5Q03: Puneet Agarwal (True Ventures) on pitching investors, maker culture, and big trends he’s watching. — The Orchestrate.io Blog
http://t.co/LkQ7kDluf0
Recent Interview for Workbridge
After a recent speech I gave for startups, I was interviewed by Jennifer DesRosiers (love that name!) about tech startups. Here are my answers…
When did you first discover your love of technology?
>> When I was a 11 my brother built a homemade crystal radio. It was fascinating to see him assemble these inert parts and then hear sound come out. From then on I was hooked on technology and electronics.
What is your favorite part of your job?
>> The unknown factor, the challenge to create the future and make something grow from nothing.
What sparked the idea for NeoRay?
>> The original idea for me came from seeing people use their cellphones to buy from vending machines in Japan. Simultaneously Alessio watched his father create a PayPal competitor and he wanted to make something more futuristic for mobile payments; he then saw a WIRED article “Kill The Password!”. We compared notes and decided the timing was right for mobile payments without passwords leveraging advances in biometrics..
What in your opinion is the next big thing in technology?
>> The 15 Minute Website and Personal Website “Portfolios” – soon anyone will be able to build multiple personal sites with full e-commerce, payment systems, community, social networking, SEO, and big data analytics with no coding and very easy manipulation. Currently there is a barrier to this – you must know some coding to optimize this and it’s difficult to manage multiple sites. People and companies will have a portfolio of websites and not even think about it.. Most of the tools already exist but need a lot of refinement; it will take another 2-5 years.
What excites/interests you most about tech startups and what makes them successful?
>> The Scalability challenge. Much of my career has been dedicated to trying to create the alchemy of continuously growing a company. The progress of E-Commerce, HTML5, CSS3, PHP and Javascript have made it so any startup idea, tech or non-tech, can become reality with very little money or work. The difficult step has shifted from launch to revenues, scalability, growth.
This is exciting because it allows so many people to give it a try which equals more great ideas coming to light, but still requires a great idea and great execution to have larger success and growth. Pretty soon the most important people at startups will shift back from developers to those that can create and sustain growth.
3 Questions to Ask Yourself (If You’re Trying to Convince The World That You Have a Hot Startup)
- What are people doing now because your product doesn’t exist, what is the pain you will solve?
- What is it that you know about your specific niche that other companies do not?
-
How and when does this make revenue and profits? What is the growth graph?
@tomnora
Southern California #Angels and Their Investments
Southern California Angels on Twitter and Facebook
Are you a southern California angel (or do you know one) who’d like to be on our list?
Click here to add an angel.
Jason Calacanis (Los Angeles)
http://www.twitter.com/jason
http://www.facebook.com/jcalacanis
Sample Investments:
http://www.twitter.com/backupify
http://www.twitter.com/gdgt
http://www.twitter.com/blippy
http://www.twitter.com/rapportive
http://www.twitter.com/gowalla
http://www.twitter.com/challengepost
http://www.twitter.com/chartbeat
Matt Coffin (Los Angeles)
http://www.twitter.com/mattcoffin
Sample Investments:
Tweets by answers
http://www.twitter.com/demandmedia
http://www.twitter.com/rubiconproject
http://www.twitter.com/docstoc
http://www.twitter.com/ebureau
http://www.twitter.com/cyberrain
http://www.twitter.com/inadco
http://www.twitter.com/unsubscribeme
http://www.twitter.com/adlyads
http://www.twitter.com/hautelook
Paige Craig (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/paigecraig
http://www.facebook.com/paigecraig
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/betterworks
http://twitter.com/dealquad
http://twitter.com/backtype
http://twitter.com/kiip
http://twitter.com/mobileroadie
http://twitter.com/contextlogic
http://twitter.com/styleseat
http://twitter.com/plancast
http://twitter.com/klout
http://twitter.com/postling
http://twitter.com/takelessons
http://twitter.com/metricly
http://twitter.com/livematrix
http://twitter.com/ecomom
http://twitter.com/indinero
http://twitter.com/socialrewards
John Greathouse (Santa Barbara)
http://twitter.com/johngreathouse
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/rightscale
http://twitter.com/appfolio
http://twitter.com/frontiertech
Sean Jacobsohn (Santa Monica)
http://twitter.com/sjacobsohn
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/linkedin
http://twitter.com/offermatic
http://twitter.com/strongtech
Paul Kedrosky (La Jolla)
http://twitter.com/pkedrosky
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/mozes
http://twitter.com/firstrain
http://twitter.com/xpenser
http://twitter.com/stocktwits
http://twitter.com/weathertrends
