Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Upfront Ventures was created 20 years ago as one of the original VC funds in Los Angeles. Back then only 15% of our dollars were invested locally whereas today 50% of our dollars are invested in LA. 10 years ago we found ourselves trying to persuade LPs and VCs that it was worth spending more time getting to know the LA market and now the most common refrain that I hear from them is “there really is something going on in LA.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Board meetings at @amplehills are dangerous. A post shared by Charlie O'Donnell (@ceonyc) on Dec 20, 2017 at 8:06am PST When you're Ample Hills Creamery , the #1 rated ice cream shop in the country you can pretty much throw everything you've been told about fundraising out the window. Nothing seems to apply--you're not a tech company, you bootstrapped your way to millions in revenues before taking on capital, and you sell mostly through brick and mortar.

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A Smart Bear

AUGUST 22, 2017

Product teams have been repeating the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) mantra for a decade now, without re-evaluating whether it’s the right way to maximize learning while pleasing the customer. Well, it’s not the best system. It’s selfish and it hurts customers. We don’t build MVPs at WP Engine. The motivation behind the MVP is still valid: Build something small, because small things are predictable and inexpensive to test.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

This week, EO joins with the Global Entrepreneurship Network in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (#GEW2017) , which credits the importance and growing impact of entrepreneurship, and features an international calendar of events and partnerships. From 13–19 November 2017, we’ll share exclusive content designed to inspire and inform every entrepreneur—whether you’re in start-up mode or you’re a battle-scarred founder.

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FundersClub

JUNE 8, 2017

Christopher Steiner is the founder of ZRankings , and Aisle50, YCS11, which was acquired by Groupon in 2015. In the history of the U.S. economy, particular classes of workers rarely have had a run so prodigious and extended as the current ride that engineers and developers find themselves on. The nature of capitalism means that lucrative job categories that experience shortages are typically fed with hordes of newly-trained workers who even out the imbalance.

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OnStartups

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Today the State of Remote Work 2017 report revealed that 63% of people in product and engineering roles work remotely at least once per week, which is 21% more than the average. Along with key findings on how remote work is changing the workplace, the report also revealed that startup environments may be a particularly strong match for remote work. Why might that be?

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David Teten VC

MAY 19, 2017

Historically VC has been an apprenticeship business. That said, I’ve identified quite a few microcredentials, conferences, and other learning opportunities which will help train you to be a better investor. If I’m missing any from the list below, please contact me. VC ASSOCIATIONS. Confluence. Let’s Talk Ops , Venture Capital Operations Association – fund operations professionals.

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Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 24, 2017

Last week, I wrote about the decline of investments in San Francisco startups. On Hacker News, this post engendered a lengthy conversation on the challenges facing founders and start-up employees in San Francisco. In short, the cost of living in San Francisco and the Bay Area has reached untenable and unacceptable heights for many. The average one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco costs $3500 per month.

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Deskmag

DECEMBER 5, 2017

The utilization of coworking spaces by corporate companies is on the rise. Factors feeding the trend include increased flexibility, lower costs, greater emphasis on employee values and the global drive towards innovation. However, corporates have their own strategic position when it comes to coworking. Why do they utilize such space and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?

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abovethecrowd.com

DECEMBER 18, 2017

The subject of the “consumerization of healthcare” has been around for many years. Most frequently people use this phrase in association with personal technology devices (heart-monitors, exercise accessories, sleep monitors, etc) that allow consumers to take direct control of their health information. There is however, a more important trend that relates alternatively to the consumerization of the “business” of healthcare.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes.

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 27, 2017

Fundraising sucks. No one likes it. Founders don't start companies so they can spend half their time asking people for money and VCs don't love the dance either. However, it's a necessary animal, so the least everyone can do is act professionally, and most of all value each other's time. That's what I'm most frustrated by--the lack of respect for other people's time.

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A Smart Bear

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Forget work/life integration for a minute. How much time do you have, regardless of partitioning? From your 24-hour daily allotment, the 1950s-style break-down is 8 hours for work, 8 for home and commute, and 8 for sleep and ablutions. So, “work” and “home” are the two things in which you can spend 40+ hours per week. This is the amount of time it takes to tackle something huge.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

This week, EO joins with the Global Entrepreneurship Network in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (#GEW2017) , which credits the importance and growing impact of entrepreneurship, and features an international calendar of events and partnerships. From 13–19 November 2017, we’ll share exclusive content designed to inspire and inform every entrepreneur—whether you’re in start-up mode or you’re a battle-scarred founder.

