This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

'I''ve closed three investments in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund that haven''t quite been made public yet, bringing the total to 13 companies. These companies didn''t announce their financings right away, and for good reason. They''re building up their PR plans to make the financing announcements part of a larger story arc. Announcing your funding without a larger PR plan is the equivilant to George Costanza saying "I love you" to his date and not getting it returned--"that''s a pretty

startup 361

startup construction venture capital financing 361

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

'I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. It’s even a direct quote in my Twitter bio. Of course passion isn’t enough. You need a set of innate skills that differentiate you from the thousands of others who set out on your similar journey.

peer-to-peer 373

peer-to-peer VC pitching entrepreneurs 373

Gust

FEBRUARY 2, 2014

'I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be the other way around. In some reputable surveys , as many as two-thirds of entrepreneurs felt that their entrepreneurial spirit was more ingrained than learned, so a specific education level is at least irrelevant.

entrepreneurs 175

entrepreneurs education entrepreneurship investing 175

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

'“Everybody’s got a plan – until they are punched in the face,” stated boxer Mike Tyson. My experience personally reviewing over three hundred executive summaries each year, all sent to me unsolicited, seems to bear out the truth in Tyson’s statement. Anyone can build a good – or great – plan. Investors have to look behind the plan and at the entrepreneur and his or her team, knowing that, over time, most of us have come to the conclusion that it is the execution of the ever-changing pl

investing 98

investing investment entrepreneurs 98

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Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

technology

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

From zero to $19B of business value in five years; WhatsApp’s sale to Facebook is an important moment in the history of the consumer web. The deal proves distribution, reach and large user bases aren’t the competitive moats they once were. Apple’s App Store and Google Play have leveled the playing field to such an extent that a startup can command 10% of the market cap from a $200B company.

incumbents 40

incumbents disruption innovation accelerator 40

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

'My dad, after a 20 year career as a New York City firefighter, went back to school and became an accountant. He was an early adopter of technology in his practice, buying a computer in 1987 and getting some of the earliest versions of tax prep software. To do the bookkeeping for some of his business clients, he used a DOS-based program called One Write Plus.

venture capital 267

venture capital SaaS collaboration technology 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'Mark. You disappeared? What the fork happened to you? And what’s up with this crazy new blog design? Well … more on that next week. I will tell more. But for now … Every year we run a big VC, LP & Tech Summit in Los Angeles (this year downtown) to showcase the best of our community and invite others from around the country. Our event this year will feature many portfolio companies and also emerging LA tech companies such as Tinder & Whisper.

energy 290

energy startup creativity VC 290

Gust

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

'Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield via Wikipedia. Most startups dream of attracting a celebrity endorsement, and assume that it will take their startup to the stars. Startups such as Chirpify have managed to flourish and raise millions with endorsements from folks like Lil Wayne and Snoop Lion. Others go the way of 12Society , an LA subscription commerce startup with six celebrity sponsors, but still couldn’t get any traction.

ventures 151

ventures entrepreneurs entrepreneurship education 151

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

'Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, we investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments. Since in most cases, there was no revenue in many of these companies, all trying to gain market share at any cost, we had to invent the metric to use.

sustainability 83

sustainability support entrepreneurs investing 83

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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

development

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

When a startup is confronted with the prospect of hiring a head of marketing, founders heads often spin. What should be the day-to-day tasks for this person? What skill sets are important? Because of the seeming abstract nature of marketing, founders sometimes delay finding a head of marketing until they feel acute pain, at which point they can clearly identify the attributes of the right candidate.

data analysis 40

data analysis startup creativity networking 40

Derek Sivers

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

You know that song you love that you wish you’d written? Copy it. You know that existing business that you wish you had thought of? Copy it. Why? Because we’re imperfect mirrors. Like a funhouse mirror that distorts what it reflects, your imitation will turn out much different from the original. Maybe even better. When a musician covers someone else’s song, they reveal their own warped perspective, since we know what the original sounds like.

entrepreneurs 40

entrepreneurs 40

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

'Go pitch a VC with an idea, and they''ll tell you to build it. Go to them with a prototype and they''ll tell you to launch it. Launch it, and they''ll tell you to get more users. Get users and they''ll tell you to get paying customers. Get paying customers and they''ll tell you to get bigger, enterprise clients. Get enterprise clients and they''ll tell you to get them faster, because it seems to be taking too long.

venture capital 358

venture capital pitching health VC 358

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

'I wrote this on my flight home from f.ounders & web summit in Dublin, Ireland late last year. I think I was too hung over to finish it, hit publish and move on. So here is attempt two now that the alcohol is mostly out of me. The Magic of the Irish. Scenes from my counter-top on my last night in Dublin. I recently returned from a 5-day visit to Ireland, my first time back in 10 years and the start of what I hope will be a more regular travel schedule there.

advice 392

advice networking board media 392

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opportunity

Gust

FEBRUARY 16, 2014

'Every startup founder I know talks about the chaos of their business, which they usually attribute to that burst of growth that is required to get to positive cash flow. They envision a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced themselves that they will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base.

