Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Some of my biggest breakthroughs have come in what seems like lazy time. I had one of the biggest mental breakthroughs about what I want to do differently at GRP Partners in 2013. I want to make sure that my sixth year as a VC doesn’t just become an automatic continuation of what I’ve done in my first 5 years.

creativity 400

creativity venture capital entrepreneurs board 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Testing is what helps determine whether you’re really on to something.

entrepreneurs 374

entrepreneurs incubation board VC 374

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. This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I had to laugh a bit reading it. So back to MBAs.

VC 337

VC peer-to-peer advice consulting 337

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

What could go wrong? I was not licensed, did not have a college degree, could not code. Starting a business is often romanticized as a journey filled with exciting milestones and instant success stories. By the time I founded Equifund in 2016, I was deeply familiar with the landscape and felt prepared to tackle the challenge.

finance 255

finance financing mentorship entrepreneurship 255

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 10, 2024

That was my introduction to what is now the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). The organization exists to help entrepreneurs become better versions of themselves and find community and support as we walk what can often be a lonely path. What was that formula? What was the code that I had cracked?

entrepreneurs 216

entrepreneurs health support communities 216

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 6, 2024

Though he was initially ridiculed, what he meant, of course, was not that everyone can become a great chef, but rather that a great chef can come from anywhere or be anyone. What ends up happening is that, for the sake of time (or lack thereof), we resort to Excel or Google spreadsheets. What problems will the app solve?

mix-use 207

mix-use development consulting entrepreneurs 207

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 5, 2011

What I told him was that no other people had a year head start. He could decide right then and there that he was going to get that job in one year--he just had to do all sorts of stuff to be the number one recruit--after figuring out what that was. You've learned what exactly other people do, and how they do it.

venture capital 324

venture capital VC construction consulting 324

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 16, 2024

What EO provides that no other group does is the camaraderie you experience among other business owners. It’s amazingly helpful to share challenges, opportunities, and experiences with people who understand what I deal with daily as a business owner. EO supports entrepreneurs at every age and stage. So, I then had a month to do it.

accelerator 227

accelerator peer-to-peer leadership entrepreneurs 227

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

What to do? I typed in my brothers zip code and ton of houses popped up in his area and I was able to search out on a map view. I then clicked on reviews, looked at pictures and read the owners descriptions of what they were looking for. That’s what she’s there for – we love situations like this.

collaboration 344

collaboration VC accelerator consulting 344

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 16, 2021

Know what investors want. Sites including OpenView and Saastr provide great comps for what you’re doing, so you can learn whether 80% retention for an S&B segment is good (it is!) Focus strongly on customer needs: Think deeply about why you are doing this—what are those customer needs and pain points? Value external input.

SaaS 294

SaaS leadership accelerator entrepreneurs 294

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 24, 2011

From what I've seen, most companies simply don't get enough people in the top of the funnel. What I soon realized was that once you start applying filters for qualifications, experience, interest, culture fit, timing, you don't know nearly as many people as you think you do. That's something I learned at Path 101.

startup 296

startup mix-use frameworks development 296

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. Blah, blah, blah.

advice 348

advice entrepreneurs sustainability pitching 348

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

I started reading a great blog called Business Pundit in 2004. We used to chat a fair amount via our respective blogs about management and entrepreneurship. Still, he got his guys in the Ukraine to code something up. Today, Backupify announced that it is getting purchased by Datto. I'm fearing the day Yahoo goes "Oops!"

board 259

board venture capital creativity entrepreneurship 259

Entrepreneurs' Organization

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Here’s what she shared: I immigrated to the US from Israel at the age of 18 with US$500 in my pocket. While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what percentage of software developers are female, all data point to a stark gender gap between men and women. It was 1998. Why are so few women in tech and specifically software development?

culture 247

culture leadership mentorship development 247

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 9, 2020

9 , builds digital experiences, to write custom code for this new program. With most in-person events currently paused, here’s how one EO chapter is using a creative approach to make 150+ “micro-collisions” among members to drive relationships and value. How did you come up with this initiative to grow EO member connections? It’s that simple.

networking 253

networking entrepreneurs creativity opportunity 253

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There’s too much PR and too many tech blogs and too many newsletters and aggregators and Twitter summarizers to even try to catch everything that’s going on and equally there’s so much noise that it becomes harder to be heard. What is one to do? For investors life is no different.

advice 398

advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

What gets frustrating is that I tend to hear the same arguments over and over again from new entrepreneurs, and many of them are just completely unfunded. You know what—it’s supposed to work like that! Unfortunately, they tend to resonate really well with frustrated entrepreneurs and a lot of dust gets kicked up over them.

startup 286

startup media ecology VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We all know media companies are suffering as CPMs (the amount they can charge per thousand visitors) are falling, available inventory is climbing, free content and blogs are proliferating, user attention is being divided with social networks and the core media business cash cows like classified ads have been disrupted by companies like CraigsList.

media 288

media disruption board VC 288

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? I had to miss a full day with my family, camping in the mountains. I returned home Friday night at 10pm – too late to see my kids. I’m reminded of this feeling. It’s all too familiar. I didn’t sleep much back then. And so it goes again. You’re not.

