who don’t use social media. ” Are you kidding me?

Mobile 339

Mobile Email Social Media Global 339

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

He did what every LP did, looked at returns, talked to portfolio companies, talked with our competitors and so forth. https://medium.com/media/aec01f203f35f445d82826855e482c4a/href So what is the importance of succession planning in VC? Maybe that’s USV, too. How can high profile VC personalities best transition to younger partners.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Her network from her educational institutions alone has friends in all of the top tech, media & banking institutions. Kara has worked in finance in Boston, NYC and Silicon Valley. She has been in operations in Seattle and Los Angeles. They like to say it was an 8-year interview process).

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

I started by launching a portfolio company’s product on Product Hunt. He’s been great at fostering online relationships through blogs and social media for years. I often try to follow product people at interesting companies who engage in social media. So I set out to understand this phenomenon a bit more deeply.

Product 150

Product Startup Social Media Community 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

This is true whether it’s physical products or media products. Think about the tension between media companies and cable operators like last year when Viacom threatened to pull Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, etc. This is an age-old marketplace tension where leverage often determines the value captured.

Curation 296

Curation Los Angeles Differentiation Channel 296

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Yes an online video startup in ‘99 that helped large media companies encode and distribute their videos through portals. An example is Metacafe, a Highland Capital portfolio company. Do you think the impact of social media is effecting Google’s search business? (42:00 Startup after Iron Planet? (6:00 6:00 – 7:30). 37:00-40:30).

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The best case I’ve seen is our portfolio company Osmo who had already built the product but used crowd-funding to handle inventory management, supply-chain logistics and perfecting the final version of the product. And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

It would be easier in terms of getting access to angels, VCs, the media, whatever. This afternoon (Saturday) I have a coffee meeting with a portfolio company founder. If their commitment to staying local is weak I normally say, “Well, it certainly would be easier on you to be in a larger community. Take me for example.

Kansas City 365

Kansas City San Diego Kansas Dallas 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

You thought media twitter was bad… You thought tech twitter was bad… — Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) August 24, 2015. When many venture investors are seeing their personal public portfolios tank it creeps into their business lives and creates an emotion that is less risk tolerant whether they’re aware of it or not.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

My friend is very accomplished (much more than I) but he is relatively unknown in certain tech & digital media crowds. Be willing to lean in, talk about your portfolio and investment ideas and be willing to be challenged. I advised him to start that conversation with a bit of skepticism. I hated that job and that feeling.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Other players such as Obopay have set out to focus on mobile person-to-person cash transfers, mFoundry (a GRP portfolio company) has focused on mobile banking and a mobile wallet and one of my favorite companies m-via is focusing on mobile remittances (right now between the US and Mexico).

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

But there are many zombie VC’s with no more investments left in their portfolios so it’s hard to know which trend has more impact. Sentiment is strong in personal portfolios and up commensurately with VC’s expectations that their last fund will now be worth something (and along with that increase the partners’ personal wealth).

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2011

We didn’t want this section to be our recommendations but those of our portfolio. Yet we wanted to be clear that we invest heavily in digital media, mobile & software companies. Next I might steal this. Just as we launched a 2010 site they go all 2011 on us! Thanks, guys. Sadly, I couldn’t get there.

Early Stage 260

Early Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Partner 260

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 15, 2010

I heard word that a new project was starting in Tokyo to work for the board of directors of a very large and well known Japanese electronics company to work on their Internet strategy looking at media, devices and networks. Does that mean that I condone this kind of behavior with portfolio companies in which I invest? Absolutely!

San Francisco 379

San Francisco Europe Japan Switzerland 379

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

We also talked a lot about Geodelic , a portfolio company of Clearstone, who is trying to change the metaphor of how people discover location based information by partnering with large companies and brands. It’s clear that many companies are going to need to understand “authority&# in the social media era.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

Structured data asset creation works in on demand in real-time across multiple data sets Including web, e-mail, internal databases, documents, and media. Will expand IBM’s business analytics capabilities and become part of IBM’s application and integration middleware portfolio. Competitors: InformationBuilders , DataWatch.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums. At almost every portfolio company I work with I encourage them to think hard about hiring internal PR staff. You need somebody who REALLY understands your company, its customers and its competitors.

PR 349

PR Startup Hiring Social Network 349

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. Since funds were driven by extreme successes in their portfolios where just one deal could return 5x the entire fund while 95% of the fund may have done well but not amazing, not missing out on deals was critical. It literally drove FOMO. The second “exit”?—?Adly?—?innovated

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

It’s also worth noting as data would suggest from this SVB venture funding report, lower costs to build tech & operate businesses implies the possibility of lower loss ratios in portfolios. It will take some time to prove out this hypothesis, but the data above suggests it may be the case.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

But the short answer is that the best intro is from a portfolio company of that VC or by other entrepreneurs whom that VC respects. You need to build genuine relationships with these portfolio startup founders as well as trust with them and the rest will follow. I wrote a longer post on how to access VCs that you should read.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

This was pre social media. I am often asked about social media by those who want to know how they should best do it professionally. My advice always follows along the line of: Twitter is part media distribution platform. It shouldn’t be a one-way media publishing platform. Background. They are synergistic.

Social Media 307

Social Media PR Media Venture Capital 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I would try a line like, “I know that some of you might be social media experts and others may be less deep on this particular area. In our current portfolio 3 or his 4 investments are in the Fin Svcs space. I would normally recommend you address the issue early in the meeting with the group to set expectations.

Technical Review 318

Technical Review Venture Capital Partner Due Diligence 318

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

One measure of CincyTech’s overall impact is that in 2013, its portfolio companies represent 80% of total seed and early stage capital invested in Southwest Ohio. VCs generally have had an easy time fostering relationships with large ad agencies and media companies given how much our businesses have intersected over the past 20 years.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Kansas City Startup Venture Capital 390

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

They are a national practice but “it would be hard to see a local media success that Revolution isn’t part of&#. This potential merger is another example of media companies getting together in what seems like a monopolistic way that still might find itself as prey for market innovation of the future; like Hulu for example.

Cofounder 277

Cofounder Merger Founder Venture Capital 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I always try hard to make this blog a place where you can learn lessons rather than an advertisement for portfolio companies. I’ve long been a believer in technology that “captures” new media types: photos & video. Rich shared common views that the explosion in media creation will only continue to accelerate.

Term Sheet 303

Term Sheet Mobile Cofounder Early Stage 303