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. He researched his market, he thought hard about how he thought it might ultimately monetize, he built a prototype and he created a very compelling vision for where he thought his market would head.

investment 303

investment investing VC media 303

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

When Brad Feld lists a book on his blog with an affiliate link that he monetizes is that wrong? Should affiliate links to Amazon be acceptable in a blog but not in Twitter or Facebook? Let innovation happen and the market decide - I don’t how all of this will end up. Tags: Tech Market Analysis.

mix-use 277

mix-use innovation entrepreneurship investment 277

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. When the market run started in March people were relieved that “the world wasn’t ending” so they started spending again. Unemployment coupled with a stock market drop will stop this spending cold IMHO.

VC 269

VC startup advice innovation 269

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

IPO market is back. My blog and what it’s done for my deal flow. - Tags: VC Industry. Also in the video: - Is it a good idea for VC’s to pay stratospheric prices? - We discussed some of the recent IPOs. Talked about the roles of partners, venture partners, associates and principals in a VC. - and much more.

venture capital 232

venture capital ventures capital VC 232

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 11, 2010

I haven’t written a blog post in a week. And for the last few evenings I decided to get through email rather than blog. It was interesting for me to read Fred Wilson’s email bankruptcy blog post this morning. It’s not just the spammers or marketers trying to sell you products or services.

advice 265

advice VC entrepreneurs creativity 265

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

I’m going to save that for a future blog post. Get your product/market fit working before you ramp up your costs (or raise too much money). And market your brand, not your personality. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Nail it before you scale it” – I missed who said this but I love this quote.

peer-to-peer 279

peer-to-peer advice VC board 279

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 29, 2010

There’s also been some great blog chatter from Sarah Tavel ( here ) and Josh Kopelman ( here and here ) on the topic. That leaves a lot of open space in the market. Tags: First Round Capital Venture Capital & Technology nextNY. Community is one solution I had in mind.

economic development 264

economic development venture capital communities capital 264

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. Many MBAs took marketing courses but have never been on the front line of A/B testing, email campaigns or PR initiatives.

VC 337

VC peer-to-peer advice consulting 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. you also need to update your marketing documents including your website. Tags: Start-up Advice. Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team. or add your 2 cents).

consulting 400

consulting technology advice incubation 400

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

Chris Dixon wrote a blog post last week titled, “ Techies and Normals &# in which he defined “Techies&# as people who are not just “early adopters&# but also have more of a geeky, technical, product bent. Anyway, Chris’s blog got me thinking about Techies and Normals. He is both. Kind of the obvious next step.

advice 348

advice entrepreneurs sustainability pitching 348

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

so compelling (other than the fact that the CEO Sean Rad is a great young technology leader and his advisers – Brian Norgard , Dan Gould and Evan Rifkin - are some of the guys I respect most in the LA tech market.). Then came blogs. We have it to filter blog comments. 30% is the market opportunity. is Sean Rad.

peer-to-peer 286

peer-to-peer real estate media networking 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. Writing this bl0g – This blog is a huge creative outlet for me.

VC 312

VC consulting entrepreneurs creativity 312

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

That prompted Fred Wilson’s blog post appealing to the industry to make these simplified term sheets standard. Last to weigh in was Brad Feld whose blog post argues that the only 2 terms that should be negotiated are amount raised & valuation. The best series was done by Brad Feld on his blog here.

founder 252

founder pitching VC advice 252

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog. This is the market that Wonga serves and they are killing it! Peer-to-peer lending service; started on FaceBook; claim to own 79% of the US peer lending market in March 2010 with a whopping $8,664,750. Big market. Blogging has gone through many iterations.

venture capital 265

venture capital peer-to-peer capital ventures 265

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

And we know that being stubbornly tenacious without the “street smarts&# to know when market conditions are changing and then “pivoting&# when they are changing is a recipe for failure. Some readers of this blog also pointed out that “pivoting&# can be disruptive on the employees of an organization. And in life.

entrepreneurs 288

entrepreneurs advice leadership angel investing 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

While many of my friends bragged about their 5 condos in Florida I kept talking about how the real estate market was in a bubble – their gains an illusion. above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. “Yeah, but there is a shortage of supply.

angel investing 299

angel investing investment investing real estate 299

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa.

founder 405

founder VC venture capital entrepreneurs 405

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

I CERTAINLY opened myself up to attack by writing my original blog post about job hoppers with some incendiary language and tone. But the comments on my own blog were so much more balanced with people taking both sides of the debate. For anyone who attacked me on my blog but used their actual names I left their comments.

entrepreneurship 258

entrepreneurship culture innovation startup 258

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. Contributing overall with marketing and community outreach activities. Tags: VC Industry. I will not consider applicants without a cover letter. Plus, show my you can write! What is the timeframe? Yesterday. We need help. Self starter.

