Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2009

Arnold Waldstein , who stops by periodically on my blog and always leaves relevant comments, made the observation that, “if I want to connect with you, I’ll engage with you on this blog …from there, a follow on Twitter, a link on LinkedIn are closing the loop of connection rather that opening a cold door.&# This is so true.

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advice networking communities enablement 276

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 19, 2010

This comment and blog post prompted me to write a post that has been in my queue for a long time. Tags: Startup Advice. That means most of us are getting derailed from our work four times each hour, maybe more if you work in a high email traffic office.&#. Of even if you don't have a team I'll bet you have a boss.

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advice consulting entrepreneurs investing 301

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

Some readers of this blog also pointed out that “pivoting&# can be disruptive on the employees of an organization. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Some “kick it up a gear&# and react how Toby did. They get a sixth sense that you’re going to pull this thing off.

entrepreneurs 288

entrepreneurs advice leadership angel investing 288

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 8, 2010

Men, on the other hand, can meet another guy just a couple of times and have no problem reaching out to each other for advice, a favor, or to pitch them on a deal. In another situation, I chat on IM with a junior editor for a tech blog on a regular basis. Tags: First Round Capital Venture Capital & Technology nextNY.

networking 250

networking venture capital advice entrepreneurship 250

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2010

I wanted to see two things: Would the second (or sometimes even third Tweet) convert enough people to my blog to make it worth potentially annoying some people on Twitter? If your goal is to send a Tweet that converts to people to a blog post sending more than one Tweet is recommended. My conclusions. So, whaddaya think?

advice 289

advice mix-use strategy communities 289

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 11, 2010

I recently wrote a blog post about why I believe that startup teams in close proximity perform better. If anyone has experience, advice or dollars and wants to help please be in touch. Do tell … Tags: Start-up Advice Tech Market Analysis. As they showed me around the CIC I was instantly envious.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer incubation startup advice 285

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

To understand this in great detail see this very important blog post by Henry Blodget on the unemployment rate in the US and its impact on the recovery. So if I am unnecessarily concerned in this blog post (great!) My advice : if you’re raising a $750,000 round and you have demand for $1.2 million – take it.

VC 269

VC startup advice innovation 269

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

I had written a blog post on exactly this – how to not suck at group presentations – and what he said reminded me a lot of this post. So cheeky Chamillionaire went to Universal wearing the tags from every other label he had visited. Tags: Startup Advice This Week in Venture Capital.

entrepreneurs 356

entrepreneurs media entrepreneurship creativity 356

David Teten VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

If you keep all your relationships in one place, then you’ll need to use tags or another identifier to isolate the folks that really matter to you. There’s a lot of value in pulling in all of our correspondents into a CRM, but only if most of them are tagged as “acquaintances” so they don’t make the database unwieldy. He recommended:

venture capital 123

venture capital capital ventures VC 123

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2010

Ask me something very narrow that I can answer without typing a whole blog post length response. Fred Wilson nailed this in his “double opt in&# blog post. I also covered the “double opt in&# and added my “ I’m moving you to BCC &# advice that is a huge time saver. Tags: Startup Advice.

advice 332

advice entrepreneurs investing investment 332

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a blog post ( here ) in which I urged people to not have too many founders. But it is the “founding team” size and “percentage ownership” advice in this post that I feel you’re being too prescriptive about. In terms of %’s, my advice to entrepreneurs is to focus on value and fairness.

founder 251

founder advice VC entrepreneurs 251

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

Chris Dixon wrote a blog post last week titled, “ Techies and Normals &# in which he defined “Techies&# as people who are not just “early adopters&# but also have more of a geeky, technical, product bent. Anyway, Chris’s blog got me thinking about Techies and Normals. He is both.

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advice entrepreneurs sustainability pitching 348

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.&#. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Unfortunately.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

The best entrepreneurs seek advice from everybody they need, learn lessons and make minor adjustments on a monthly basis. Seemic (now a Twitter client) was originally a video blogging platform. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Geni.com beget Yammer. I could go on and on.

entrepreneurs 291

entrepreneurs advice innovation VC 291

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. If you’ve read my blog for a while you’ll know that I’m a fan of starting businesses in a non-traditional way. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Startup Advice. Are you intuitive vs. process oriented? Take your inventory. Know thy weaknesses.

startup 289

startup advice entrepreneurs creativity 289

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

In particular I tried to do most of the “entrepreneur advice on VC” up front so that if you don’t want to watch our views on the deals you don’t have to. I don’t do advertising on my blog, but I thought it was worth mentioning Ryan in particular because he has an alternate model for doing a startup. They sponsor TWiVC.

