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. We are experiencing a frenetic time. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. Year in, year out.

advice 398

advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

We haven’t hit that wall yet for three reasons: 1) not enough elapsed time, 2) the VC market is frenzied now, too and 3) we haven’t seen a market downturn since the volume picked up. But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon. I was very active in 2009 / early 2010.

angel investing 299

angel investing investment investing real estate 299

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

The tech community has been having a long-overdue conversation about mental health and work/life balance and it’s something I’ve been talking up as far back as 2006 , 2009 , and 2014 on my blog and in public. In late 2018, the company raised $75 million Series C from Sequoia, arguably the top VC firm in the world.

coworking spaces 545

coworking spaces hospitality culture coworking 545

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?” “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs. 5 years ago. The monkey on my back. ” Yup.

VC 387

VC venture capital ventures financing 387

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

But they weren’t there in 2009 when you were up late nights shitting yourself whether you really were smart for pursuing this idea. That was back when VCs weren’t so quick to respond to emails. I was thinking about all of this as I looked at the logs from my WordPress blog this evening. I did that? Back to zero.

advice 391

advice VC financing finance 391

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

People had been steadily blogging for 2-3 years and this crowd seemed to bifurcate. On the one hand were the blogs that “blew up&# and became real businesses like TechCrunch, GigaOm or TalkingPointsMemo. So Twitter was initially billed at a “micro-blogging&# platform. started blogging again outlined here.

VC 219

VC creativity networking media 219

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 2, 2014

Henry told me that I should start a fund--me, a 27 year old former VC analyst turned product manager with no MBA at a startup that wasn''t really headed in any particular direction. I tried to write a book for college kids in 2002-2003, couldn''t get it published, so I started blogging in February of 2004.

venture capital 278

venture capital VC ventures technology 278

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. It is additive.

VC 292

VC peer-to-peer investing investment 292

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Geolocation is so 2009. I can be frustrating for entrepreneurs who can’t seem to get a VCs interest until someone else is interested as well, but there’s actually a logic behind it, believe it or not. I just had just written about Foursquare on my blog, so I was actually invited to his biz dev meeting, too.

VC 186

VC venture capital media board 186

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

What is the True Sentiment of VCs? I recently survey more than 150 VC friends from all stages and geographies what they thought about the market by asking “Which of the following statements best describes your mood heading into 2016?” When I started blogging it was because I was inspired by Brad Feld.

startup 285

startup VC entrepreneurs investing 285

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. Two weeks after Brad’s post I was at the 140 Conference in LA and I held open office hours for any entrepreneur who wanted to spend 15 minutes talking with a VC about their business. Crazy, huh? He stated: “China is also courting trouble.

education 282

education creativity innovation entrepreneurs 282

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2010

Geolocation is so 2009. I can be frustrating for entrepreneurs who can’t seem to get a VCs interest until someone else is interested as well, but there’s actually a logic behind it, believe it or not. I just had just written about Foursquare on my blog, so I was actually invited to his biz dev meeting, too. Haven’t you heard?

VC 150

VC venture capital media board 150

Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Taskrabbit; Nov 2009 What is one question you ask yourself before investing in a company? Favorite business book, blog, podcast? She will translate this to enterprise corporations who seek to empower their organizations to have hard conversations with customers, between employees and with partners. What struck you about them?

VC 111

VC entrepreneurship pitching strategy 111

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

Back in March 2009, USV hosted an event called Hacking Education. Today she wrote a blog post on USV.com featuring the big themes of her annual meeting presentation. It was the beginning of our effort to invest in the transformation of the education sector. That may also be a useful reference, maybe at the start of the presentation.

education 139

education accelerator enablement technology 139

Hunter Walk

AUGUST 26, 2022

Box had just 50 employees and was hitting an inflection point when I joined in 2009, so there was far more work to do than people to do it. Today, my best advice is to be prepared, and when things get tough, for founders, boards and comms teams to take a deep breath and not overreact (I could write a whole blog post on this).

VC 102

VC advice capital energy 102

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

A great recent example of this was a successful group of entrepreneurs who had created a company that will do $10-12 million in revenue at their system integration business (read: services business) in 2011 after having done $5 million or so in 2010 and $2-3 million in 2009. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC?

