Coach CTO Coach Entrepreneur Venture Capital 
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. The role of VC is sparring partner.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.
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Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 7, 2013
I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. And I had been telling my partners for a couple of years that I thought Ethan was one of the more talented entrepreneurs I had come across in San Francisco. The company was called Red Beacon. I was standing with him when he won the TechCrunch 50 award.
SoCal CTO
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
I feel too many people are discouraging, and as a result, too many entrepreneurs are discouraged and give up. We are not “finders” and usually serve the role of advisor and attorney. Sometimes we draft business plans and coach the entrepreneurs on their pitch, and sometimes we even help develop a business model.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 1, 2010
This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But I knew that to be a good decision maker I needed first hand knowledge rather than just a summary from my CTO.
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