Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. But let’s face it, as a VC you spend time with whichever companies you want.

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Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Favorite business book, blog, podcast? What is one piece of advice you’d give every founder? The strategy to minimize loss is not the strategy to win. Execute on the strategy to win. Great leaders create spectacular teams by hiring people who are better at what they do than the leaders themselves. I love teaching.

VC 111

VC entrepreneurship pitching strategy 111

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. Relaunching our brand is part of our larger initiative to build a VC firm of the future. When he starts his blog I’ll let you know.

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ventures VC strategy advice 324

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. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations.

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VC board pitching venture capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. VC has operated as an “old boys club”, with access to capital often requiring entrance through an elite university engineering department in one of two cities. Startup Advice' That seems pretty superficial!”.

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ventures venture capital advice VC 343

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. So what are Rob’s secret hacks that he didn’t spill in his blog post? . That in itself is quite a challenge.

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board VC advice pitching 365

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Startups and VC FreshToHome, an Indian meat startup going after a piece of the country’s food delivery market, has a new backer in Amazon, which led a $104 million round in funding. The company said the breach happened in December and was confirmed by a gaming blog. So what happens when you are good at what you do?

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micromobility VC creativity advice 85

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JUNE 15, 2022

You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. Here, he shares 14 short strategies he uses, including, Two teachers are better than one ?—?if Send blog posts, not sales emails ?—?Rather Welcome to another edition of our new newsletter! Test your idea before you fully commit? —?soft

investing 52

investing investment incubation venture capital 52

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 29, 2012

With a little patience, forethought, and strategy, you can avoid angel burnout. Being a good angel or VC has a lot to do with pattern matching. A mutual fund manager won't give you their portfolio strategy but most seed funds love having a network of angels to syndicate deals with. 4) Journal your progress. 5) Focus.

peer-to-peer 333

peer-to-peer angel investing advice entrepreneurs 333

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There has been much discussion about VCs doing seed funding in the past year. I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. Short summary of my posts: 1.

VC 298

VC strategy investing investment 298

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. But this strategy great depends on point 3. The reason is that no VC wants to see the venture debt provider get burned if you become bankrupt. ” I highly recommend reading it. Profitability.

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2022

Additionally, a startup could get a ton of applicants due to pay, location or even recent coverage in a Well Known Tech Blog — which can bode well for success, but could also just be a result of great marketing. For my full take on this topic, check out my TechCrunch+ column: Is algorithmic VC investment compatible with due diligence?

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disruption VC advice investing 85

TechCrunch

MAY 7, 2022

For more thoughts, read a round-up of all the tech layoffs this past week , and then head to TechCrunch+ for some advice on how to navigate the market. Need advice on navigating a tough startup market? As always, you can support me by forwarding this newsletter to a friend or following me on Twitter or my blog. Start here.

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advice ventures capital education 97

Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

As Our Colleague Kate Stern Departs Homebrew To Go Back to Company Building, Here’s Her Advice. Homebrew: Looking back at our “ Welcome Kate ” blog post three years ago, what were you thinking at the time. VC is a relatively opaque industry, and it was hard to know what to expect.

venture capital 70

venture capital ventures capital advice 70

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

I wrote a blog post about being hands on where I argued that startup founders need to be hands-on or in my words, “you can’t run a burger chain if you’ve never flipped burgers.&#. He told me that the CEO set the strategy but that he, the President, traveled to all of the conferences evangelizing on behalf of the company.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

People assume that I’m biased because I’m a VC and think you should always get the highest valuation possible. But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. Q: “If you have a term sheet on the table how should you leverage with other VCs?&# A: It’s not best. This is wrong.

venture capital 282

venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?) If you haven’t read my blog posts on why Tracy chose the right strategy it’s worth a read. That may soon change.

peer-to-peer 363

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs startup entrepreneurship 363

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. A few weeks ago I sat through two very contrasting presentations and wrote this blog post right afterward. ’s strategy and missteps.

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pitching VC advice strategy 288

Hunter Walk

DECEMBER 11, 2023

I *think* Daniel and I met at a VC happy hour many years ago. It might ‘exit’ again at a later point (anything from a sale to an IPO), but it’s no long dependent on VC funding. DC: I’m going to keep this brief, but if you want to the long version of it, I recommend reading our blog about it.

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ventures leadership VC venture capital 65

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California.

strategy 293

strategy venture capital SaaS investing 293

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

I don’t think most VC’s do. But in most situations a VC will want to be able to judge how you perform over time. It’s what prompted my post on how to build relationships with VCs. The best entrepreneurs seek advice from everybody they need, learn lessons and make minor adjustments on a monthly basis.

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entrepreneurs advice innovation VC 291

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

As always, you can support me by sharing this newsletter, following me on Twitter or subscribing to my personal blog. This week I published a first look at the stealthy business , built by Shimkus and former Udemy CEO Dennis Yang, and its recently capitalized strategy of cohort-based learning for the enterprise. Deal of the week.

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pitching health advice leadership 94

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. It’s one of my favorite blog posts. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

David Teten VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

One of the first decisions we had to make in setting up our new VC fund, Versatile Venture Capital , was our CRM and marketing technology infrastructure. . I’m very interested in the tech stack of private equity/VC firms , both to improve the efficiency of Versatile VC and also as a focus area for our investing.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 123

David Teten VC

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Haystack VC runs almost entirely on Notion. I always make a point of keeping firm records updated in the major data-trackers tracking the VC industry: AngelList , CB Insights , Crunchbase , Dealroom , Dow Jones VentureSource , Pitchbook , Preqin , and Refinitiv Eikon. Pollen VC offers a LTV calculator. Betterfront.io

technology 81

technology investing investment ventures 81

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? People often ask me why I started blogging. GRP Partners last fund is the single best performing VC fund in the US (prequin data) for its vintage year). Absofuckinglutely. accessibility.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

In case you missed all the kerfuffle this weekend, I posted this blog post originally on TechCrunch. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. Still, as I’ve written in the past, what I love about blogging is the ability to have a public debate where we can all learn. I’m sorry, but that’s dumb.

angel investing 267

angel investing VC mix-use entrepreneurs 267

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

Jonathan Strauss took this issue head on in a blog post that I believe every startup founder should read on “ Replacing Oneself as CEO.” I know because I marked the occasion with a blog post on how to have a great VC meeting. The decisions were endless, the choices not obvious and the VC involved a pain in the ass.

peer-to-peer 303

peer-to-peer energy advice founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. Most early-stage entrepreneurs who have worked with me (either as an angel or as a seed VC) know that I don’t rely at all on the social proof of other investors.

financing 286

financing finance advice VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Protecting every investment – including bad hands – is a losing strategy in poker & in angel investing. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry. You want to conserve cash to bet stronger on hands down the line where the odds are more in your favor. This is the same with angel investing.

angel investing 283

angel investing investing investment disruption 283

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. It’s one of my favorite blog posts. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. He gives the example of Roelof Boetha, a very well known VC from Sequoia, who always (re) introduces himself to Michael and reminds him who he is even though Michael has met him several times.

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advice pitching entrepreneurs VC 322

David Teten VC

MAY 16, 2017

I particularly like OpenLP.com , Origins , and the Raise blog , all of which include content from multiple LPs. . Limited partner due diligence on VC and private equity funds. I’ve collected several lists of limited partners focused on VC. Aggreg8r: LPs in Emerging Micro-VCs. Relationship Science.

ventures 74

ventures investing investment VC 74

David Teten VC

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 3) Raise capital. She answered, ‘We see a lot of deals.’ Her answer? ‘I

technology 95

technology investing investment VC 95

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Investing Strategy.

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