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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.
I’ve been using Chartbeat for over a month now to track performance of my blog and I find myself looking at Google Analytics much less these days. I’m not a shareholder and I’m not even actively looking at making an investment. I’m only writing about the product because I’m passionate about it.
And there is relationship between debating and blogging. I started blogging in 2005 and then re-started blogging about a year ago. The most important experience I have in blogging is the debate it encourages. So it goes with blogging. So it goes on my blog. Let me explain.
When I first started writing this blog several years ago I had less followers than you have right now. But the realist in me knew I couldn’t write daily nor could I convince you to think to check out my blog with regularity. From this I learned the best times to post and how frequently to Tweet a blog post.
It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I wrote about this in a blog post last year titled “ It’s Morning in VC ” but I never made the full deck available until now.
My 1,000th Post on This Blog - Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories , July 21, 2010 HTML5 video markup, compatibility and playback - Niall Kennedy's Weblog , February 8, 2010 Your Product Needs a Soul - ArcticStartup , February 12, 2010 Product Friday: Monetizing Content is a Product Problem - This is going to be BIG.
They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. Too many angel deals just means more to watch and invest in for the ones that do succeed (if the VCs can get in at reasonable prices).
As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. At the time I pointed out: “If I had realized exits almost certainly it would be because I invested in a company that failed. “Ok, so this guy can write a blog and source deals but can he make any money?”
.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? I am a VC. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?
Even then private market investors can paper over valuation changes by investing at the same price but with more structure so it’s hard to understand the “headline valuation.” No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality.
So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A It’s why I always work hard to find images for my blog posts & why all of my keynote presentations are visual rather than bullet points with words. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them.
He also write a nice post on limiting email and managing on the important / urgent matrix from the perspective on a recovering ex investment banker. This comment and blog post prompted me to write a post that has been in my queue for a long time.
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.
skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. See Five Things Meme as an example.
I write a bit more about how entrepreneurs can protect their ideas here: Spilling The Beans. After investing a few seconds of psychological energy attempting to recognize the character, many readers were willing to read the rest of my response in order to learn the figure’s identity. Simple – Avoid words such as eschew and verbosity!
This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It I see founders who think they can be at every conference, advise multiple companies, do side investments in angel deals, leave the office at 6pm and have a balance life.
They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. return (on paper).
Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” But local VCs don’t deserve to get beat up for not investing. Mostly kidding. Very, very few pan out.
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. Rincon is part of the new breed of Seed Stage VCs and with the leadership of Jim Andelman has charted out the most authentic early-stage investment strategy in Southern California.
I can attest from experience that publishing a regular blog to properly showcase your offering, even before you have it, is a most cost effective approach in time and money. So finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Find potential partners. Populate your team. Cultivate early customers.
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.
Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Chris Sacca fly by that prompted me to want to write a blog post helping entrepreneurs understand why they should push back against VCs asking for “super pro-rata” rights. I’ll explain what they are and why you should avoid them if you can. A primer on “pro-rata” rights.
Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. Thus I recommend that every entrepreneur start blogging in parallel with solution development for the following benefits: Get customer idea feedback before you commit resources. Develop an efficient and effective writing style.
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. His blog is even called SaaStr (a bit too close to Suster if you ask me ;-)). Does she live your journey?
Tracy is knowledgeable enough to talk tech and swap design & product stories with other founders, but she realized early that networking amongst this group and reading and writing in their journals would not bring her more customers. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?)
I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is what I’m looking for in an investment. This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. Next on the checklist.
You’re writing a freaking blog post! I had a pre breakfast with a CEO of a company in which I invested talking about his next fund raising round. Separately, in the morning I called a seed-stage investor in NY and talked to him about investing in one of my companies. Plus, he’s a loyal reader of this blog.
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 led an investment round in a company a while ago in which we wrote a seven-figure check and have taken a board seat.
When I described to people why I initially invested my calls went something like this, “He’s taken kicks to the face for nearly 2 years and is still standing. Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. Through this process he raised $2 million.
In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. Finally, a lot of people asking me about typos on my blog. Others I have not.
It’s the first EIR that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been with the firm and I hope will be the start of our investment in this program. 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. ” “Sam?
Consistent with the statistics cited in Why Entrepreneurs Hate (Most) MBAs , the large majority of John and Kyle''s classmates accepted positions at investment banks and consulting firms upon graduation. blogging, in a sense. If we had a blogging platform then, we would have been blogging. an email) to about 35 people.
I have found that publishing a regular blog can give you an edge in making all this happen. One of these is blogging, to let people know about your brand, provide links to supportive articles, and generate back-links to your content from other sites. Your blog followers will be your best customers.
Although many are entertaining, most fail to provide entrepreneurs with a sufficient return on their time investment. It has also influenced my thoughts, as evidenced by the six infoChachkie blog entries which reference Art. The second most referenced author on my blog, after Kawasaki, is Robert Cialdini, co-author of Yes!
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.“. .” “….I
I invest heavily in relationships with journalists both because I like them and respect their profession and I know that there is a benefit to me in the long run if I’m not transactional in my relationships. And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums.
Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you. Prior to starting FC, he was co-investing with David Frankel and Eric Paley as individuals.
Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. Some money out of every investment.
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. companies should… focus on building amazing products.
” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. I first discovered him or her as a commenter on Fred Wilson’s blog. There are many things I am – but different than what I say on this blog is not one of them!
Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. I’m not saying I don’t spend time trying to help entrepreneurs that I am not planning to invest it – anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I do. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks.
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. At one level it’s a terrible return on time investment, but on another level, it’s a really positive one. Writing a book is very different from writing a blog.
tevye2009 , Q: “can you briefly explain why it’s best to get a small valuation when getting investment.&# Mike Stern (wasn’t sure which one so leave a comment if it’s you): Q: “is it possible to sell your startup without venture investment if the company has big traction and a large user base?&#
I began publishing my blog in 2008. I was hesitant to use my own name, as I did not want my blog to be perceived as a self-promotional vanity project. In addition, my role as Partner at Rincon Venture Partners provided me with a business reason to invest additional time and effort into my humble blog. Do They Believe?
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