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FundersClub

JULY 13, 2017

Most offices, whether at a big company or at a startup, allow employees to work at home from time to time. It's not exactly a perk, but it does allow people to better manage work and their lives, as neither of those things adhere to perfect forms of time or place. Some studies, including one carried out by Nicholas Bloom at Stanford, suggest that letting employees work from home is not only a sellable benefit when recruiting, but it also leads to higher productivity for most people.

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Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For you who fit that description, nice work.

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Derek Sivers

DECEMBER 10, 2017

I once went without food for ten days, and that was fine. But the two things I can’t do without for long are solitude and silence. (Freedom from people and their noises.). I was on a holiday in Ireland with seven members of my family, all packed into a van, exploring the country. A week after they left, I had to be at a conference in Dublin. So in-between those two events, I wanted nothing but solitude and silence.

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technology

David Teten VC

MAY 16, 2017

Historically, the process of winning capital from limited partners has been opaque. However, in the last few years a few have started to use social media and become more transparent. I particularly like OpenLP.com , Origins , and the Raise blog , all of which include content from multiple LPs. . At Invesco’s conference on Emerging GPs, one of the highlights was a presentation by Laurie Weir summarizing CALPERS’ selection criteria under their Private Equity Emerging Manager Progr

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Tomasz Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

How much should a SaaS startup invest in sales and marketing at different stages of the business? This is a very nuanced question, but benchmarks do provide some guidance for what is reasonable. Sales and marketing investment depends on many different factors including establishing product market fit, the business’s sales model (inside, field, freemium), and not least, cash balance and fundraising capacity.

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Gust

DECEMBER 17, 2017

It’s that time of year when we’re all staring down the end of the December, wondering where the months have gone. This is also the time when a lot of entrepreneurs wrestle with their plans for the next year, asking themselves: Where should I bet big? Are the growth targets right? How am I going to pay for all these. Read more >. The post Beyond VC: Funding Options for Early-Stage Startups appeared first on The Gust Blog.

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abovethecrowd.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

For those of you who have moved away from the town where you grew up, the few times that you see your hometown in the national news creates an enormous sense of pride. Over the past few weeks, the town I grew up in, Dickinson, Texas, has been front and center in the national news, but for all the wrong reasons. Dickinson, a small town southeast of Houston on Galveston Bay, has been one of the hardest hit communities by Hurricane Harvey.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Why the Former President of Nickelodeon Joined mitú as CEO. (Hint: 60 million US Latinos driving US growth engine) I am beyond excited to announce the Herb Scannell has agreed to move from NYC to Los Angeles to take on the role of CEO at mitú, the fast growing Latino digital media company, serving more than 100 million monthly unique viewers. Herb is a Puerto-Rican American media executive who was previously the President of Nickelodeon.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Influencers. Kingmakers. Sharks. Power brokers. Visionaries. There are a lot of ways the startup world describes venture capitalists that portrays a certain power dynamic, real or perceived, that I believe is at the heart of so many of the industry's problems. The industry treats VCs as if they hold all the cards, and the worst behaviors of investors reflect that.

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A Smart Bear

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

We’re tired of hearing how small software companies usually fail. The data show that the two most common causes are: (1) Product isn’t useful to enough people, and (2) Problems with the team. But what about the companies that die even though they did sell some copies of software, and where the early team isn’t dysfunctional? I don’t have data for that cohort (tell me if you do!

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

OCTOBER 13, 2017

By EO member Ben Welch-Bolen. Fear is a basic human instinct bred into our DNA to help us avoid danger. Without a healthy fear of falling, fire, spiders and clowns—ok, maybe not clowns?our lives might be significantly shorter. But fear isn’t our only basic drive; we’re also compelled to propagate our species. These two instincts collided for me on 20 April, 2016, when my wife delivered a clever knock-knock joke to inform me that I would soon be a dad.

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