Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. We spent the first 45 minutes or so talking about industry trends (in this order): The history and background of True Ventures, one of my favorite early-stage VC’s (and the one with whom Om is a venture partner). Founded in 2000 in New Brunswick, NJ. 406 Ventures.

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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. Infonautics went public in 1996 and Half.com was sold to eBay in 2000.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

And so it happened that between 2000-2008 I was the biggest buzz kill at dinner parties. We haven’t hit that wall yet for three reasons: 1) not enough elapsed time, 2) the VC market is frenzied now, too and 3) we haven’t seen a market downturn since the volume picked up. Great businesses take 7-10 years to build.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 23, 2020

Ad-buying opportunities within podcasts have historically been manual and limited, not unlike the process of purchasing web ads pre-2000. We made an investment in Headgum recently and blogged about it on the USV blog this morning.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. What is the True Sentiment of VCs? When I started blogging it was because I was inspired by Brad Feld. Now for every dollar a VC raises $2.50

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. My blog was wiped out.

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OurCrowd

MAY 11, 2020

Historically, venture investing right after major market downturns – such as after the Internet bubble burst in 2000-2002, and after the financial crisis of 2007-2009 — has proved lucrative because you’re buying at a discount. That’s a very good entry point for new venture investors. Attacks are rising. Looking to connect.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

For example, using cryptography and the blockchain I could transmit a blog post or a picture to a third-party who could know authoritatively that this was written word-for-word by me and not doctored in any way. In many ways, it could even become a new tool for earlier shareholder liquidity including the exit of some VC money.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

This simple and short blog post by the folks at Correlation Ventures contains the key to venture capital returns – the hit rate. The other interesting thing about that chart is why the hit rates and returns in the venture capital industry have not returned to pre-2000 levels. But “hit rate” could be something else.

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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.

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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. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC: How big or small their fund is? Beezer did.

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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. The A round was done in February 2000 (end of the bull market) and my B round was done in April 2001 (bear market). But if you do this early (pre VC) then the price points are pretty low. This is wrong.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch ran my article yesterday as a guest post but I wanted to have a copy here for anybody who missed it and for future readers of this blog. We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. We had a $40 million round lined up to close in the Autumn of 2000.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. I was reminded of all this this when I read a blog post by one of my favorite thinkers on the VC market, Bryce Roberts, who talked about “ unfundable companies.&#. Most of the Internet startup consulting firms went bankrupt.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters). Their data looks at tech VCs.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub. I always wanted to have Dan on This Week in VC with Dan Primack ( to see video click link ) because he’s blunt, honest, opinionated and well informed. Question: Some people are saying traditional VC is dead.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Also be careful about VCs. But once a VC has heard your idea he can’t “un-think&# it. I know because I did this in early 2000. Market to Your Target Audience – I’ve seen a lot of startups who like to write blog posts on life as an entrepreneur. Be careful about this advice. Don’t do this.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. My Story: The public coming out for my first company, BuildOnline, was in early 2000. Don’t believe their hype either.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

I freely admit this (along with nearly everything between 1999-2000) was a mistake. I’ve said versions of it on this blog before so I hope it’s not too repetitive. I wouldn’t be a VC for very long if I did. But I thought I should do a quick post on the topic. I think you will.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. As anyone raising money in April 2000, September 2001 or September 2008 can tell you that. When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 9, 2020

.” There was the Internet stock meltdown in 2000 when the internet sector went down something like 80% over that bear market. Back in 2008, I was blogging my purchases of Apple, Amazon, and Google during that crisis. Back in 2008, I was blogging my purchases of Apple, Amazon, and Google during that crisis.

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