This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice ” but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.” Let me start with a couple of stories. A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal.  He’s He’s been at it since 2005.  We 8221; If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table.  It’s

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs.  I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005.  This blog post ended up on Valleywag (which had much bigger presence back then). After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company.  My blog was wiped out. 

Not only are early adopters crazy for this mobile app that helps them find their friends, but as you'll hear in this interview, it's getting enough interest from local businesses that foursquare might end up building the holy grail of local advertising: an ad network that will show you coupons for local business as you're walking past them. This technology is still in its early days, but I asked Dennis to talk about how the idea evolved and why it's finally starting to catch on. If you like this interview, you can submit it to my favorite news site . --Andrew Andrew

This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that the pace of VC investments in early-stage technology companies has picked up in the past few months.   The hear from several sources that Sequoia is very active in the market aggressively chasing several deals and even driving up prices on some early-stage deals.  In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009.  There

RSS ); Why You Should Start a Company in... Los Angeles By: Laura Rich February 26, 2010

What's the story on how the site started? Eric In contrast to a lot of companies, we're still a relatively small startup--it's just myself and my brother, but it supports both of us full time and profitable. What's Berkeley in 2005, and right after that I started working on the site. We recently ran across TravBuddy.com (www.travbuddy.com), a Los Angeles area travel site which allows travelers to meet others, share travel reviews, photos, and more, and had thought it would be great to hear the story behind the site. The highly ranked travel site was founded,

Fortunately, we had several alternatives available to us, including: Access the public capital markets via an initial public offering (IPO) Open up a “sales process” and solicit bids from multiple companies Do nothing – continue to run our business “as is” Although this option was not attractive to the management team, it was a viable alternative circa 2005 and it would have allowed our institutional investors to liquidate their investments. In 1987, a representative of Michael Jackson approached the modest Sycamore Valley ranch house and knocked on the door.

After that, Rob and I took a year or so to gain traction, and in 2005 we committed full time to the business. We've been expanding downwards, and actually starting a relationship in high school. We were at the tail end of it, and not until the 11th hour with one venture capital firm, when Shai just showed up. (Editor's Pasadena-based Cramster (www.cramster.com) recently announced $3M in a large angel round for the firm's online study communities. Cramster is looking to create online study groups, to help high school and college students study math, science, and other topics.

Jose daVeiga: In a nugget, we started Klicksports to empower sports fans with the ability to interact with sports they like, and with each other, in an interactive way which also provides them with information, on the fly. We started in 2006, with an in-venue trial at the Alamo Bowl, where we gave out prizes and coupons. Jose daVeiga: In 2006, we started Los Angeles-based KlickSports (www.klicksports.com) recently rolled out the firm's live sports prediction web site and game, looking to harness the enthusiasm of sports fans for their favorite sports and teams. We spoke with Jose

The fund--started by Brian Garrett and Rick Smith --has been focused on digital media investments, and so far has made investments in six companies. The fund is just celebrated its first year in business, so we thought we'd catch up with Brian to hear more about what the firm is investing in, the challenges of raising a venture fund in this market, plus his view on the Los Angeles venture market. Let's Let's start with Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) is one of the newest venture capital funds in the area, and has quietly been working on funding local companies over the last year.