Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

What Can You Do if a VC Pulls Their Term Sheet? This isn’t Dave McClure secretly taking over Mark’s blog. Of course you should eventually warn other entrepreneurs you know 1-1 in private. Finally, know that the VC & entrepreneurial worlds are very, very small. Sorry for using f**k two posts in a row.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Content Writing Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. Throughout the course of last year I never had more than $8,000 in my account. . Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I recently wrote a piece for Mashable on how to create a company blog. Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog? What should you blog about?

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon. If you want to understand the software trend that drove the creation of the seed-stage VC phenomenon I wrote about it that linked blog post but in short: cloud computing drove down the cost to create startups enabling a new category of investor. Startup Lessons'

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. Does he blog about venture capital and try to advise entrepreneurs? Has written a book on venture capital.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business. As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?” 5 years ago.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2023

It takes more than passion and a course on business basics. There is no standard course for this, but the answers are accessible online, if you know how to search, follow blogs, and interact with the relevant social media groups. Entrepreneurs should be monitoring online curator platforms and blogs.

Startup 108

Startup Education Entrepreneur Tool 108

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

Of course passion isn’t enough. I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion.

Venture Capital 373

Venture Capital Startup Course Entrepreneur 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. just don’t lead with them!

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” It’s why I wrote the blog post on 50 Coffee Meetings. It’s why I talk about building VC relationships early – Lines, Not Dots. “I’ve never been a VC before. ” Be authentic.

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

People expect blog posts, Tweets, panels, speeches. Having interesting and frequent opportunities at the top of your funnel is important, of course, but the ultimate score is only measured on the bottom end of the funnel. Recruiting, business development, shipping product, writing blog posts, networking … it’s all the same.

Activity 297

Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2013

I miss blogging because it serves as a great repository for me of my current thinking, as a way of organizing my thoughts and clarifying what I think and as a conversation started with so many of you (as Hunter Walk elegantly said, “Blog not to show how smart you are, but in the hope of soliciting feedback from smart people.

Writing 313

Writing Venture Capital Blogging Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. What I *SHOULD HAVE* considered was that I was in college in a time when there were no digital cameras and I’m very thankful for that or I likely wouldn’t be writing this blog post today. That’s a benefit for us as a local VC. Mostly kidding.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. I was thinking back to a few previous “insider baseball&# blog debates that raged for several weeks: AngelGate (aka Bin38 secret cabal), convertible debt vs. equity, bubble vs. not, and now the AngelList discussion.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. Their data looks at tech VCs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Xconomy

APRIL 17, 2017

Since then, TakeLessons has raised a total of $20 million in venture capital, and expanded into new markets and services. The company’s last VC round in early 2014 raised $7 million.

Venture Capital 59

Venture Capital San Diego Santa Monica Coach 59

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2015

If you’re an investor considering putting dollars in the ground in LA, you can see that there is a tremendous opportunity both because of the growth of our markets and there are fewer VC funds here relative to the opportunity than anywhere else in the country. And of course thank you to CB Insights. Thank you for the referral!

Marketing 150

Marketing Newsletter Venture Capital Blogging 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2020

It takes more than passion and a course on business basics. There is no standard course for this, but the answers are accessible online, if you know how to search, follow blogs, and interact with the relevant social media groups. Entrepreneurs should be monitoring online curator platforms and blogs.

Entrepreneur 137

Entrepreneur Tips Startup Education 137

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital. Coincidentally my good friend Roger Ehrenberg wrote a post this past week on founders having trust in their VCs. After I posted I saw the following Tweet.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

The major battle for press is a battle for “mindshare” and it’s exactly the reason I blog. I am a VC. ” Of course not. Now of course there’s a lot more that goes into building a brand like the fact that the founders of Luma have long reputations in our industry and people respect them.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. ” Stay lean and only raise a big round if you DO find product / market fit and which point you want to loosen the belt quickly and raise the capital to do so. .” ” I highly recommend reading it.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

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. Of course that website isn’t completely up to date but it’s a great resource for seeing the overall picture. The first investment I ever made as a VC was in a company now called Invoca.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2013

He wanted to work in venture capital and I was new to the industry and in no position to hire anybody. Monitor had a little internal VC group so he got some experience there. More like a temporary VC just to get some experience and of course we’d pay him. I’ll leave the year out. I saw it as win-win.

Venture Capital 344

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review San Diego 344

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures. They know that there some implicit legitimacy (rightly or wrongly) to your story since a VC just wrote you a $10 million check. ” Why?

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

My goal in the interview overall was to capture more of the personal side of Fred since so much of his investment thesis and portfolio work already comes out in his blog. We talk a lot about his schooling, his early jobs as a developer and then as a VC and we talk about his decision to spend winters in Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2017

I titled this post “We Must Have Zero Tolerance in Venture Capital” but of course I could just say “zero tolerance anywhere” because that’s true. As a VC let me specifically just speak out for our industry. I have known Shervin, liked him and respected his big bets as a VC like Uber and Hyperloop. I was wrong.

Venture Capital 254

Venture Capital Capital Course Report 254

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. Anybody who follows this blog knows that my mom was the most influential person on my entrepreneurial career.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. And of course a place of idyllic weather, culture and a lifestyle. ” And of course it’s not a true assessment. Think about venture capital. But if you were going to start a venture capital fund today, you’d want to stand out.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

Of course I’ve talked about wanting to get to know entrepreneurs over long periods of time ( lines, not dots ) – my most referred to post. My friend Rob Go wrote the following comment on my last blog post. Fred Wilson said it best in his post about loss ratios in VC. VCs don’t need to be perfect.

Venture Capital 337

Venture Capital Invest Ideas Entrepreneur 337

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

But of course it’s hard to advise people that they should do PR without a guide to how to do it on the cheap or how to do it at all. Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. When to start PR? Should any money go to PR at all?

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

In case you missed all the kerfuffle this weekend, I posted this blog post originally on TechCrunch. This is a blog post I really didn’t want to write. Still, as I’ve written in the past, what I love about blogging is the ability to have a public debate where we can all learn. I’m sorry, but that’s dumb.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund. I became aware of Sam several years ago as I started noticing his name repeated in the comments section of my blog. Of course – some people can be remote. Jordan Hudson.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Of course, one of the best ideas around this is to have Negative Customer Acquisition Costs. Do I Need a Co-Founder: The 90/50 Rule of Startup Founders - FairSoftware's Blog , February 1, 2010 Another post that relates to my recent post on CTO Founders and Cofounders. Great stuff. Jason looks at the issues around "sunk cost."

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Here is a sample of the reading list for the course that gives you a flavor for just how modern and practical this course is. I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

It’s not easy to catch up with Bill Maris at Section 32, the venture firm he founded last year near San Diego. It took a while to arrange a call to discuss how Foundation Medicine’s Michael Pellini had joined Section 32 as Maris’s first investing partner, and what they plan to do together.

Course 45

Course San Diego Invest Funding 45