Clark Landry (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/clandry
http://www.facebook.com/clarkwlandry
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/edgecast_cdn
http://twitter.com/burstly
http://twitter.com/ecomom
http://twitter.com/citymommy
http://twitter.com/310labs
Beau Laskey (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/beaulaskey
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1039099299
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/playdom
http://twitter.com/photobucket
Peter Lee (Los Angeles)
(Baroda Ventures)
http://twitter.com/ptlee
http://www.facebook.com/ptlee
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/steelhousemedia
http://twitter.com/gamecrush
Howard Lindzon (Coronado)
http://twitter.com/howardlindzon
http://www.facebook.com/howardlindzon
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/tweetdeck
Tweets by blogtalkradio
http://twitter.com/betaworks
http://twitter.com/bitly
Tweets by foodzie
http://twitter.com/stocktwits
http://twitter.com/zentact
http://twitter.com/mytrade
http://twitter.com/limosdotcom
http://twitter.com/buddymedia
Thomas McInerney (Los Angeles & San Francisco)
http://twitter.com/tgmtgm
http://www.facebook.com/tgmtgm
Sample Investments:
Tweets by klout
http://twitter.com/mochimedia
http://twitter.com/blockchalk
http://twitter.com/gamesalad
http://twitter.com/cyberrain
http://twitter.com/shopflick
http://twitter.com/socialpicks
http://twitter.com/postling
http://twitter.com/burstly
http://twitter.com/mogotix
http://twitter.com/flingotv
Farhad Mohit (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/farhad667
http://www.facebook.com/farhad667
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/bizrate
http://twitter.com/shopzilla
Brian Norgard (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/briannorgard
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/adlyads
http://twitter.com/q_angellist
http://twitter.com/flowtown
http://twitter.com/grockit
Talmadge O’Neill (Prague & Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/talmadgeorion
http://www.facebook.com/talmadge.oneill
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/pollenware
http://twitter.com/bluebeam
http://twitter.com/kijubi
http://twitter.com/linkedin
http://twitter.com/chegg
http://twitter.com/eharmony
http://twitter.com/teslamotors
Michael Parekh (NYC & Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/mparekh
http://www.facebook.com/mparekh
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/stocktwits
http://twitter.com/eqal
http://twitter.com/seesmic
http://twitter.com/scanscout
http://twitter.com/dogster
http://twitter.com/loomia
Mark Suster (Los Angeles)
http://twitter.com/msuster
http://www.facebook.com/msuster
Sample Investments:
http://twitter.com/ecomom
http://twitter.com/gendaigame
http://twitter.com/laughstub
Updates on Startup Workshops and the Startup we’re launching
I started a new group 2 months ago in Los Angeles – Startup Workshops – #SUWSLA to teach startup success concepts and try to launch new startups.We have over 100 members now, have had a few meetings and are in the process of launching a new startup with some of the members. Below is my update to the group today. Please feel free to join (it’s free to join) even if you’re not in LA, you can get involved in the discussion and we travel to many other places. And if you are in So Cal, please join us for one of these events. The next one is a Happy Hour Thursday night in West Hollywood.
Message to group 5/14/2012:
This group now has over 100 members, with minimal exposure – pretty cool.
I never had a goal of maximizing overall # of members, just to provide tools that can be used immediately as well as a network where members actually help each other to start and grow startups. So far, so good – we have some pretty amazing people in the group and we’ve (almost) started a startup.
HAPPY HOUR – looking forward to this, 16 rsvps so far plus a few more I know of. The goal of this is to make connections and hear about the startup we launched together in April. There’s a lot of frustration in trying to get a business going, especially when it relies on technology to succeed, so please come if you can and bring a friend who is interested in the startup thing.
STARTUP #1 “LAUNCHED” – WE’RE STILL EARLY EARLY STAGE – Last week we had our second meeting, this week we’ll have our third, with home work assignments, so it looks we may be actually doing something here. It’s an experiment so stay tuned. We have a strong team, but we’re still looking for more development skills.
NEXT GENERAL MEETINGS – I’m getting ready to announce this, leaning toward Funding The Startup as a topic. I’m trying to finalize sponsors and the venue. Not sure if we should try to launch another startup after this one, what does everybody think? Starting to look like an incubator here. Also working on an Orange County meeting for late June, details coming. Also looking at Palo Alto, Scottsdale, Boulder, Austin from inquiries there.
Hopefully I’ll see/meet you Thursday night or soon after. @tomnora