This is going to be BIG.

JULY 16, 2014

There''s been some writing about how VCs and founders interact with each other and it inspired me to take a step back and reflect on what my role is supposed to be with regards to the investments I make and the founders I deal with. Venture Capital & Technology' Here''s what I came up with.

VC 387

VC frameworks venture capital opportunity 387

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality. What is a VC To Do?

VC 416

VC strategy investment investing 416

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. Co-founder discontent. They worry too much about missing out on a deal.

VC 374

VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder. Fifteen had co-founders over 40. Five have LGBTQ+ founders. Three teams have African-American founders.

venture capital 413

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 413

Founder Bounty

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Time and time again i hear about founders that have bigger egos then anything else rejecting offers from top tier VC's (like YC ) and eventually leading thier companies to fail. If you do get and offer from top US VC's take them, dont be greedy and stay humble. Dont have a big ego.

VC 105

VC accelerator investment investing 105

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? It''s also not the best way to create a helpful syndicate of investors that share the founder''s vision for the company. If all my deals came as intros from trusted connections that I know for years versus at founder pitch events that''s interesting data.

VC 415

VC pitching networking venture capital 415

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%.

VC 364

VC financing finance board 364

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. What was the post money on your last round (and how much capital have you raised)? So why does a VC ask you? In the first place they’re looking for “fit” with their firm.

VC 324

VC investment investing entrepreneurs 324

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

But I have been in close contact with the NVCA, many of the major law firms and many of the major VC firms. If your US-based business is adversely affected by Covid-19 such that you would need to lay off employees imminently and having access to capital would enable you to keep more employees on the payroll then you might be eligible.

VC 279

VC peer-to-peer startup advice 279

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

*. What is the role of a VC for entrepreneurs? I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. They are unique to you and not to each other situation that VC has faced. ” I responded. How can we know better?

VC 353

VC advice consulting frameworks 353

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 25, 2023

That includes investing way earlier than they would normally, investing outside of scope, investing with their personal capital outside of the fund, etc. It’s your job as a founder to find out the specific risk associated with that attribute and to find out if the reason given is the only reason. That’s fair. Ok, I can accept that.

founder 364

founder VC board pitching 364

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

At the time almost nobody had heard of the following funds: FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures, Floodgate and SoftTech. Firms like Baseline, Felicis, ff Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle, HomeBrew, IA Ventures, K9, Lowercase, NextView, Resolute, Rincon, Crosscut and the countless other great firms we all now know didn’t exist.

VC 348

VC peer-to-peer frameworks board 348

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 1, 2021

But until very recently, raising capital for your startup was significantly easier if it was located in the major startup hubs, most notably Silicon Valley. It takes a long time, at least five years and more likely a decade, to know how changes in the startup economy and venture capital will play out.

venture capital 279

venture capital capital investing investment 279

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 12, 2014

Plus, when I look at my risks--is the risk that a legal term will shoot me in the foot or that these two founders and a prototype run this business into the ground. million of initial capital with all its fees and stuff, and you''ve got about $6 million of gains. Venture Capital & Technology' Subtract the $8.3

VC 419

VC venture capital capital ventures 419

Revolution

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

One is “tentpole company,” or a category-defining startup that helps put their hometown on the map, both for investors and future generations of founders. Internally, we’ve begun using the term “founder-market-geography fit” to describe this idea. What is Founder-Market-Geography Fit? Let’s get into it. Plastomics: St.

founder 246

founder transportation innovation education 246

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. For the LA event, for example, they will not only have a selection of great LA VCs but also 10+ senior VC women from the SF Bay Area will be coming down for it.

founder 256

founder peer-to-peer VC mentorship 256

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 7, 2015

After checking out The Information's "open dataset" on diversity in venture capital , I felt pretty disappointed. Who is actually building a portfolio whose founders reflect the diversity of the greater population? A whopping 17 of the 32 companies (53%) have founders that fit into those groups. Not directly, anyway.

venture capital 354

venture capital capital ventures VC 354

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. You’d be surprised how many firms are “dictator VCs” – even those that don’t formally acknowledge it internally. ” Some firms are collegiate.

venture capital 336

venture capital peer-to-peer capital ventures 336

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

That was a question posed to me by a new analyst at a venture capital fund. While there are lots and lots of really kind, generous people working in venture capital--the recently retired Howard Morgan, Hunter Walk, Brad Feld, and Karin Klein for example--it's really tough to argue that there isn't widespread jerkery. So what gives?

