Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

The thing is … what I see many sales execs do is burn up countless hours on mid-level campaigns that get torpedoed when the go up the organization due to lack of budget, a desire to own that core IP or other more pressing organization priorities. If they’re not buying you need to be marketing to them not selling to them.

Sales Cycle 375

Sales Cycle Sales Technical Review Campaign 375

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

There are many companies with phenomenal IP that is truly differentiated but where the original executive team squandered their opportunity due to inability to sell, market or service customers. There is often money to be made in finding places with under-valued IP. I saved my main point for last. ” (Warren Buffett).

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Defensible IP When I’m asked by newer, younger VC partners for advice on our sector, one of the things I always emphasize is looking for companies who have built defensible intellectual property (IP). Defensible IP becomes insanely valuable?—?particularly Over the past 2.5 particularly as you achieve scale.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know that you can use an email system with this to track my open rate, whether I forwarded the email, the IP address where I read it, whether I was on a mobile device or a wired computer and you can tell who else read the document. What should be in your deck?

IP 239

IP Differentiation Salary Sales 239

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

So money spent should add equity value or create IP that eventually will. Think: If you raise $10 million at a $30 million pre ($40 million post) that investor needs you to exist for at least $120 million (3x) to hit his or her MINIMUM return target his or her investor’s are expecting.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

If this idea was so big then why would they risk not being first to market, not building defensible IP for the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars extra in lock-up money at a big company? He and his partner told me about this new idea over the course of nearly a year. I finally called bullshit.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

Founder fighting, IP lawsuits, high-profile resignations, trouble fund raising, bad product release, 409a complications, community is rebelling against the CEO: You. Every great investor knows this.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

These days there are many lawyers that will do equity deals cheaply as long is it is a standardized, simplified term sheet, early stage, no serious investor / management debates, limited IP / customers / due diligence and as long as they perceive you as a “hot&# company that’s likely to need legal services for many years ahead. (if

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

I talked to one company who had build really differentiated IP and had great customer traction. Don’t just mentally write off their features or marketing as “dumb” – ask internally what you could learn from it.

Startup 313

Startup Guerilla Silicon Valley Portfolio 313

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

What about Product / IP? And by the way, it’s OK to ask, “do you guys have a minimum ownership level that you like to hit?&# Doesn’t hurt to politely get this out in the open. All these “m’s&# and you never spoke about product? That’s not an M? It’s a P.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you spent the 3 years perfecting some hugely differentiated technology IP that may also be different. If you had huge customer growth but just didn’t focus on revenue that’s a different story.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

They seed funded my second company and even let me buy some IP in exchange for debt to get started. But the firm that funded my first startup was loyal to me for having stuck around in what they knew to be pretty tough times and having suffered much dilution. The people that I brought to my second company all worked at my first company.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

You own the IP you create. If you build a true “technology services for services sake&# business at some point you’ll likely build technology products as part of your projects where you either own the IP or you own in jointly with your customer or business partner. In a down market IP can become a huge differentiator.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

If it’s a biz deal you might care about IP protection, revenue share, investment commitments to joint marketing – whatever. If it’s a biz deal you might care about IP protection, revenue share, investment commitments to joint marketing – whatever. I’m not saying to throw in the towel and not negotiate points.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

This also happens out of “startup weekends” where it’s unclear who contributed to the IP and where many people don’t continue with the idea beyond the first 30 days. When it involves real or perceived large sums of money, friends sue. If you want to start a company create a legal entity – it’s dirt cheap.

Vesting 150

Vesting Cofounder IP Stock Options 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 8, 2016

So every company that I now work with or talk to that has a need for character-based IP — I always direct them to Andrew. And they have used influencer marketing on YouTube like nobody else I’ve seen, running authentic competitions with top YouTubers including PewDiePie.

IP 150

IP Revenue Campaign Video 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

Legal threats from other IP holders? You really want to spend your time on that? Who is leading your patent filing program? Who is dealing with trademarks? Inbound cease-and-desist orders? On and on and on. Hire a great CFO. We brought on board David Lapter at MakeSpace.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) : network transfer protocol, basically it defines requirements for network communications. Terms for less technical people. soft circle : when an angel gives a verbal commitment to invest but hasn’t actually signed any legal documents or written a check.

Angel Investor 302

Angel Investor Cofounder Southern California .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

To interconnect these computers we needed IP-based telecommunications equipment build by the likes of Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. The “Infrastructure Phase” of the Internet … Before we had an Internet startup explosion we needed infrastructure which spawned the original tech startup community in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Kansas City Startup Venture Capital 390

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It has the dual technology patrons and yet the consistent story I get is that they’re not actively out embracing the startup community, helping local successes emerge, getting comfortable with the symbiotic benefits of some employees going to startups that innovate at a different pace and then buying up local teams, talent & IP.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 17, 2012

Well – he had this awesome platform that was super technical – great IP. He has the “perfect business for me” given my blog commentary. Would I hear him out? He was from Harvard. Smart – check. He had raised a few million dollars – social proof.

Vesting 336

Vesting IP Restful Entrepreneur 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

Compelling. Visually stunning (in this day and age this is becoming a sine qua non ).

Portfolio 261

Portfolio IP Later Stage Email 261

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Give access to music that is legal, avoiding lawsuits and ensuring revenue isn’t captured by other IP owners. Provide tools for creators that help them build viewership (the average Maker video producer is getting several 100% increases in viewership in the first year of working with us).

Networking 366

Networking Media Distribution Video 366

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Lawyers don’t make money on your seed round in any instance. They are investing in your relationship in hopes that you do an A, B and C round. A few M&A transactions. Employment. Stock Option plans. Maybe an IPO – who knows? Well … the reason I want to do notes is so I can do multiple closings. Try doing THAT with equity.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 7, 2011

In the rare instances where I get a troll I’m able to delete their comment and block them by email address or IP address. But I don’t currently have a big troll problem. I’ve done this 3 times in 2 years. I get that TechCrunch had this problem, I don’t think most of us do.

Social Network 287

Social Network Reputation IP Audience 287

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The start of the argument is that you need to separate using the Internet into “infrastructure & cloud services&# (basically the protocols of the Internet such as HTTP, TCP/IP, SMTP, etc. + web storage, elastic computing) from how you consume the Internet as a user (the front end – HTML).

Web 300

Web HTML AJAX China 300

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Of course investors care about controls (board, protective provisions, IP assignments, non-solicitation) but these are all pretty standard. If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%. Those are the big three. So let’s simplify down to: Ownership %. Size of my check.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

He said that there remains a very healthy market for “data oriented&# software companies because the world is moving more toward measurability and software companies with differentiated IP often get a premium in the market.

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

6 months afterwards they laid off 75% of their staff and are existing on fumes to protect their IP to this day. We backed off our investment consideration because we were convinced that Company B was going to be a very fierce competitor (amongst other reasons). Company A never raised their round. Company B is struggling, too.

Entrepreneur 296

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Term Sheet France 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Most won’t be of the quality that you want but you now have tons of material and inspiration for your show and you own all of the submitted IP. Here’s the thing – if well done I think you could see the Harlem Shake effect where many people want to have a go at participating on the production.

Video 380

Video Audience Global Distribution 380