Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. Simple: according to Mike Polaris has followed on nearly every seed investment that they’ve done. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital.

VC 230

VC ventures venture capital capital 230

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2010

Take AVC.com, the blog by Fred Wilson. He wrote a blog post that always stuck with me about how there are regulars on his blog who hang out there a bit like “Cheers&# just having a chat with a metaphorical beer in hand. I picked questions that I had already covered in depth on my blog and answered them in shorter form.

board 301

board communities networking strategy 301

TechCrunch

JUNE 1, 2022

This heated competition among alternative social apps could explain why Poparazzi is taking to its blog today to share its metrics and confirm its financing after a year of silence. (Or The app’s idea was, effectively, to turn one of Instagram’s core features — photo tagging — into a stand-alone experience.

media 94

media board networking financing 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Consumer spending is 70% of the economy and will continue to be stretched – We can look all we want at tech innovation, VC funding cycles and hot M&A deals, but ultimately growth and therefore investment must be underpinned by revenue. That’s around 1 out of 7 working-age Americans.

VC 269

VC startup advice innovation 269

Smart Hustle Magazine

OCTOBER 20, 2020

While it's great to "give people a chance", you also want to ensure you get the most return on your investment. If so, share it with others on LinkedIn and tag me. In an effort to reach even more people with my inspiration and insights, I recently hired a publicist to help connect me to reporters, podcasters, bloggers and producers.

media 114

media consulting pitching financing 114

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

The chosen candidate will probably have worked for a very reputable firm that is either in technology, consulting, investment banking, media or a startup. I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. We manage nearly $1 billion. Tags: VC Industry. Are you merging?

VC 290

VC consulting media incubation 290

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

Venture Capital funds: the different between “closed funds&# (which typically have a 10-year time horizon) and “evergreen funds&# which re-invest profits back into the fund. An investment doesn’t guarantee your product will suddenly be on the investor’s price sheet. OTHER DEALS: 1. 406 Ventures.

VC 225

VC social gaming venture capital networking 225

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

I myself recently covered the topic when I spoke about why GRP Partners invested in Ad.ly. GRP Partners invested in GoTo.com which rebranded as Overture. But our investment and the thesis of the team led to huge leaps of innovation that all consumers now benefit from. Tags: Tech Market Analysis. I assure you Ad.ly

mix-use 277

mix-use innovation entrepreneurship investing 277

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

So it’s really hard to draw too many conclusions about whether the investment really makes sense because often you learn stuff in the fund raising about the future strategy of the company that might make you much more excited than somebody on the outside might be. Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog.

venture capital 265

venture capital peer-to-peer capital ventures 265

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

If you want to watch the show click the image above or this link , but if you want a quick read – here’s a summary: 1. tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# 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

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. Google’s investment in Zynga. Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. Finally we covered this weeks deals.

VC 210

VC ventures venture capital advice 210

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. Pitch 1: I had an awesome young entrepreneur come in this week to talk about his seed stage business.

pitching 288

pitching VC advice strategy 288

The Zapier Blog

APRIL 10, 2023

Decision-making : The target is interested in buying or trying your product, and is now considering things like budget and return on investment in order to determine whether they're ready to buy. But telling you what tactics not to use without giving you any to replace them wouldn't be very helpful of me, would it?

strategy 111

strategy education B2B marketing leadership 111

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. Here’s why: 1. I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. That’s true.

VC 312

VC consulting entrepreneurs creativity 312

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit. There are other great VC’s in SoCal and there is always the allure of the NorCal guys flying down and talking about how they invested in Google, Facebook, Yahoo! Specifically: 1.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Short summary of my posts: 1. There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. I’ve done 4 seed investments in the past year and they are 100% referenceable. I’ve done 4 seed investments in the past year and they are 100% referenceable. million is “follow on&# seed investment.

VC 298

VC strategy investing investment 298

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Last year I lost a deal in a company that I wanted to invest in and that I thought I should have won. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit. There are other great VC’s in SoCal and there is always the allure of the NorCal guys flying down and talking about how they invested in Google, Facebook, Yahoo! Specifically: 1.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

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 ?&# Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a convertible note.&#. 1) it can be cheaper to complete the round from legal expenses 2) emotional.

financing 319

financing finance entrepreneurs advice 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Part 1 – Access to Great Deal Flow – is here. The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development. This is the same with angel investing. the diversity problem.

angel investing 283

angel investing investing investment disruption 283

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

The price of property has an inherent value tied to two factors: 1) the rental rate you could charge for your property and 2) annual salaries in a given geography. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. It was an investment management class.

