Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. This experience made me want to dig into my archives, re-write & publish this piece. I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital.

Venture Capital 298

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

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. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company. There is a reason for this.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. As I’ve written about before, You’d Have to be a Big Baby to Complain about Being a VC. 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 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. If I check Twitter it’s usually because I’m waiting for a meeting to start and I never write posts during the day. I don’t think any serious VC or angel thought it was “collusion.&#

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. People expect blog posts, Tweets, panels, speeches. Taking tons of VC meetings is relatively easy but getting 1 or 2 to truly engage is much harder and takes total focus. The modern world is daunting.

Activity 297

Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. 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 had to laugh a bit reading it.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Email updates frequently.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. It’s why the first company I ever invested in as a VC – Invoca – just announced a $20 million funding by Accel Partners. billion email accounts.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

I told him only 2 weeks ago when we were in London together that I wanted to write a blog post that has been in my head for 2 years. Dave is terrible with email. He’s so bad that his email auto-responder tells you he likely won’t email you back. I knew him well before he became a VC. He doesn’t email you.

Startup 309

Startup Venture Capital Email Writing 309

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. I didn’t want to write it because I have mixed feelings about AngelList. So why I am writing it then? A few reasons. You should read this post.

Venture Capital 267

Venture Capital Writing Blogging Startup 267

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

As the authors make clear in the book’s preface, their goal is to create a “definitive guide to venture capital deals” and “demystify the venture capital financing process.” Brad and Jason have been exposing venture capitalists’ secrets since 2005, when they began writing a blog series on Term Sheets at AskTheVC.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

That was back when VCs weren’t so quick to respond to emails. I was thinking about all of this as I looked at the logs from my WordPress blog this evening. People who comment to me privately about how surprised they are by how rapidly I’ve “built a name for myself in VC&# remind me of this fallacy.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in the following 9-minute excerpt from John''s recent talk at UC Santa Barbara. an email) to about 35 people. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you''re in, and that was it.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2016

In 2008 I started VC blogging. I had blogged when I was an entrepreneur. I went to an industry event where people actually called me self-centered for writing publicly. In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. Stay young.

Snapchat 150

Snapchat Product Startup AMA 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My I decided well if I am going to be investing in this stuff at least I need to understand what it’s like to have a blog, to be generating content, and it was quite interesting at the very, very beginning.“. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. In the original version of his post, Andy writes. “This essay is dedicated to the great VC’s on my board who I am lucky to work with: Sameer Gandhi from Accel, Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed, and Kirsten Green from Forerunner. . Their data looks at tech VCs. Because they know him or her.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital? go on, click it ).

Venture Capital 400

Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Every angel, seed investor or VC is influenced by who else is talking with you, who else is investing in you and they (we) are all influenced by who introduced us to you.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 11, 2011

We talked about a lot of great stuff in the video including how to do sales calls and a how a new “culture of writing&# is emerging as a critical skill set in business today. We also talked about why Jon decided to leave Google to become an EIR at a VC firm (Polaris) – minute 33. Good comment community = viral blog.

Buzzfeed 354

Buzzfeed Content Tips Blogging 354

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. Share and Enjoy.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in the following 9-minute excerpt from John''s recent talk at UC Santa Barbara. an email) to about 35 people. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you''re in, and that was it.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

So it was my great pleasure to host Chamillionaire on This Week in VC this week talking marketing, entrepreneurship, old media and, of course, music. As a teenager he experimented with writing & producing his own rap music and received a lot of feedback from elders that he had a talent with words. This was in the 90′s.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Fred Wilson wrote a blog post yesterday called “Real Names” in which he talked about a commenter on his blog who preferred not to comment because he didn’t want to use his real name. You originally had to have a.edu email address to even join. It’s a powerful concept. Turns out anonymity mattered.

Social Network 329

Social Network Startup Blogging Venture Capital 329

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. First Round Capital receives about 2500 submissions each year.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 4, 2009

msuster for me) the message you write appears in my @msuster inbox on Twitter.com and on any of the desktop or mobile clients. Sometimes I’ll see people who want to make people aware of a blog posting. They’ll say “@msuster provides great insight into VC valuation discussions – see [link] &#.

Tips 291

Tips Social Media Social Network Venture Capital 291

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2013

Anyway, as I winnowed my way through the comments section of my blog post on relationships I realized my own wife has posted a response! My husband is Mark Suster and before he was a VC and blogger he was a startup entrepreneur like you. Mark granted me read/write access to his calendaring system.

Tips 418

Tips Startup Email Blogging 418

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

When I sit down to write every week I never really imagine what is going to end up resonating the most with people but it seems I’ve most often been defined by my post that I Invest in Lines, not Dots. I became aware of Sam several years ago as I started noticing his name repeated in the comments section of my blog.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

I don’t know Ezra yet but since he’s taking the time to blog (which I hugesly respect) and share thoughts I thought I’d take him up on his challenge and also spill the beans on my secrets. On blogging I blog because I love it. I just write. My other secret on blogging? Keep on writing.

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

Want to take a year pursuing your dream to write a screenplay, travel through Asia, run a triathlon or start your own fashion line? I wrote a blog post related to this called Is it Time to Earn or to Learn? Getting Your Work Schedule on Your Terms – Many people in America sit at their desk much of the day and have email open.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a fourteen-year veteran of the venture industry I have often heard the phrase, “value added investors”, which is usually touted by certain VC’s as their biggest differentiating quality. Jason said that the dedication and commitment of the Amplify team has been extremely inspiring throughout his time at the accelerator.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2015

VC meetings are easy to come by but money in the bank is the only thing that will fund your next 12 months. Every night before I went to bed I would say to myself, what one thing could I do to make progress on this hire, which is why people who worked with me on it probably noticed a lot of late-night emails.

Startup 150

Startup Framework Sales Venture Capital 150

socalTECH

APRIL 14, 2011

Howard Lindzon: In 2007, Fred Wilson had offered me some share in Twitter, when they were putting together their first round of venture capital investments. You'd have to come up with an idea, gather the truth, write it, produce it, shoot it, edit it, and when you had the product, you had to figure out how to distribute it.

Ideas 248

Ideas Web Startup Content 248

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Shame about not getting it in legal writing that you owned the original IP.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

I know that would be surprising to many readers since keeping a blog somehow convinces people that I’m a time management or productivity ninja. I’m a pretty natural public speaker so I can write my presentation the day before and do just fine. Sounds harsh but when you think about it that’s what email really is.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2008

In their case, people write their scripts on a web site, and when they're done, they can submit them to contests with a single click. If you're doing freelance writing, have a story you're trying to sell, there's a whole process of finding out where you're doing well, not doing well, and what responses you have received.

Writing 209

Writing Hollywood Startup Sites 209