Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 5, 2014
'Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 16, 2014
'There''s been some writing about how VCs and founders interact with each other and it inspired me to take a step back and reflect on what my role is supposed to be with regards to the investments I make and the founders I deal with. Here''s what I came up with. First, I have a fiduciary responsibility to my investors who entrusted me with money in the first place.
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Gust
DECEMBER 7, 2014
'Image via Pixabay. I’ve always wondered who started the urban myth that the best way to start a company is to come up with a great idea, and then find some professional investors to give you a pot of money to build a company. In my experience, that’s actually the worst way to start, for reasons I will outline here, and also the least common way, according to an authoritative survey of new startups.
This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 12, 2014
'I''ve closed three investments in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund that haven''t quite been made public yet, bringing the total to 13 companies. These companies didn''t announce their financings right away, and for good reason. They''re building up their PR plans to make the financing announcements part of a larger story arc. Announcing your funding without a larger PR plan is the equivilant to George Costanza saying "I love you" to his date and not getting it returned--"that''s a pretty
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This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 14, 2014
'Last week, there was a Business Insider article measuring the percent of female founded companies that NYC seed funds invest in. Brooklyn Bridge Ventures came in first, with a whopping 61%. Lerer Ventures was second, with just under 20%. So, clearly, I''m making some kind of a portfolio-wide bet there, right? Nope. Well, it''s gotta mean something, right?
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 8, 2014
'I just returned from 3 days in Cincinnati including attending the annual meeting of one of Upfront’s LPs – Cintrifuse. I have never been more optimistic about the impact that the tech startup community is having on cities in America or about the role that cities outside of San Francisco / Silicon Valley can play in our future. Cincinnati, like many startup communities in the US over the past 5 years, has revitalized important regions in its urban core, created accelerators, built co
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 1, 2014
'Amazon. It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? And could we then compete?” type questions. But what if you could do the reverse of Amazon?
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 8, 2014
'An abbreviated version of this post appeared yesterday on TechCrunch. If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. “There’s something going on in LA.” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. I hear it right after people have decided to come by for a few days to “check out what all the fuss is about.” I hear it when I visit LPs (th
This is going to be BIG.
NOVEMBER 17, 2014
'The other day, I got a note asking whether I''d be willing to meet some "Head of New Things" at a big telecom. That wasn''t their actual title, but it was something like that. You''ve met them before. They''re new to the gig, super excited about all its potential, and getting out there selling founders hope for that one big gamechanging deal. But I''ve seen this movie before, so here''s how I responded: "Hi!
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Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
'Venture Capital is a tricky industry. If you’re funding the same stuff as everybody else and if you started your activities when the clues were obvious you’re much less likely to drive enormous returns. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea. Far from it. Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone be
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
'Somehow the world seems to be spinning faster these days than just a few years ago. The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable. It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. For years I saw myself as the new guy in VC but then you wake up one day and realize that 50% of your peers have been doing it for less time than you and
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 20, 2014
'Yesterday MiTú Networks announced that Upfront Ventures led a $10 million financing in what is now the largest producer of Latino online videos – primarily driven through YouTube. As you may know we co-lead the first round of financing of Maker Studios, the largest overall producer for online video content, along with Greycroft Partners. I was an early and tireless advocate for the growth of the Internet video ecosystem and as virtually every article I wrote made clear I believe the 800-
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 11, 2014
'Today, Backupify announced that it is getting purchased by Datto. It''s a solid exit to a company that has lots of revs, is growing, and together will form a very formidable player in the data backup space--one that can definitely be a public company in the next couple of years. I''m super proud of Rob, Ben and the whole Backupify team--and this is particularly special for me because Backupify was the first investment I ever made as a VC, and the first board I ever sat on.
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Gust
JUNE 8, 2014
'Virtual Team meeting image via Wikimedia blog. Almost every startup is a virtual team these days, since most don’t start out with dedicated office space, and some or all members of the team work part-time or out of their own home. It’s a small world, so these team members may not even be in the same town, or the same country. Outsourcing is just another extension of the virtual team concept to people you don’t even know.
Gust
FEBRUARY 2, 2014
'I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be the other way around. In some reputable surveys , as many as two-thirds of entrepreneurs felt that their entrepreneurial spirit was more ingrained than learned, so a specific education level is at least irrelevant.
Gust
JANUARY 19, 2014
'Image via Flickr (Creative Commons). Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the best entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. On the average, the entrepreneurs I know are living on Ramen noodles. But one thing they all seem to have in common is a love for learning and change. They rush in with a passion to better the world, and money is just an indication of their progress.
Gust
SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
'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.
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Gust
NOVEMBER 20, 2014
'Today, Gust is proud to join the U.S. Department of State and several other private sector partners to launch The GIST Network (GIST Net), an interactive online network connecting science and technology entrepreneurs in emerging economies. GIST Net will provide entrepreneurs with the resources and mentorship they need to collaborate, seek funding, and grow their businesses.
Gust
FEBRUARY 23, 2014
'Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield via Wikipedia. Most startups dream of attracting a celebrity endorsement, and assume that it will take their startup to the stars. Startups such as Chirpify have managed to flourish and raise millions with endorsements from folks like Lil Wayne and Snoop Lion. Others go the way of 12Society , an LA subscription commerce startup with six celebrity sponsors, but still couldn’t get any traction.
Gust
JANUARY 22, 2014
'This is obviously a softball question that I’ve been Asked to Answer, as I’m the Founder/CEO of Gust. The answer, of course, is Gust —because that’s exactly the purpose behind the platform! Gust is the infrastructure that underlies much of the professional world of early stage finance. It is used by hundreds of thousands of companies in 195 countries to organize all of their investor relations material; it is used by over a thousand angel investor networks, venture capital
Gust
JULY 19, 2014
'With Gust , the power of the system is that your completed investor relations profile can now serve as your official application to virtually any organized angel group in the world…all you need to do is share it with them*. I’d suggest that you browse through the Gust investor search engine for investment groups (and accelerators, incubators, business plan competitions, et al) that are relevant to your startup (by location, industry, type of organization, etc.), and read their
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Gust
APRIL 23, 2014
'From a completely biased perspective, I’d nominate the nascent and not yet completely visible rise of online equity investing platforms. While Gust is generally flying under the radar, and currently accounts for an infinitesimally tiny fraction of the marketplace, the actual numbers may be a bit surprising. Today, over 200,000 companies are using it to organize their materials for raising equity, over 1100 venture capital funds and organized business angel groups are using it to manage
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 18, 2014
'In my Twitter bio is says that I’m “ looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs ,” which almost sounds like I was just looking for a cliché soundbite to describe myself. Yet along with “authenticity” they are two of the key attributes I look for when I meet with companies I may consider funding one day. Passion is also the featured heavily in nearly every presentation I give to entrepreneurs or on college campuses or in talks with MBA students.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 22, 2014
'The story on Uber has been written about ad nauseam, which is why I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. But enough people have asked my perspective so I decided to weigh in with my non-conformist view. I love Uber and I don’t believe there has yet been a real scandal. Grievances – yes. But scandal? I’m not so sure. For starters – I’m not an investor in Uber.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning.
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