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Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. What is a founder to do? The most helpful type of advice in my mind are frameworks for how to solve a problem.
I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. I have one failed attempt at a startup under my belt as a founder and I don't have any particularly usable skills that anyone would pay for like selling, designing, building, etc.
Yesterday, I met with a founder with an interesting model who was raising $400k to bring the finishing touches to her product to make it customer-ready. In fact, the only founder I've ever seen completely run the table for a multi-million dollar seed round based off of a Powerpoint is Chantel Waterbury of chloe + isabel.
I always get asked how to get into VC and so I think a lot about what it takes to do the job well. Practicing the word no as many times as a VC does means you have to fight not to have your mind close on you. For some, VC is about the picking rather than the fostering and growing. In venture capital, you say "no" a lot.
Other founders, “as a privately held company we don’t disclose our valuation.&# Me, “dude, I’m not a journalist. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should. Investors own 25%, the founders own 75%. Thus the “true&# pre-money is only $2.4
I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.
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. We had Farb Nivi , who is the founder & CEO of Grockit , a website that enables online group learning. Farb is the founder & CEO of Grockit.com. They sponsor TWiVC.
I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.”
Shivani Gupta, EO Queensland, multi-business founder, author, speaker and coach Profit from profit My big learning from EO Malaysia member Fong Leng Wong is: Profit from profit. As female entrepreneurs, we are independent-minded and innovative, and this advice is critical for securing our future and the future of our families.
I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. I recently wrote a piece for Mashable on how to create a company blog. Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. What should you blog about?
This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests. I have this mentality, too.
Most conversations don't end in funding or even a follow up meeting, so your aim should be to get specific, helpful advice that moves you forward. Are you blogging really insightful takes on your industry? 7) When being introduced to a VC, you follow up first, not them. Ask me those, or did you just want me to toss up a big "9.5"
I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. So my first advice is not to rush in the fund raising process. Not so in venture capital. After Sept 11th?
Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. Equity for the future? We discussed it as a group.
If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC &# tab).
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. The following was available: “I kept hearing about startups that raised VC funding, but which hadn’t filed Form Ds (nor issued a press release).
Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. I attended events.
This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. This is where most founders err. Same with VC.
Yesterday I wrote a blog post ( here ) in which I urged people to not have too many founders. These situations are only compounded if you have 3 or more founders. I know that many people reading this will be in companies with 3+ founders and aren’t having any friction. They agreed to all be co-founders.
By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead. Wallflower – yours truly. Rob does it.
I’m going to save that for a future blog post. And awesome to get to spend time with Ian Sigalow “comparing notes” (VC speak ). I also got the chance to hear from and meet the founder of About.com – Scott Kurnit – who gave a lively talk that challenged much startup conventional wisdom. View more presentations from steve blank.
I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is what I’m looking for in an investment. But some founders have that extra quality that makes them never give up. Excite, Ask Jeeves and Lycos?
I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC.
The major battle for press is a battle for “mindshare” and it’s exactly the reason I blog. I am a VC. We provide strategic advice to digital media companies in a manner that reflects how corporate development is actually done. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?
The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. VC Industry' It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable. Lines, Not Dots. Attitude over Aptitude.
On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on. But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VCBlog Posts? In it she observes that only 3% of the comments on this blog are from women. Please watch this.
We started this week’s show with a Q&A session where I answered viewer questions about fund raising and the VC industry. If you enjoy this blog I think you’ll enjoy watching the first 14 minutes of this video (just click on the image of me below). What advice do you have for people who want to get into venture capital?
Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?) She now recognizes the need to have co-founders.
Even when I’m not the one being sued I find myself being dragged into deposition after deposition and my blog (along with all my emails) are being served as evidence. I often speak about co-founder fighting and how this ends in lawsuits but this has become much more prevalent. Lawsuits are on the rise. It was a pure shake down.
In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.
If you’re an entrepreneur who would like to see this clause in more startups please ask your VC to include it in future term sheets and link to it from their home page. “We I have seen in your 5 years with us countless hours dedicated to mentorship and advice to younger founders of color and showing them a roadmap for success.
This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. It’s one of my favorite blog posts.
I was hanging out the other day with my buddy Jody Sherman, founder & CEO of EcoMom. Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. Let’s be clear: AngelList doesn’t scare a single VC I know. But it’s not cutting VCs out.
years ago you’d remember RIP Good Times from Sequoia, which still strikes me as having been prudent advice in late 2008. 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 started blogging 2 years ago.
This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. It’s one of my favorite blog posts.
I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be. I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things.
We also talked about why Jon decided to leave Google to become an EIR at a VC firm (Polaris) – minute 33. There’s tons of more great advice from real-world experience from Jon so please watch when you have time. Good comment community = viral blog. But of course we also focused on making content go viral.
I will even take to emailing people I don’t know offering small bits of advice. You’re writing a freaking blog post! I try to take time out of my week to occasionally meet with startup founders – even those that haven’t been introduced. Plus, he’s a loyal reader of this blog. Marketing.
But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. I wonder sometimes if founders even know about the hours their lawyers or advisers put in on evenings, weekends, vacations. And they will offer you some of the best business advice you will ever receive if you’re open to it. EXECUTIVE COACHES.
I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. My guess is that many VCs are.
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. There are too many pulls & tugs at our elbows for time, for coffee meetings, for advice or speaking engagements or cocktail parties or dinners.
Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. Big difference.].
In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. IA Ventures – Roger Ehrenberg was doing angel investing before he became a VC. So his Twitter handle is @infoarbitrage and his excellent (must read) blog is Information Arbitrage. My views are pretty well known. I hate Silicon Whatever. LA should be LA.”
My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. It’s your baby. You took the biggest leap of faith.
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