Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

I had an enjoyable conversation this morning with a young team straight out of college this morning and they were calling to ask advice on how to approach fund raising (angels vs. VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. I think of VCs as coaches. Connections?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Only Hire A+ People Who Punch Above Their Weight Class. This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. I believe that you should always hire people are are looking to “punch above their weight class,&# which means to hire people who want to be one league above where they are today. My advice: don’t.

Startup 327

Startup Sales Class CIO 327

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice 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. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

InfoChachkie

JULY 2, 2012

In contrast, Lex Sisney, author of Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business , CEO Coach and Co-founder of Commission Junction has had success compartmentalizing such difficult high-performers. I asked Lex what advice he gives his CEO clients with respect to managing such high-maintenance and high-achievers employees.

Startup 182

Startup Class RSS Statistics 182

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc. Between the group of us we were probably helping launch 75-100 companies / year. So we went for it.

Venture Capital 290

Venture Capital Startup Idealab Funding 290

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

But assuming that you do have a good starting point for sales, you’ll need to hire somebody to expand your pipeline of leads, help build customer relations and to allow you also to have some time for the hundred other things you’re responsible for like fund raising, recruiting, products, customer support, etc.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Custom 346

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I found that a lot of my time went into spending time with the country MD’s to show them that they were still important to me and that I was still willing to help with sales campaigns. If you want to attract world class talent you have to be inspirational, persuasive and persistent (they best people always have other offers).

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Custom 319