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Understanding the Politics of Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

First, I recently read the must-read book Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton. I’m friends with several people in the book and I’m sure they didn’t love being written about – nobody ever does in this sort of book. But the book is a must read for entrepreneurs. I love politics.

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What Everyone Should Take Away from Twitter’s 8% Staff Reductions

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve heard every argument in the book about why you can’t cut office space, headcount or Kind bars. We have an entire generation of startup founders who don’t have muscle memory from getting their burn rates back into shape from 2008/09 or 2001-2005. “Our company morale will go down!” ” Listen.

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This Week in VC with Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital

Both Sides of the Table

Mo was graduated from Wharton, worked in investment banking, spent 6 years at IAC (including in an operational role for Connected Ventures which includes College Humor, Busted T’s and Vimeo) before joining Spark Capital in 2008. BookRenter – plus a discussion about Chegg … what is going on in the university book market?

VC 217
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This Week in VC with Farb Nivi, Founder of Grockit

Both Sides of the Table

Orchard for e-Books”. Provides electronic book services for content publishers; services include digital scanning and conversion, distribution to leading e-book retailers, monetization and royalty management. Brought in new CEO, Russ Reeder in 2008. Competitors: SmashWords , Google Books. LibreDigital.

VC 214
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Stock Market Drops. Then It Rallies. What Happens Next for Funding?

Both Sides of the Table

By 2008 I had gotten more serious about championing companies through our investment process. It was September 2008. The following is a 2-week graph of the end-of-week price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in Autumn 2008. Here's the graph for the books.]. The market had tanked. I'll cover this in my next post.

VC 305
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It’s Morning in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

LP contributions to VC firms shrunk from 2000 and by 2005-2008 had stabilized to around $30 billion per year. The video industry will be disrupted just as books, newspapers and music before it. Our societal behavior is now to look up things we want to book or purchase at the point & time of need. Bottom of the sales funnel.

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Making Sense of the Stock Market Drops in Relation to Venture Financing

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve seen friends (and family members) lose much of their savings that way over the years because “Black Swans” happen and in 1987, 2001, 2003 & 2008 (just to name a few from my memory) huge market gyrations caused much financial distress to people seeking short-term gains. Watch the market closely.

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