Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

After stints as a technology investment banker, a dot-com entrepreneur, and a product manager in Silicon Valley, I moved to Los Angeles in 2006. For the last couple of years, I’ve been investing in startups as a partner at Mucker, while spending a lot of time in the Valley working with potential co-investors and partners.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier. We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. each with partners as the lead. It’s just now that we’re Seed Investors. Where are Things Headed for VC in 2031?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

We think coaching is a key lever for doing this, with our own team or through outside partners. Similarly, we have an ongoing program to introduce our companies to later-round VCs, and have more credibility in presenting our companies to other investors than an independent investment banker would have.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested.

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2018

The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it—or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You’re hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Investment bankers are staking out your house.”

Investment Bankers 135

Investment Bankers Silicon Valley Government Lean 135

YoungUpstarts

MAY 9, 2019

You speak to trusted friends and personal advisors about how you should go about doing this (perhaps your lawyer or accountant), and before you know it, you stumble upon an important player in the private equity game: the investment banker. What constitutes the best potential partner to work with? How do you find the right one?

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Investment Bankers Government 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested.

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 21, 2017

6 – Investment Banker. I founded SilkRoll in 2015, I spent 10 years developing my style and taste in fashion while working around the world as an investment banker. With the support of some of the OPN ladies and with the knowledge from my pre-retirement job, I launched a business writing poetry for customers.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Investment Bankers PR Social Media 48

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, fishing for money is a waste of time for both of you. Growth stage.

Investment Bankers 241

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 241

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested.

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2010

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, the courting is a waste of time for both of you. Growth stage.

Investment Bankers 231

Investment Bankers Venture Capital Startup Initial Public Offering 231

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

It looks as though you’ve built a very interesting business, and I’d love to spend some time getting a better understanding of your future plans for the company and if there is an opportunity to partner with [My Firm]. It's big, well known & we've invested in all of these really cool companies].

Programming 294

Programming Entrepreneur Private Equity Equity 294

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 24, 2016

The cue for this post was Harry Stebbing’s 20MinuteVC interview with David Pakman , the partner at Venrock who led the Series A and Series B rounds at Dollar Shave Club and recently had his faith justified with a $1bn exit to Unilever. We are happy investing in sectors where we see opportunity, even if others don’t.

eCommerce 60

eCommerce Investment Bankers Curation Stock 60

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, fishing for money is a waste of time for both of you. Growth stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Growthink Blog

JULY 11, 2011

And then, from those assessments, forecast how a course of specific decisions or investments will be received by the market, by current or prospective customers, and responded to by the competition. But a focus on simple to do list management, in the modern world, is far from sufficient.

Investment Bankers 89

Investment Bankers Affiliate Forecast Campaign 89

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

Inbound calls from partners, people who want to join, atta boys from friends. We just landed the biz dev partner we’ve been working on for 9 months. Google DID NOT just acquire our main biz dev partner. Let’s say you became a partner in a VC fund in 1995 and started investing heavily in 1997-99. Holy sh*t!!!

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2010

Finding the best jobs takes a lot of commitment to taking many different networking meetings with executives, recruiters, entrepreneurs, VC’s, investment bankers, etc. And that business trip to SF for a week to meet customers? Let’s start with the obvious. How do I “know&# all this? Choose life. Move there.

Los Angeles 326

Los Angeles San Francisco Chicago Investment Bankers 326

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

While working on my most recent startup, Navon Partners , we were fortunate to have Raul Trevino , a star former Citi investment banker and Columbia MBA, interning with us. Like me, he had the pleasure/pain of being trained as an investment banking analyst. Vinicius Vacanti and Jim Moran of Yipit had the same experience.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Get Obsessed with Your Customers. This means getting obsessive about tailoring your solution to your customers’ deepest needs. Start an open dialogue with your customers about your product and don’t look to them to confirm how great you are. This causes them to become more invested in your product evolution and company success.

Startup 138

Startup Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder 138

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

Clips from their interviews are below: Wayne Sutton is a partner and co-founder of BUILDUP VC , a Bay Area non-profit that connects, mentors, and educates underrepresented technology entrepreneurs. The features didn’t match what ultimately the customers would buy or wanted. And download any of the past shows here.). Wayne : No.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Carolina Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2012

Partnering with the United Nations’ School Feeding initiative, the company blends business and activism by selling merchandise and donating the profits to Latin American, Asian, and African children in need. Beh Weng Wei at Tech65.org Sheila Johnson at Prendismo Collection , Dec.

