Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London. Which is why I often tell people to start being entrepreneurs when one is young. ” 31:45 Is there truth to the idea that you shouldn’t force change upon entrepreneurs? I remember this lesson well.

culture 350

culture communities startup education 350

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.

VC 285

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). And if I were an entrepreneur I’d rather find investors who understood “my space&# so that in tough times they felt comfortable about “doubling down.&#. Not everybody agreed.

angel investing 152

angel investing investing investment VC 152

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

This is the third article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). I should say that I agree that naive optimism in entrepreneurs can produce higher beta (upside or flops) and that’s good from an investment standpoint if you’re looking for big returns.

angel investing 284

angel investing investing investment VC 284

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.

communities 317

communities VC innovation entrepreneurs 317

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

In the early 80’s he left academia to work on venture capital investing with Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies. Josh and Howard began co-investing as angels and in 2005 they started a $10 million fund. The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock.

capital 284

capital board VC pitching 284

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. Understand how venture debt might shorten your projections. * If you have raised venture debt you might have even less time.

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

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.

VC 304

VC entrepreneurs advice venture capital 304

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). Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures talks about this in a recent post : “One of the biggest issues I have as a small venture fund is how to reserve for follow-on investments.

angel investing 283

angel investing investing investment disruption 283

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.

venture capital 288

venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. Siemiatkowski also shares what’s next for the company as it ventures further into the world of retail banking after gaining a bank license in 2017. companies should relocate to Silicon Valley if they really want to grow.

investing 143

investing investment mix-use media 143

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. In any given year there are about 50 venture-backed companies or so that are bought for $100 million or more. I believe that.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

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. I’ve tried to make this advice as well-rounded and biased free as I can. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs.

strategy 366

strategy development VC advice 366

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.

mix-use 303

mix-use VC advice creativity 303

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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.

incumbents 277

incumbents startup peer-to-peer incubation 277

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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.

VC 299

VC communities investing investment 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. 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. I have a young entrepreneur friend who IMs me a lot.

VC 305

VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

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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

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.

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. Siemiatkowski also shares what’s next for the company as it ventures further into the world of retail banking after gaining a bank license in 2017. companies should relocate to Silicon Valley if they really want to grow.

investing 82

investing investment mix-use media 82

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.

board 286

board culture VC education 286

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 20, 2012

Ok, well, short of that, this is one of the questions I get most and here's what I've noticed about venture raise timing. 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.

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entrepreneurs advice VC ventures 371