Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In his post he asserts, “You get the VCs you deserve” and the corollary “You get the performance out of your board that you deserve.” Spend time building investor relationship long before you raise money. .

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Today I’d like to talk about what startup communities outside of Silicon Valley look like, how they emerge and what makes them take hold. ” In that post I talked about how a few key people in any community can have an enormous impact on the fledgling success of the city or company. .” Here are mine: 1.

communities 378

communities startup venture capital capital 378

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million.

ventures 343

ventures venture capital advice VC 343

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. It got me thinking about how in poker and in investing there are usually a few pro’s at the table and many suckers.

angel investing 306

angel investing investment investing VC 306

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

So pray for Harvard Business School if you wouldn’t mind.” He talked about how for centuries education had “no technological core” (meaning it was bound by physical locations) and thus disruption was very difficult. We spoke about how there needs to be a change in how employers view educators.

education 403

education disruption entrepreneurship venture capital 403

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

Today, same thing--same rinky dink $300k type pitch--to take a company with a handful of paying customers and get, wait for it, some more paying customers. Pulling them apart and shedding light on them is an extremely delicate operation for a white male investor, and probably not a good idea, but I'm going to go ahead with it anyway.

advice 418

advice founder pitching VC 418

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

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 got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. So this becomes your dealflow. Somehow the world seems to be spinning faster these days than just a few years ago.

peer-to-peer 317

peer-to-peer pitching VC accelerator 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

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. 10x the experience.

real estate 380

real estate ventures innovation pitching 380

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. But I have seen equally bad behavior from super early stage investors.

VC 336

VC investment investing entrepreneurs 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

And it’s the latest in a series of investments we’ve made in building out our practice as the LA technology market continues to grow robustly and attract entrepreneurs and investors. I don’t believe in distributed teams in early-stage business. I was a proud angel investor in Jody’s company, EcoMom.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

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MARCH 6, 2015

If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. I began asking around who the likely investors were for such a market. There was Ron Conway (SV Angel) – I think there was always Ron Conway!

VC 348

VC peer-to-peer frameworks board 348

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 14, 2013

It''s a shame, too, because you could see people flying into JFK and never having to mess with rush hour traffic into the city to get to the event. It''s a shame, too, because you could see people flying into JFK and never having to mess with rush hour traffic into the city to get to the event. But who is going to run the conference?

communities 304

communities coworking spaces economic development funders 304

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

And I think about the “Seattle issue&# as a metaphor for startups and business in general. I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder.

communities 317

communities VC innovation entrepreneurs 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

VC 292

VC peer-to-peer investment investing 292

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

While many of my friends bragged about their 5 condos in Florida I kept talking about how the real estate market was in a bubble – their gains an illusion. I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5%

angel investing 299

angel investing investing investment real estate 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. Angels have been prolific for years now and they, too, rely on downstream money to cover their bets. Oh, the conferences.

VC 374

VC investing investment entrepreneurs 374

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. I can boil it down to how this tension plays out. In the old days VCs funded off of a “pre-money” valuation.

VC 364

VC financing finance board 364

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2012

In fact, thanks to increased scrutiny of investment funds in a post-Madoff world, this imbalance will probably get bigger and bigger. The laws are written seemingly with the view that it's worse to lose your money from fraud than it is from your run of the mill poorly exacuted bad idea. tanning salon/seed fund combo.

ventures 281

ventures incubation VC venture capital 281

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. In the comments section a clever question popped up about whether I would have invested in myself before I became an investor. To invest in your future. My first response mentally was, “Of course!”

startup founder 409

startup founder investment investing founder 409

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It's a story that just hit a milestone--a $4mm round of venture funding that I'm ecstatic to say Brooklyn Bridge Ventures just led. You take your kids there. I'm always struck when I visit their two main locations in Gowanus and Prospect Heights how much sheer human joy is being created. So what makes Ample Hills so special?

venture capital 346

venture capital ventures capital consumer retail 346

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

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. Venture Capital is a tricky industry.

funders 362

funders culture incumbents technology 362

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

It’s really difficult for me not to get into the thick of discussions about whether or not you can and/or should build a company in New York City. I’m extremely passionate about the topic and so when my city gets picked on, I tend to respond confidently and with the same (and sometimes greater) force than I perceive the complaint to have.

startup 286

startup media ecology VC 286

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FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most venture capitalists who have been in this business for a long time foresaw this correction and have been talking about it privately for the better part of the last year or two. It pains me to see the typical (and predictable) responses on Twitter, “VCs want prices to drop! There is reason for despondency.

startup 285

startup VC entrepreneurs investment 285

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

.” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. ” I hear it when I visit LPs (the people who invest in VCs) all across the country, “Yeah, I haven’t been out there for a few years but I keep hearing that something is going on there.” LA By The Numbers.

entrepreneurs 376

entrepreneurs creativity technology capital 376

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JANUARY 18, 2011

What I’d like to do is tell you the story of how the investment came to be, what my thesis is / was and share some thoughts on macro trends. What I’d like to do is tell you the story of how the investment came to be, what my thesis is / was and share some thoughts on macro trends. Pose is no different.

investing 303

investing investment VC media 303

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Are you trying to figure out how to build a place that creates venture backed IPOs or are you trying to build something where technical people can feel like they’re in a community? Today, we would add places like Miami and Salt Lake City to that age old debate. First, you have to ask yourself what the desired outcome is.

communities 434

communities startup real estate mentorship 434

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 8, 2011

The other day, I got interviewed for Business Insider. How about as a VC? Just tired of people with no track record getting respect.". Just tired of people with no track record getting respect.". "He Be that as it may, don't think I don't ask myself what I'm doing on various lists and getting into different events.

VC 275

VC peer-to-peer board advice 275

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks. Unfortunately your advisers are wrong. At 3:15 here if you’re interested).

VC 309

VC pitching advice venture capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. an investment in your company. This is where most founders err.

VC 332

VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

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OCTOBER 6, 2010

I obviously don’t speak for all investors. But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. It’s a conversation that creeps up from time-to-time.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# That’s true. Here’s why: 1.

VC 312

VC consulting entrepreneurs creativity 312

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations. Kind of like you felt as personal investors, no doubt.

VC 305

VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

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JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. It’s impossible to get offices so you pay too much or pile in too many people and have two few bathroom stalls or you located in a crappy neighborhood.

advice 398

advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months.

startup 418

startup VC investment investing 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

VC 285

VC financing finance capital 285

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# A: It’s not best. @tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# The best thing to get is a “right sized&# valuation.

venture capital 282

venture capital capital ventures angel investing 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

” I applaud all efforts by people to take on this issue and especially be Adeo who – let’s be honest – was really the first champion of trying to make the VC world more transparent by launching TheFunded, which didn’t exactly endear him to VCs initially. .” Some thoughts on raising angel money.

startup 354

startup VC entrepreneurs financing 354