Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. They picked apart holes in our strategy and they were right. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. Thus is venture capital. Thus begins the venture capital dance.

VC 274

VC venture capital pitching capital 274

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies.

strategy 366

strategy development VC advice 366

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. The best MBA class I took was an investment strategy class. Can a deal get done?

VC 263

VC board investing investment 263

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. It’s a tricky question with no clear answer. There are trade offs.

startup 319

startup advice venture capital VC 319

TechCrunch

APRIL 3, 2022

So when Goldman Sachs announced this week it was buying NextCapital – a fintech company that provides automated advice to corporate retirement plan participants – my ears perked up. At the height of the dot.com boom in the first quarter of 2000, the bank had invested in a record 53 startups. But wait, there’s more. .”

startup 110

startup financing finance incumbents 110

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. True story.)

startup founder 299

startup founder founder startup VC 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Be careful about this advice. There are very few truly novel ideas so talking in broad themes certainly wouldn’t give away any grand strategy. The strategy they’re employing is called “velvet rope&# as in what nightclubs do to build scarcity and interest in getting on the inside. Also be careful about VCs.

startup 380

startup entrepreneurs strategy advice 380

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. We capped our fund size so that we would stay true to our investment strategy in terms of size, scope and number of partners as we stood in 2014 when we raised the fund.

entrepreneurs 237

entrepreneurs VC mentorship strategy 237

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I asked some of the participating VCs, and they told me their attorneys had figured out a way to keep their stealth-mode companies stealthy.Yes, this strategy is not for every company. Rumored to be appox.

VC 285

VC financing finance advice 285

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JUNE 17, 2022

( Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions. Just like on the Schuylkill, there are floaters lurking just below the surface of the capital markets.

culture 125

culture capital enablement technology 125