startup 156

startup strategy entrepreneurs innovation 156

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

'Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what’s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer. It’s probably happened, but not often enough to trust this method as a formula for success. So, I’ve developed the three step dance in order to help form a repeatable method of how to create a great company from an early idea.

consulting 91

consulting entrepreneurs development 91

Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

Raising capital from venture capitalists at any stage can seem like a very strange, ambiguous and amorphous process. I’ve written about the way Redpoint diligences/researches a startup and its market and what questions we tend to ask at each stage. In this post, I’ll focus on the process from entrepreneur’s point of view. When raising capital, entrepreneurs will see potential investors move through four phases of investment decision-making process: screening, socialization, dil

startup 49

startup pitching opportunity entrepreneurs 49

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 17, 2014

'In 2007, I met Rob May for the first time in person at the first SXSW I ever went to. In 2010, I funded his company, Backupify , which has gone on to raise over $19 million in funding and is set to have their best year of revenue to date. I didn''t meet Rob at a big flashy party. We just hung out in a small group of nobodies, having chatted a bit through our respective blogs before.

communities 286

communities VC accelerator startup 286

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

B2B marketing

Gust

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

'You are an aspiring entrepreneur, eager to dump the corporate grind, and work to the beat of your own drummer, but you can’t come up with that killer idea to save the world. What are the alternatives that will give you the independence you crave, and challenge your business acumen? Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, and doesn’t meet the government tax definition of an employee.

entrepreneurs 172

entrepreneurs peer-to-peer consulting investing 172

Gust

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

'There are surprisingly few such conferences, for the very good reason that there are actually relatively few such people (venture capitalists and ‘professional’ angel investors) to attend them! But that said, here are the biggest (i.e., “only” events of their type): Business Angels. Angel Capital Association (US) Annual Summit.

ventures 125

ventures angel investing education pitching 125

Gust

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

'The answer is no , yes , and it’s irrelevant. Back in the days of the dinosaurs, my first software company was in the wireless communications space (when that meant “pagers”, not “smartphones”), and our product let you type a message on your computer and send it to a pager, using a very simple protocol known as “TAP” We were—by far—the market leader in the industry (providing the software for Motorola, Nextel, Apple, Sprint, etc.) despite having lots

peer-to-peer 107

peer-to-peer networking financing finance 107

Gust

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

'Investors absolutely need to know the specific financial status of a company before they invest, because they are going to be part owners of the business. How much would you be willing pay someone to take over their bank account if you had no idea how much was in it? So yes, it is absolutely standard practice for investors to require both existing financials that document the current state of the company into which they are investing, as well as projected financial statements giving them

startup 151

startup investing investment entrepreneurs 151

Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you can’t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l

financing

Gust

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'The Raise: Fundraising Tips from Investors and Entrepreneurs. The 85-Percent. Thursday, February 27, 2014 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EST). New York, NY. Navigating the fundraising process can often seem daunting, like you’re trying to make your way through a labyrinth of investors, lawyers, and business advisors. Join Women In Music and The 85-Percent on February 27th for an in-depth discussion on how to start the fundraising process and navigate the world of startup investing.

entrepreneurs 148

entrepreneurs pitching investing investment 148

Gust

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

'The ideal angel investor would spend a great deal of his/her time working on behalf of the company in support of the CEO, in every way other than being a full-time employee. In addition to doing the kinds of things that anyone (employee, friend, parent, founder, etc.) could do (referring customers, tweeting out news, suggesting ideas, checking out competitive sites, pointing out relevant news articles, providing moral support, etc.) the best angels are good for the same categories of contribu

startup 148

startup entrepreneurs board investing 148

Gust

FEBRUARY 15, 2014

'While anything is technically possible, the reality is that venture capital firms do not fund “ideas” There are many wonderful ideas, and even many people having the same idea in the market at any given time. So what VCs fund is execution. Indeed, VCs only invest in one out of every 400 fully-formed companies that approach them for funding…let alone someone with a “startup idea” To put things in perspective consider this completely accurate post from Derek Sive

VC 130

VC venture capital investing investment 130

Gust

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

'There are two separate and distinct sets of things that you need to look at when evaluating an offer. The first, and most important, has to do with who the investment is from. It is impossible to over-emphasize the value of “smart money” and “good money” over “dumb money” and “evil money” You should do at least as much diligence on your potential investor as they are doing on you.

investing 128

investing investment startup board 128

Speaker: P. Andrew Sjogren, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Very Good Security, Matt Doka, Co-Founder and CTO of Fivestars, and Steve Andrews, President & CEO of the Western Bankers Association 

PCI compliance can feel challenging and sometimes the result feels like you are optimizing more for security and compliance than you are for business outcomes. The key is to take the right strategy to PCI compliance that gets you both. In this webinar, we have a great set of panelists who will take you through how Zero Data strategies can be used as part of a well-rounded compliance and security approach, and get you to market much sooner by also allowing for payment optimization.

strategy