VC 332

VC advice finance financing 332

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2009

If you search for her (as of July 10, 2009 at 5:45pm) you will get no result and the text, “did you mean Amanda Choong?&#. Third is Bryan Hale, a former colleague from Salesforce.com and former VC from DFJ. It takes a while (a day or more) to get your name propagated in Twitter’s search index. Second is Jen Raymond.

media 216

media networking VC 216

OurCrowd

MAY 11, 2020

Historically, venture investing right after major market downturns – such as after the Internet bubble burst in 2000-2002, and after the financial crisis of 2007-2009 — has proved lucrative because you’re buying at a discount. That’s a very good entry point for new venture investors. Attacks are rising. Looking to connect.

venture capital 48

venture capital ventures capital health 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2017

I already had a sense of the heaviness (in a good way) of my forties when I came across this excellent post on one of my favorite blogs WaitButWhy entitled “ The Tail End ,” in which the author uses pictographs to bring the succinctness of life and family time to reality. I’m now ready to come back to work feeling really refreshed.

peer-to-peer 286

peer-to-peer energy VC founder 286

OurCrowd

DECEMBER 10, 2021

Founded in 2009 by top scientists in the fields of aging, genetics and biology from Harvard, MIT and Tufts, InsideTracker is a truly personalized nutrition and performance system, aiming to help people optimize their bodies from the inside out. 14 for VC 101 for US investors. Read more here. Join us online Dec.

investing 36

investing investment health VC 36

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

I wrote a blog post related to this called Is it Time to Earn or to Learn? Next post: two “4-Hour Workweek&# like hacks I started in 2009 to try and take back control of my life that are saving me hours. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice startup technology vc. So in that context let me use it.

advice 295

advice entrepreneurs VC technology 295

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 29, 2019

As I’ve been working on a new design and approach to this blog/newsletter , I have been diving into the analytics to understand what all of you are doing with it. The top 50 blog posts of all time are an interesting bunch. Most of them have been written in the last five years, but there are a few that go back to 2009 and 2010.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? Gogii spent way more effort marketing to what I call “The USA Today market&# rather than the tech blog market. But I never gave up.

investing 310

investing investment VC board 310

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. blog here ). Same as I felt.

ventures 419

ventures VC capital SaaS 419

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. ” I highly recommend reading it. Profitability.

startup 383

startup VC frameworks capital 383

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. According to FLAG Capital there are 100 active VCs (as defined by making at least $1 million in VC per quarter for 4 consecutive quarters). Their data looks at tech VCs.

VC 374

VC peer-to-peer entrepreneurs investing 374

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2012

Oh, did you think I meant something else? :) I just thought today was Salacious Headline Day in the VC blogging world so I thought I'd chime in. When I first sat down with Josh back in September of 2009 to talk about joining First Round. A couple of years ago, we used to have a Junior VC dinner in NYC.

capital 236

capital VC pitching venture capital 236

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Quick caveats: having fewer investors (3-5) is better than many investors (10-15) and PLEASE make sure you hire a great lawyer who has experience in doing start-ups to avoid pitfalls that will make VC harder down the line. They might be as hard as raising VC.

advice 291

advice VC pitching angel investing 291

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

If you want to be the marketing person or you want to be perceived as a businessperson or a VC or technical person or whatever you want to be perceived, people will always define you. And what I mean is, I told this story in a blog post I wrote called, “ Is It Time to Earn or Is It Time to Learn ?” Maybe you misheard me.

startup 337

startup entrepreneurs consulting board 337

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 21, 2011

When I first got into VC I decided I better have some investment themes. We now know that the medium has changed the news industry leading to blogs, real-time reporting, integration of text and video, two-way discussions, stories surfaced based on what your friends are reading, etc. “People still want calls …&#.

media 329

media disruption VC construction 329

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. In a way it feels intuitive to us – the readers of this blog – because we’re the tech crowd. source: Harris Interactive IM Shopping Poll (August 2009)). Enter phone calls.

SaaS 339

SaaS VC real estate board 339

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2016

Your customers are all on this product so not trying to grok this platform gives you a few big handicaps: Some VCs on on Snapchat and interacting with them daily on Snapchat and you’re not. That’s like you saying you don’t want to go to cocktail parties and network anymore while every 25-35 year-old VC steals your customers.

peer-to-peer 279

peer-to-peer media VC networking 279