Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

Seasoned founders have a particular way of answering this question. In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin presents his view on the right way to answer it after hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of founder pitches. When you don’t state the ask upfront, here’s the incorrect answer most founders give when pressed.

pitching 393

pitching board health VC 393

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 2, 2014

Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. I can assure you that move wasn’t a walk in the park for the board. I call it “ the Co-Founder mythology ” and it’s persistent in our startup mythology. Foursquare?

startup 385

startup coworking advice leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Most VCs are book smart. In fact, book smart can be a negative. I’ve sat on ad tech boards with board members who clearly knew little about impressions, fill rates, CTRs, RTB, eCPMs or the difficulties & opportunities of embedded mobile SDKs vs. HTML5. Smart is simply not a differentiator.

VC 364

VC advice board leadership 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

With all the external presenters, the ones I enjoyed the most were Dan Senor who wrote the book Startup Nation (an examination of the Israeli technology scene). 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.

peer-to-peer 279

peer-to-peer advice VC board 279

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 21, 2021

A well-known entrepreneur turned VC, who will go unnamed because I am not sure he would want me to share this conversation publicly, once told me “if you remove a founder, you must sell the company within a couple of years or it will start to decline in value.” Some founders are this rare breed of visionaries who can operate too.

leadership 279

leadership VC advice sustainability 279

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 29, 2016

Oh, and make someone from your 25 person Moldova tech team your co-founder. Don't forget to tell all your founder friends about our ultra-pre-pre-seed program. It doesn't pay to look at it any other way--and I think too many founders focus on the investor as the problem versus their pitch or their company. We love early."

founder 206

founder pitching board investing 206

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . As a next step, we recommend that you register at the major expert network websites, as well as LinkedIn and job boards, if you haven’t already.

consulting 128

consulting venture capital board capital 128

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

He brings knowledgable experts from varying points of view but never books anybody that engages in yelling matches. I haven’t read the book nor deeply reviewed Project Aristotle but the conversation on this morning’s show really resonated with me. I have a board meeting coming up this week and I just reviewed the agenda.

frameworks 233

frameworks board creativity SaaS 233

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

So today I’m excited to announce that Upfront Ventures is leading an $8 million round with some amazing co-investors including Founder’s Fund, OATV, Lowercase, High Peaks, Collaborative Fund and many great angel investors. And for the next several months the founders literally ran the business.

real estate 380

real estate ventures innovation pitching 380

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 18, 2020

He is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners , an affiliation marketing company. You can expect to see families invest in toys, to keep their children occupied, as well as board games, projects and puzzles that can be done as a family in the evening and on weekends. Audiobooks and eBooks. Gaming and E-sports.

health 307

health accelerator opportunity hospitality 307

Revolution

MAY 4, 2022

Convening with CEO and co-founder Ryan Simonetti By Steve Murray and Patrick Conroy , Partners at Revolution Growth Convene’s London location at 22 Bishopsgate In 2018, Revolution Growth led an investment in Convene , an emerging leader in flexible work, meetings and events, and premium venues.

real estate 264

real estate coworking spaces coworking hospitality 264

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

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. I read this book, " Why We Make Mistake s " and it talks a lot about "recall bias". Why should that stop me, though? It doesn't stop anyone else.

advice 412

advice startup VC strategy 412

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

I wonder sometimes if founders even know about the hours their lawyers or advisers put in on evenings, weekends, vacations. I had dinner with my friend Brooke Hammerling , founder of Brew PR recently. One day if you’re lucky you’ll be big enough to work with recruiters to hire senior members of your team or your board.

startup 363

startup real estate VC venture capital 363

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 6, 2020

I interviewed a number of prominent VC’s and entrepreneurs for my recent book. Brad says: “Talk to people you trust, whether they’re investors, board members, co-founders, mentors, whatever; make sure you’re open about the stress and the struggle you’re going through both financially in the business and personally.”

peer-to-peer 321

peer-to-peer startup advice entrepreneurs 321

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

The best designed mobile apps use the accelerometer, the camera, map integration, location, contact book integration, QR codes and so on. making the experience “as easy as buying a book on Amazon.” I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that our other investor is Subrah Iyer , the founder of WebEx. Think about Snapchat.

real estate 244

real estate leadership board investing 244

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Strangely, the best I’ve ever heard this exemplified is in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential - which is really a book about startups as told through kitchen stories. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. Writing a book will be fun.

board 320

board VC construction opportunity 320

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

She told of the teaching of the Talmud – a book which scholars use to debate doctrine and from which Jewish people are reminded to always learn and to debate. But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert.

peer-to-peer 337

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs consulting VC 337

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

It’s sort of like having an Encyclopedic history book before just launching your product and seeing whether anybody uses it. Here’s the thing – as Michael Lewis talks about in his book, the adage of investing is that “if you’re reading about something in the papers it’s already too late.”. Want to do a Q&A website?

angel investing 288

angel investing investing investment advice 288

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2019

I’m going to focus this post around the concept of a “board dinner” or “board lunch” since this is part of a series around how to more effectively run board relationships but most of these tips can be broadly applied. Why a Board Dinner (or Lunch)? Managing a board is a bit like flying?—?the

networking 262

networking board construction disruption 262

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 13, 2020

In his book The Innovation Stack , he recounts how he and his cofounder, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, approached the problem of credit cards with a new perspective. Let’s begin with an obvious question: How does a glassblower become the founder of a major payments company? When everything affects everything, you have a dynamic system.