VC 390

VC venture capital entrepreneurship advice 390

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2015

So I asked a few founders that I've worked with and they mentioned a word that struck me--because I've never heard any of the hordes of people in my inbox asking for internships, VC job recommendations and advice, etc. I think of venture capital as a service business. mention about themselves. Generosity.

venture capital 363

venture capital capital pitching ventures 363

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. This is where most founders err.

VC 332

VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2015

The last thing you want as either a founder or even a VC is to have an investor get stuck with you when you're not on the same page about expectations. You trust me with your money and I get to do the fun part--working with founders. So here's all the reasons I told him he shouldn't be in: 1) Fund investing is boring.

venture capital 412

venture capital investing investment ventures 412

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Having a better overall portfolio of venture capital by adding funds into the mix. In fact, that number is probably even more than the average VC fund has the bandwidth to make.

VC 258

VC angel investing mix-use opportunity 258

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 5, 2016

Just don't go picking someone who really doesn't compliment you just because it's some kind of VC rule. I've heard a lot of VCs tell founders they need co-founders--and that they wouldn't look at a business at a very early stage without a co-founder. The same holds true for VC funds.

founder 283

founder board VC construction 283

Hunter Walk

APRIL 21, 2025

I entered venture capital with some beliefs – many of which still hold true (such as ‘your LPs are your business partners, not your customers’). But I’ve also seen a few change quite dramatically based upon the progressing ‘game on the field’ and my own VC experiences.

venture capital 103

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 103

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 13, 2020

As policy makers around the world seek to mitigate the economic shock from this pandemic, one less obvious but powerful place to look are working capital flows. We also need our capital markets to work so actions like the Fed is taking are necessary and important.

capital 238

capital accelerator creativity founder 238

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It just seemed like a fitting title for a company built around narrative by a founder who used to write stories for a living. I'm joined by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, NucleasHG, the founders of Seamless, a host of extremely helpful angels, and a CircleUp syndicate led by my friend Tom Potter, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery.

venture capital 346

venture capital ventures capital consumer retail 346

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

VC 223

VC venture capital capital investment 223

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 24, 2015

I recently interviewed Matt Mazzeo of Lowercase Capital. By now most of you know that Chris Sacca invested in what is now thought to be one of the best performing VC funds of all time having invested an $8.4 million fund in: Uber, Instagram, Docker and Twitter, amongst others.

VC 334

VC venture capital energy culture 334

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 28, 2013

Every time he opens his mouth about founder diversity, he seems completely out of his league to address the topic. However, in this moment, I think one''s career in venture capital depends on changing your perspective. Of the 20 teams, only half count an engineer as a founder or co-founder.

venture capital 398

venture capital VC ventures capital 398

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

You run X amount of capital and Y percentage of that is allocated to venture capital. For the VC that means if you're returning money to your institutional investors, that's about all you need to worry about. Either way, VC funds aren't really built around creating much of an experience for their Limited Partners.

venture capital 283

venture capital capital ventures VC 283

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Not in the “founder friendly” culture of tech anyway. An examination of several high profile stories this past year about female CEO issues lays bare the other reason: It’s not “founder friendly.” It’s male founder friendly. Founders have to reckon with that. Travis should hire her back?? He should have been long gone.

coworking spaces 545

coworking spaces hospitality culture coworking 545

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

I believe that the next generation of top companies are far more likely to be founded by people not on VC radars today. That believe has not only translated into the most diverse portfolio run by an investor who looks like me, with over 50% of the teams including diverse founders, but also into top quartile returns in our last fund.

venture capital 237

venture capital communities ventures capital 237

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 22, 2020

One of the most difficult conversations I have with founders is when they haven’t quite given me enough of a story for me to make a proper evaluation. A VC’s default is “no”, so without enough information to be convincing, it’s going to wind up being a pass. To a VC, $50,000 a pre-sale isn’t really that much.

pitching 312

pitching VC peer-to-peer founder 312

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Recently, Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital announced Brett Berson 's promotion to Partner. By figuring out the best ways to help founders, he learned valuable lessons alongside them--lessons he can now bring to a new generation of founders as their investor.

VC 265

VC angel investing startup venture capital 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

investment 328

investment investing VC venture capital 328

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? I don’t have enough traction.

advice 429

advice pitching venture capital VC 429