A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 5, 2021

There has been this narrative about investing in VC funds that you have to get into the top quartile (25%) or possibly the top decile (10%) in order to generate good returns. I have heard that for as long as I have been in VC and probably have written it here a few times. Well, it turns out that is not right.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

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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). 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. I guarantee this is a bad VC. There are many great VCs.

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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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David Teten VC

MAY 19, 2017

Historically VC has been an apprenticeship business. VC ASSOCIATIONS. No-cost accelerators: Afore Capital Angel to Fund Manager (AFM), Founder Institute VC Lab , Recast Capital Enablement Program – Accelerators with tuition: Oper8r , OnConduit ‘s Emerging Fund Managers Initiative. Reboot VC Bootcamp.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

We also spoke about what it takes to be an effective board member. On the one hand I often find that some board members are seemingly reading the board materials on the fly and don’t have a firm grasp of the business fundamentals while on the other hand some board members like to tinker in the running of the business.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

As business owners, we often have a huge amount of wealth tied up within our businesses, but don’t form the habit of creating other income streams and forms of wealth, such as investments outside our businesses. and more articles from the EO blog. She is assertive, asks questions and stands up for what she believes in.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2021

At the time, seven-figure seed investments in African startups were a rarity. These investments are usually made by third-party investors (friends and family), and range between $25,000-$150,000. Andreata Muforo is a partner at TLcom Capital, a pan-African early-stage VC firm. So why the sudden change in appetite from investors?

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? I only recently invested and I only got here through persistence.

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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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David Teten VC

JANUARY 19, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. raised money from VCs and 7.7% More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. A new category of VCs have emerged offering a hybrid between VC and RBI, which we call “Flexible VC”. .

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David Teten VC

JANUARY 19, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2015

We recently released the video sharing app Ferris and announced that Upfront Ventures led the funding in the company in our seed round of $2 million and I personally joined the board. So Why Did We Invest? As a VC (especially based in LA), I see hundreds of video apps. Yes, we’ve only launched on iOS for now.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. Get to know VCs over a long period of time so that when you’re ready to get engaged you feel you know their character. But what was the VC like when the chips were down?

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2012

Instead of just e-mailing people and dealing with them directly, as we do in person, we're a blog post away from a flamewar. Of course, you don't always need that experience from a VC. An experienced entrepreneur who has raised money multiple times can be a great board member as well. We box shadows--especially on the internet.

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David Teten VC

DECEMBER 3, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies. 1) Manage the firm .

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David Teten VC

JANUARY 21, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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David Teten VC

DECEMBER 4, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies. 1) Manage the firm .

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David Teten VC

JANUARY 21, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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David Teten VC

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focussed LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. In addition to off-the-shelf products, many VCs talk about their own proprietary systems.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

But it’s not your average French VC fund as it’s going to be an evergreen fund focused on building a better world. If you’re not familiar with Marie Ekeland, she used to be an investor at French VC firm Elaia. She invested in adtech firm Criteo, which later became a public company in the U.S.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

No matter how much I or any of the team here at First Round made themselves accessable through Office Hours, LinkedIn, Twitter, speaking, blogging, etc., Then I realized that it's probably not obvious what the dynamics are around how VCs tend to get introduced to companies and what works best for people, so I figured I'd blog about it.

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Dream It

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

VCs are judging your ability to sell If you are running a B2B company, investors know that you need to “sell” to potential early adopters. The Dreamit team has said it before, raising money from a VC is a lot like sales. If they hesitate, respond with, “Okay, can you tell me the 2 or 3 things you would need to see in order to invest?”

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OurCrowd

DECEMBER 10, 2021

Top investment opportunities Startup of the Week: InsideTracker, optimizing human performance Going beyond ESG investing Laly David: Excited about FoodTech FT: OurCrowd leading Israel’s private sector in Gulf investments Join us online Dec. Invest Now. Going beyond ESG investing. 14 for VC 101 for US investors.

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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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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

How many more investments could I do? These are things that other VCs think about, but founders who come to pitch don''t think about too much. When you blog, tweet , Instagram , etc., as a VC, sometimes your own website becomes an afterthought. Was the fund enough to keep me going? How where things going? So there ya go.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. We led an investment round in a company a while ago in which we wrote a seven-figure check and have taken a board seat.

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JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. In a way it feels intuitive to us – the readers of this blog – because we’re the tech crowd. The first investment I ever made as a VC was in a company now called Invoca.

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MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. “This essay is dedicated to the great VC’s on my board who I am lucky to work with: Sameer Gandhi from Accel, Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed, and Kirsten Green from Forerunner. As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Recording audio and/or video can be a huge investment of time, or very little at all. The where does it live question is also an equally complex one, but the way we’ve got our Plinko board setup above, e-mail and LinkedIn clearly play an important role—and I’m a big believer that you’re missing out if you’re not using both.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

I''m super proud of Rob, Ben and the whole Backupify team--and this is particularly special for me because Backupify was the first investment I ever made as a VC, and the first board I ever sat on. I started reading a great blog called Business Pundit in 2004. Venture Capital & Technology'

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

While we’re passionate about helping founders turn their ideas into flourishing businesses, we also recognize the massive challenge that VCs face when raising their own early funds by courting the right limited partners (LPs) to get off the ground. But does it make sense to cast a wide net and contact as many LPs as possible?

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I've only recently started leading investments a little over two years ago. My track record of leading deals consists of only seven investments, luckily no zeros (knock on wood) and one exit. Conferences, startup blogs, meetups--they're all filled with people telling you how to build your company. I mean, what do I know?

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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. I have sat on a board with Howard and have known him a few years.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 28, 2022

Gloat , an internal marketplace for corporate talent, today announced that it raised $90 million in a Series D round led by Generation Investment Management, bringing the startup’s total raised to $192 million. Gloat is also benefitting from a general rise in VC funding for HR tech startups. In January, VCs funneled more than $1.4

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