Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: So, you raised venture capital? Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. On the phone ….

VC 153

VC financing finance entrepreneurs 153

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

We went “nuclear&# and slimmed down to 33 people (yes, I know, still large by today’s standards but this was 2001), raised $10 million and we built a real company. I learned everything I know about startups in these lean years: 2001-2004. Tags: Startup Advice. Photo courtesy of Pat Page via Flickr.

culture 333

culture construction startup advice 333

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006). Thus is venture capital. Tempus Fugit.

VC 274

VC venture capital pitching capital 274

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.

VC 263

VC board investing investment 263

The Entrepreneurs Library

JUNE 30, 2015

Typically we’ve found that books that explore economy beyond growth or beyond capitalism fall into a number of common traps. We find that profit for most people represents greed, excess, and excesses of capitalism that people have challenges with. The Book’s Unique Quality (3:45). economy than there were for profit businesses.

advice 58

advice sustainability capital financing 58

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. On July 27th, 2001 Accenture IPO’s and many of the partners grew fabulously wealthy. My advice to entrepreneurs is to have a sense of purpose and stick to that regardless of what you’re reading in TechCrunch or Business Insider.

consulting 302

consulting leadership entrepreneurs advice 302

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

DECEMBER 18, 2009

This was soon after the bursting of the dot com bubble – in early 2001. We commited to getting by on much less capital than was planned. We got their commitment and our existing investors bridged us until the new financing round could close. We were going to avoid the embarrassment of being a total dot com flame out.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs advice VC SaaS 298

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2022

He didn’t raise any capital for Chaotic Moon. He launched his latest venture, Strangeworks in 2018 and raised $4 million in seed stage capital. In addition, he created Ecliptic Capital, a $100 million evergreen investment fund that could grow to $150 million by the end of the year. “But Image source: Errich Petersen.

transportation 93

transportation entrepreneurship capital entrepreneurs 93

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. There’s a big business in Finance working with Excel, but that’s an outlier. Lesson: Joel had been building a community of readers since 2001. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285