Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

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. You don’t have a clue. Neither do I.

finance 344

finance financing ventures real estate 344

Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

In New York, for instance, there are now venture funds with a West Coast mentality and firms with an East Coast mentality; the same is true for firms in San Francisco. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? The biggest question for a venture firm is whether LPs will fail to make capital calls in a crisis. “It

ventures 334

ventures startup capital board 334

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 30, 2015

Sam Altman of YC recently pointed out that pulling back during the downturn in 2008 would result in several big misses: In October of 2008, Sequoia Capital—arguably the best-ever in the business—gave the famous “RIP Good Times” presentation (I was there). These sound fundamentals drive the venture capital market over the long term.

startup 419

startup venture capital disruption sustainability 419

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

I had an hour to interview Mike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures. Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. Venture Financings we Discussed. Spun off from Freewebs in 2008, based in Palo Alto.

VC 230

VC ventures venture capital capital 230

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

Rob messed around with some local video thing in 2008, which everyone but Rob thought was a pretty terrible idea. " — Charlie O'Donnell (@ceonyc) December 29, 2008. Fundraising for the Series A looked like it was going to be difficult--and that''s when Rich Levendov from Avalon Ventures stepped in.

board 274

board venture capital creativity entrepreneurship 274

Tomasz Tunguz

AUGUST 6, 2023

What will a venture capital turnaround feel like? In 2008, I had just become a venture capitalist. With 15 years’ perspective, I plotted the QQQ (Nasdaq) value against venture Investing activity & venture Exits activity (all log normalized). Will it be gradual or sudden? for QQQ/Investing & 0.93

venture capital 92

venture capital ventures capital support 92

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2011

Back at the end of 2008, when the economy was in the tank, and funding was tough to come by, NYC Seed, a small local fund with some government and local academic backing supported my startup, Path 101. Investments in innovation can often have unforeseen positive ripple effects.

pitching 267

pitching support finance financing 267

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Tech entrepreneur mayor presides over NYC tech during an explosion in company creation, job growth and venture funding. In fact, much of the groundwork of the NYC tech community''s growth came before the late 2008 economic crash--when the city started paying attention to the tech community as the economic savior poster child.

education 330

education venture capital communities ventures 330

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 21, 2011

But I am also someone who is very colored by my past experience of seeing the venture implosion after the first bubble and walking through the fundraising tumbleweed of late 2008. Here's how you can prevent this NYC renaisannce from being a forest fire: Fail fast.

communities 332

communities innovation incubation angel investing 332

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Current round: $20.0mm Series-B led by Andreesen Horowitz, with USV and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. led by Altos Ventures and Maverick Capital, with Larry Braitman. Founded in 2008 in Santa Monica by Ron Goldman (former CRO of shopping.com) and Rahul Sonnad. Incubated by Clearstone Ventures in 2008. Kontagent. -A

VC 248

VC incubation ventures capital 248

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. 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. Why is that?

VC 305

VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

Tomasz Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2020

The most recent event to use as an analogy is the 2008 financial crisis. In 2008, I had just joined the venture industry, and then Lehman fell. That grew to about $5B per quarter in 2007 and early 2008. Aside from Q3 2008 which saw a dip, VCs were still investing in as many rounds. Let’s look at the data.

ventures 143

ventures VC investing investment 143

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 27, 2021

The two most used measures of a venture fund’s performance are the “cash on cash” return and the “internal rate of return” (IRR). Our 2008 vintage early-stage fund has generated about 5x cash on cash but only generated a 22.5% Venture capital funds do not take down the entire capital commitment upfront.

opportunity 279

opportunity venture capital strategy investing 279

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I become a venture capitalist in September 2007 – exactly 6.5 I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago.

VC 387

VC venture capital ventures finance 387

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

And so it happened that between 2000-2008 I was the biggest buzz kill at dinner parties. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. For venture capitalists this isn’t troubling. We jockey to make sure the press release has our names on it.

angel investing 299

angel investing investing investment real estate 299

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

In any given year there are about 50 venture-backed companies or so that are bought for $100 million or more. I said, “It’s much easier now than it was in 2008/09.&# And time is the enemy of all deals so start sooner rather than later, as anybody who was planning to raise in October 2008 will tell you.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs finance financing 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So as of 2008 total LP commitments were still at nearly $250 billion. Our current fund was raised in 2008/09.] Some funds like Battery Ventures have bucked the trend by raising $750 million. After all, most people don’t understand that “venture capital is a get rich slowly&# scheme. Others will, too.

VC 311

VC startup real estate finance 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. 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. Others will follow.

VC 392

VC capital culture venture capital 392

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. LPs Still Believe Strongly in Venture Capital as a Diverse Source of Returns. That’s money that fuels our startup ecosystems.

venture capital 205

venture capital capital ventures VC 205

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. And what we think about Sequoia’s website , First Round Capital’s and True Ventures (we both like to copy stuff from True). Founded in 2008 by Mehdi Maghsoodnia. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital.

