Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But a couple of people replied with responses of such lack of comprehension that I thought it was worth expanding on for first-time entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs achieve much through their personal leadership traits that inspire others to do great things with them – sure. VENTURE CAPITAL. Not possible.

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startup real estate VC venture capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. Or “I’m a new entrepreneur, why would I offer advice on how to run a startup?&#. accessibility.

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startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. I was interested in learning more.

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startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. But I used to jokingly refer to bridge loans as “pier&# loans. So my view is that VCs and entrepreneurs need to make tougher choices.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

We both wanted to build a practice that would make Los Angeles proud but where we would travel tirelessly to other locations to make investments in the best entrepreneurs wherever they were. I made some reference calls. And there was instant chemistry and where we both saw our respective futures. So we talked about his joining.

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VC communities investing investment 360

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. This is the easiest one for most entrepreneurs.

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startup advice entrepreneurs networking 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If you have or are thinking about a business in the video space you’ll enjoy hearing from Gregg but even more broadly this is a great conversation for entrepreneurs, investors or industry analysts. there was no frame of reference for the value. My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important.

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mix-use VC advice creativity 303

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

This was customer interaction at its finest and as a result they invited him to meet with our entire sales staff and offer advice on the sales process from a customer’s perspective. Who else is going to tell a VC if he got a bad reference from an entrepreneur or fellow VC? Contrast that with a VC conversation I had.

peer-to-peer 341

peer-to-peer VC entrepreneurs support 341

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Large companies can be strange sometimes. You want them to earn.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. Here’s my guide to how to do that.

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VC advice pitching investing 314

StartupNation

JUNE 1, 2021

Oftentimes, I read articles offering tips for entrepreneurs that revolve around generic advice on getting started. However, what is often direly needed is how to appeal to investors and raise smart money — knowledge that is essential for fundraising and a master key to building, accelerating and scaling your new venture.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 2, 2010

It’s the story of persistence in entrepreneurs. As a VC I’m acutely that a “yes&# decision to support an entrepreneur can do just that, yet I only write 2-4 of them per year and maybe another 3-4 as an angel. I try not to go out to entrepreneur events in LA every night – I have work to get done and a family.

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consulting peer-to-peer advice entrepreneurs 352

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. I like to tell entrepreneurs to treat it like a sales campaign. I am really surprised how many entrepreneurs pitch me and then I never hear from them again. ENTREPRENEUR NEXT STEPS. This post covers the day after. So how to proceed?

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VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things.

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board media mentorship advice 325

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Gaetano Crupi is a partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. As an entrepreneur, you have limited time to project that maturity to prospective funds. This is one of the lessons I wish I understood when raising a Series B, so I hope you find this advice helpful when you navigate your larger raises. Gaetano Crupi.

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founder strategy pitching venture capital 97

Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. I gave this advice to a couple entrepreneurs once that were killing themselves trying to find away to keep their company from going to zero. Reporting out in batches of five.

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venture capital ventures capital board 74

Hunter Walk

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. When people want to better understand it to raise capital from folks who can help, they are best served accepting the annoying bespoke/boutique nature of it and handling it accordingly.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 73

TechCrunch

MARCH 7, 2023

Diligence cycles have extended, better relationships with founders can be formed, investors can enter new spaces with more preparation, and a thoughtful approach to early-stage venture capital can emerge,” Kareem added. Plus, they were gracious enough to share some of the advice they’re giving to their portfolio companies.

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advice ventures sustainability investing 110

AsiaTechDaily

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Fong’s Capitale Ventures is an investment and advisory group with expertise in complex, cross-border transactions. It partners with entrepreneurs in funding their growth stories through innovative market access and public venture capital strategies. In other words, we structure the exits. Build trust.

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ventures startup VC strategy 97

TechCrunch

MARCH 12, 2021

For many entrepreneurs, the startup they are trying to get off the ground might be only the second entry on their resume. Last week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed experts who had some strategic advice for finding the right time to bring a product manager on board. Image Credits: Steve Jennings / Getty Images.

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startup collaboration sustainability SaaS 106

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

What I find a bit frustrating is how easily some people get onto panels and are put up in front of an impressionable crowd of new entrepreneurs as "experts". You''ll get a venture capital analyst from a brand name firm who has just recently taken his job talking about what makes a company successful. You''re not a broker.