VC 290

VC consulting media venture capital 290

Entrepreneurs' Organization

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

If you’ve decided that you need US$20 million to retire, but your current cash flow doesn’t warrant that price tag, it could make sense to wait until business picks up before pursuing a deal. Before they do, however, they’ll want to see relevant company financials, customer data, market summaries, and other important information.

health 252

health strategy entrepreneurs investment 252

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 24, 2023

Contributed by Chris Kirksey, an EO member in Austin who is the founder and CEO of Direction , an SEO software and services company that helps entrepreneurs set their online strategy in the right direction to accelerate sales, grow the business, and dominate your market. and more articles from the EO blog.

culture 210

culture innovation strategy entrepreneurs 210

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 11, 2010

How does this effect digital marketing? Just as the internet changed the way we could market, will e-books do the same? Tags: Venture Capital & Technology nextNY. Popular Science Magazine is developing a revolutionary way to view magazines and they want you to tell them what you think. Is this a good idea? RSVP: [link].

collaboration 150

collaboration venture capital enablement technology 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We discussed in the video why they don’t price this money but give it as convertible debt) they don’t make announcements to the market. Tags: Start-up Advice.

VC 285

VC finance financing capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. No cookies for guessing which reason they use to market to us. But even so, I find it immensely useful to see what companies are getting traction in the angel market.

strategy 293

strategy venture capital SaaS investing 293

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Many are starting to have Rich Internet Application advertisements (RIA) – with ads that sometimes takeover the entire screen without the users consent – classic interruption marketing. Tags: Tech Market Analysis. They also raised VC from New Atlantic Ventures and AOL Ventures.

media 288

media disruption board VC 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. It’s one of my favorite blog posts. I had planned to blog about it at the time but I waited 2 days and the whole world blogged about it so I didn’t pile on.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. It’s one of my favorite blog posts. I had planned to blog about it at the time but I waited 2 days and the whole world blogged about it so I didn’t pile on.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Investing in a podcast can be worthwhile, but your organization needs to answer this question before you start: Does a podcast make sense within the whole of your marketing strategy? Think of podcasting like long-term marketing. But this typically comes with a hefty price tag. Are you able to commit to it?

mix-use 185

mix-use collaboration construction investing 185

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. … should I avoid blog posts like this that might be outside my normal remit? Tags: Start-up Advice. It absolutely disgusts me.

education 263

education advice board finance 263

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. A few weeks ago I sat through two very contrasting presentations and wrote this blog post right afterward. We talked about measurable marketing. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice.

pitching 288

pitching VC advice strategy 288

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Fred Wilson said as much on his blog also. That is true of all my blog posts. It is what I love the most about debates and one of the things I love most about blogging. I suspect Mr. Wadhwa used hyperbole in his TechCrunch blog post to get more readers to look at his work. So it is with entrepreneurship.

entrepreneurship 289

entrepreneurship entrepreneurs advice VC 289

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

This was in large part due to the marketing efforts of Jason that created a great top end of the funnel (100+ companies applied) and the herculean efforts of Tyler Crowley who spent days going through all of the submissions and serving up 5 very interesting companies. Tags: Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

education 254

education pitching VC media 254

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2010

Let’s face it, if people want to blog as a career they have to be able to make money. They’re masters at the games of pricing, segmenting offerings and marketing to customers. I just think they should hire an experienced Chief Marketing Officer (I don’t think they have one?) Tags: Start-up Advice.

advice 276

advice energy support media 276

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “ Has Convertible Debt Won ?&# I have to say that I didn’t take the question to mean that convertible debt had won for the entire market, but either way it’s clear that convertible debt has become an increasing trend.

financing 319

financing finance entrepreneurs advice 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

I wrote a blog post about being hands on where I argued that startup founders need to be hands-on or in my words, “you can’t run a burger chain if you’ve never flipped burgers.&#. One of the large parts of the burn was PR, Marketing and attending conferences. They got their round done anyway from a big late-stage VC.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. I know some people think the whole market has been disrupted and startups and funding work differently these days. Total disruption on the funding market? This is actually the norm. I doubt it.

angel investing 283

angel investing investment investing disruption 283

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

The strategy of GigaOm and where they differentiate in the market. We talked about the negative effect of Apple’s closed system attitude but how that will be a gift to the market because Apple’s cracking of the operator hegemony has forced the industry to innovate. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital.

VC 225

VC social gaming venture capital networking 225