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Announcing a Deal I’ve Wanted to Talk About for a Year

Both Sides of the Table

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. And I certainly didn’t want him having to trapse up-and-down Sand Hill Road informing every VC of his next idea. The company was called Red Beacon. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359
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People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip but not Skip

Both Sides of the Table

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.

Startup 308
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The Audacious Plan to Make Electricity as Easy as WiFi

Both Sides of the Table

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte.

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8 Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Investors and Board

Both Sides of the Table

Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value 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. Ask your VC to send a critical email to a contact.

Tips 365
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Top 40 Startup Posts for August 2010

SoCal CTO

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. While I agree that many VCs are crummy seed investors, I think there are some that are excellent seed investors. m the f%*kin’ boss.”.

Startup 191
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Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010

SoCal CTO

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March The following are the top items based on social signals. Here’s why.

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