Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

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 hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x. Simply write a great book?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. ” Case in point: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SnapChat. Should I write off my $2.5 I say ring the freaking cash register.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

seed and they are writing $1.25m of it you can expect them to require a board seat) The competitive landscape (If you have several sources of capital you can likely politely decline the board request or can grant them a seat but ask for it to be “common appointed” and those revokable if you need in the future).

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Right now, when people are communicating using Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and others, those businesses are principally using display advertising and sponsored listings to monetize those users. At the same time, there's not that intensity of competition for engineers as in Silicon Valley. We're taking a different approach.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. If you’re negotiating with Samsung you can imagine they have Apple on their minds and if you’re negotiating with Twitter you can imagine they have eyes on Facebook, Google and even Snapchat.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150