Sat.Sep 27, 2014 - Fri.Oct 03, 2014

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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

'I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. ” I highly recommend reading it. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in.

startup 383
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How I learned to change the oil in my car and found a new office because of Shake Shack and a hackathon

This is going to be BIG.

'Random story that I recounted recently to someone the other day. It''s super interesting to go back and trace connections and relationships that led to new opportunities. If nothing else, it serves as a good reminder that every thing you do now is an investment in the future. In 2009, I was introduced to Havi Hoffman. She was working as a developer evangelist at Yahoo!

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What are the most valuable recommendations in order to raise money from VCs connected via Gust?

Gust

'To begin with, it is important to understand some basic facts about the world of entrepreneurial finance: There are many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, with the result that only one company out of every 400 that seeks venture funding actually receives it. As such, the competition from an entrepreneur’s standpoint is very, very tough.

VC 159
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The Valuable Startup Equity That's Not Captured in Your Cap Table

Tomasz Tunguz

I met a founder a few days ago who captured the idea of building brand equity really well. He said something along the lines of, “Every time we provide a magical experience to a customer, we invest in our brand equity. Each time we do something that disappoints them or overtly extracts value from our users, we expend brand equity.” This founder prided himself on continuously investing in and increasing his business’s brand equity over long periods of time.

startup 44
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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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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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What I Hate About Selling Companies

Both Sides of the Table

'By all measures the past year has been successful. Teams that I’ve backed have sold their companies to Disney, Apple and AOL for substantive amounts of money. Founders have done very well, our fund has done well. Exhibit: Champagne and celebrations. But the truth is that selling a company doesn’t always feel like a celebration as a VC. Not being a baby about it – my job is to return money to LPs.

VC 306

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Is there an incubator for aspiring Angel Investors or VCs?

Gust

'No, but there are several sets of courses on angel investing that can provide a good base from which to start. The most comprehensive and best known is the Power of Angel Investing seminar series developed by the Angel Resource Institute (formerly known as the Angel Capital Education Foundation, and prior to that part of the Angel Capital Association).

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Come Work on the Redpoint Software Team!

Tomasz Tunguz

Come work at Redpoint! The Redpoint Software team would like to add a new associate to the software team in our Menlo Park office. We’re looking for someone to work alongside the small, tightly-knit group managing Redpoint’s early stage software practice. This person will work shoulder-to-shoulder with all the members of the team, discovering new startups, evaluating their market opportunities, working with portfolio companies , expanding the firm’s network and contributing to

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“Over-welcome” your new employees.

Berkonomics

'A CEO friend of mine who manages her one hundred person remote workforce as a virtual company told me her story of how she welcomes new employees as she grows her firm. Strike that. She over-welcomes her new employees. Days before the official start date, she makes sure that the new employee’s business cards arrive in the mail, that the employee’s phone and Internet services are up and running, and that an email account is already established.

culture 83
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Faulty Logic in the Venture Capital and Female Founder Discussion

This is going to be BIG.

'Let''s get one thing straight. The world and every individual in it is a biased place. We all have our inherent biases and what I am not arguing here is that the venture capital world is a fair playing field for anyone. I repeat: I AM NOT ARGUING THAT VENTURE CAPITAL IS FAIR TO ANYONE. HOWEVER. It weakens your argument, whatever it is, when you use faulty logic.

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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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Apply Lessons Learned To Gain From Startup Failure

Gust

'Crossroads: Success or Failure by StockMonkeys.com, on Flickr. Your startup is gone, it’s never coming back, and you are in mourning. An entrepreneur whose business fails grieves similarly to anyone who has lost a loved one. The pain of losing a business is not only about a significant loss of income, but can send your entire identity into turmoil.

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Benchmarking MobileIron's S-1 - How 7 Key SaaS Metrics Stack Up

Tomasz Tunguz

This post is part of a continuing series evaluating the S-1s of publicly traded SaaS companies in order to better understand the core business and build a library of benchmarks that might be useful to founders. Founded in 2007, MobileIron is a leader in the Mobile Device Management sector. MDM provides enterprises software to manage the mobile phones and tablets of their employees.

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Entrepreneurshit. The Blog Post on What It’s Really Like.

Gust

'It’s 4.50am. Sunday morning. And I couldn’t sleep. I have much on my mind since I just returned from a week on the road. 5 days. 3 cities. Late night Mexican food. Beers. Airports. Delays. I left on a Sunday. I had to miss a full day with my family, camping in the mountains. I returned home Friday night at 10pm – too late to see my kids. I’m reminded of this feeling.

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How Much Cash Should Your Startup Burn?

Tomasz Tunguz

Bill Gurley and Fred Wilson have focused on burn rates as an important topic for startups. The immediate question that follows this commentary is: How much does the typical startup burn throughout its life? And what is a “risky” burn rate for a company? I use a rule of thumb to evaluate the burn rate of a Series A startup. I multiply the number of employees by about $10-12k, depending on the location of the company.

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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