Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Happy official New Year’s, all. It’s that time of year where we think about new beginnings. And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already). What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures?

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Stick around long enough in a big tech community and you''ll see your share of big company evangelists come and go. They''re always hired with the best of intentions--someone meant to be the eyes and ears on the ground for a company trying to turn today''s future stars into tomorrow''s big customers. They support entreprenership because they see the ROI: Be helpful to a startup now, be there when they''re high on promise and low on cash, and you could be the platform that the next Facebook runs

venture capital 248

venture capital communities pitching networking 248

Gust

JANUARY 5, 2014

'Image via Pets.Answers.com. “Will the dogs eat the dog food?” This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. We all know the products they give away, and the ones purchased by family and friends don’t count. The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy.

entrepreneurs 171

entrepreneurs pitching startup founder support 171

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 7, 2014

Yesterday, I walked the sprawling floor of the Consumer Electronics Show. These are the six key themes/trends I noted. The Coming of Era of Drones - I saw barrel-rolling quad-copters and parkouring wheeled robots dancing in synchrony to hiphop music. It was awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. If you watch the video, I think you’ll agree the mechanisms to control drones are rapidly becoming more sophisticated.

innovation 40

innovation enablement pitching health 40

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

'Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product.

founder 340

founder board culture advice 340

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2014

pitching 159

pitching entrepreneurs 159

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 6, 2014

Tien is the founder and CEO of Zuora [1], and was formerly CMO and CSO at Salesforce. He is a brilliant marketer and created the notion of the three doors to SaaS success. He spoke about this innovation at a recent CMO summit; the video is here. If you visit Zuora’s website, you’ll see Zuora’s three doors along the top of the page: Subscription Economy, Why Zuora & How It Works.

SaaS 40

SaaS frameworks innovation capital 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

'I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I should note that my friend Brad Feld has written a new book on the subject that I would recommend if you want the bible on the topic. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic.

board 325

board mentorship media advice 325

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 6, 2014

'There is nothing I''ve ever written that makes me feel older than this post. "Get off my lawn!". That''s what this post is going to sound like, but I think it needs to be said. There are too many people giving advice who have been through one or two startups, none of which grew into a huge company, got to profitability, or an IPO. I think we all need to be a lot more discerning about where advice is coming from.

advice 367

advice startup venture capital board 367

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 9, 2014

'By Richard Sudek. Dave’s note: Our guest insight this week is by Richard Sudek, an associate professor of entrepreneurism at Chapman University Graduate School of Business. He is Director of the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurism and Business Ethics, and Chairman Emeritus of the Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel group in the United States.

financing 114

financing finance entrepreneurs strategy 114

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 5, 2014

In the last 35 years, the tech industry has exploded in size from $62B in total market cap to more than $9.7T today, as the chart above shows. In that time, the tech industry has birthed some behemoths. In 2013, Apple became the largest publicly traded company, the first time a technology company held that distinction. Despite the number of massive companies built over the past three decades, these tech giants represent an increasingly small amount of the total value in the technology sector.

technology 43

technology opportunity startup 43

Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 8, 2014

For Google, seasonality is an important factor in forecasting quarterly revenue growth. In the advertising business, Q4 is always the strongest, followed by Q1. Q2 is the weakest. In Google’s latest financial year, the difference between the weakest and strongest quarters was 22%: $14.4B in Q4 and $11.8B in Q2. I wondered if the same were true for SaaS companies.

SaaS 40

SaaS startup 40

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 9, 2014

'I am stunned over this #trafficgate scandal where Chris Christie apparently caused a bunch of traffic with some fake road closures in order to strongarm another politico into getting his support. Just stunned. that people don''t think this kind of thing goes on everyday. And stunned that we think this is anywhere near the worst of it. I don''t know about you, but this seems like child''s play compared to my assumptions around what probably happens in Washington.

media 267

media board support 267

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