You hear about extreme outcomes all the time—the huge exit or a company shutting down. Recently, I got to observe a much more rare event: a company exiting at a modest valuation. The impact on both the team and investors was illuminating. The company in question built mobile apps for a particular sport, and had 3 million downloads with nearly 2 million active users. I had been an advisor to the team on a periodic […]
Innovate Pasadena is, as usual, leading the charge to showcase the Tech Community in the Greater Pasadena area. Their next event is a week long extravaganza of Pitchfests, Hackathons, Seminars, and more during the week of 3/10. Check it out on their site at: Innovate Pasadena. Many Pasadena Angels will join the events, and I’ll be judging apps at the Hackathon. See you there!
The Pasadena Angels have redesigned our site with a new focus on Entrepreneurs and LA Basin tech resources. We took a lesson from successful companies we have funded–we talked to the market first. We started by surveying a group of local entrepreneurs and our own members to find out what they wanted in a site. The message that came back was very clear–both groups wanted a site that showed that: 1) the PA are actively […]
Why are there great tech companies in Pasadena that no one has heard of? Sometimes the answer is that the team is too busy building a great company to worry about generating press outside their own industry. One example is Bluebeam. They are revolutionizing the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries by eliminating the need for hard copy blueprints. They employ 100+ people, have substantial sales, are profitable, and have hundreds of thousands of users world-wide. […]
Overwrought headline? Hardly. New SEC regs will destroy your ability to raise capital. In a nutshell, new SEC rules will REQUIRE entrepreneurs to register with the SEC BEFORE approaching investors. Worse yet, Angels will no longer be able to “self certify” as accredited investors–we will have to show W2’s or proof of our net worth, and most of us will never be willing to share such personal information. And did I mention that pitch […]
Innovate Pasadena is throwing a Launch Party–the whole Pas tech community will be there, and you should, too! You can get tickets while they last by joining the Innovate Pasadena group on LinkedIn. The Pasadena Angels will be there, in addition to representatives of CalTech, the City of Pasadena, IdeaLab, and more. Don’t miss it!
The Pasadena Innovation Council organized a great tech executive meeting in Pasadena on Friday. A group of 20 or so local entrepreneurs gathered at Jones’ coffee to meet, share stories, and talk over new ventures. This is another good step toward pulling together the tech community in the greater Pasadena area. It was a great crowd. Ted Tekippe, CEO of Doublebeam joined us, as did Kevin Scanlon, Chairman of the Pasadena Angels. Andy Wilson, CEO […]
One of my favorite Dave Berkus quotes is: “Never, never, never run out of money.” But inevitably, it happens to some startups. What then? Your VCs and lenders will likely impose onerous terms, and your ownership will get badly diluted. The one group of investors you can count on to support you in a crisis are your Angels, and I saw two examples over the Holidays. Two companies, with funding from the Pasadena Angels […]
There are days when I feel like we’ve gotten a bit carried away with social media. You get bombarded with Facebook requests–P&G wants me to “like” their consumer products, as if Tide is my best pal. You can’t go to a website without getting hit with requests to do something on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, ad nauseum. But once in a while, someone gets it right and delivers a social experience that benefits the consumer […]
I was lucky enough to be at LaunchPad LA last night to hear Dustin Dolginow from Atlas Ventures/AngelList.co coach the incoming class on how best to use AngelList to fund their companies. Much of the advice was basic–have your elevator pitch down, raise enough $$ for 18 months runway, etc. Then Dustin shifted to “crowdfunding SEO” — how to get discovered, understood, and funded on AngelList. We learned the details of how to interact with networks of […]
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