Entrepreneur 231

Entrepreneur Cofounder Washington Bangladesh 231

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers. Don’t be penny wise, pound foolish.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers. Don’t be penny wise, pound foolish.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

JULY 26, 2015

As a former investment banker who followed the markets closely once upon a time (especially when I was in the midst of public market M&A transactions), I now have the luxury of watching from an arm’s length. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers. Don’t be penny wise, pound foolish.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Get Obsessed with Your Customers. This means getting obsessive about tailoring your solution to your customers’ deepest needs. Start an open dialogue with your customers about your product and don’t look to them to confirm how great you are. This causes them to become more invested in your product evolution and company success.

Startup 113

Startup Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder 113

Mike Michalowicz

JANUARY 8, 2015

My partner and I were very motivated to sell. Get an investment banker or a business broker to handle the sale with you. If you’re providing a unique service to a dedicated, loyal group of satisfied customers, you’re poised to cash in big. I made big bucks off that first deal. We didn’t make as much as we’d hoped to.

Intellectual Property 60

Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Exit Strategy Sales 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies. Before you can actually invest, you have to manage your fund. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. Most of us want one spouse and we’re done. 1) Manage the firm .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

Inbound calls from partners, people who want to join, atta boys from friends. We just landed the biz dev partner we’ve been working on for 9 months. Google DID NOT just acquire our main biz dev partner. Let’s say you became a partner in a VC fund in 1995 and started investing heavily in 1997-99. Holy sh*t!!!

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2006

On the book is Thomas Weisel Partners, William Blair, Needham, Pacific Crest, and Wachovia. According to the S-1 filing: Salary.com is a leading provider of on-demand compensation management solutions.

IPO 60

IPO Investment Bankers Demand Revenue 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

He teaches at the NYU School of Engineering , and for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps , and co-author with Giff Constable of Talking to Humans: Success Starts With Understanding Your Customers. We invest exclusively in startups founded by NYU students, faculty and researchers. I was 22, 23 at that time.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Investment Bankers 120

David Teten

JANUARY 8, 2013

According to Jeff Bussgang, General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, about 10-15% of the 1,000 active venture capitalists in the U.S. Fewer private equity funds are using social media for outreach, but 2xPartners , Healthpoint Capital , and MCM Capital Partners are notable exceptions.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Social Media Equity Media 114

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

According to Izhar Shay, a general partner at Canaan Partners, “The investment community has matured to recognize they need to plan for scale. A move allows the business to get close to the customer, learn their pain points, and adapt accordingly. However, waiting to move to the U.S.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 25, 2011

On the Israeli side, the Hub will be led by Carmel Gerber , a former investment banker and entrepreneur who relocated from the US to Israel. Identifying potential Israeli partners for UK companies and vice versa. On the UK side, the British co-chair will be David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science.

Investment Bankers 105

Investment Bankers Global Partner 105

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Ampex’s first customer was Bing Crosby who wanted to record his radio programs for rebroadcast (and had exclusive distribution rights.) In a typical venture fund, the partners receive a 2% management fee. This is where the partners would make their money. But the biggest innovation was the “carried interest” (called the “carry”.)

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 125

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 31, 2020

Whether it’s Yotta encouraging emergency savings accounts, Dave.com providing overdraft protection, or Stash enabling broad participation in public market investing, I believe that the private sector could be an inflection point for the country’s financial health – and that fintechs will lead the way.

IPO 36

IPO Stock Software Review API 36

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2018

We know of a lifestyle startup that ordered 10,000 mattresses once they believed they had enough of a customer base. Three months later, customers started returning the mattresses, feeling that they became less desirable over time. Our approach with VEEV — going slow in the beginning — actually made acquiring customers easier.

Los Angeles 133

Los Angeles Investment Bankers Cofounder Viral 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

So I've been able to move to another location with my partner and another city, I should say. In Y Combinator, they talk a lot about this idea, "Well, go talk to the customers." That's basically the loop of how you find product market fit is go talk to the customers, take their feedback, and go improve the product.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113