This bi-weekly column covers the latest news from venture capital firms in LA for the second half of April 2020 including must-know news for Mucker Capital, The Fund, and much more.
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How to Tell Investors Sorry it Didn’t Work Out
I’m about to fold the tents on my startup and I’m super stressed about talking to my investors. What’s the best way to break it to them that things didn’t work out? Are they going to jump down my throat or is there some way to walk away gracefully?
Why Customer Network is the Next Big Thing That Every Startup Needs to Master
2019 was the year when VCs and startup founders soured on paid acquisition. Contrary to what most thought a few years back, CAC (cost of acquiring a customer) didn’t go down as many D2C startups scaled. The costs instead went up. The explosion of D2C brands and mega-rounds of funding led to massive amounts of […]
6 Myths on Starting a Startup That Can Kill You
Starting a new business is fraught with challenges, and none of us has the bandwidth to kill them all. As an advisor to business owners and an occasional angel investor, my job is to separate the actual challenges from the common misconceptions that distract many promising entrepreneurs while building the leadership team required for your […]
8 Ways To Use Personal Values To Highlight Leadership
True business success and leadership starts with real personal values, extends to building a team, and finally to inspiring customers and your community. That’s a huge leap from an entrepreneurial idea, to a product, to making money. Is it any wonder that the majority of startups fail? My job as a new business advisor is […]
Security And Privacy Are Both A Risk and Opportunity
With a 126 percent increase in stolen sensitive personal information, there is a growing population out there worried about all the people intent on hurting them.
A Personal Saga To Understanding Hardware Market Opportunities
The shock ripped through the industry, on almost every social media platform techies were bemoaning the loss of Anki. As a former robo-toy maker, I read the epitaph months earlier in the title of Lara Sorokanich’s Medium post, “Anki’s AI Robot Is a Delightful (and Expensive) Desk Toy.” When asked this week to comment, I could […]
Digital Marketing 101: How to Define KPIs
If you’re looking to get hired in tech as a digital marketer, there are dozens of niches for you to choose from, from SEO marketing to content marketing to marketing automation, and beyond. No matter where you end up, you’ll need to know how to keep track of your progress and use numbers to demonstrate your results. That’s […]
LA Tech Week in Review: 4/14/19-4/20/19
How Great Story Telling Is Changing Cybersecurity Marketing
Cybersecurity is an epic, ongoing battle in which the good guys are companies and consumers trying to be safe, and the bad guys are the evil hackers, criminals, and nation-state spies. The good guys are led into battle by Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and their teams. To stay ahead of the bad guys, companies […]
Artificial Intelligence Can Help Or Hurt Any Business
Everyone has heard about the big potential for using artificial intelligence (AI) to expand your business, but many of the small businesses I mentor are still wary of embracing it, because they don’t understand how it works, and fear losing control and unintended consequences. My advice is that AI is here, so it behooves all […]