Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Today Upfront Ventures is announcing that we’ve backed Rebecca Kantar ’s startup Imbellus , a company designed to assess human potential and ultimately change the way we teach children. We led a $4 million investment along with Thrive Capital, GLG and Sound Ventures. The news blogs will cover the what, how and how much but I want to focus on the “why” and try to be instructive of what I think makes for a great A-round startup.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Successful entrepreneurs know good time management separates mediocre CEOs from amazing ones – and strategies that work for some don’t always work well for others. We asked four EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) finalists from the U.S. how they manage a full college course load while running a company. Here’s what they had to say: Work Out. “Time management is absolutely one of my most challenging tasks.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

I shared a version of this in my weekly tech newsletter yesterday: Many of you are new to this newsletter--especially those who came out to our event last Thursday. It's mostly about tech, but sometimes it isn't. When it isn't, it's honest and hopefully thought provoking. You're welcome to stick around and I hope that you do. It is difficult to write on mornings like this.

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Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016

Imagine yourself with a calendar requiring you to be in six meetings in a day. Day after day. How long would it take to induce you to rethink your use of time – and that of the others sitting (or standing) beside you? More important, how long would it take to realize that there is something wrong with the enterprise when it takes constant meetings to get the job done?

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Tomasz Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

How fast could a SaaS business grow on paid acquisition? If the business decided today to sprint and acquire as many customers as possible? We can model it with some assumptions, some of which are quite aggressive. Let’s take a startup with $1.2M on the balance dedicated to customer acquisition. Assume a $10,000 CAC, an 80% gross margin and a payback period of 12 months.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

There’s an old saying in polite circles in the United States that there are two things one should never talk about a social gatherings: Politics & Religion. I think this is so engrained in the psyche of many Americans that in times of great need many still won’t speak out publicly about what they say privately. With just over 50 days until we elect a new president of the US it’s critical for the interests of yourself and your fellow citizens that more of you speak up.

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Tomasz Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

Recently, we examined the comparative efficiency of bottoms-up and top-down businesses. Today, we’ll dig into valuation metrics to see if there’s any systematic bias in the investor community for SMB, Mid-Market and Enterprise SaaS companies. Using public data, I categorized the 50 or so public companies by ACV at IPO. SMB is less than $10k, Mid-Market is between $10k and $100k, and Enterprise is greater than $100k in average customer value.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

By Matthew Weiss, EO South Florida. I have been an EOer since 1996, but it wasn’t until five years ago that I discovered just how valuable my EO training could be. I had lunch with my banker, Jeff Crowther, who shared the powerful story of his son, Welles, a 9/11 victim. Jeff explained that, eight months after Welles died, his story of courage, strength and sacrifice became known due to a single, ordinary object— a red bandana.

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