VC 217

VC capital venture capital networking 217

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 8, 2014

Even the old Pfizer headquarters, active as recently as 2008, is now home to the production of everything from microchips to pickles. Politics Venture Capital & Technology' Refactory is trying to create an end to end process from design to manufacturing for hardware on Sackett Street.

mix-use 343

mix-use communities venture capital creativity 343

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Founded in August 2008 in Palo Alto, CA, by Sam Christiansen and Keith Lee. When the show has been processed it will be available here (estimated 8pm PDT). Total raised: $29.5mm.

VC 240

VC peer-to-peer advice ventures 240

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

Recently raised $7 million from Atlas Ventures out of Boston. Current round: $3.35mm in Series A by TomorrowVentures (Eric Schmidt’s personal investment vehicle), Saban Ventures, Founder Collective, SK Telecom Ventures. Brought in new CEO, Russ Reeder in 2008. Farb talks about how he did that. Total round was $2.5

VC 214

VC founder advice ventures 214

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 6, 2020

Like the downturns in 2008 and 2001, this has been a very trying time for entrepreneurs running startups. Many entrepreneurs are reliant on outside funding, whether angel investors, venture capitalists or strategic investors , to keep the venture going. The pandemic of 2020 has tested most sectors of the economy.

peer-to-peer 321

peer-to-peer startup advice entrepreneurs 321

Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 4, 2020

We reviewed the data in May and compared it to the effects of the financial crisis in 2008 on startup fundraising. As a reminder, 2008 saw a 40% reduction in venture dollars invested in startups. These corrections match 2008. We venture capitalists have raised record amounts of capital in the last 2-3 years.

collaboration 145

collaboration accelerator capital investing 145

Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 1, 2021

When a dismal job market upended my hopes of becoming a high school English teacher, I ventured into the food and wine industry in my home state of Colorado: I began waiting tables at a restaurant called The Med. From hospitality to CEO.

hospitality 268

hospitality leadership collaboration entrepreneurship 268

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

My thesis on why this is happening is that large tech companies didn’t invest enough in R&D between 2008-2010 (Google even went through layoffs!!!) First Round Capital & True Ventures seem to spend as much time cultivated relationships with “second round capital” as they do entrepreneurs.

angel investing 284

angel investing investing investment VC 284

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Andy Areitio is a partner at the early-stage fund TheVentureCity , a new venture and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. When you’re running your own venture — especially if it’s your first — it’s unlikely you will find the time to deep dive into how venture capital firms work.

venture capital 107

venture capital capital ventures founder 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

Had a great chat with Jim Armstrong who is a General Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners today on TWiVC. Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners (Jeremy Liew)(lead), with existing investors: U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures, Revolution LLC (Steve Case). Investors: Google Ventures. AppDynamics.

VC 236

VC venture capital ventures support 236

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

Back in late 2008, I noticed that one of my Flickr contacts seemed to be short a few photos--like, a few thousand of them. Tags: First Round Capital Venture Capital & Technology. Josh Kopelman will be working closely on this investment as well. The origin of this company is pretty interesting.

investing 298

investing investment communities board 298

Dream It

JANUARY 23, 2019

Between that time and now, TrendKite raised approximately $46 million in venture funding. Dreamit Ventures is an early stage venture fund that accelerates startups building transformative tech products in the fields of healthcare, real estate/built environment, and security.

real estate 210

real estate media accelerator pitching 210

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital. Let’s be honest – the same is true for VC’s.

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Paul discussed his perspective having been at SAP Ventures. Total raised: $5.0mm.

VC 225

VC social gaming venture capital networking 225

American Entrepreneurship

JUNE 10, 2025

These are real stories of entrepreneurs who’ve persevered through tough challenges to bring their products to market and to scale their ventures. He shares the challenges he is facing which include raising funds for a venture of significant scale. These stories prove that resilience isn’t about avoiding hardship.

entrepreneurship 83

entrepreneurship peer-to-peer entrepreneurs enablement 83

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

In 2008, he founded StackOverflow , and it has become the foundation for a question and answer platform called StackExchange. Stackoverflow was created in 2008. Jeff built the first version of StackOverflow with a bunch of old colleagues, and it launched in August of 2008. Union Square Ventures is an investor.

peer-to-peer 285

peer-to-peer communities development innovation 285

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2024

Satoshi gave us the playbook to build a decentralized internet stack back in 2008 and I feel quite confident that we will have massive mainstream applications running on this decentralized stack well before 2028. So if we have healthier capital markets and more innovation than ever, what is up with the venture capital ecosystem?

energy 236

energy venture capital innovation capital 236

Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. Here are the trends in venture capital financings from 2006 through 2010 – the number of seed stage deals funded and total investment by region in millions of dollars. . $$$$. Deals. $$$$. Deals. $$$$.

entrepreneurs 162

entrepreneurs angel investing VC venture capital 162