SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

It turns out it actually takes time to build a high-growth business with differentiated intellectual property and roll out large, enterprise-class marketing solutions. Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

Still, if you’re a business leader and your developers haven’t asked you these questions, look for a Fractional CTO to help navigate the critical early stage of development. Are there other founders, business leaders, partners, or administrators? How will you differentiate from these? Ads, Viral/Social, SEO)?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Tailor your pitch deck.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 29, 2016

Ironically, though, many early stage cyber security companies initially target their offerings to the Fortune 500 and look to move down market to SMBs much later in their product life-cycle – and, sometimes not at all. And this is certainly true in the cyber security sector.

Differentiation 100

Differentiation Security Intellectual Property Non-Compete 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ).

Mobile 282

Mobile Management Southern California Application Development 282

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes. The role of VC is sparring partner. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

Silicon Valley 309

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 309

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 14, 2022

While certain aspects of setting up a startup can be exhilarating, especially in the early stages of the business, there are also plenty of bumps along the road, big and small. If the name is already taken, add an adjective or verb to differentiate it from other similar names. Image Source.

Startup 173

Startup Early Stage Naming Public Relations 173

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Focus on talent and people growth.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 3, 2011

As we know, this space is a very competitive one; Fetch Plus differentiates itself from the rest by targeting companies with holdings, focusing on developing tools necessary for these companies’ holdings to efficiently and effectively build and scale their social media footprint through different networks for engaging fans.

Social Media 187

Social Media Media Management Application Development 187

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. That way, if one of the partners disappears, or their role changes, a portion of the equity can be re-captured and reallocated to the other members.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. I have also heard LPs express concern over the last few years about the seed stage of venture.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Carefully describe their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the key drivers of competitive differentiation in the marketplace. how it will work, the financial terms, the types of customer leads expected from each partner, etc.). Don’t just list competitors. market research). Demonstrate barriers to entry. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Competitors & Alternatives and your core differentiation. You should also be reviewing your cash flow forecasts to understand how much money you need to take your business through its early stages. These metrics should be reviewed at least monthly in a regular planning meeting with key business partners and employees.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

For those of you who are time poor here’s the tltr: Forward Partners operates a focused investment strategy because it helps us make better investment decisions and provide better support to our companies. For the three and a half years that we’ve been going, Forward Partners has operated a focused investment strategy.

Artificial Inteligence 78

Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

David Teten

JUNE 1, 2011

High Road Capital Partners Deal Sourcing Keynote. Fitzsimmons, High Road Capital Partners. Prestegaard, High Road Capital Partners. Glickman, Resilience Capital Partners LLC Luke Johnson, Platinum Equity LLC Robert B. Fitzsimmons, High Road Capital Partners. Tye, Edgeview Partners LLC Harold J. Social media.

Private Equity 122

Private Equity Deal Flow Equity Developer 122

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT EARLY-STAGE INVESTING IN THIS MOMENT? That’s what we need to be able to figure out.” It’s going to be really idiosyncratic. You can even learn about people’s style.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

I quit a very well paid job at Accenture with very little time remaining before making partner and took a risk of having no job security at all. And that’s what differentiates founders and early employees. My starting salary when I joined a VC fund as a partner at the age of 39 (and after 2 exits)?

Founder 409

Founder Salary Startup Early Stage 409

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Dan Kozikowski, Partner and Head of Platform, First Mark Capital , said to me, “Firms should match services to the stage-specific needs of companies. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Real Ventures , an early-stage, Canadian-based fund, runs a two-day Founder Camp every six months.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. I guess if you’re in high-volume, low-differentiation mode perhaps this is efficient for you. Inbound is seldom differentiated dealflow. And we live in public so many people are able just to reach out. Pay attention.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others. For example, if you’re an early stage company dealing with complex regulation (think Uber in transportation, Oscar in healthcare, LendingClub in finance), we have people who can help.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

www.bothsidesofthetable.com

MAY 13, 2012

new features need to go into the sale people’s slides so that they know the latest and greatest about how to differentiate from the competition. He joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a General Partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. He focuses on early-stage technology companies.

Fractional VPE 89

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Fractional CTO CTO Hire 89

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 16, 2020

Another reason is that garage startups kick off their projects with just a few people in the bundle, and there’s no differentiation between positions. Early-stage startups. Ask your VC investors and partner companies for references and tick other valuable recommendations. Don’t be skeptical about word of mouth.

Fractional CTO 85

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 85

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

At the same time, I had lunch with someone yesterday who regularly ran into early stage entrepreneurs who was surprised to hear that I didn't mind if they made intros to me. I have an idea," don't expect me to write much more than, "It's pretty saturated, but if you get some traction on a differentiated business, let me know."

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence Venture Capital 115

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

It is the human capital involved, both internally with company teams and externally with advisors, boards and investors, that is going to differentiate which startups survive and become the disruptive businesses of tomorrow. Money is fast turning into a commodity.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative. That drives every decision we make.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. It is unexciting and hard to prove, but in fact “We execute better” is a critical differentiator. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

ConversionXL

JUNE 25, 2021

Develop a sales messaging guide to create consistency around how your team describes the product, showcases its benefits, and differentiates it from competitors. Points of differentiation. It’s common for new products or early-stage startups to lack sufficient quantitative data to see meaningful themes or patterns.

Product 96

Product Social Media Audience Software Review 96

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. A huge thank you to all of the Limited Partners who have entrusted us with your capital, time and reputations. Upfront’s Base As you probably know we are based in Santa Monica and as my partner Greg Bettinelli coined, we’re #LongLA.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Las Vegas Venture Capital San Francisco 287

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Erin’s main points: “As a former tech sales executive, I agree with many of [Mark's] lessons — when applied to later-stage, post-traction point startups. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Early Stage Sales Cofounder 319