I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers ” written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ).  If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed.  Much of this is unfounded – some is not. 

Affiliated and linked with other general and specific groups in Southern California Ventura Highway offers excellent opportunities for those seeking contacts to further their professional goals. The group offers an online community with a physical counterpart of meetings and networking with people in Southern California. gid=1775486 Self-description: "80% of jobs (or This is will be a continually updating post. I'll be creating additional lists for educational, chamber of commerce, etc. Organizational representatives: please contact me directly for updates, etc.

I am excited to be participating in and announcing the of: Southern California Tech Central This is a community of people in Southern California who have come together to help find and organize the best content from blogs, news sources and other web sites all around technology in So Cal. This site is being sponsored by the Technology Council of Southern California and my company TechEmpower . The goal is to create a place where it's easy to find current and highly relevant content. And perhaps to stimulate new connections.

You'll also have access to the list of attendees from all the past events you've signed up for. Mission The mission of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum is to encourage the growth and success of technology-based entrepreneurial ventures in Southern California. Scope Through its monthly programs, the Forum provides advice, support, education and networking opportunities to technology-based ventures in the Southern California area. This is will be a continually updating post. I'll be creating additional lists for educational , chamber of commerce, etc. See also

So if you’re casually reading and don’t really care about angel financing – abort now! Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way).  Jarl So you need to do one and have it in your back pocket ready to whip out your presentation or your laptop at any moment and go through it in case you’re asked or in case you’re not building the rapport you hope to just verbally.  It This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC . Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I

On Ben Kuo's blog, he posted about Entrepreneurs in Southern California and pointed to a post by Will Johnson, a Southern California entrepreneur and blogger. Will's post talks about lack of interest in working for startups here in Southern California, saying: ..we probably’d don’t have the: a) same support infrastructure we b) history of success; and c) abundance of start-up companies (so if one fails there is another to jump on).

This is part of my Startup Advice series often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X” or not.  I at a startup that has already raised $5 million the chances of you making your retirement money on that company is EXTREMELY small.  I I usually pull the old trick of answering a question with a question. 

So they set up seed programs that allowed for rapid decisions for $500k or less, often done as convertible debt for both speed and cost reasons.  I told entrepreneurs that it was a bit of a Faustian bargain.  8221;  And I think this line of thinking has started to become conventional wisdom as outlined in Chris Dixon’s excellent blog post saying that you need to be careful raising seed money from a large VC fund This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital . This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri who wrote me an email in response

This is part of my ongoing series on Start-up Lessons that I learned from founding two companies. I relive the moment so many times over in my mind wondering if I could have done this differently or if I shouldn’t have said or done this or that.  I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose.  It’s I HATE LOSING . I

so I feel I have an unbiased appreciation for BOTH Californias. 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. Los Angeles.  People People either love it our hate it.  All