gid=1775486 Self-description: "80% of jobs (or more) are found through networking, so as a group of professionals from many different industries, we started our own local networking group in 2008. Frequency: Up to several times a month. Cost: Free and up Review: In addition to hosting mixers a couple times a year, they also organize group attendence at various cultural, 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.

Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way).  Jarl And a great product starts with the founder. Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line.  Also, 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

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 (meet-ups, networking events, etc.); b) history of success; and c) abundance of start-up companies (so if one fails there is another to jump on). 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. we

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.  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 . In SoCal we have great operators like Klaus Schauser , John Greathouse 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

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. If we extend a bit North up the coast line we have many affiliate marketing innovators including ValueClick, Commission Junction and FastClick.  They Los Angeles.  People People either love it our hate it.  All

Tags: SoCal Stuff Start-up Advice VC Industr I run a monthly meeting called the VCA that represents the majority of Southern California venture capital firms.  My My goal is to bring in informative speakers who stretch our collectively thinking on topics that will influence our investment strategies and use it as a way for us to share our experiences in ways that I [...] ...Tags:

This is part of my ongoing series on Start-up Lessons that I learned from founding two companies. But first I’d like to start with a story. They had a team trained up in Documentum and we certainly had enemies from the inside.  But I immediately put a full team on contract I HATE LOSING . I

I have been looking at a South Korean online start-up and am blown away by the innovation in this company relative to the online models I see in the US.  It Tags: SoCal Stuff Start-up Advice VC Industr I run a monthly meeting called the VCA that represents the majority of Southern California venture capital firms.  My My goal is to bring in informative speakers who stretch our collectively thinking on topics that will influence our investment strategies and use it as a way for us to share our experiences in ways that I hope benefit the Southern California technology

You'll also have access to the list of attendees from all the past events you've signed up for. Referral Exchange Network is a rapidly-expanding group of business professionals who are sick and tired of attending networking meetings that suck our time and end up with dead leads. The whole point of business is to make the life you want to live possible--so why wait to start enjoying it? This is will be a continually updating post. I'll be creating additional lists for educational , chamber of commerce, etc. See also Networking & Social Media Job Search Webinars,

This is part of my Startup Advice series at a startup that has already raised $5 million the chances of you making your retirement money on that company is EXTREMELY small.  Let’s assume that the company raised it at a normal VC valuation, which means it gave up 33% of the company and thus $5 million / 33% = $15 million post-money valuation.  I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X” or not.  I