Steven Cox - Founder of TakeLessons. Build Something You're Proud Of

Steven Cox Interview on Fox 5 News - Finding the Right San Diego StartUp Company to Work For

 

 

http://StevenCox.com. Even with the unemployment rate in San Diego hovering around 10%, the city's startup scene is bustling with activity and creating new jobs for San Diegans. TakeLessons.com CEO, Steven Cox, talks about the 10x100x100 event where 10 startup companies that have collectively raised over $100 million in venture capital and will be hiring 100 new employees next year.

A lot of technical and web people move to the San Francisco area to find work, but you're saying there's work right here and they don't have to move?
• That's Right!
• Cheaper to buy and rent housing here than in other hotbeds such as SV, NYC.
• A lot of startups are hiring

What's it like working for a startup?
• Incredible! Faster pace. Quicker decisions. My startup: http://TakeLessons.com

For College Graduates:
o Instead of making coffee, make a difference.
o No cogs in the wheel
o Chance to work on things at a young age -- (BEST BUY example)

For Senior people
o A chance to take your knowledge and build something you're proud of.
o Make a positive, lasting impact.
o Grow leaders underneath you.
o Potential stock upside

Everyday, I wake up thankful that I get to go to work.
o Focused on building the new sort of company.
• A company with a conscious.
• A company that makes more than money, it makes a positive difference.
o Awesome people all focused on building a great company.
o Super laid-back dress code.
o No politics.

A lot of young Internet companies didn't make it in the dotcom crash. What should a job prospect consider when looking at startups?

Not all startups are created equal.
• Management -- is there adult supervision? People who have built and ran companies before.
• Culture -- Do they have a strong sense of purpose, yet flexible enough to change on a dime.
• Funding -- are they well-funded. http://CrossLinkCapital.com
• Product or Service -- is it something that truly adds value to people's lives?

What type of jobs do startups hire for and what tips do you have on landing a job there?
• Big focus on Software engineering, product management and developmet, IT
• Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, Finance, HR

Tell us a little bit about the 10 x 100 x 100 event.
• StartupsAreBetter.com
• 6pm Dec 1 at Sweet Labs (http://sweetlabs.com)
• Joe Kraus -- Google Ventures focused on mobile, gaming, local services
• Michael Robertson -- SD Local tech hero. MP3.com
• Focused on engineering and product talent

More information can be found at these sites:
http://10x100x100 and http://StevenCox.com

What's it Like Working for a Startup?

Come find out this Thursday December 1st!

Our friends at SweetLabs have banded together with ten top San Diego startups (including TakeLessons) that have collectively raised over $100 million in venture capital and looking to hire for 100 new positions.

Visit this site to register.

Why are we doing this?

We want to get the message out that you don't have to move to the Bay area to find an awesome job!

San Diego tech startups are creating new jobs right here in our backyard, in the midst of one of the worst economic times we’ve ever seen.

While big companies (i.e. HP laid off 500 San Diego employees last month) continue to struggle, local entrepreneurs and innovators have been able to build disruptive startups, secure funding, and create new jobs.

We’ve joined forces for this event with 9 other startups who have collectively raised $100 million in venture capital and have created more than 100 new jobs for San Diego. 

 San Diego’s not only a great place to live, but a great place to innovate. We’re shining a spotlight on the local technology startup community.

We all know that San Diego is the best place to live, and we want to show Silicon Valley and the rest of the world that you don’t have to sacrifice quality-of –life and settle for congested freeways and bad weather in order to work for an exciting, life-changing company that’s on the cutting-edge.

People think of San Diego as strictly a biotech town or a military town (or a lazy beach town) and assume that only interesting technology companies are in Silicon Valley. But in fact there are a number of great, innovative startups in San Diego doing really interesting things.

At SweetLabs, for instance, they’re re-inventing the PC by bringing the modern app experience to the desktop, so that anyone can enjoy services like Facebook or Twitter or Groupon with the same ease and elegance they enjoy on their mobile devices.  They have a great group of investors led by Google and Intel, and plan on doubling their staff over the next twelve months.

