Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. Will our strategy change now that we have 40% more capital? . Why do they invest in venture capital?

ventures 396

ventures VC venture capital real estate 396

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) And Jim & I went on to raise several more venture capital funds in our day jobs. So we went for it.

accelerator 290

accelerator mentorship peer-to-peer VC 290

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. It’s always such a pleasure for me to spend time with Farb because he has all of the enthusiasm and energy you love to see in entrepreneurs. He’s also candid, humble and helpful.

VC 214

VC founder advice ventures 214

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. Unemployment continues to rise – Unemployment as of September 2009 is 9.7% My advice : if you’re raising a $750,000 round and you have demand for $1.2 then the world will be fine for fund raising.

VC 269

VC startup advice innovation 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

I’m not saying I’m not investing – just that I’m generally aware that the market does drive venture capital fundings and I’m very interested to see how September plays out. The impact hits VCs in an immediate way that most entrepreneurs don’t realize. At least later stage investors.

financing 344

financing finance ventures real estate 344

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) October 7, 2014.

VC 136

VC advice financing finance 136

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Year-in, year-out, the gender gap in venture capital investment continues to be a problem women founders face. In the long term, there needs to be foundational change to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs. Venture capital is far from a level playing field. More posts by this contributor. of total investment dollars.

VC 123

VC startup leadership communities 123

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment. In Dan Rather’s book he talks about Ruth Bader Ginsberg who was appointed the the Supreme Court in 1993.

founder 256

founder peer-to-peer mentorship VC 256

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! And so do entrepreneurs who are quick to pivot to new businesses or to sell in an acquihire.

startup 390

startup VC venture capital culture 390

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

First, I’d like to quote (paraphrase) Brad Feld speaking at Twiistup in LA in 2009, “I keep hearing people in LA talking with a chip on their shoulders about building a tech business here relative to Silicon Valley. Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them.

technology 290

technology advice innovation entrepreneurs 290

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

In the early spring of 2009, the fundraising nuclear winter of the previous year hadn't yet thawed. Many of you entrepreneurs know that feeling. That product isn't money--it's their time, attention, sound advice and network. It would be months before Foursquare's first round touched off a NYC venture frenzy.

ventures 280

ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

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

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. This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. Seems an obvious fit.

VC 255

VC venture capital networking innovation 255

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

There are many times when being overly capitalized before you’re ready is a negative. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company). Availability of Capital. ” Whatever answers they have manufactured the only thing I hear is, “Because we can.”

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

years ago you’d remember RIP Good Times from Sequoia, which still strikes me as having been prudent advice in late 2008. I think that’s the beauty of both capitalism and innovation. But they weren’t there in 2009 when you were up late nights shitting yourself whether you really were smart for pursuing this idea.

advice 391

advice VC financing finance 391

Entrepreneur's Handbook

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.) Remember March 2009, when the Fed began buying bonds as part of its Quantitative Easing (QE) money printing operation?

hospitality 104

hospitality investing investment advice 104

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 29, 2009

I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary. Despite my cynicism of MBA’s , this class was very valuable to me.

VC 263

VC board investing investment 263

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

My mom was an entrepreneur – she was kind of my inspiration for entrepreneurship. And no one could see me as anything but a startup guy, so I started a second company and called myself a serial entrepreneur. Then everyone just started calling me a serial entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur you have to suspend disbelief.

startup 337

startup entrepreneurs consulting board 337

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. source: Harris Interactive IM Shopping Poll (August 2009)). And you can’t act like a B-round company when you raise $20 million in growth capital.

SaaS 339

SaaS VC real estate board 339

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

entrepreneurs 293

entrepreneurs VC advice consulting 293

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 17, 2014

Many entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley believe that the financial services industry in the United States is “ripe for disruption. ” Consumers want faster, simpler, and cheaper transactions, and entrepreneurs want to give it to them. Many blame Dodd-Frank and the consolidation post 2009 for the loss of free checking.

disruption 83

disruption financing finance incumbents 83

Founders Coop

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Just two years later, in 2009, we worked out a deal to create the Techstars Seattle program, with our first program running in 2010. What did we owe our sponsors, and did that put us in conflict with our commitments to give founders the best possible advice, and to never waste their time?

startup ecosystem 195

startup ecosystem accelerator communities support 195

The Entrepreneurs Library

JUNE 30, 2015

Typically we’ve found that books that explore economy beyond growth or beyond capitalism fall into a number of common traps. We find that profit for most people represents greed, excess, and excesses of capitalism that people have challenges with. The Book’s Unique Quality (3:45). To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 7:36.

advice 58

advice sustainability capital financing 58

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. They wanted advice. I gave them advice I don’t think they were expecting from a VC, “Don’t raise venture capital for this business.

VC 332

VC advice financing finance 332

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

VC financing finance advice 285

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

billion, capital that it will be using to back early-stage startups, as well as growth rounds for later-stage companies. Since its 2007 founding by Morris — who also co-founded Capital One Financial Services in 1994 — and Frank Rotman, QED has backed more than 150 companies, including 20 unicorns.

investing 91

investing investment capital advice 91

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

startup 354

startup VC entrepreneurs financing 354

TechCrunch

AUGUST 10, 2021

Last week, Kickstarter announced that people have backed more than 200,000 projects with $6 billion in pledges since the company launched in 2009. We frequently run articles with advice for founders who are working on pitch decks. Kickstarter’s CEO on the future of crowdfunding. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin.

pitching 96

pitching disruption mix-use leadership 96

Entrepreneur's Handbook

MARCH 11, 2023

(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.) What What do we need to use fiat for within the crypto capital markets?

capital 127

capital networking support energy 127

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

VC 292

VC peer-to-peer investing investment 292

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. I’m sure I’ll spark the ire of some VC’s for saying so, but there is certainly such a thing as black-out days in venture capital. It is very difficult to raising venture capital between November 15 – January 7th.

VC 304

VC venture capital advice capital 304

Entrepreneur's Handbook

JULY 22, 2022

( Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions. ) ( Note to reader: this week’s essay is a continuation of my piece from last week, “A Samurai, a Knight, and a Yankee”.

energy 133

energy support real estate investing 133

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. raise money now to weather any storms).

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs real estate VC advice 298

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.

transportation 93

transportation entrepreneurship capital entrepreneurs 93

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. Come 2009 we felt really bullish about the future for startups because the froth was gone and so, too, were wantrapreneurs. I have a young entrepreneur friend who IMs me a lot. tl;dr summary.

VC 305

VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

StartupNation

DECEMBER 1, 2021

InvestNext is a Detroit fintech startup that has created a platform to streamline how real estate investment firms raise and manage capital. A super fast-growing startup out of Detroit is Benzinga, a crypto and financial advice media outlet that is hiring everything from developers to journalists to build their team. InvestNext.

startup 108

startup real estate health energy 108