entrepreneurs 122

entrepreneurs VC founder venture capital 122

Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 19, 2022

A personalized approach is important for attracting and retaining customers, but what’s lost is the human connection. If you’re not sure what they want, you could be sending out automated messages or content that misses the mark and fails to engage them. Unfortunately, data on its own is without context. Optimization. Personalization.

mix-use 267

mix-use creativity technology strategy 267

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

There’s been a lot of debate recently in the market about what kind of investment structure is best for angel and seed arounds. Don’t think for a second that what happens in YCombinator is indicative of the whole seed funding market. Mark Suster , Seth Levine , Fred Wilson , and Chris Dixon have all weighed in and there’s more on RWW.

entrepreneurs 262

entrepreneurs venture capital SaaS support 262

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 26, 2024

And what skills and ethical considerations will we need to navigate this global change? As the AI learns more about humans and how we make decisions, that’s what we are teaching the AI to do.” As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to rapidly transform our world, it presents both unprecedented opportunities and challenges.

media 158

media leadership innovation collaboration 158

Entrepreneurs' Organization

OCTOBER 28, 2021

Here’s what he shared: In your personal experience, what are the negative impacts of overwhelm/feeling stuck for entrepreneurs? What tips will you offer entrepreneurs who are feeling overwhelmed, stuck or out of balance? Do you want to achieve work-life balance, become a better leader and improve productivity? Poor health.

leadership 247

leadership health entrepreneurs creativity 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. I actually wrote a long blog post about this but I’m trying to get TechCrunch to publish it before putting it on my blog. You need to monitor what you put into your body and your exercise routine. We’ll see.

health 278

health entrepreneurs sustainability technology 278

TechCrunch

JANUARY 13, 2021

This morning Webflow , a software company that helps businesses build no-code websites, announced that it has raised a $140 million Series B. billion it said in a blog post that TechCrunch viewed before publication. The new funding values Webflow at more than $2.1 The company could see strong growth in 2021.

board 118

board capital venture capital support 118

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. I love this saying and what it implies and I use it often. Using Balsamiq instead of SnagIt, Website Optimizer over just Google Analytics and FTP). I Love Scrappy.

culture 333

culture construction startup advice 333

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 26, 2023

Moreover, what works well for one company’s culture and working style may not work well elsewhere, even within the same industry. Otherwise, the C-suite will not be coordinated and fail to get on the same page about what counts as “success” in hybrid work, then find themselves in a mess six months after their hybrid work transition.

culture 184

culture consulting collaboration strategy 184

The Zapier Blog

APRIL 13, 2023

But the process of finding the right images to accompany your blog articles or social media posts can be time-consuming, frustrating, and even expensive. In this tutorial, we'll guide you through making a Zap—Zapier's automated workflows—to create stunning visuals for your blog articles. I called mine "Blog Images."

development 76

development media innovation 76

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? I had to miss a full day with my family, camping in the mountains. I returned home Friday night at 10pm – too late to see my kids. I’m reminded of this feeling. It’s all too familiar. And so it goes again.

entrepreneurs 420

entrepreneurs VC founder venture capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed. Much of this is unfounded – some is not. the link is here.

startup 318

startup advice entrepreneurs VC 318

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 24, 2021

Traction Think about what you can do to test the underlying business proposition? Outline what is the problem, solution and the market. Even if you think you will end up pivoting, then at least it serves as an example that you know what you are doing and can put a convincing deck together. But that shouldn’t dissuade you.

founder 140

founder startup pitching networking 140

The Zapier Blog

APRIL 20, 2023

It's helping millions of people write content, solve coding problems, and create games, among other ridiculous and impressive things. But it's perfectly valid to take a break to see what other AI chatbots are available. This will help you understand what's interesting about each AI chatbot and use it to your advantage.

creativity 111

creativity development support media 111

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

Many thanks to David Rose , Ilana Grossman , Justin Stanwix , and the whole Gust team for making the Gust Blog such a valuable platform and resource for entrepreneurs and angel investors. I’m proud to contribute to the effort and always enjoy reading what the other authors have to say. Barriers to entry ?

startup 143

startup entrepreneurs development media 143

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Widen the dress code. Consider relaxing the dress code enough so every employee can dress optimally. In the face of a new calendar year, here are 26 ways to improve and/or maintain office productivity: 1. Encourage a healthy work ethic. Working without breaks, regular movement or milestones is a recipe for quick burnout.

health 130

health energy mix-use board 130

StartupNation

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Most of what’s out there today is no better than the old automated call center tools — and we all know how frustrating those can be. Respond with new blogs. What happened next? But what if, in addition, the chatbot provided you with some type of value you weren’t expecting. Think of chatbots as assistants.

support 113

support technology media creativity 113

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 27, 2022

Code-generating systems like DeepMind’s AlphaCode, Amazon’s CodeWhisperer and OpenAI’s Codex, which powers GitHub’s Copilot service, provide a tantalizing look at what’s possible with AI today within the realm of computer programming.

creativity 88

creativity collaboration development startup 88