Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing.

board 338

board energy financing finance 338

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2015

In my effort to rewrite the deck for my next fund, I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on what it is that I try to do. A lot of people can say they work hard, or work smart, but that doesn't leave me off where I think I'm setting my goals. I've been trying to figure out if there's any differentiation in how I do my job versus how other people might assume it gets done.

venture capital 344

venture capital capital ventures pitching 344

Onevest

MAY 7, 2015

By Tim Houghten Every serious angel investor and startup founder needs to be in the San Fran stadium on July 18 th , 2015. Those that show up will experience an event that could dramatically alter their startup, and startup investing performance. # Challenge Accepted On July 18 th , 2015 the AT&T Park stadium in San Francisco will be hosting the Spartan Race.

entrepreneurs 135

entrepreneurs innovation pitching health 135

Gust

MAY 4, 2015

Crowdfunding is the practice of raising money for a project or venture from a large number of people utilizing an Internet website or platform. Funding from each individual can be quite small, $10 or less, although some projects have much higher minimums. Projects include films, musical recordings, new companies, products, inventions, personal causes and many others.

ventures 135

ventures investing investment startup 135

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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 The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2015

As an active investor in the Los Angeles technology market we’re always seeking to better understand the data and trends of why our market has grown so rapidly since 2009. We look for pockets of excellence where we may have skills that aren’t native in other markets or where our home town may have some unique skills or talents. Everybody now knows that LA produced SnapChat, Tinder and Maker Studios.

VC 307

VC opportunity media innovation 307

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2015

I have a draft deck put together for a next Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund. I pretty much hate it. Don't get me wrong--the numbers look great. That's not it. It just doesn't really get at what's really important. I wasn't sure exactly how it missed, so I went back to first principles. What *is* really important for a venture fund? It really only boils down to a couple of questions--and that's how I'm going to simplify the story of my deck.

ventures 316

ventures 316

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 6, 2015

In the late 90s, one company changed its name five times before they settled on one which today is a well-known brand. The business started as Silver Computing in 1995, then Stellar Computing in June 1997. Six months later, the company would rebrand as next ActiveTouch Systems, then six months later to ActiveTouch Inc., and finally, six months before IPO to WebEx.

enablement 40

enablement startup sustainability investing 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2015

Amazon. It is a household name. It has become so synonymous with Internet companies that the French have invented a disdainful term including Amazon: “les GAFA,” which they refer to as Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon to talk about American dominance of the Internet. Try to imagine if you *didn’t* already know Amazon and the company walking into VC meetings telling people they were going to disrupt the selling of all goods starting with books but then extending into electronics, ap

real estate 364

real estate startup disruption incumbents 364

Gust

MAY 4, 2015

Crowdfunding is the practice of raising money for a project or venture from a large number of people utilizing an Internet website or platform. Funding from each individual can be quite small, $10 or less, although some projects have much higher minimums. Projects include films, musical recordings, new companies, products, inventions, personal causes and many others.

ventures 184

ventures 184

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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

Onevest

MAY 5, 2015

By Dorene Lehavi, PhD. Of course, you are in a hurry to get your dream business up and running. You want a partner or co-founder, and to get to market ASAP for a list of very good reasons. Why wouldn’t you? However, rushing into what is equivalent to getting married can lead you to the nightmare of losing it all. There are huge mistakes that partner or co-founder seekers make by rushing into something that, in the end, could lead to disaster.

founder 152

founder startup support communities 152

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 4, 2015

My first major negotiation was a potential advertising agreement between Google and Facebook. I was PM on the social advertising team at the time. There was a call scheduled at 2pm one afternoon, and I had been told that morning about it. I’m wasn’t an experienced negotiator, so I panicked. I didn’t know how these conversations worked.

frameworks 40

frameworks real estate startup advice 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 3, 2015

I saw this Tweet recently by Scott Belsky, co-founder and CEO of Behance. conviction > consensus. — Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) April 29, 2015. It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly.

advice 332

advice peer-to-peer startup frameworks 332

Berkonomics

MAY 7, 2015

This is like a Hans Christian Anderson parable, but aimed at you and your business… There are big fish and small fish, potential customers, all swimming in the sea that is your potential marketplace. You, the lonely fisherman, have to weave a net to catch your fish. Should your net be large and bulky, requiring more effort and expense to weave? Or should it be small and delicate, to catch those fish that would otherwise fall through the net?

entrepreneurs 94

entrepreneurs opportunity support 94

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CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

opportunity

Derek Sivers

MAY 3, 2015

If you are a web or API developer, programming code that uses an SQL database, this is for you. I’ve found a very different and useful way to structure code. It’s made such a big difference for me that I had to share it here. How things are Most web development — whether custom or using frameworks like Rails, Django, Laravel, Sinatra, Flask, and Symfony — tends to work the same way: At the core is a database , which is just the storage of data.

frameworks 52

frameworks development 52

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 2, 2015

An entrepreneur last week asked me if bottoms up businesses are more efficient software companies than top down sales processes. Enabled by web and mobile app distribution, the bottoms up software business acquires individual users, small teams and eventually departments. The top down model sells to a C-level executive (CEO, CIO, CFO) and captures the relevant part of the organization through one sales process.

SaaS 45

SaaS startup venture capital enablement 45

Guy Kawasaki

MAY 4, 2015

In the early days of starting up, the ability to scale is overrated. “Scale,” in case you haven’t heard the term, refers to the concept that there are processes in place that are fast, cheap, and repeatable because there will soon be millions of customers who generate billions of dollars of revenue. For example, if Pierre Omidyar had to test every used printer offered for sale, eBay couldn’t scale.

education 75

education entrepreneurs startup entrepreneurship 75

Tomasz Tunguz

MAY 7, 2015

Mobile visits account for more than 50% of all e-commerce. During the holiday season in 2014, that figure exceeded 70% for Walmart. In India, mobile usage dominates traffic to such an extent that Myntra, the largest retailer, is shutting down their web application to focus exclusively on their mobile apps. Instagram launched a website only after the mobile app reached more than 100M users.

SaaS 40

SaaS construction opportunity development 40

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B2B marketing