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Why Venture Capital is So Much More Compelling Now

Both Sides of the Table

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 ;-)).

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The Changing Structure of the VC Industry

Both Sides of the Table

The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). But it still takes VC to scale a business (thus large capital into industry winners like Uber, Airbnb, SnapChat, etc). Just 3 years ago there was talk of institutional investors “not being able to write small enough checks.”

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Who Should be on Your Startup Board?

Both Sides of the Table

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
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Understanding the Underbelly of Online Marketing & Why You’ll Lose if You Don’t

Both Sides of the Table

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
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What I Would Look for When Choosing a VC – Knowing What I Know Now?

Both Sides of the Table

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.

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Interview with Jordan Glazier, Wildfire Systems

socalTECH

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
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Why You Need to Ring the Freaking Cash Register

Both Sides of the Table

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.