innovation 190

innovation entrepreneurs entrepreneurship board 190

Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

From the Sunshine State to the Windy City, and college to coastal towns, we met up with some incredible founders, ecosystem builders, and co-investors last quarter, and experienced just about every season along the way. He then joined Wilmington founders at Live Oak’s Channel for office hours. Where we went: Chicago, IL?

venture capital 246

venture capital pitching ventures board 246

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 31, 2022

This page hosts videos we have recorded with some of the founders and operators of these projects and we plan to produce more videos in the coming months. Gotham Gives is run by Jennifer Klopp and we are joined on the board by our long-time friend and philanthropic partner Sarah Holloway.

culture 219

culture education venture capital board 219

Y Combinator

MARCH 7, 2023

YC Group Partner Surbhi Sarna has written a book called Without a Doubt , and today it goes on sale. But it's also a must-read for any founder who feels underestimated, or anyone who isn't sure if starting a startup is for them. It's a must-read for anyone interested in healthcare.

entrepreneurship 97

entrepreneurship culture advice health 97

TechCrunch

MARCH 24, 2021

banks and credit card company is also coming on board as a strategic partner, to launch Capital One Travel, which is the first instantiation of Hopper’s new B2B platform, Hopper Cloud. That characterization mostly comes from Hopper’s ability to offer customers financial flexibility around their travel bookings.

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capital disruption board accelerator 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace. Seriously, this happens.

innovation 286

innovation startup board leadership 286

Dream It

MAY 4, 2021

Seasoned founders have a particular way of framing their answer to this question. When pressed, many founders get defensive which is not a good look for someone asking for investor backing. Valuation is not set by you, your team, your investors, or your board. I have co-founded several companies and served on many boards.

VC 300

VC board pitching health 300

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

He then brought her to board meetings so nobody could accuse him of not having a business model. He calls this competing with “non consumption” It was the most profound business strategy book I had read and greatly influenced how I thought about company building and certainly how I think about investing. The money quote.

strategy 401

strategy startup peer-to-peer advice 401

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all can intuit the benefits to founders of these trends so there’s little reason to elaborate. How founders get screwed on convertible notes. I’d keep your financial performance to your board members who are anyways directed by law to represent the interests of all shareholders. Is this investor on AngelList?

venture capital 352

venture capital VC board financing 352

TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2021

In an unprecedented work environment defined by distributed teams and virtual-only communication, two co-founders think their 2018 bet reigns truer than ever: mentors need mentorship, too. Christine Tao and Lori Mazan , the brains behind Sounding Board , want to train any leader within an organization to be a better leader.

board 106

board mentorship startup venture capital 106

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Several funds and firms are participating in this investment including Rincon Ventures , Idealab ( Bill Gross built the original incubator and there will be active support from Allen Morgan ), Baroda Ventures , GRP Partners , David Cohen (founder of TechStars ), David Tisch (founder of TechStars NY ), DLA Piper and Stubbs Alderton.

VC 287

VC mentorship incubation startup 287

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

That little online book company. More recently great funds like IA Ventures, Floodgate, Rincon Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital and others have raised money to focus on early-stage investing as a strategy. Amazon changed our industry. This is mind boggling. Not Google. Not Microsoft. 100% of the credit.

venture capital 334

venture capital capital ventures VC 334

TechCrunch

AUGUST 17, 2021

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. 6 career options for ex-founders seeking their next adventure. How to win consulting, board and deal roles with PE and VC funds. Next are VC firms looking for founders. 5 factors founders must consider before choosing their VC.

founder 97

founder investing investment VC 97

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 20, 2021

Jonathan Siddharth, the founder and CEO, told me in an interview that the total pool of candidates has grown 9x to 1 million engineers and developers from 140 countries in the last year, with that pool either looking for projects or already engaged in them. .” The funding comes on the back of strong growth for Turing.

enablement 139

enablement capital creativity culture 139

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 27, 2020

For companies ranking in the top quartile of executive-board diversity, returns on equity (ROEs) were 53 percent higher, on average, than they were for those in the bottom quartile … earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margins at the most diverse companies were 14 percent higher, on average, than those of the least diverse companies.”.

peer-to-peer 237

peer-to-peer leadership culture communities 237

Gust

JUNE 8, 2014

Experts on this subject, including Yael Zofi, in her book, “ A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams ,” has identified eight key characteristics of high-performing virtual teams that I have observed, and every startup founder should understand and enable: Members exhibit a global mindset – they look outward, not inward.

enablement 187

enablement entrepreneurs energy culture 187

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

In marketing materials founders often refer to their customer base as a “community”, but there’s a huge gap between having customers and creating a community. they could invest in entrepreneurial communities and the best founders would then bring in new founders. It’s no wonder they’ve both performed so well. And it would be?

communities 234

communities peer-to-peer venture capital enablement 234

Entrepreneurs' Organization

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Contributed by Verne Harnish, founder of EO and founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents. Sometimes the meeting is almost exclusively about things that came up in the week’s Pulse,” says co-founder and CEO Forest Key. “It Want more Verne?

leadership 241

leadership culture education data collection 241