 BrightScope helps you make critical (yet too often confusing and ignored) financial decisions, such as retirement plans and wealth management.They are led by a great group of people and will be adding new people next year.

Here at TakeLessons,we're the nation's largest music lessons company, and provide the leading online platform for connecting anyone who wants to learn music with safe, certified music teachers. Backed by Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweights, CrossLink Capital (think Pandora) and SofTech Ventures (Twitter, Facebook, Groupon), we're building our teams in tech, sales, support, marketing, and product development. We're currently at 75 people and plan on adding 60-75 new people next year. 

Deal Current Network is the fastest growing white label daily deal software provider in the US and Canada. Deal Current provides deal software, deal inventory, deal distribution, and expert training to over 200 publishers. Their goal is to be the largest deal distribution network in the US in 2012. They are hiring for positions immediately.

Related articles

• Upcoming Events for San Diego Start Ups (stevencox.com)
• San Diego Tech Startup Launch Quickpitch Event (stevencox.com)
• Music Lessons Start Up Wins $20,000 (prweb.com)
• Intel Capital Leads $13M Round for SweetLabs in Bid to Re-Invent Desktop Experience (xconomy.com)
• Job growth is dependent on Start-ups (kauffman foundation)

Mary Meeker's internet trends presentation at Web 2.0 Summit

Mary Meeker, one of the most interesting forecasters, gave a presentation on her view of where the internet is going.

A stat I found fascinating is that ecommerce makes up less than 10% of the total pie. That means there's still a long way to go before we reach an equilibrium point. When you consider that services, as an industry, is far behind products when it comes to online commerce, it bodes well for companies like TakeLessons, Limos.com, Kitchit, and othes that are looking to create service brands that customers can trust.

I believe we're still in the early days of Service Commerce for the web and mobile.

Complete coverage at VentureBeat

Download Mary-Meeker-Internet-Trends-2011

 

 

 

Register for The Art of the Startup

From our friends at CONNECT:

CONNECT FrameWorks Workshops present The Art of the Start-up

Program Overview:
For entrepreneurs, deciding to form a company, or become involved with a start-up, presents enormous challenges. Navigating around legal, fund raising and other issues can often seem overwhelming, and traps for the unwary or uninformed are numerous. However, successfully avoiding the most common pitfalls made by entrepreneurs can make a significant difference as to whether or not a company is fundable, the sources and types of capital that will be attracted, who controls the company, the economic impact on founders upon exit, and a company’s likelihood of success. In this interactive half day workshop, Roger Rappoport will discuss these and other issues in three interactive sessions.

What you will learn:

• Start-up Issues Generally—including, choices in entity selection; an appropriate capitalization table, including how much stock to set aside for employees, consultants, board and advisory board members and the perils of Section 409A; Founders’ issues, including amount and allocation of founders’ stock (including Series FF Preferred Stock), vesting, assignment of intellectual property, employment/consulting agreements and more;

• Developing and Executing the Right Funding Strategy—including a discussion related to seed, angel and venture capital funding, appropriate funding instruments for each round, including the pros and cons of selling equity, convertible debt, and venture debt; selecting, and gaining access to, the right funding partner; and valuation, and things to do to increase the pre-money value of the company.

• The Anatomy of a Term Sheet— a brief discussion on the anatomy of the term sheet, including, understanding the structure of, and the provisions that will most likely be included in, a convertible debt and venture financing term sheet; how to arrive at a realistic pre-money valuation; the economic impact of certain terms on existing shareholders; the provisions that affect the degree to which current founders and management will have to relinquish control of major and/or day-to-day decision making; and the most recent trends relating to liquidation preferences, participation rights, anti-dilution provisions, pay-to-play provisions, redemption rights, registration rights, rights of first refusal and co-sale rights, and more.

Who should attend:

Founders, CEOs, and managers who are looking to start a company and develop and implement a funding strategy or are seeking funding, as well as scientists and technology experts considering a business start-up in need of financing.

Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. (Registration begins 7:30 a.m.)
Location: Sanford - Burnham Medical Research Institute
10905 Road to the Cure
San Diego, CA 92121
Note: A light breakfast will be provided for participants.
Contact: Linda Wells
Email: lwells@connect.org
Phone: 858-964-1319
Fees: Pre-Registration $45.
At the Door $65. (subject to availability)
*Registration will close on or before September 13.

Register Here

Related articles

• 5 Ways To Raise Funds for Your Startup (mashable.com)
• The Startup Factories, How Incubators Are Shaping Entrepreneurs [Report] (vccafe.com)
• One Book Every Entrepreneur and VC Should Own (techcrunch.com)

Seeking Venture Funding? Have a Clear Understanding of your Financials

Recently, I've discovered the blog of Robert Ochtel. He's an author and a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years experience. He's also raised over $50 million for his businesses, and started VentureBlue, a national Angel network. And, he's just up the road in Carlsbad, CA.

Robert wrote a post explaining why entrepreneurs should be comforatble and intimately involved in the company financials. Most VC's hail from business schools and if they have not ran a company themselves, they do know how to analyze financial statements. So it becomes paramout that the entrepreneur be able to explain the projections and the assumptions underlying them.

Image via Wikipedia

Don't defer your financials to someone else. You can have mentors help you with it, but it's important that you, as the CEO, understand the key variables that shape your business. By doing so, you can understand why your projections were off (which, in most cases, they will be).

"When presenting to venture capitalists, the CEO of your start-up company needs to be an expert in all aspects of your company, including its financial statements. It is not a good idea, as the CEO of your start-up, to defer the financial statement related questions to your CFO or another third party. As the CEO, you are the one where the “buck stops”, so venture capitalists expect you to be able answer any and all questions regarding your start-up company’s financial statements. Therefore, as an entrepreneur you need to study your company’s financial statements from an investor’s point of view, including being able to recite the underlying assumptions of your financial statements. If you cannot do this, you will not get far with the venture capitalists and your ultimate goal of securing funding."

Read Robert's post here

Related articles

• Being an Entrepreneur in the Great Recession (unionstreetmedia.com)
• Venture Capital: It's a Downer (blogs.wsj.com)
• Entrepreneurial DNA: Do You Have it? (blogs.harvardbusiness.org)

A VC Gets On Board with Profits, Not Revenues

I found this story from Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures. I've always found his posts to be thoughtful and useful:

"I think that's an important part of the economics of the web that are left out of most discussions of Internet business models. Yes, we are turning analog dollars into digital pennies in many cases. But we are also doing the same thing on the cost side, maybe even more so. And I think that "operating leverage" is going to create a lot of value."Read the Whole Story at A VC, Jan 2009

From Techcrunch:

It looks like its going to be a tough 2009 for start-ups looking for an A or B round. Only 55 funds have raised capital, compared to 78 funds from a year ago. This will trickle down and offer less availability for younger companies looking to get their ideas of the ground.

See post from yesterday. Seek to prove your model on your own dime and with sweat equity. Then, seek expansion capital rather than proof-of-concept capital. Also, look to friends and family (maybe a rich uncle) that believes in you. Remember, at a start-up stage, most people are betting on the jockey, not the horse.



Venture Hacks — Thoughts on Adam Smith’s Letter to Graduating Y Combinator Companies

Venture Hacks has great commentary on Adam Smith's letter to Y Combinator companies.

Y Combinator is a mini-incubator that focuses on getting very early-stage companies access to seed money, technical and business advice, and other things that help raise the probability of getting to market.

One particularly enlightening part of the post included the discussion of traunching. While I don't know the correct definition, it seems a lot of term sheets are written with the ability for an investor to re-price their investment later. That would suck...

"Tranches are generally stupid. They have zero upside and catastrophic downside.At best, tranches give your current investors a right to invest at yesterday’s valuation if your company is doing well. If your company is doing poorly, your investors will figure out how to get out of their obligation to invest."

Link: Venture Hacks — Thoughts on Adam Smith’s Letter to Graduating Y Combinator Companies.