Ben's Blog

JANUARY 31, 2012

After raising our first round of funding for Loudcloud in 1999, we went to visit our new venture capital firm and meet their full team. As founding CEO, I remember being quite excited to meet our financial backers and talk about how we could partner to build a great company. That question tortured me for months.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Portfolio Cofounder Networking 78

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 21, 2013

These ventures are funded by states to encourage local hiring and often offer crucial support services that can make a difference. They can point you to funding sources and assist with finding capable business partners for payment processing, for example; 3. Can you “mentor” employees about you to perform above their expectations?

Cleveland 228

Cleveland Incubator Government Global 228

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

It can also keep your employees employed or help you retain your job—a modicum of security in uncertain times. These companies tend to over rely on reducing the number of employees. At the same time, the company contained its operating costs and came out of the recession stronger, bigger, and more profitable than it had been in 1999.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

The Next Web

JUNE 20, 2013

When cloud services company Cornerstone OnDemand got its start in Los Angeles in 1999, the odds were against it. Improbably, founder and CEO Adam Miller and his partners soldiered on to eventually build a $2 billion+ cloud company. Cornerstone also benefitted from having less competition when hiring talent.

Cloud 118

Cloud Southern California Los Angeles New York City 118

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Eighty-two percent have global offices, and yet 91% are still run by Israeli CEOs, as opposed to foreign executives hired from the outside. According to Izhar Shay, a general partner at Canaan Partners, “The investment community has matured to recognize they need to plan for scale. American VCs are critical.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

OnlyOnce

MAY 1, 2019

Today is a special day in my entrepreneurial journey and in the life of the company that I started back in 1999 (last century!), I’m not sure how many Internet companies started in 1999 are still private, backed and led by the same team the whole time, and generally in the same business they started in. Press release is here.

Syndicate 48

Syndicate Syndication Affiliate Cofounder 48

OnlyOnce

MAY 1, 2019

Today is a special day in my entrepreneurial journey and in the life of the company that I started back in 1999 (last century!), I’m not sure how many Internet companies started in 1999 are still private, backed and led by the same team the whole time, and generally in the same business they started in. Press release is here.

Syndicate 48

Syndicate Syndication Affiliate Cofounder 48

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

My original post was directed at hiring managers. It said that I didn’t believe it was a good idea to hire job hoppers. My view still stands – for many hiring managers a large factor in looking through resumes of somebody who is 30+ and has never worked somewhere for more than 18 months will be the job hopping element.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 7, 2017

I was driven by my desire for freedom and that’s what I got; along with an amazing opportunity to help transform my employees’ and my client’s lives through homeownership and real estate. When I began practicing law I was hired by a firm where billable hours and collected fees were the only considerations for advancement.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur LLC Cofounder Green 91

www.igda.org

JULY 24, 2012

For them — and anyone else who wants to increase their employees productivity and sanity — lets take a look at some of the assumptions management makes regarding hours, output, efficiency, and production costs; and see how a century of industrial research has conclusively, consistently proven those assumptions wrong. Its ironic.

Software Review 90

Software Review Technical Review Widget Los Angeles 90

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

By 1992 Research in Motion (RIM) had been in business for eight years, had 16 employees, sales of about $500,000 a year, and three or four business lines. That year the two founders decided to get serious about being a company, and hired a CEO. Research in Motion (RIM). Video Recording.

Hockey Stick 279

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 279

dashes.com

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

If I honor your NDA, and I meet a great investor or potential employee or valuable partner for your new venture, I wouldnt be able to tell them about it. If someone hired you, would you have your lawyer look over the NDA? Im Anil Dash, and Ive blogged half a million words here since 1999, writing about how culture is made.

NDA 52

NDA Technical Review Non-Compete San Francisco 52

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

I’ve seen several cycles in the market since I first started venture investing in 1999, and I believe there has been no greater potential for wealth creation in the sector than there is now. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 26, 2015

I’ve seen several cycles in the market since I first started venture investing in 1999, and I believe there has been no greater potential for wealth creation in the sector than there is now. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

thebarefootvc

JULY 26, 2015

I’ve seen several cycles in the market since I first started venture investing in 1999, and I believe there has been no greater potential for wealth creation in the sector than there is now. Build solid relationships with strategic partners and customers.

Marketing 40

Marketing Investment Bankers Valuation China 40

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 30, 2015

My partner Ross Kimbarovsky and I wanted to help people from around the world access creative talent and help creative from around the world find new talent. In January of 1999, I co-founded a marketing agency with a former boss. I re-ignited Anvil as consultancy, but I wasn’t quite ready to hire employees yet.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Software Review LLC 48

ReadWriteStart

MAY 9, 2013

In a 2007 report, the Council on Competitiveness quoted a USA Today survey revealing that, “ of venture-backed software startups created since 1999, nearly 40% have employees outside the United States.”. The best way to “go local in each new global region” is to partner with an expert, better known as a “market native.”

Global 60

Global United States Intellectual Property Malaysia 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

M y company had raised a seed round of capital in late 1999 even before either of us were full time in the company (ominous side note: on the way to pitch our seed investor, Delta Partners, a man walking right in front of me died of a massive heart attack making me late to the meeting. We hired people to run the UK and Germany.

Founder 299

Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

Up and Running

APRIL 4, 2014

The 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade even featured a balloon created in its image. Part of the problem was that the company bought into its own hype, but the bigger sin was that Pets.com’s owners—Hummer Winblad Venture Partners—ignored the fundamentals. The sock puppet’s most notable appearance was in an eyebrow-raising $1.2

Sales 126

Sales IPO Texas Advertising 126

Scalable Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Then from a bottoms-up standpoint what you said is exactly right, I think, which is that the new generation of employees grew up on smartphones and tablets and touch and everything, social networking and Twitter and everything else. And increasingly they might not buy their laptops, because their employees will just bring their own devices.

Software Review 22

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Stock 22

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

APRIL 20, 2010

Although I had been developing softwares since 1999, it was the first time I could think of an idea, write the application, publish it online and virally reach thousands of people! Facebook has allowed me to find an audience to my creativity. well, millions actually) Basically, it is Facebook that turned me into an entrepreneur.

Developer 32

Developer Australia Ruby API 32

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JUNE 19, 2010

In fact, my first website I can’t show you, because I don’t think we have internet access, but I had a Geocities website in 1999 for a card game I used to play called Magic the Gathering. I don’t actually have any employees. The deal went through, I bought the website, and eventually hired a team of writers.

Technical Review 73

Technical Review Software Review Prospectus Audience 73

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. In 1999, record valuations coexisted with record IPOs and shareholder liquidity. 2015 was the exact opposite.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

Mine started this way … I started my first company in the “go-go years&# of the Internet: 1999. We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. Within a year I hired 92 permanent staff and another 30 full time contractors.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley San Diego Non-Compete 308