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.” That’s a shame because many of these people missed out on what will be a few great VC vintages.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2017

Recently Upfront Ventures published its outlook for the technology startup world and venture capital overall titled it “ WTF Happened to Winter ?” This was driven by the influx of corporate VCs, foreign VC money, sovereign wealth funds and the new war chests of VCs who raised new funds in the past 18 months.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2017

As I talked with my wife about it she tells me, “The problem is that every woman has had some bad experience in their lives or careers but it’s risky to speak up for fear of retribution or being labeled ‘a complainer.’” As a VC let me specifically just speak out for our industry. An absurd version of this is the comedian Louis C.K.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). On the surface the narratives have been.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. This article originally ran on PEHub.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. Lindel is no stranger to thorny venture capital issues — he was arguably amongst the most successful LPs of his generation. Maybe that’s USV, too.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 Baidu alone raised $3.2

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News. The SaaS VC gap: China & other markets trail the US. Early-stage SaaS VC slip snaps recovery as public software stocks soar. billion, year to date, in nine and 10-figure venture rounds alone. Contributor. companies have raised $38.4

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? About $1 million. I hadn’t really thought about it. Me: How are your negotiations with VCs going? People seem concerned about valuation. We never thought about it. We raised a seed round. Me: At what price? Him: It wasn’t priced.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

There is so much confusion and misinformation out there about the government sponsored “payroll protection plan” loans to companies that the heads of every small business CEO in the country must be spinning. But I have been in close contact with the NVCA, many of the major law firms and many of the major VC firms. shouldn’t I?

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Early today I gave a keynote at the VCJ Venture Alpha conference here in San Francisco. I was asked to speak about the topic of “what is going on in the venture capital world and what is the next big thing after social networking?”. Future of VC Internet – Tough topic, but what the heck?

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Several years ago I made an appearance in a burgeoning new podcast called “20 Minute VC,” which by now needs no introduction. We talked about what startup CEOs should do in these situations and how to think about these renegotiations. We Talked About VC Reserve Strategies This is an “inside baseball” topic for VCs.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

Leaving your real competitors off of you presentation to a VC is not recommended. The “competition slide&# of your investment deck is such a great opportunity to talk about how you’re positioned (premium product vs. economical product? where do you need to make investments to make up ground and therefore need capital?).

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

They actually lost about $175 million in cash in that quarter, FWIW. I know this seems obvious but I promise you that even smart people forget this when talking about profitability. Do you imagine eventually raising VC and trying to build a faster growing company?” They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Congrats on the new name for your venture capital firm. Tell us a little bit about the firm? It's always hard with venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2016

I remember when seed funds first started (they were being incorrectly called “super angels” and then Micro VCs before Seed Funds stuck) and every LP (who invest in VCs) told me they weren’t convinced about Seed Funds (too small, too hard to pick winners, would they be able to follow on?). Non VC Growth Rounds.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. This question runs from about minute 2 – minute 8. This is wrong.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Here, we have Greg Martin, Founder and Managing Partner of Archer Venture Capital (www.archervc.com). This was a most difficult year, filled with unimaginable hardship, and the raw humanity of this year, in all its forms, is what I will remember most about 2020. We'll be posting these throughout the next two weeks.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

If you’re an entrepreneur who would like to see this clause in more startups please ask your VC to include it in future term sheets and link to it from their home page. “We In the afternoon we had a partner session with a separate facilitator in which we talked more broadly about bias, diversity & inclusion.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. These trends have put pressure on traditional VCs. Or at least venture-style returns. This led to an explosion in startups. Funny, that. That’s wise.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. LPs Still Believe Strongly in Venture Capital as a Diverse Source of Returns.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 14, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 -- Los Angeles VC Panel and LAVA Annual Membership Meeting. Come meet three of the most active Venture Capital funds in Los Angeles. Meet the top VCs who are investing in Southern California. Find out what does it take to secure Venture Capital for your company.

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Venture Capital LAVA Los Angeles Angel 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2013

For our Insights and Opinions section today--where we feature the thoughts and opinions of the local high tech community--we have an article from Jeff Grabow , of Ernst & Young, talking about the changing world of venture capital : The VC environment isn''t what it used to be. Guess what? That''s not a bad thing.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. Your entire process should be about “testing” whether your prospect has Interest Authority to make a decision Budget Is willing to continue spending actual time with you and analyzing you. Same with VC. To be clear?—?your

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well. Enter Amazon.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. When you think about what makes Google so valuable?—?it’s

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

Today's video interview is with Richard Wolpert , a well known Southern California venture capital and angel investor. Richard previously was the CSO Real Networks & former President, Disney Online, and is also Venture Partner at Amplify.LA.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

But the truth is that selling a company doesn’t always feel like a celebration as a VC. Not being a baby about it – my job is to return money to LPs. But I’ve been thinking about what had me a bit down about selling Maker Studios, Burstly and Gravity. VC Industry' Each of those teams were family.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. I’m sure I’ll spark the ire of some VC’s for saying so, but there is certainly such a thing as black-out days in venture capital. It is very difficult to raising venture capital between November 15 – January 7th.

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socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2021

According to the company, the new program will provide companies that have demonstrated clear market traction and provides targeted introductions to venture funds. The Alliance said the program came about, because SoCal founders continue to struggle to raise growth capital despite "a wealth of talent and potential".

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). As I like to say (and as Kara humbly hates when I do so in front of others) … she has a much better resume to a venture capital partner than I do. Upfront Ventures VC Industry' But she also has the temperament, which is important.

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 16, 2019

With a focus on female venture capitalists and founders, All Raise hosts an annual conference, several in-person and virtual fundraising workshops and networking sessions and, recently, the group began creating curated peer groups for investors. The idea was how do we hack the old boys’ network? It’s highly concentrated.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. It’s about a 30 minute video (or about as long as it normally takes to read my rambling posts! Tags: VC Industry. Crazy valuation.

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