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Ready, AIM, fire! Really?
by Dave Berkus You’ve surely heard the variations on this theme. “Ready, fire aim” was popular in the 1990’s, accredited to any of several authors. I used the term to describe my efforts in the artificial intelligence field, experimenting with
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February 1, 2021
Should you include your sweat equity in a business plan?
By Dave Berkus Investors love it when entrepreneurs draw little or no money from their startups. It extends the cash available for research and other necessary fixed costs and gives the fragile, young company more “runway” to get to breakeven.
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January 1, 2021
My dad said: “Never take on a business partner.”
By Dave Berkus My dad was a smart businessman, even if not formally trained. He occasionally gave me advice that turned out to be more than wise, looking back at subsequent experience and events. His personal teaching event was a
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December 15, 2020
47x Return for Companion Medical is Fourth Highest Exit in TCA History
By John Harbison, TCA Chairman emeritus TCA members who invested in the Series A Round of Companion Medical in 2014 realized a 47x return when the company was acquired by Medtronic in August 2020 for an undisclosed amount. Early investors
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December 1, 2020
What is your biggest error in company planning?
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus The biggest error in planning may not be spreadsheet calculation error. Or cost estimation. It is most often missed assumptions about the market, the competition, the speed of adoption, or other critical metrics you’ve
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November 15, 2020
Can you build a company, not just a product?
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus And sometimes that idea is just too small a slice of the big picture to be interesting to investors. There was a recent investor event where I was keynote speaker, on stage only after
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November 1, 2020
What’s your personal-business end game?
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus Remembering our original vision When we start a business, we are optimistic that we will succeed and dream of riches to follow when the company is sold or even getting all the way to
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October 15, 2020
What would happen to the business if you die, leave or are disabled?
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus Yes, we’re invincible when young When we are young and early in our business lives, we feel infallible to the degree that we do not think of what might happen if we die while
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October 1, 2020
Selling your company for less than expected?
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus How about outside investors? Sometimes the end game or sale of the company is not a happy event. Especially when outside investors, venture capitalists, or angels, have put in substantial money and the sales
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September 15, 2020
An economics lesson for growing companies
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus Catching up from past insights Growing companies usually require more working capital during their periods of rapid growth. In past insights we have calculated the amount of additional capital needed for a business as
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September 1, 2020
How to make the most useful dashboard
By Dave Berkus, TCA Chairman emeritus The need for real time information From sports car to aircraft to super tanker, successful operation depends upon the pilot’s understanding and urgent timely use of a dashboard. Real time information is critical to
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August 1, 2020
Could you be your company’s bottleneck?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels So many tasks; so little time As a manager, you have a number of critical tasks that are general to your position as opposed to specific to your industry. These include ensuring
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July 15, 2020
Do you even know what questions to ask?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Great executives and managers seem to intuitively know what they don’t know. But it is not at all uncommon to not even know what questions to ask. Who would have thought about
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July 1, 2020
Reduce five risks: Increase your valuation
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Why five risks? In the creation of a young company, there are five principal risks to be addressed by the entrepreneur. Professional investors will probe these five risk areas and make the
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June 15, 2020
Does your company have a “dirty cap table?”
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels How it happens When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors
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June 1, 2020
Leadership for the Pandemic and the New Normal
By Dan Rosen, Tech Coast Angels member and Chair of Alliance of Angels The COVID-19 Pandemic has caused every startup to assess how to survive and plan to thrive in the “new normal.” No one knows what the new normal
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May 15, 2020
Three questions to answer about your COVID response
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Most of us are affected by this current crisis. Many businesses threatened with closure forever. Small businesses are the most vulnerable, even though most have furloughed employees. Rent and other fixed costs
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May 1, 2020
Cash control during these strange times
by Dave Berkus, , Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels And these are indeed strange times, especially if you haven’t lived through 2000-2002 and 2007-2008 recessions and difficulty in finding money from banks and investors. The simple economic truth Here is a
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April 15, 2020
How Angel Investors Survive the COVID-19 Economic Crisis
By Dan Rosen, member Tech Coast Angels and Founder of Alliance of Angels After publishing my companion piece, “How Startups Survive the COVID-19 Economic Crisis” in this blog on March 15, I have received a number of comments about how
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April 1, 2020
How Startups Survive the COVID-19 Economic Crisis
By Dan Rosen, member Tech Coast Angels and Founder of Alliance of Angels Being trained as a scientist, and having lived through several investment cycles, I’ve been asked to share my perspective on the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
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March 15, 2020
When Entrepreneurs Should Seek Seed Funding
By David Friedman, President , Orange County Tech Coast Angels As an angel investor, I have been asked numerous times by entrepreneurs: when is the best time to seek seed funding? I tell them it is broken down into two
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March 1, 2020
What’s the minimum information to give your fellow investors?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Every investor wants regular information from companies taking their money. And most of us investors are frustrated by the lack of regular communication – unless of course – the company needs more
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December 15, 2019
Should a leader support constant change?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels The worrying that always precedes a change When a new CEO or manager is hired into a company, for a while lots of energy flows from the top and new ideas seem
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December 1, 2019
What Angels Want to Hear
By David Friedman, President, Orange County Tech Coast Angels At the Meet the Angels event in Irvine, CA last month I had the privilege to talk with many of the 170 would-be entrepreneurs in attendance. I hosted about 25 of
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November 15, 2019
How much of a business should go to investors?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Financial History and Projections Let’s start with the basics. If you are investing in a going business with a track record of revenues, then the importance of accurate current financial statements cannot
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November 1, 2019
Can you name the two most powerful words for business?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Here’s a puzzle where the answer come first. “Help me.” Over the years I have heard many stories from entrepreneurs, students, news reporters, even my children, all telling me that they could
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October 15, 2019
Could the company have created a “dirty cap table?”