VC 214

VC founder advice ventures 214

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. Apologies in advance if it sounds arrogant – just trying to impart some realistic advice. Then I get people sending me Twitter comments, blog comments and tons & tons of email intros. The most important advice I can give you is – give me context.

advice 322

advice pitching entrepreneurs VC 322

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2010

After a few days of controversial blog posts I thought I’d try something more light hearted today. From his blog posting on “ Why Am I passing ?&#. One area where I have made in-roads is in the “I’d like to buy you a coffee for 15 minutes and get some career advice&# emails from people I don’t know.

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advice investing investment VC 255

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

If you enjoy this blog I think you’ll enjoy watching the first 14 minutes of this video (just click on the image of me below). I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital? Tags: This Week in Venture Capital.

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VC ventures venture capital advice 210

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Fred Wilson said as much on his blog also. That is true of all my blog posts. It is what I love the most about debates and one of the things I love most about blogging. I suspect Mr. Wadhwa used hyperbole in his TechCrunch blog post to get more readers to look at his work. So it is with entrepreneurship.

entrepreneurship 289

entrepreneurship entrepreneurs advice VC 289

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. My advice to people thinking about getting an MBA is to think about the five C’s. I had to laugh a bit reading it.

VC 337

VC peer-to-peer advice consulting 337

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. . It’s one of my favorite blog posts. I had planned to blog about it at the time but I waited 2 days and the whole world blogged about it so I didn’t pile on. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

Unfortunately my wife reads my blog and she’d log in and add comments to dispel this rumor (she keeps me honest. When added to my volume of Facebook messages, LinkedIn requests, blog comments and Tweets my head is definitely below water. Dmitry was giving me advice that he only ever has two folders at any point in time.

advice 280

advice entrepreneurs networking innovation 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). You need to know how “tag along&# rights could potentially screw you. I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed.

startup 318

startup advice entrepreneurs VC 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2010

Let’s face it, if people want to blog as a career they have to be able to make money. Tags: Start-up Advice. Furthermore, when Twitter publishers make money from their work in supporting the Twitter platform this is good news for all involved. This is good for Twitter as well.

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advice energy support media 276

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. Tags: Start-up Advice. Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team. I have much experience in this domain. Engineering teams – feel free to attack! (or

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consulting technology incubation advice 400

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We also discussed how to deal with pricing in angel rounds and a strategy I advocated in my “social proof&# blog post , which is to price your initial angel round really low and get in the best possible angels as a way to get momentum in the company. I have a link on my blog to the angel deals I’ve done, which is here.

venture capital 282

venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons.&# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow [.].

advice 365

advice startup 365

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 20, 2009

… should I avoid blog posts like this that might be outside my normal remit? Tags: Start-up Advice. Somebody has stop scumbags like Trilegiant Corporation / Avis Budget and its owners, Apollo Management, from these forms of deceit on our most susceptible members of society. What do you think? I wonder what possessed him?

education 263

education advice board financing 263

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

Recently I wrote a blog post about how I hated losing, but I embrace it as a way to learn, improve and increase my win rates. Tags: Startup Advice. One of the things I learned from my “post-game analysis&# is that you’re most vulnerable right after you’ve won the deal. I won, that is, until I lost.

consulting 309

consulting advice VC support 309

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Keeping a blog has been great because so many entrepreneurs have written me with questions about their companies and I’ve gotten to know many of you personally through the process. Tags: Start-up Advice. If you pick the wrong spouse at least you can get divorced.

VC 297

VC board consulting advice 297

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. . It’s one of my favorite blog posts. I had planned to blog about it at the time but I waited 2 days and the whole world blogged about it so I didn’t pile on. Tags: Startup Advice.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

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. Tags: Raising Venture Capital Startup Advice. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received book called “ Influence &# (which I plan to read).

strategy 293

strategy venture capital SaaS investing 293

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

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. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice. This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#.

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pitching VC advice strategy 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Tags: Startup Advice This Week in Venture Capital. Now that I do they’re willing to accommodate? Gee, if they treat me like this in good times I wonder how they’d treat me in bad times!&#. We spend a lot of time on them in the video but frankly we could have done a 3-hour session.

founder 405

founder VC venture capital entrepreneurs 405

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Final point worth noting … While reading one of David Lerner’s comments on my last blog post it made me realize that sometimes it’s OK to play poker just for the sake of playing & enjoying and knowing that you might lose some money. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

angel investing 283

angel investing investing investment disruption 283

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “Pitching a VC.&#. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams.

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VC pitching advice venture capital 292