Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Availability of Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. I guess that makes USV, Spark Capital, Foundry Group, Accel, Benchmark, Revolution (along with several others) pretty happy right now.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. But today I want to give you advice on how to decrease your odds of failure in a startup. Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

In 2004 / 2005 I was starting to get intrigued with user-generated content. Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0 RSS was something that had appeared.” “….I was starting.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2011

tl;dr version: If you’re an entrepreneur or VC or will be working in this industry - buy this. When I first started as a startup CEO in 1999 there were no guides on raising venture capital. – entrepreneurs never seem to focus on anything other than ownership percentage. This article originally ran on TechCrunch.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). I can tell you many angels I know – and really sharp ones with more than enough capital to put to work – are telling me, “I’m currently going to sit on the sidelines for a while.

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Feedough

APRIL 14, 2021

This term is believed to have first appeared in a blog post by Rex Hammock on May 11, 2005. Provides safe exit strategy: Entrepreneurs see acqui-hiring as a secure escape. Assists in future growth: The target company employees gain access to resources and capital that can help them grow as entrepreneurs.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2012

This was 2005 when I had no exits under my belt, no blogs … nobody was looking. For starters, David had once been an entrepreneur himself so it seemed like such a natural fit. Nearly everybody in the DC region had told me, “You must meet Mike. He knows every startup & VC in town.” He was a mensch.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. So what is driving the new energy in the remaining venture capital firms when we kept hearing how much the whole industry was “against the ropes?&# … 1. style euphoria that swept the Valley beginning in 2005.

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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.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

He grew up in Connecticut attended Yale undergrad and worked for IBM after graduation doing M&A, strategy and venture capital. He knew he was an entrepreneur because he couldn’t stop thinking about ideas. You are also less likely to be an entrepreneur when your personal obligations, like family and mortgage pile up.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 20, 2012

I think this is great advice. So here's when I see people tend to raise: Entrepreneur + Approach to a Market. Entrepreneur + Kinda Workable Demo/Alpha + Little to No Data on Traction. This is a confusing one for entrepreneurs--because some people get this round done but others don't. which brings us to.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice &# but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.&#. A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. He’s been at it since 2005. I founded it in 2005 at the age of 37.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “ the entrepreneur thesis.&#. I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

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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.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. Klarna’s first ever transaction took place at 11:06:40 am on April 10, 2005 at a Swedish bookshop called Pocketklubben, according to the abbreviated history published on the company’s website. But first, let’s go back to the beginning.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If you have or are thinking about a business in the video space you’ll enjoy hearing from Gregg but even more broadly this is a great conversation for entrepreneurs, investors or industry analysts. In 2005 they realized that this business was going to evaporate over night with the introduction of YouTube. Here’s the link.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. Klarna’s first ever transaction took place at 11:06:40 am on April 10, 2005 at a Swedish bookshop called Pocketklubben, according to the abbreviated history published on the company’s website. But first, let’s go back to the beginning.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2022

In Austin’s tech world, there’s an entrepreneur everyone knows by one name: Whurley. “Whurley” is the Unix username for serial tech entrepreneur Will Hurley, and it’s his brand. He didn’t raise any capital for Chaotic Moon. Ecliptic Capital provides seed-stage, and early-stage investment to startups.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. Companies raised too much money in 2005-08 and had high burn rates. So I encouraged entrepreneurs to think about raising their funds as quickly as they could because. He pinged me for advice.

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