May, 2015

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Tips For An Effective Co-Founder Relationship

Onevest

By Tim Houghten What really makes for an effective, and lasting co-founder relationship? Is the magical pixie dust that gives co-founder relationships wings really all about eHarmony style data matching? Or like a successful, and long-lived “celebrity marriage,” is it the result of a strong pre-nup, regular date nights, and a lot of patience and willingness to forgive?

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My Investment in Hungryroot: A Tasty Lesson in Products vs. Services

This is going to be BIG.

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures recently joined Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and KarpReilly in Hungryroot 's $2mm seed round. The NYC based company makes ready-to-cook meals comprised of 100% organic, fresh-cut vegetable noodles paired with all-natural chef-designed sauces, toppings and optional pre-roasted proteins--and they're delicious. The food has become a staple of my diet, which wasn't the case after trying various food delivery services out on the market.

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Here is Why Non-Obvious Startup Ideas Can Yield the Largest Results

Both Sides of the Table

Amazon. It is a household name. It has become so synonymous with Internet companies that the French have invented a disdainful term including Amazon: “les GAFA,” which they refer to as Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon to talk about American dominance of the Internet. Try to imagine if you *didn’t* already know Amazon and the company walking into VC meetings telling people they were going to disrupt the selling of all goods starting with books but then extending into electronics, ap

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10 Things I Learned At The On-Demand Conference

Unvalidated Learnings

Last week I had the chance to attend the first edition of the on-demand conference organised in San Francisco by Semil Shah , Pascal Levy Garboua and Tradecraft , and here are 10 things I learned: 1. San Francisco is currently an extraordinary open-air lab for the on-demand economy : hundreds of startups, investors and service providers are competing for a piece of the action?

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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The Optimal Compensation Plan for Customer Success Teams

Tomasz Tunguz

At the Gainsight Pulse conference yesterday, I moderated a panel with Boaz Maor, VP of customer success at Mashery and Mike McKee, SVP of customer success and services at Rapid7. During the panel, both men described their path to building substantial customer success organizations at their respective companies. Boaz’s team numbers 60 people, and Mike’s exceeds 160.

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5 Tips for Improving Your Startup Deal Flow

Onevest

By Tim Houghten For 1000 Angels , the private investor network that connect startups with investors, deal flow is critical. Only with sufficient deal flow can investors uncover the best startup investments, and stay diversified. No one want capital sitting idle, especially not in today’s miserly low interest rate environment. A Forbes study of deal pipeline for VCs and angel investor groups shows they review 87 investment opportunities before committing to 1, on average.

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Disrupting the Screen: Backing Tinkergarten to Get Kids Out to Play

This is going to be BIG.

A little more than a year ago, I got a note from Brian Fitzgerald, a Product Manager I met while I was at First Round. He was "taking time with family" to figure out what's next. Most people take that to mean that they'll stop spending as much time with their family and go on to work at another startup or be a founder themselves. Brian, on the other hand, doubled down on family and decided to work on the side project he started with his wife Meg.

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Why Lawsuits Are On the Rise at Startups and What To Do About It

Both Sides of the Table

*. Lawsuits. I’m so tired of the nature of the legal system in the United States where bullying, intimidation and mobster-like shake-downs are becoming prevalent. As I write these words I already imagine my next deposition in which I’m asked to read this out loud. Lawsuits are becoming so prevalent these days. 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.

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Measuring the Immeasurable: Evaluating Startups Qualitatively

Gust

At Hyde Park Angels, we evaluate startups based on quantifiable metrics related to traction, market size, and more. But that’s not all we consider. In fact, sometimes the most important factors in determining whether we should invest are qualitative. While these can vary from deal to deal, there are a few that remain the same. Understanding of the Pain Read more >.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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…Be Like Dave

abovethecrowd.com

Like many of those that had the distinct pleasure of knowing Dave “Goldie” Goldberg, I was shocked and in disbelief when I received the tragic news this past Saturday. I first spent time with Dave when he joined us as an EIR at Benchmark back in 2007, and over the years, we had become good friends. I clearly had become quite accustomed to seeing Dave, because when I realized I would not have a chance to hang with him again it hit me like a ton of bricks.

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Premature scaling kills businesses.

Berkonomics

Venture capitalists sometimes make an error in directing their portfolio company CEOs to push resources to the limit and scale the business to immense size quickly, all to seize market share. The logic in this is simple: once a company has market share, other issues can be sorted out to monetize the market, make the company profitable, scoop up wavering competitors, or even sell the company to a larger firm looking for a large customer base.

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Startup Investment: Business Models Which Work

Onevest

By: Michael Whitehouse As seen on 1000 Angels , private investor network connecting startups with investors, a business model is the one of the most important aspects of a startup when considering investment. There are many different business models out there, but within startup investment there are four which have proven to be effective for others in the project.

