Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog. They help you built insights into whom you connect with the most via email or whom you haven’t contacted in a long time. They also help you surface things like documents that you shared with other people without having to look through a bunch of old emails to find them.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

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. I often tell people that raising venture capital is more difficult than getting married. Not so in venture capital. You’re tied at the hip to your VC. But what was the VC like when the chips were down?

Venture Capital 298

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Capital Help 298

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. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. But let’s face it, as a VC you spend time with whichever companies you want.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. Every time I do recruiting I get somebody who says, “I’m willing to take a step back in my career to work in VC.&# This isn’t likely to appeal to us. We need help. Are you merging?

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Technical Review GRP Partners Email 290

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The steps outlined below represent an ideal approach to raising capital from sophisticated investors. You might be at Step 2 with one VC and Step 3 with another. VCs collude all the time, it is only fair that entrepreneurs compare notes every now and again as well.”. Subscribe to their blog. The keyword here is authentic.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. But take prompts from the VC.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

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

JUNE 28, 2010

One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors. And in my interviews with many VCs I feel that people can watch these and get to know the VC’s as human beings a bit better. So how did Mike get into VC?

Venture Capital 230

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Fandango 230

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. Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum. But you realize that you can be more helpful as a coach. And yet you have to.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

Some firms have said that they’re going to turn to HBCUvc , a nonprofit organization that helps students from historically Black colleges and universities enter venture and tech. It held a city-based internship program with Los Angeles, which connects students to venture capital firms in the area.

Equity 220

Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. I guarantee this is a bad VC. There are many great VCs.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 297

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

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. Some quick highlights include: The Role of a Seed Stage VC. Startup Lessons'

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures).

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

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. I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. They are venture bankers not investment bankers.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

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

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). I helps me be even longer in the positions I am still in.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

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

JUNE 12, 2013

And sometimes I feel happy to help somebody even when we’re just getting to know each other. Brunson’s short and to-the-point blog post, “ It’s Called Networking, Not Using.” It feels much better to be helpful than to be indebted. It’s why I wrote the blog post on 50 Coffee Meetings. .”

Venture Capital 407

Venture Capital Press GRP Partners Blogging 407

Xconomy

MAY 2, 2019

A new venture capital firm, which in November marked its launch by raising a $53 million-plus fund to invest in startups, has made its first investment. The duo built a proprietary software system to help them find companies that fit its parameters, which is what led Blueprint to Sunwave, Lewis said.

Equity 93

Equity Venture Capital Software San Diego 93

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Nearly four months ago we rebranded at Upfront Ventures. You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. Relaunching our brand is part of our larger initiative to build a VC firm of the future.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Startup Blogging Platform 324

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. how should a VC do due diligence on sales operations? It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. getting past the assistant. when to call. how to handle intros.

Software Review 300

Software Review Sales Tips Help 300

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. He’s also candid, humble and helpful. He’s a one-man show who hasn’t raised VC. I think you’ll enjoy watching this week’s video. They sponsor TWiVC.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She hasn’t raised any venture capital. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?) Tracy realized her constituency and being a public figure helped elevate her.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

socalTECH

MARCH 18, 2014

near real-time automated intelligence gathering systems that scour public and private data sources like websites, blogs, social media and email to unearth information businesses can use for competitive advantage. bitvore data intelligence gathering venture capital yuri pikover' READ MORE>>.

Software 227

Software IBM IBM Social Media 227

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

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. Just notice how many VC emails you get after your TechCrunch article or after you were on stage at TC50. In your VC pitch your PR page should take no longer than 30 seconds – Wait.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2016

I remember the same disdain from people when I started blogging or using Twitter. Why would a VC do that? A bit like a blog that is put out regularly but not overly edited or self-conscious about word choices or typos. If I can help thousands with 5 minutes of my time daily — why the f**k not? I LOVE writing.

Snapchat 200

Snapchat Blogging Venture Capital Writing 200

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too.

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Landline , the operator of a bus network in the Midwest, is one of the latest companies to raise venture capital. Ginkgo Bioworks raises capital at a $4B valuation.

Services 207

Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should. But this example above is all entrepreneur math, not the VC’s.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2023

A while back I found a great book, “ America's Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age ,” put together by a group of fifty current leaders from across American life, that points out well some of the tools that can help all of us learn how to learn in this rapidly changing world of new opportunities.

Startup 108

Startup Education Entrepreneur Tool 108

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. Some of the most helpful people to me personally have been people not being directly compensated for doing so. VENTURE CAPITAL. And finally that brings me to obvious topic of venture capital. It’s a great read. EXECUTIVE COACHES.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

I must have pitched 40-50 VCs over the years. As I talked about on many occasions when I was an entrepreneur – and blogged publicly about - I learned a lot about my business and myself in these meetings. I realized it was part of the process because it’s such a high-volume activity being a VC. Possibly more.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Blogging Conference Google 292

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I began our discussion by asking Brad what motivated him to co-author Venture Deals , rather than continuing to share venture capitalists’ secrets via his Ask The VC blog. Writing a book is very different from writing a blog. The incentives of the VCs matter a lot. There were a couple motivations.

Venture Capital 224

Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur Blogging 224

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. You could just outspend. Tesla is not. Stay Tuned.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248