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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?
But for some strange reason they make you file your progress on fund raising, which is the widely picked up by the press. I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. But it’s hard to know that from the press. The press who trusted me enough to report on our successes. Entrepreneurshit.
Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. I pointed out the fact that they only ever talked to the press when the had an announcement and that it was a continual process. Always more appealing.
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. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company.
Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? ” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. ” Can you imagine that ever getting inches in the press? I am a VC.
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). 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. The monkey on my back.
But don’t let this information get out into the general press and don’t market more than a few months out. Market to Your Target Audience – I’ve seen a lot of startups who like to writeblog posts on life as an entrepreneur. I talked about that in detail on this post about how to blog as a startup.
Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO.
Fred Wilson wrote a Tweetstorm and then did a blog post on the topic. I never asked Marc why he stopped blogging but I presume it is some combo of having started a venture capital firm (which you might guess takes a bit of time) and also allowing some air time for his then-less-well-known compadre. Engagement. Many people. Any people.
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.
A few weeks ago I was reading a blog post by MG Siegler that really struck a chord. I recently was reviewing a press release for a company in which I’m an investor. I told him that I thought the press release was crap (I think my words, exactly). ” to “we’re so excited to work with you.”
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.
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?) If you haven’t read my blog posts on why Tracy chose the right strategy it’s worth a read.
Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. We listened way too much to what the press said. Create a great press-kit that you have easily accessible on your website.
I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. This post covers the first out of 10 that I’ll write about. There were also press and other senior executives from the sector. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. Next on the checklist.
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. You betcha.
I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. blogging, in a sense.
So what are Rob’s secret hacks that he didn’t spill in his blog post? . Key point – if your emails are as long as my blog posts you’re forked. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. Email updates frequently.
For much of 2013 I watched the presswrite articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I will talk about these strategies in my next blog post.
The number of times I’ve had people come to me and say they want to blog more. Three years ago during Thanksgiving I told Nivi I would write down what I look for in an entrepreneur for a series of posts for VentureHacks. And I know that it sounds almost silly to say that some people Think too much and don’t Do enough.
Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Social media includes blogs, social networks, and video-sharing sites. Even the most experienced executives write down what they need to say, and practice for every event. Handling different media formats.
I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid. In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital.
I read this story on Ivan Kirigin’s blog that shows that Quora was posting which articles you’re reading to other people without your consent. I even had some reservations about writing this blog post this because I have no desire to p**s off other investors or great entrepreneurs.
Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. When your site crashes and you get slammed by customers and in the press – you’re all in the sh*tter together. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks. I get to choose what I write about. That’s true.
” 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. And we’re promoting apps like this in the tech press and funding it. I have a blog and a voice.
When I started blogging I had an idea. I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read. I had a tactic of writing out the line of reasoning for the employee so they knew what to say. Then you’ll be fine.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="[link] frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The catalyst for Brad’s evolving view of marketing was THIS blog entry by Chris Moody in which he pointed out that much of Foundry Group’s thought leadership efforts are essentially a form of guerilla marketing. Write Your Own Playbook.
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. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.
For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%). New investors sometimes want early investors to put in money to “prove” they have confidence in the new price.
Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Social media includes blogs, social networks, and video-sharing sites. Even the most experienced executives write down what they need to say, and practice for every event. Handling different media formats.
Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. He had just written another one of his way-over-the-top blog posts. I think Dave has blogging Tourettes Syndrome when he hears the word VC. We then started talking about Dave McClure.
A key deal not only helps you raise venture capital but it can help attract employees, garner press attention, help with product focus & importantly drive customer adoption and/or revenue. They can then direct staff, allocate budgets, talk to the press, connect you with politicians and attend events. Marketing Muscle.
If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. It’s better to write 100 lines of new code every day, recognizing that you will have to iterate to perfection, rather than expecting a week of work to happen all in one night.
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.” Of course that was a wrong narrative for both companies. Mostly kidding. Another firm funded them.
The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives. . “A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ” **.
I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. blogging, in a sense.
I have watched so many companies go through massive growth and see the commentary in the press wondering how they’re doing it and then finding out from the inside that there is some slightly nefarious technique being employed. When I first started blogging Digg was still at its peak. Simply write a great book?
The following was available: “I kept hearing about startups that raised VC funding, but which hadn’t filed Form Ds (nor issued a press release). I first discovered it from Dharmesh Shah’s blog OnStartups. and who had biz reasons for wanting to remain stealth.”. -
I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I hustled.
San Diego-based Newsforce (www.newsforce.com) is a startup which is looking to take advantage of the hunger of the newspaper and media business for revenue, and has created a product which takes press releases and commercial content, and inserts them onto news sites in "sponsored content" blocks. It's been around for five months so far.
We jockey to make sure the press release has our names on it. I am avoiding “frenzied&# deals for all of the reasons Roger Ehrenberg talks about in his excellent blog post. I will write about some of these topics soon. It is the new cocktail party conversation. We list it on our bio’s as bragging rights.
TechCrunch ran my article yesterday as a guest post but I wanted to have a copy here for anybody who missed it and for future readers of this blog. I was on an airplane 2-3 times / week meeting potential customers, investors, employees, business partners and the press. I’m normally too cool to write posts like this.
I eventually stumbled on to the best source of high-quality deal flow imaginable – blogging. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. I hustled.
I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. But unlike the popular press reporting of this conflict — 80% of the time it is founder-to-founder conflict and not investor-to-founder conflict.
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