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ventures startup venture capital pitching 371

TechCrunch

MARCH 29, 2023

But when he announced his new project, Hampton , an invite-only club for chief executive officers, the references started rolling. He and his co-founder have pledged to invest up to seven figures of their own capital in the business, and as a result, they don’t need to turn to investors for starter capital.

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communities leadership media ventures 99

FundersClub

JUNE 12, 2017

Venture capital investing offers different challenges than those associated with tech entrepreneurship, but Alex Mittal, co-founder and CEO of FundersClub, approached the sphere of venture capital the same way he did as a tech founder previously: is there a better way to do this? There are a lot of inefficiencies in VC.

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VC venture capital networking founder 93

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. “The invoicing company” “When they started, they didn’t position themselves so much as a startup or as a tech company,” recalls Skype founder Niklas Zennström, whose venture capital firm Atomico would eventually become a Klarna investor in 2012.

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investing investment media mix-use 143

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. Many entrepreneurs have a PR page in the PowerPoint deck. Handling PR with VCs.

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VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 291

TechCrunch

APRIL 25, 2023

I asked five early-stage investors to share frank advice for first-timers, and I’m going to save you some time: many (if not most) of you are probably not ready to pitch an investor. Please share one piece of advice that can help a first-time founder stand out from the rest.

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pitching incubation board opportunity 98

Entrepreneur's Handbook

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Snippets of advice, tactics, and tools I used to raise an oversubscribed round during an economic downturn Image: Author I’m writing this blog post on the heels of closing our oversubscribed round during what’s been described as the worst time in history to raise capital. Taking on venture capital is not for everyone.

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peer-to-peer pitching advice economic growth 59

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. They wanted advice. I gave them advice I don’t think they were expecting from a VC, “Don’t raise venture capital for this business.

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VC advice financing finance 332

TechCrunch

APRIL 16, 2021

But since I’ve never actually done those things, I would encourage you to ignore any advice I have to offer. Trusted advice comes from experience. During a seed-funding round, a founder needs to convince a venture capital investor on a vision. Building the right team for a billion-dollar startup.

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venture capital mix-use financing finance 68

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Walton helped it raise its first millions in venture capital, making her one of the few dozen Black female founders to do so. For the first time, I met entrepreneurs and saw an actual concept that you can pursue a career you like, be successful and make a difference in the world,” she said. I didn’t have the confidence.”.

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peer-to-peer health networking financing 85

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 29, 2021

“Denver was ready for the Zoom boom, and is reaping the — venture capital — rewards.” Dear Sophie: Any advice for living my dreams in Silicon Valley? My dream is to immigrate to Silicon Valley to start my own venture. Any advice? Eager Entrepreneur. — Eager Entrepreneur.

SaaS 82

SaaS pitching advice VC 82

TechCrunch

MAY 21, 2021

As we saw in part 1 of this EC-1 , this led him to the revelation that it’s easier to figure things out for yourself than finding advice that applies to you. Squarespace’s reference price has been set at $50 per share. Eventually, these insights would inform how he would go about shaping Expensify. Launching a rolling fund.

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startup accelerator construction VC 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

If you want that advice please click on the link. They come in the form of personal references. My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming. So how did I come to work in the world of venture capital? We built a long-term relationship.

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advice venture capital VC construction 285

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. “The invoicing company” “When they started, they didn’t position themselves so much as a startup or as a tech company,” recalls Skype founder Niklas Zennström, whose venture capital firm Atomico would eventually become a Klarna investor in 2012.

investing 82

investing investment media mix-use 82

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Not so in venture capital. So my first advice is not to rush in the fund raising process. How do you then reference check your VC to be sure that you’ve chosen a good firm and partner? For some reason most entrepreneurs do.

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VC advice entrepreneurs venture capital 288

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

In most cases if you can’t get a prototype done you’re probably not an entrepreneur. Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more. In SoCal we have Crosscut Ventures, Matt Coffin, Mike Jones, Klaus Schauser, etc.

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advice VC pitching angel investing 291

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A. Don’t be complacent – What really winds me up is when entrepreneurs are complacent.

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venture capital advice VC real estate 301