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Oh, I know. When an entrepreneur started the business, s/he took investments from friends and family in small amounts just to get started. Of course, that worked at the time. But… Enter
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October 1, 2019
Do you take those loyal, key customers for granted?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels OK. We know that an executive’s job is not easy. Nor is there much time in a typical day for outreach of any kind. Especially in your growing company, you are drawn
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September 15, 2019
Think ahead when raising early investment rounds
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Some businesses just can’t fit within the angel capital or friends and family model for raising funds. Sooner or later you may need to seek venture capital and accommodate the needs of
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September 1, 2019
Hire for your core. Partner for the rest.
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels A trend for businesses large and small There is a major trend shaping up that is worldwide, already identified by hundreds of thousands of startup and small business CEO’s. By carefully recognizing
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August 15, 2019
What to Expect on Timing of Outcomes in an Angel Portfolio
By John Harbison, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels As one gets into angel investment, it is important to have realistic expectations on how long it takes to see exits, and what kind of pattern or mix of exits and failures
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August 1, 2019
Would you sign a personal guarantee if you have investors?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels It’s a fact of life that a banker, lender or lessor will ask for a personal guarantee from the founder or entrepreneur most every time. But what if you’ve diluted your interest
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June 15, 2019
Could you have created a “dirty cap table?”
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Oh, I know. When you started the business, you took investments from friends and family in small amounts just to get you started. Of course, that worked at the time. But… Enter
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June 1, 2019
Oh, go ahead and ask for a five-million-dollar investment in your startup.
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels I cannot tell you how many times I have seen executive summaries of business plans in which the entrepreneur seeks $5,000,000 to build the business. Four reasons you should reconsider. First, few
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May 15, 2019
Seed is the New Series A, and Series A is the New B
By John Harbison, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels More money is being raised before Series A, and companies which receive Series A rounds are further along in terms of being in revenue and are raising significantly larger rounds at higher
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May 1, 2019
Will your company’s sale be celebration or silence?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels First, there are at least three types of exits I’ve been involved with well over twenty successful exits and four initial public offerings over the years, some of them with monstrous gains,
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April 15, 2019
Investors, the board, and you: Who controls strategy?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels You’re building a company from your vision and a passion, and lots of people are going to tell you that you have this or that wrong, and that it just won’t work.
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April 1, 2019
How would you like a great advisory board?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Have you ever thought of creating an advisory board? As you can guess, that would be an informal group with no legal responsibilities, but one able to be called upon to act
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March 15, 2019
How do you pay an early stage board?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Give one percent equity to each outside board member vesting over four years of service. Many early stage CEOs and board members have asked for some guidance regarding pay and time commitments
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March 1, 2019
What’s a company board good for, anyway?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Some of you have gotten along forever without a board of directors, or used your spouse as the “other” board member from the start. But there are some very good reasons to
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December 31, 2018
Selling a portfolio business? Find the emotional buyer
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels This is one of my favorite insights, since I lived this one in a positive exit from my computer business. Types of business buyers expanded Most people will tell you that there
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December 15, 2018
Can you list ten buyers for your business?
By Dave Berkus, Chairman Emeritus, Tech Coast Angels Most entrepreneurs and certainly all investors would like to see “a positive liquidity event” (a good sale of the business) someday. Boards of directors should be aware that one of their duties
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December 1, 2018
Timing is everything in a sale.
Almost anyone who has sold a company has a story to tell about their good deal, the problems with the buyer, a last-minute change of terms, or more.
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November 1, 2018
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