Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. Stable Capital Amongst the hardest things to find when one raises a new fund is ability to have stable capital. We lived that first hand.

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InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. We are productizing the raising of capital for startups. ”. One mistake I made early on is I thought, ‘capital is fungible, look at the foreign exchange markets.’

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Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

When I first started as a startup CEO in 1999 there were no guides on raising venture capital. This series inspired me to start my blog as a VC. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. Drag along rights? That sounds fine to me.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Guide Blogging 304

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below. ” But I pointed out a professor at HBS ( Tom Eisenmann ) who teaches a course where blogs are a part of the classroom reading material. He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed). Venture Capital. ” Who else does Clayton pray for?

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Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Cincinnati, like many startup communities in the US over the past 5 years, has revitalized important regions in its urban core, created accelerators, built co-working facilities, pooled together angel capital, attracted VCs, involved educational institutions and solicited the help of important corporations in a more cohesive ecosystem.

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. He came to me months ago asking about a “strategic round” of capital for his startup at a high price. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. Take more advice.

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Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. He had just written another one of his way-over-the-top blog posts. I think Dave has blogging Tourettes Syndrome when he hears the word VC. We then started talking about Dave McClure. I love the concept.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. I’m going to save that for a future blog post. I’ve been to similar events with First Round Capital and True Ventures. We learned this weekend that it was named after his East Hampton home.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. If you work at a company that has raised $20 million in capital or more this is the likely situation unless you had overnight and meteoric growth that gave you the power to hold on to a board majority.

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Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. In Summary.

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Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2018

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.”

Outsource Development 72

Outsource Development Outsource Summary Training 72

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

It’s why I always work hard to find images for my blog posts & why all of my keynote presentations are visual rather than bullet points with words. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This is a long post, so I put an executive summary here if you want to get the point without reading all the detail.

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Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2015

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.”

Outsource Development 104

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Summary 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2010

By Adam Hoeksema According to a report distributed by the Angel Capital Education Foundation , total startup funding from venture capital funds, state funds, and angel investors totals approximately $20.8 Surprisingly, friends and family contributed nearly three times the amount of capital to thousands of startups each year.

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Funding Startup Blogging Invest 90

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. Think about venture capital. But if you were going to start a venture capital fund today, you’d want to stand out. But if you were going to start a venture capital fund today, you’d want to stand out. My views are pretty well known.

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Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. That notes only told part of the story.

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Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

It got me thinking, which for me is always the sign of a good blog post. I became quite good friends with a journalist at the Financial Times and eventually helped her as she wrote a book on the venture capital industry. In my blog I just save that for the comments where people can say what their perspectives are.

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Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. A summary of what we discussed is below: Not 100% in order of the video, but close.

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Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2014

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.”

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Startup 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2013

I found a great summary of key strategies used, with life stories, in “ The Risk Takers ,” by Renee and Don Martin. That quality can help you capitalize on competitors vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth. Exploit your competitor’s weakness and make it your strength.

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Entrepreneur Startup Advertising Social Media 117

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

Here is a quick summary of my POV: When you start a company a 50/50 partnership seems obvious. It is not uncommon to see startup founders walk before raising capital and take large pieces of equity with no vesting. People just don’t talk about it publicly or in blogs. Why risk it? I am one of them.

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Startup Equity Funding Summary 393

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

They seemed a little excessive in trying to make it hard for their competitors to raise capital. Case in point, “ Why Your Uber Driver Hates Uber ” is a blog post dressed up as journalism. I was at the first pitch meeting they ever did to raise capital. Summary: Has Uber been a bit aggressive in business practices?

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Press Journal Startup Training 418

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2010

If you are an entrepreneur seeking capital to grow your business, let me explain why this simple concept should drive some important choices you will need to make. Chances are, acquiring capital is an important part of your growth strategy. If you don’t succeed at raising capital, there’s not much point in trying to build the business.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Capital 90

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

I can tell you many angels I know – and really sharp ones with more than enough capital to put to work – are telling me, “I’m currently going to sit on the sidelines for a while. In summary … A few great hands is all it takes to win big. Easier to start companies, yes. I doubt it.

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Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2017

I found a good summary of these attributes in a recent book, “ The Old School Advantage ,” by an expert on interpersonal communication, J. Actively participating in social media is the place to start, including blogging and positively responding to customer feedback, to build a growing crowd of followers.

Social Media 58

Social Media Customer Custom Entrepreneur 58

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Tags: Startup Advice This Week in Venture Capital. It was accept the terms or go into bankruptcy so we took the money. Heck, maybe we’ll even invite a lawyer on to do it with us!

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 13, 2011

And if you think this blog post was specifically targeting YOU because you asked me to lunch – it isn’t. If you’re both well capitalized CEOs and you’re just looking to build a deeper relationship / networking – usually fine. In summary: By all means “lunch.” I have nobody in mind.

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Venture Capital Startup Email Networking 397

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

“I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters). The industry is dying, except for the top 2%.

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Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2012

I found a great summary of key strategies used, with life stories, in a book titled “ The Risk Takers ,” by Renee and Don Martin. That quality can help you capitalize on competitors vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth. Hit ‘em where they ain’t.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. For simplicity I’ll assume you’ve raised some money from angels or seed investors and you’re either raising an A round or a B round of venture capital. This goes into the heart of my controversial blog post (coming soon!

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

Mike Yavonditte is the founder of the “super hot&# Hashable , a startup out of NYC that has been described as a “ Mint.com for Social Capital ” Mike sold his previous company, Quigo , to Aol for $340 Million. The video can be watched here , but there is a most excellent summary below provided by John Excley. Thank you, John.

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Google Startup Advertising Acquisition 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Short summary of my posts: 1. If you don’t understand the concept of “signaling&# please read the blog post I wrote on Understanding VC signaling. From the debate on VentureHacks, our offline chats and from our blog posts, I think that Chris Dixon and I are pretty much 98% aligned on the topic.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc.

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Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “ Has Convertible Debt Won ?&# Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice. Seth was basing this on a Tweet by Paul Graham that said&#. “Convertible notes have won.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

I found a great summary of key strategies used, with life stories, in a book titled “ The Risk Takers ,” by Renee and Don Martin. That quality can help you capitalize on competitors vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth. Hit ‘em where they ain’t.

Tips 89

Tips Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media 89

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

When I started blogging it was because I was inspired by Brad Feld. I always wanted to work with Brad for this reason so I started blogging because I figured if transparency worked for Brad I would try the same approach. Many experienced partners are funds have 7-10 boards and most of these will need more capital.

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Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Great inches eked out on tech blogs or industry rags. The price points are not as high as your beautiful Excel spreadsheet had forecasted when you raised your seed capital. The sales market is as pure capitalism as it gets. In summary I say that channels can be the lifeblood of startups. End of story. What Went Wrong?

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Startup Sales Marketing Product 293