Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. My general advice is to do less. We are experiencing a frenetic time.

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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. It would be months before Foursquare's first round touched off a NYC venture frenzy. Many of you entrepreneurs know that feeling. I'm ecstatic to announce that Brooklyn Bridge Ventures has just completed a first close of $3.5

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 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.). Why the latter?

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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.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. And Adam his.

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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.

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VC startup advice innovation 269

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.

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founder peer-to-peer mentorship VC 256

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Viewing the article through the lens of a venture capitalist there’s much to agree with under the mantra of “growth!” 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. So I like that bit, too.

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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.

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VC startup leadership communities 123

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

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

Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Prior to co-founding Floodgate , she worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company. Given the success of her investments she was on the 2017 Midas List of top 100 venture capitalists. Taskrabbit; Nov 2009 What is one question you ask yourself before investing in a company? What struck you about them?

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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.

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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.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. Understand how venture debt might shorten your projections. * If you have raised venture debt you might have even less time. But this strategy great depends on point 3.

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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.

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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.

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angel investing investing investment VC 152

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. 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.

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VC board investing investment 263

Smart Hustle Magazine

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Ramon Ray spent a few minutes talking to Clare Harris and Kate Hyde during the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network in Singapore. Businesses supporting other businesses in a symbiotic relationship is always helpful for female entrepreneurs. Her idea for this venture came from a love of hosting informal, fun gatherings at home.

entrepreneurs 56

entrepreneurs advice media networking 56

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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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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VC financing finance advice 285

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

As evidence of that, the firm led Credit Karma’s Series A in 2009; led Remitly’s Series A in 2014 and participated in Nubank’s Series A in 2014. Over the years, QED has backed unicorns that went on to exit either via the public markets or by acquisition, including SoFi, Credit Karma, Red Ventures and, more recently, Flywire.

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investing investment capital advice 91

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.

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pitching disruption mix-use leadership 96

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.

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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”.

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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. What does this mean if you’re an entrepreneur? raise money now to weather any storms).

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs real estate VC advice 298

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. Come 2009 we felt really bullish about the future for startups because the froth was gone and so, too, were wantrapreneurs.

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VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

TechCrunch

APRIL 6, 2022

She also covers consumer packaged goods startups, and medical tech and biotechnology ventures. 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. She launched Silicon Hills News in 2011.

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transportation entrepreneurship capital entrepreneurs 93

StartupNation

DECEMBER 1, 2021

million seed round , led by Hyde Park Venture Partners with participation from Whitecap Venture Partners, DVP, Grand Ventures and ID Ventures. They’ve partnered with TechStars, ID Ventures, Lofty Ventures, Wayne State University and Precursor Ventures, which gives them the mentorship and funding to scale.

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startup real estate health energy 108

Angel Capital Association

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Through ACA’s strong and experienced public policy leadership team, ACA has been able to gain more diverse voices as both investors and entrepreneurs. ACA and its members recognized the need for a strong advocacy arm and public policy agenda to educate Members of Congress on issues that affect angel investors and early-stage entrepreneurs.

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