Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

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. By 2011 the market had started to change dramatically. We announced Fund I in 2011. So we went for it.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. But I guess you could say the same about VC.

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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. The three largest webmail services had over 1 billion global users at the end of 2011. And while this data is from mid-2011 I can assure you that data is not going down. There are 2.9

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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

JUNE 1, 2011

That’s how it felt then and a bit how it feels in May 2011. years ago you’d remember RIP Good Times from Sequoia, which still strikes me as having been prudent advice in late 2008. I hope to offer experiences from being an entrepreneur and being a VC.&#. If you were reading the headlines from only 2.5

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advice VC financing finance 391

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

At TechCrunch Early Stage 2021 , a virtual bootcamp experience in two distinct parts, you’ll learn from leading experts across the startup spectrum — including prominent founders ready to share their personal experiences and hard-won advice to help you avoid costly missteps. Talk about awesome exposure!

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pitching entrepreneurship advice VC 58

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. It’s the one bit of advice I find myself giving most frequently these days, “raise money at the top end of normal.&#. I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias.

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startup advice pitching VC 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2011

Will you get the TechCrunch bump, the tier-1 VC anointment, followed by great PR firm support and then the NY Times or WSJ story that follows? So as I get around the country speaking at college campus in 2010 & 2011 I have been preaching the same theme. Not every problem has to be a huge VC-fundable business.

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transportation VC networking energy 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

VC 360

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

I had been trading emails & Tweets with venture capitalist John Frankel and we were to meet in person in March 2011 at SxSW to talk about Klout and other investments he had made. Other people were convinced including Kleiner Perkins who lead their $30 million fund raising in 2012 (they had previously also invested in 2011).

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venture capital VC ventures capital 303

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. This benefits you, the entrepreneur. It takes options off of the table.

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entrepreneurs incubation board VC 374

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Babak Nivi is one of the most understated, helpful & important people on the entrepreneur / startup scene in NorCal. What he (along with Naval) started with AngelList is also a very important transformation to the communications between first-time entrepreneurs & angels. But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&#

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

JUNE 14, 2023

The company started in 2011 and built what I still think is the best free learn-to-code product online. Giant Mistakes and Successes: Lessons From Growing Revenue From $10M To $50M was originally published in Entrepreneur's Handbook on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SaaS 81

SaaS media consulting advice 81

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. I believe that.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 18, 2020

In a post that identifies embedded finance’s top providers and enablers, he offers advice for startups and established brands that are hoping to “earn and build customer loyalty while generating new revenue streams.” Founders and the VCs who back them may not be friends, but they’re usually friendly.

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financing finance media startup 105

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. It allows you many more exit opportunities.

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startup VC networking venture capital 418

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. They wanted advice. And probably some money.

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VC advice financing finance 332

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. I’ve been on the road much of 2012 and part of 2011. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur?

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entrepreneurs VC founder venture capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

This conversation seems to come up very frequently these days both with portfolio companies and with entrepreneurs just looking for mentorship. I like to tell entrepreneurs that the “fairway&# of fund raising is 25-33% per round. Again, this is highly individualized so no generic advice can be offered.

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Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 9, 2024

Actually, I was trading emails with Aaron Ross this morning because I think in a lot of ways that when I was an up and coming entrepreneur 15 years ago, that book landed in my hands and it felt like someone had given me the keys to the kingdom. I’m sure you’ll ask me about AI or you’ll have your VC card revoked, right?

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. There is every likelihood that Zennström’s Atomico would have joined Klarna’s cap table in 2010 if it weren’t for a single line of text published on the VC firm’s website, which read something like, “don’t contact us, we’ll contact you.”

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investing investment mix-use media 143

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. There is every likelihood that Zennström’s Atomico would have joined Klarna’s cap table in 2010 if it weren’t for a single line of text published on the VC firm’s website, which read something like, “don’t contact us, we’ll contact you.”

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investing investment mix-use media 82