If you read the recent announcement that UserVoice riased, $800,000 this program will help you learn the small changes that allowed them to do it. Marcus Nelson, the company’s co-founder, came to Mixergy to talk about the changes so his experience could help you if decide to raise money. UserVoice helps companies harness their users’ feedback. Video excerpt ( Can’t see video?

Very few people fund individuals.  I Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more.  In Don’t worry if they can’t help in your daily business.  There There are other ways you can get help.  Surround This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC . Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round

few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding.  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 . But I’m no longer an entrepreneur – I’m a VC at a $200 million fund called GRP Ventures , the largest active fund in Southern California.  This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital . This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri

To help me understand how the seed venture firm Y Combinator helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their startups, I invited not one guest as I usually do, but three founders of three different companies. Each entrepreneur talked about how he got into Y Combinator, how the program helped launch his startup and what it did for him after he left the program. ...Tags: I tried something new in this program. Tags: Intervie

There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The This was pre Venture Hacks so not a lot of help on terms on the Net.  The believe that there is a new breed of VC emerging including True Ventures, Founder’s Fund, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and several others that have this founder / investor alignment ethos.  I This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor /

I also found this interesting graphic of the changing needs around the CTO role in different size/type companies that somewhat echoes my experience. ( Roger Smith ) This helps explain where I normally play. My role is to work as part of the team to (1) understand related technologies and technical opportunities, (2) understand and help drive alignment around a vision of where the business should go, and (3) mesh those together to help make disciplined, proactive technical decisions. I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time.

I read the first three pieces of information and was trying to think of how I could help him. I went from being frustrated that I wasn't helping to pretty helpful based on this list. Or look at funding activity if you are considering start-ups. Most of them For some reason over the past week, I've been asked by three different people I know about job opportunities that might fit them. Since, I've given them the same advice, I thought it was worth putting in my blog.

Have you noticed how some entrepreneurs look at getting funding as the ultimate sign of success? Not only is funding not the finish line, but the mistakes you make when you get investors can cost you when you finally do get to the finish line and are ready to sell your company. Brandon has done stints as an operator at all stages of the funding cycle, and at Soros Private Equity, investing over $70M in technology deals. Brandon Watson came to Mixergy to talk about how he raised money for his startup, how he grew it, and why he had to sell it. The two most powerful points

Since my best interviews come from introductions from readers like you, could you please take a look at this list and see if you can help me meet any of them? If you don't know anyone, I have suggestions for how you can help me reach these inspiring entrepreneurs. Please help me meet these entrepreneurs About this request I

started playing around with a high level questionnaire to help entrepreneurs get a quick sense of who to pitch.   Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time researching their market and customers.  But, when it comes to raising money, they tend to approach anyone with a heartbeat!   The problem with this approach is that a large majority of the investors you pitch are simply not appropriate for what you