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The Quality You Never Hear Pitched When People Want in to Venture Capital

This is going to be BIG.

In my effort to rewrite the deck for my next fund, I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on what it is that I try to do. A lot of people can say they work hard, or work smart, but that doesn't leave me off where I think I'm setting my goals. I've been trying to figure out if there's any differentiation in how I do my job versus how other people might assume it gets done.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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What is The Best Way to Explain Your Startup?

Both Sides of the Table

Anybody who reads the blog regularly will know that I’m long video. I’ve made 5 investments in the sector and I hope to make 5 more. Between the US & Europe alone the video sector is worth around $500 billion. And TV / Film / Video Games / Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality and frankly the Internet will all merge. Western countries watch > 5 hours of TV per day.

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Why Does Startup Pricing Vary by Location?

Gust

Entrepreneurs seem genuinely surprised to find that investors in Peoria or Little Rock are not willing to invest in startup companies at Silicon Valley prices. After all, they just read in TechCrunch that investors funded a company similar to theirs at an $8 million pre-money valuation! The valuation of startup companies shouldn’t be impacted by location, should they?

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From $800k to $274M in 4 Years - The Story of Ariba

Tomasz Tunguz

Ariba went public in 1999 three years after having been founded. In its first year of selling, the company generated $800,000 in revenue. Then it ramped. $8 million, then $45 million, then $274M. In a three-year period, the company had grown 33x and achieved an astounding CAGR of 224% over the same period. Ariba shares increased 300% on its first day of trading at IPO, valuing the company at $6 billion.

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Startups: How to Do a Pre-Mortem (and Prevent a Post-Mortem)

Guy Kawasaki

Doctors conduct postmortems to figure why people died. They do this to solve a crime, prevent the death of others, and satisfy curiosity. However, once somebody dies, it’s too late to help him. Entrepreneurs and their investors also often analyze why a product, service, or company died—especially if it’s someone else’s company. And, as in the case of dead people, a postmortem is too late to do much good for a defunct product, service, or company.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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Angels & Spartans: Why All Investors and Entrepreneurs Need To Do This…

Onevest

By Tim Houghten Every serious angel investor and startup founder needs to be in the San Fran stadium on July 18 th , 2015. Those that show up will experience an event that could dramatically alter their startup, and startup investing performance. # Challenge Accepted On July 18 th , 2015 the AT&T Park stadium in San Francisco will be hosting the Spartan Race.

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What the heck does a VC do all week anyway?

This is going to be BIG.

I have no idea. I just know what I do--and what I saw partners at other firms I've worked at do. That's one thing you have to realize about venture capital. Every single firm is different. How a partner at a firm spends their time is a function of the number of deals they do, the stage of the company, and their own personal style. As a single GP (a firm with one investment decision making professional), I get asked a lot of questions about how I manage my time considering the number of investmen

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How Great, Operationally-Focused CFO’s Can Transform Your Business

Both Sides of the Table

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing.

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How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing.

Gust

This is a grim fairy tale about a mythical company and its mythical founder. While I concocted this story, I did so by drawing upon my sixteen years of experience as a venture capitalist, plus the fourteen years I spent before that as an entrepreneur. I’m going to use some pretty simple math and some pretty basic terms to create Read more >. The post How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing. appeared first on The Gust Blog.

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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The Risk Sales Discounts Impose to Startup Burn Rates

Tomasz Tunguz

Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most powerful sales tools available to SaaS companies. There are many different ways of accomplishing this, but one of the most common ways is to offer discounts that expire. Discounts are powerful incentives to increase sales. But, they have to be crafted correctly, or they can have dramatic impact on a startup’s cash position.

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Fish in the giant ocean – not in a shallow creek.

Berkonomics

This is like a Hans Christian Anderson parable, but aimed at you and your business… There are big fish and small fish, potential customers, all swimming in the sea that is your potential marketplace. You, the lonely fisherman, have to weave a net to catch your fish. Should your net be large and bulky, requiring more effort and expense to weave? Or should it be small and delicate, to catch those fish that would otherwise fall through the net?

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Curation is Dead. Long Live Curation!

Onevest

By Tim Houghten The Curated Content Debate & Importance of Curated Investment Opportunities, and Investors As we state several times at 1000 Angels , the private investor network that connects startups with investors, there are many risks involved with investing in startups, but curated opportunities and investors can help minimize those risks.

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The Tedium of Being a Founder

This is going to be BIG.

We glamorize the life of a founder--the big picture idea person who creates something big out of nothing. They lead a team with vision and bold thinking, guiding a ship from the helm. Right? That certainly seems to be what people believe--because I can't tell you how many founders are surprised when they find out how much of the job is. well. Mind-numbingly tedious.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.