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This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed startup. So back to MBAs.
In the comments section a clever question popped up about whether I would have invested in myself before I became an investor. My first response mentally was, “Of course!” In fact, my salary never caught up with my pre startup salary across 2 companies and 8 years. I had invested in myself for years.
Of course not. It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. You took the risk to start your company. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. So as a startup CEO you constantly have to suspend disbelief.
Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. For starters, once you announce your competitors instantly will start tracking you.
If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. Many people start companies arse backwards. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes.
Here is a sample of the reading list for the course that gives you a flavor for just how modern and practical this course is. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions.
We remain confident in the long-term trend that software enables and the value accrued to disruptive startups; we also recognized that in a strong market it is important to ring the cash register and this doesn’t come without a concentrated effort to do so. In short, In Venture Capital, Size Matters Size matters for a few reasons.
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 writeup in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my writeup doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)).
If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. Act your stage. But at what cost?
June 2019 (left) and November 2020 (right) I’ve been reluctant to write this blog post because historically I don’t like talking about weight. Yes, of course in moderation and certainly not every day. I’m going to make this post pretty high-level because my goal is to help anybody who wants to get started quickly. you name it.
On my most important ones I spend as much time figuring out what to cut out as I do putting into the writing of it. State your most important ask up front. Many people write email without a “call to action” or reason they’re writing the email. Write to one person at a time. RSVP this week.
I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. What makes up revenue?
It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO.
There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. ” **.
It’s the first EIR that we’ve had in the years that I’ve been with the firm and I hope will be the start of our investment in this program. We’re excited to continue to grow our investment professional staff and will continue to do so over the course of 2013 & 2014 with our new fund.
What does it mean to be a CTO for a startup? Should a startup CTO spend their time programming? Here’s a graphic from Socal CTO that illustrates the roles as they change over time: In its earliest days, a startup’s top need is often to produce a product. This is a safe choice, of course - but is it the best choice?
There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”
2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I said both in the article but felt compelled to provide a statement up front for the skimmers.
When I first startedwriting this blog several years ago I had less followers than you have right now. But the realist in me knew I couldn’t write daily nor could I convince you to think to check out my blog with regularity. And of course the other place I inform myself is on Twitter. I should know.
If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.
I often describe “chutzpah” as being able to skate right up to the line of acceptability without crossing over it. And being persistent I believe is the most important attribute for success in an entrepreneur (assuming of course that you have all the other requisite skills). It’s your job to persist.
Don’t blog about what you think would be “cool.&# I don’t think that most startup blogs should be about how to build a startup. The new stuff: How do I get started? The advantage of the hosted version is that it’s easier to get started. Slice it up enough to do many posts.
Brad wrote up his answer here – you should read it because it’s very instructive for how I believe communities ought to think about naming conventions. I recommend that you start by writing down the attributes you would want people to think about when they think about your brand. This is the list I would start with.
Very few investors understand this and even fewer startups. When you’re an early-stage business every dollar matters and because many startup teams these days are very product & technology centric they often miscalculate the importance of PR. Ironic, of course. They are silent. It doesn’t work that way.
Of course passion isn’t enough. I really want to start my journeys only with people with whom I want to work closely with for the next 5-7 years or more. So of course I want (need) to make money for my investors (LPs). But the two can of course go hand-in-hand. It’s even a direct quote in my Twitter bio.
If you want to get in better shape and haven’t read that you might start there. I started advice with the premise that no amount of exercise or food eating plan would help with long-term fitness or weight goals unless you first had a mental plan and a set of measurements to track your progress. I want to share with you how I did this.
One of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs make when they start a company and raise outside capital is figuring out what an acceptable “burn rate” is. The Basics The starting point — the 101 — is knowing the difference between gross burn and net burn. You start from the basics, which is if you raise $2.5
I know that this will sound like a random post topic for startup advice but I promise it’s relevant. When I started blogging I had an idea. I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read.
I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I was telling him that it was much easier when I started because there were fewer deals, life was less public and somehow the world seemed to be spinning more slowly. Web Summit.
I would love to see Tara follow up with blog posts on: why she believes this is the case & what we can do about it. The truth is I have been thinking a lot about the topic, I just haven’t been writing about it. I love my dad equally, of course. We need to start encouraging it in our youth. In colleges.
When convertible debt first started being introduced as a “faster, cheaper way to get startups funded” they didn’t have pricing built into them. In fact, most early investor work hard to help their startups get to the next level so it makes no sense for the angel investor and founders to be at odds.
Let me start by saying I’m a huge business book cynic. But Net had told me that he picked up some valuable lessons from the book, so I thought, “WTF? They can travel the world, take classes in interesting subjects, spend time with loved ones or start new hobbies. You’re on the DS (deferred startup) plan.
Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.
As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10. The monkey on my back. ” Yup.
This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons”. I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your new found fame to score venture capital.
I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions.
Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. .” Who else does Clayton pray for?
Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. ” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story.
I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. But the reality is that I engage with about 5 new startups each year which means that I end up working with less than 5% of the startups where I provide these free consulting sessions.
I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Either way, don’t assume that the entire room is up to speed on your company. tip: write it down when asked / parked). Let me write that down.&#. -
Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing. On Funding?—?Shots
I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. Here's an example of that kind of email.
Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. Of course that’s not disputable.
But of course it’s hard to advise people that they should do PR without a guide to how to do it on the cheap or how to do it at all. When to start PR? In a startup this is a mistake. It’s like “direct” traffic to your website that seems to magically appear.
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