Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

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 Ours is: upfront.com/inclusion. We strive to invest in companies that are consciously working to create a diverse leadership team?—?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. Akshat Dixit is a senior at North Carolina State University, an intern at Versatile VC , and a past intern with the HBS Alumni Angels Association and the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Scouts help promote diversity in VC.

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Haystack

JANUARY 18, 2020

Having spent time around and then in the world of VC in the Bay Area during the last decade, I’ve been reflecting on how different norms in the industry have changed. At the start of 2010, there was some unwritten VC industry conventions that have been tested, challenged, and upended in the last decade. That is for another post.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 11, 2021

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. Jamie Finney is a founding partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund , where he blogs about his work on VC and small communities. From traditional equity VC, flexible VC borrows the option to pursue and reap the rewards of an outsized exit.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 15, 2020

I wrote yesterday , about the quarterly numbers for VC investing activity: If this was a student coming home with a report card, it would be straight As. But it is possible that there is and I missed that in my blog yesterday. I have not seen the data to back that up but if it is true, that is also a failing grade for the VC sector.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

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. Partner Leverage.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC. Startup Lessons'

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. But let’s face it, as a VC you spend time with whichever companies you want.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. Every time I do recruiting I get somebody who says, “I’m willing to take a step back in my career to work in VC.&# This isn’t likely to appeal to us. Tags: VC Industry. Yesterday.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 5, 2012

Are you blogging really insightful takes on your industry? He realized that rushed in person pitches don't do your company justice at all--especially when VCs are running to another meeting or trying to mingle and meet as many people as possible. 7) When being introduced to a VC, you follow up first, not them. Getting quoted?

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2010

I’ve been using Chartbeat for over a month now to track performance of my blog and I find myself looking at Google Analytics much less these days. The next users after that is reading a blog post that I wrote nearly 9 months ago. I tend to agree with them but I think that numbers are important in VC meetings.

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Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

If you are a founder and you are experiencing new or renewed tension in your conversations with your VC investors, it’s worth re-examining whether you all have a shared view of the likely outcome of your company and whether you’re both as excited about what that outcome means.

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venture capital real estate capital ventures 54

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 5, 2021

There has been this narrative about investing in VC funds that you have to get into the top quartile (25%) or possibly the top decile (10%) in order to generate good returns. I have heard that for as long as I have been in VC and probably have written it here a few times. As you can see, investing in VC funds can be very profitable.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

How long does it take from first meeting a VC to getting cash in the bank? Here were the results: I would guess that getting a third of my deals from events is probably disproportionately high compared to other seed investors on the east coast--and that my VC intro percentage is probably somewhat low. That''s an interesting question.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

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. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog? What should you blog about?

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advice mix-use entrepreneurs strategy 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. Let me explain.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

As I wrote then: I don’t think a VC firm should manage to a pacing number. In the last two years, the VC business has been operating at a blistering pace, the fastest I’ve witnessed in my 35 years in the business (including the 99/00 era). But even so, the VC business has turned into a sprint.

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David Teten VC

MAY 19, 2017

Historically VC has been an apprenticeship business. VC ASSOCIATIONS. No-cost accelerators: Afore Capital Angel to Fund Manager (AFM), Founder Institute VC Lab , Recast Capital Enablement Program – Accelerators with tuition: Oper8r , OnConduit ‘s Emerging Fund Managers Initiative. Reboot VC Bootcamp.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. Because it is a “series&# I plan to get into some of the deeper complexities of funds such as “cross over funds&# and “why VC’s hate to price their own deals&# at a later stage.

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VC venture capital entrepreneurs real estate 265

Hunter Walk

AUGUST 6, 2023

Ok, I’ll get back to my procession of Startup Land Heat Checks shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a bunch of smart stuff I’ve enjoyed reading over the last few weeks: a person reading a magazine while stuck in a spider web, anime It’s Not Your Fault, But It’s Your Problem [Charles Hudson, Precursor] – I vigorously (..)

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VC creativity culture advice 56

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. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

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VC startup advice innovation 269

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

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.

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VC peer-to-peer advice consulting 337

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. And in my interviews with many VCs I feel that people can watch these and get to know the VC’s as human beings a bit better. So how did Mike get into VC?

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VC ventures venture capital capital 230

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 19, 2021

On the USV website, we show the most read blog posts by author. Here are mine : I want to do this for AVC too. I will ask my partner Nick who managed the construction of USV.com how he did that and will see if I can get that working on AVC. When you’ve written 8,800 posts, there are sure to be some duds and some great ones.

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construction 235

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Recently the firms two founding partners (and also Managing Partners) —  Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham  — decided to transition management of the firm to Andy Weissman (who joined in 2012) and Albert Wenger (joined in 2008 and writes one of the most thoughtful blogs in our industry ). Maybe that’s USV, too.

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leadership VC venture capital ventures 161

David Teten VC

JANUARY 19, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. raised money from VCs and 7.7% More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. A new category of VCs have emerged offering a hybrid between VC and RBI, which we call “Flexible VC”. .

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David Teten VC

JANUARY 19, 2021

His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. II: Who are the major Revenue-Based Investing VCs? IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

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VC venture capital funders capital 45

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 20, 2020

I wrote a blog post on March 12th called Open For Business and thought I would return to the topic. If you search for “vc open for business” on Twitter , you will see almost universal scorn for the idea that VCs are open for business right now. But I don’t see that across the entire VC landscape.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

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. Get to know VCs over a long period of time so that when you’re ready to get engaged you feel you know their character. But what was the VC like when the chips were down?

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VC advice venture capital entrepreneurs 298

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

The third interview I’ve done on Harry Stebbings ‘ “ Twenty Minute VC ” was just released. You can listen to it here. Frankly, I am surprised by the response to it. This particular podcast covered quite an arcane topic — how to learn how to manage investment funds.

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VC venture capital investing investment 88

Startup Grind

AUGUST 13, 2018

Favorite business book, blog, podcast? Great leaders create spectacular teams by hiring people who are better at what they do than the leaders themselves. They take non-consensus bets, strategically. When evaluating opportunities, great leaders can articulate the risks of a given bet and the reasons why they can be overcome.

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VC entrepreneurship pitching strategy 111

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

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 love businesses that don’t lend themselves well to VC Panels at conferences or Demo Days. I attended events. I hustled.

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VC advice pitching entrepreneurs 347

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2012

Instead of just e-mailing people and dealing with them directly, as we do in person, we're a blog post away from a flamewar. Of course, you don't always need that experience from a VC. We hear things that weren't actually said and argue points that weren't made. We box shadows--especially on the internet.

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VC board venture capital ventures 274

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 6, 2015

He found me through my blog and I didn''t think he was real. Hunter Walk can''t be any blog commenters real name, can it? I wasn''t sure whether his answers would wind up here or vice versa, but when I thought about it, it turned out I was pretty adamant that my blog is for my voice. I''ve known Hunter Walk for almost a decade.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. We spent the first 45 minutes or so talking about industry trends (in this order): The history and background of True Ventures, one of my favorite early-stage VC’s (and the one with whom Om is a venture partner). Real-time search engine.

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