March, 2012

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Don't ask "Why Brooklyn?" Ask "How?"

This is going to be BIG.

Since I launched Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , a lot of people have asked me why I put the fund in Brooklyn. Even to those who said it was "obvious", all of them seem to have different reasons why they believe that was a good idea. To me, there are a couple of basic reasons: 1) If nothing else, it's geographically closer to more startups than midtown firms like RRE, Greycroft, and Firstmark.so, *why not* put my office here?

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Always Go Home with the Lady Who Brought you to the Dance

Both Sides of the Table

I had this ethical dilemma pop up on one of the first deals I even did as a VC. I had been looking around at several deals in late 2008 as the markets were tanking. I had gotten close on a couple of deals but nothing rose to the level of “must do.” I was learning which VCs I wanted to work with, what stage & check size I wanted to commit do and what teams would be a good fit for me.

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The Berkus Method: Valuing an Early Stage Investment.

Berkonomics

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point. Many formulas then discount those projections according to some set percentage or by assigning weight to elements of the enterprise.

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Why Youth Has an Advantage in Innovation & Why You Want To Be a Learn-It-All

abovethecrowd.com

[Follow Me on Twitter] A few relevant scenes from the recent blockbuster Moneyball: Peter Brand: Billy, Pena is an All Star. Okay? And if you dump him and this Hatteberg thing doesn’t work out the way that we want it to, you know, this is…this is the kind of decision that gets you fired. It is! Billy Beane: Yes, you’re right. I [.].

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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Massaging the Octopus: Jiro Dreams of Startups

This is going to be BIG.

The other day I want to go see Jiro Dreams of Sushi --a documentary about an 86 year old sushi chef working out of a 10 seat restaurant in a Ginza subway station. Oh, did I mention that the restaurant is rated 3 stars by the Michelin folks? This guy is like a throwback to another era. He doesn't feel as if he's gotten to the pinnacle of his craft yet.

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The Leader of the Freemium World

This is going to be BIG.

I didn't write most of the following and the original text had nothing to do with entrepreneurship. "All entrepreneurs are unsuited to the job, and therefore all entrepreneurs fail in certain crucial aspects of the job. And all are mis-assessed while in their job, for reasons that typically depend more on luck and historical accident than on factors within their control.

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Why the NYC startup scene needs Sean Parker

This is going to be BIG.

I have never met Sean Parker. I don't know if the movie portrayal of him is accurate and I don't particularly care. What I do care about is that a person who is long on vision and has a knack for being around big companies early on is now living in New York City. Parker made a huge dent in the web as co-founder of Napster, then built Plaxo up to 20 million users.

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Address the five risks to increase your valuation.

Berkonomics

In the creation of a new enterprise, there are five principal risks to be addressed by the entrepreneur. Professional investors will probe these five risk areas and make the decision to invest based upon comfort with each. So it is important for the entrepreneur to identify, address and mitigate each of these in order to increase valuation and decrease the risk of ultimate loss of the business.

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Entrepreneurs: The Funding Landscape Has Changed.

Berkonomics

Guest post by Sara Mackey. Dave’s Note: This is the first time we’ve had a guest author on the BERKONOMICS site. Sara focuses upon another side of small business financing not typically considered in the angel and venture world, financing from sources for companies that will probably never be attractive to those niches. . So, you’ve been thinking about starting your own firm for the past ten years.

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

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Beware the “dirty cap table.”

Berkonomics

When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors love to see entrepreneurs who have used their own money to ignite their businesses. But often, entrepreneurs turn to others for initial capital. Describing that capital using the phrase “friends, family and fools,” or “FFF,” has become as common as to be trite.

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Personal Guarantees are a fact of life for many entrepreneurs.

Berkonomics

Starting and running a small or growing business can be a challenge to the most confident and optimistic entrepreneur. And the process of borrowing money or financing asset purchases can be an eye-opener for those who are not used to today’s lender and seller aversion to granting easy credit. Most any entrepreneur with a clean credit record can obtain a bank card with a $50,000 limit, if s/he is willing to give a personal guarantee and has enough assets to back the promise it contains.

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Why You Should Think Twice Before You Send That Intro Email

Both Sides of the Table

Intros.They’re the lifeblood of networking – the currency of mavens. They are your route to angel money. Your entrée to sales meetings. We couldn’t live without them. But when misused, overused or abused they can diminish your personal brand, consume your valuable time and waste that of the relationships you value the most. I would like to make the case for being judicious with your introductions.

VC 359
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Never Negotiate Piecemeal. Here’s Why

Both Sides of the Table

When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. Like most first-timers, I learned the hard way. Negotiating was a subset of every activity in a startup – it really was a way of life.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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A Quick Hack for Speeding up Term Sheet and other Negotiations

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve started a series on negotiations in startups. In it I list some books and also link to some of my previous posts. It’s the first functional series I’ve done since sales & marketing. The very first time I ever negotiated a term sheet (and then legal docs for closing the round) I found the experience very frustrating. I was desperate to get my funding finalized to derisk my business as well as to get capital in the bank to meet our growing cash needs.

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The Single Biggest Lesson of a Venture Backed CEO (or come see my recruiting talk at #sxsw)

This is going to be BIG.

Got this note from an entrepreneur I know the other day: "The single biggest lesson I have learned in 2 years as a venture backed CEO is the importance of having the right people in place, particularly at the executive level. The reason you've seen [this company] start to turn the corner in the last 3-4 months really boils down to 4 people. all [of these people] joined the company in Q4 last year.

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