Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2013

What I love about writing is that you inadvertently say what many others are thinking and just knowing that somebody else is thinking something similar can be reassuring. Example: Fred Wilson writing his end of 2012 post wrote. “I’ve wanted to write a year end post for days. And your favorite bloggers stop writing.

Writing 313

Writing Venture Capital Blogging Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. I acknowledged this in the article. I’m just making the commentary.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

I went to an industry event where people actually called me self-centered for writing publicly. In 2011 I started using Instagram. But how can you invest in technology unless you’re going to use the tools and understand them? In 2008 I started VC blogging. I had blogged when I was an entrepreneur.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Product Startup AMA 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. I didn’t want to write it because the bloggosphere doesn’t always do nuance well. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. You should read this post. I worry about that.&#.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

” I found myself nodding through all of it with quotes like, “Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley,” said Sam Altman. I myself coined the term ENIFA (everyone now is a f **g angel) in 2011 but it didn’t stick as well as the term Unicorn did. All of my partners at Upfront do. Hua of Apptimize. ” Uhhuh.

Angel 150

Angel Startup Seed Funding Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Recently the firms two founding partners (and also Managing Partners) —  Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham  — decided to transition management of the firm to Andy Weissman (who joined in 2012) and Albert Wenger (joined in 2008 and writes one of the most thoughtful blogs in our industry ). Lindel Eakman led the discussion with Fred and Andy.

Venture Capital 161

Venture Capital Funding Capital Startup 161

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 15, 2012

There are many paths into the VC world, but they can generally be lumped into two categories: (i) serial entrepreneurship, and (ii) tech-oriented investment banking. In contrast, an Angel Investor is someone who invests their own capital. All you need do to become an Angel is identify a promising venture and write a check.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest RSS 242

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Rejecting the paint-by-numbers approach to corporate communications deployed by most marketing executives, Brad has embraced unconventional guerilla marketing tactics to help establish his venture capital firm, Foundry Group, as a thought leader in early-stage tech investing. Write Your Own Playbook. We have never done a press release.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. The three largest webmail services had over 1 billion global users at the end of 2011. And while this data is from mid-2011 I can assure you that data is not going down. There are 2.9

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Matt was one of my inspirations behind Launchpad LA (yes, we’re going to have a program in 2011 – news very, very soon). Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. million pre-money valuation is now raising $1 million at a $12 million valuation the next investor has nowhere to go but up (or sit out the investment). Exactly the opposite of what a rational investment strategy would advise. So people sell or at least don’t invest.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

2011 was an incredibly huge year for us, and 2012 will be the same way. He called me and said--this is a company you might be interested in, maybe taking a board seat, or co-investing in, or helping them get funded. In 2011, we had two of our patents approved. For those folks, can you describe what TeleSign does?

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Will Zell (CEO) is based in Columbus, OH, and is an Empact100 entrepreneur who was honored at The White House in 2011. His main company Providence Holdings has invested in real estate and several small businesses. Who are the founders/ background? He attended The Ohio State University where he studied business. What Inspired You?

Mentor 94

Mentor Platform Social Network Chief Technology Officer 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

When you’re one fund and have $600 million to invest it’s easier to take that kind of risk. LA generally doesn’t have an appetite for this kind of ‘swing-for-the-fences’ investment at early stages – and neither does your town. There are no $600 million funds in Los Angeles. In our regions?

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 22, 2012

Before joining WePay, Bill worked in technology investment banking at Jefferies & Company, where he advised enterprise software, digital media, and financial technology companies on M&A and capital market transactions. BusinessWeek named Bill and Rich two of the Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs of 2011.

Startup 71

Startup Tool Capital Customer 71

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2012

Occasionally on this blog I break away from industry commentary and write more broadly. 2011 was the first year I went to SxSW. I don’t try to optimize for who might be a great investment opportunity or somebody that I really “should know.” The first day of 2012 seems the perfect day to do so.

Startup 319

Startup Organization Entrepreneur Blogging 319

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

The multi-tiered platform allows for money to be transferred between Facebook friends, the ability to click and purchase any item that you see on Facebook and through the published API’s, developers can integrate and write their own applications on top of the ZunguZ platform. Omidyar Networks – head of investment. Why the name?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Founded in the summer of 2011 and their first product out a few weeks ago amSTATS wants to help users to follow fitness events and programs near them and find a great fitness trainer to help them stay fit. David Cohen from TechStars, someone I look up to as an entrepreneur, says that they don’t invest in ideas, but teams.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

As I sit here writing this, I can’t help but think how excited I am about our future. Sometime in 2011, I started to notice that the content I was putting out on Twitter was not getting the attention that it used to. But I couldn’t justify the investment any more. Dear Twitter, I have always loved you and I always will.

Platform 40

Platform Startup News Content 40

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. I’m going to write a whole post on BothSid.es They controlled distribution to the masses.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. Clearly it'd be more accurate to say "sometime in Q1 2011." call to arms.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378