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.

venture capital 282

venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Our first big institutional round of VC was $16.5 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.

culture 333

culture construction startup advice 333

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

It also takes options off the table if you eventually find out that this isn’t a VC backable business. I’ve spoken about this in a post entitled, “ Do you even need VC ?&# Let’s assume that the $2 million buys 25% of your company, which is the norm in an equity financing. Should you take it?

startup 319

startup advice venture capital VC 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. I’ve tried to make this advice as well-rounded and biased free as I can.

strategy 366

strategy development VC advice 366

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

DECEMBER 18, 2009

You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. As a VC if I can tell that you’ve survived tough times and you don’t appear beaten down that’s a huge plus. This was soon after the bursting of the dot com bubble – in early 2001.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs advice VC SaaS 298

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. I asked him if he’d be willing to allow me to interview him for This Week in VC and we filmed it in the offices of Stack Overflow – his new company. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285