angel investing 299

angel investing investing investment real estate 299

David Teten VC

JANUARY 11, 2020

The first three tools are only relevant if you’re going to generate significant content yourself: Teten.com , my blog and content marketing strategy. I typically publish essays in a major media venue, and then cross-post it on my blog. The mailings are just roundups of recent blog posts, so don’t require extra work. Linkedin.

media 58

media strategy VC venture capital 58

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. Here’s where I feel common ground : 1. Most investors wait to see who else is investing. &# Social Proof&# weighs heavily on investors in making their decisions.

financing 286

financing finance advice VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

And the broader question of whether VC’s will continue to invest in the Twitter ecosystem. 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. OTHER DEALS: 1. Tags: Start-up Advice. Estimated 15mm downloads to date.

VC 214

VC founder advice ventures 214

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. I met this person at the Open Angel Forum last week but I’m worried that he may have invested in a competitor – should I be concerned?&# Send me a second email that I can forward. Tags: Startup Advice.

advice 332

advice entrepreneurs investing investment 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2010

I have read much commentary on my Twitter stream (ironically) and in the press about how investors are going to abandon investments in the Twitter ecosystem because they seem to appear hostile to ecosystem partners. Let’s face it, if people want to blog as a career they have to be able to make money. Let me explain.

advice 276

advice energy support media 276

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. I programed macros to help my mom with her Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets for work. What you gain: 1. So back to MBAs.

VC 337

VC peer-to-peer advice consulting 337

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JUNE 8, 2022

Zcruit had developed into a successful product working with over 90 Division 1 football programs. Starting as a 14-year-old, I would pore over sports blogs to find out who the future stars of my favorite college football programs would be. They were the largest company in our industry and truly invested in servicing it.

startup 52

startup leadership development collaboration 52

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30 days. VCs often tell entrepreneurs that they want to see “traction&# before they’re ready to invest. I then covered Street Smarts. Geni.com beget Yammer.

entrepreneurs 291

entrepreneurs advice innovation VC 291

David Teten VC

APRIL 1, 2021

I have developed a founder curriculum on my blog. Jeff Pomeranz, Partner at Right Side Capital , said, “The biggest investment of resources with our tech platform relates to the capturing and maintenance of data on our huge portfolio of 1100+ evolving tech companies. AskAnything.VC aggregates resources from all the VCs.

venture capital 81

venture capital accelerator capital ventures 81

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. Best case scenario in my mind is just 1, but at most I recommend 2. I have even invested in companies like this. They agreed to let the VC’s decide once an investment comes in. Tags: Start-up Advice.

founder 251

founder advice VC entrepreneurs 251

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

The sales team doesn’t like me to give demos,&# I usually think to myself, “a follow up meeting probably isn’t necessary.&# Similarly if you need your CFO to walk me through your financial model you’re probably not the right investment for me. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

entrepreneurs 286

entrepreneurs advice pitching VC 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. Let me explain: 1. First, if the VC does 15-20 of these under one partner then it is certain he can’t spend any time with these investments. We offered them more : $750k-1 million.

VC 265

VC venture capital entrepreneurs real estate 265

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. Here’s my take on the topic: 1.

advice 348

advice entrepreneurs sustainability pitching 348

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

They know that the money they invest may be lost. Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. I still prefer angel route 1 (above) but this is the next best option in my mind. If all goes well from day 1 they’ll love you. I’ll make my next posting shorter. I get that.

advice 291

advice VC pitching angel investing 291

David Teten VC

JANUARY 11, 2020

The first three tools are only relevant if you’re going to generate significant content yourself: Teten.com , my blog and content marketing strategy. I typically publish essays in an established media venue, and then cross-post it on my blog. The mailings are just roundups of recent blog posts, so don’t require extra work.

media 40

media VC venture capital strategy 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Turns out everybody likes to produce content and take part in the “conversation.&# Massive uptake of user-generated content including blogs (e.g. People rightly recognize that comments on blogs are just a form of a stream and thus the growth of open commenting platforms like Disqus and IntenseDebate. Then came blogs.

peer-to-peer 286

peer-to-peer real estate media networking 286

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

Here’s my best attempt to shed some light on the most common misconceptions about building a company here in NYC: Misconception #1: There’s no money in NYC for startups… and the money that’s here isn’t smart or experienced money. Much of the equity investment that goes on happens through people you’d never think of. > Office rents?

startup 284

startup ecology media VC 284