This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons .” I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.  8221; I

started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur :  Tenacity .  I Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. There are plenty of great leaders who work really hard and work for big companies.  And This is part of my series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on  VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute:  Tenacity .  I You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch.  You’ve got to hear all of the doubters, and the world is FILLED with doubters, and still not give up.  This is part of my new series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur :  Tenacity .  I Think Yelp doesn’t wake up daily thinking about how to crush FourSquare?  Think We were considering funding one of the players in the category – call them Company A.  I This is part of my series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on  VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

was recently interviewed for an article that appeared in Fast Company titled, “ Why you should start a business in LA .” 8221;  If you’re interested in the topic it’s worth a read, but I thought I’d elaborate on the topic since it comes up all the time. We have many seasoned entrepreneurs who have built successful companies here and made a lot of money for investors and themselves.  But Los Angeles.  People People either love it our hate it.  All

When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess this is a sign of the times. The Scott Sanfilippo Interview Media Optimization Firms Are Red Hot In Southern California in 2009 Proliferate

This morning's interview is with Mark Suster , a venture capitalist at GRP Partners (www.grpvc.com). GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in recent months. We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. It Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs,. It

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

But when I’m looking to invest the dollars that my Limited Partners have entrusted my firm with I’m going with my view. He invested $8 million in a company in the computer networking space.  They This return won’t be enough for me to justify for me partners.”  I I was going to save this post for a while but the Patzer Problem meme has forced my hand. I

The topic is: Betting Your Company On An Internet Platform? A very interesting topic, especially for those of us involved in developing for start-ups. The basic conclusion was that it was a bit premature if you were talking about a serious, funded start-up. Interesting term used in a ZD Net article - Platform as a Service (PaaS) Unfortunately, Peter sells the promise I'm blogging from the CalTech Enterprise Forum . At the CTO Group that I organize in Santa Monica, we've had lots of discussions around this.