From day one, we’ve built TakeLessons right here in the heart of San Diego. Over the past few years, I’ve personally seen an explosion of activity as more and more people become interested in working for themselves, starting a company, and running after their dream. Compared to yesterday, San Diego’s technology and innovation scene has …
Four Ways San Diego Can Continue to Build It’s Startup Ecosystem Read More »
I’m happy to announce TakeLessons.com latest round of venture funding today. This round increases the total amount raised to $20mm and will allow us to accelerate our expansion into more categories outside of music, including tutoring, performing arts, and languages. We’ve even started to see new matches in categories such as welding, crocheting, robotics, and …
Good news. TakeLessons selected as a San Diego Venture Group 2012 “Cool Companies” – http://bit.ly/JjmTrY Related articles Music Lessons Start Up Wins $20,000 (prweb.com)
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Nick Hampshire with the Northwest Young Entrepreneurs Association about building companies and what I've learned as we continue to grow TakeLessons. Here is the Q&A: Audio MP3 download of Steven Cox interview is located here: Nick Hampshire: What is your philosophy on life and business? Steven Cox: …
Interview with the Northwest Young Entrepreneurs Association Read More »
Image via Wikipedia I read an interesting post from Mark Cuban today on the problems of startup success using a free model. Back in the 90's when I was cutting my teeth around web/tech, the mantra we heard from VC's was "get big fast", and "eyeballs are everything", and "don't worry about making money, we'll …
How are you going to make a profit in your startup? Read More »
The Union Tribune ran a story on young web start-ups in San Diego and what they are doing to make the most out of the recession. TakeLessons was a featured company. "The company started working out of Cox's house. It now has offices, but not the $700 Aeron chairs that typified the excesses of the …
TakeLessons featured in San Diego Union Tribune Sunday Edition Read More »
Image via CrunchBase Josh Kopelman with First Round Capital has a simple, yet true post today on Entrepreneurship. He mentions a couple First Round portfolio companies where the CEO's/Founders really had to struggle through hard times in order to make it. It is through the difficulties that we see what we're made of, and how …
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. …
Seth is right. Focus on keeping expenses in line and build something that your customers really want. The days of “get big fast and burn money” are over.
The grass may seem greener, and the pasture may seem larger somewhere else. But what I’ve learned is that I must be able to answer the question, “What is the value we’re creating that people are willing to pay for?”