Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). 406 Ventures.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. Topics we discussed in the first 45 minutes of the video include: What is VC like in NY? Tags: This Week in Venture Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. 2 weeks later and we may never have raised any more VC.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Back in 2009, I wrote a post called The Venture Capital Math Problem. This 2009 piece from @fredwilson (literally the best in the biz) predicted significant venture industry contraction when in fact the last 10yrs have seen massive expansion. So what did I get wrong in my attempt to solve the venture capital math problem?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. I’d link to it but it’s behind a paywall.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Our final closure was the first week of March 2000. It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital. Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close. It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

But last week I noticed a blog post by a woman, Tara Tiger Brown, that asked the question, “ Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC Blog Posts? She has a quote from literally every major VC from whom you’d want to hear. ” [it's short, you should read it]. Please watch this. Every single one.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice &# but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.&#. We exchanged ideas when I was an entrepreneur along side him in NorCal in 05-07 and my point-of-view on founder / VC relationships hasn’t shifted even 1% since I went to the dark side.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

Andy Areitio is a partner at the early-stage fund TheVentureCity , a new venture and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. When you’re running your own venture — especially if it’s your first — it’s unlikely you will find the time to deep dive into how venture capital firms work.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He and I once took different sides of an debate about whether “VC signaling&# in early-stage deals is a serious problem or not. So it was fun to turn the cameras on him for 45 minutes for a special “NY edition of This Week in VC&# and hearing his views. I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either.

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Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 5, 2021

What does it mean for venture capital and Startupland? Let’s examine the relationship between total venture capital investment and the 10 year Treasury in some detail. The y-axis tracks enture capital investment by year and the year of the data point resides in the reddish circle.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2012

Until you realize that vetting and helping companies is actually really hard--or did you not notice all the news that venture capital as an asset class doesn't beat the market. Want to know why there aren't more female partners at VC funds? scratches bald head]. You can't exactly look those people up on Angel List.

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David Teten VC

MARCH 1, 2022

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is to become a part-time scout, getting paid for sourcing investments. How to win consulting, board, operating, and investment roles with private equity and venture capital funds (video). How to find a job as a VC scout. How to get a job in venture capital.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

This simple and short blog post by the folks at Correlation Ventures contains the key to venture capital returns – the hit rate. What is important is this chart from the Correlation post: I guess they have a keen eye for correlation at Correlation Ventures. More capital means more businesses get funded.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Infonautics went public in 1996 and Half.com was sold to eBay in 2000.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But VC is like congress. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” As you can see from the chart their data suggests there are about $25 billion of VC distributions per year in the US. Their data looks at tech VCs.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. A huge thank you to all of the Limited Partners who have entrusted us with your capital, time and reputations.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

And so it happened that between 2000-2008 I was the biggest buzz kill at dinner parties. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. The dinner parties now are filled with self-righteous angel investors bragging about how many deals they are in on.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the VC & Private Equity world there’s a small number, too, with one of the most respected being PEHub. I always wanted to have Dan on This Week in VC with Dan Primack ( to see video click link ) because he’s blunt, honest, opinionated and well informed. Question: Some people are saying traditional VC is dead.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

We raised a seed round of capital in 1999 and our first venture capital round was the first week of March 2000 (e.g. But this was early 2000 and our US competitors had already closed rounds North of $45 million. We had a $40 million round lined up to close in the Autumn of 2000. But now I’m nearly 42.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. They never did any PR or marketing to get their videos to first get shown on the news during the 2000 election. Yesterday’s show floored me.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 29, 2022

Andrew Chan is a senior associate at Builders VC , investing in early-stage companies that are transforming pen and paper industries. In the last couple of years, a large group of “Gen Z VCs” have come to the forefront of what one might consider “hip” venture capital investing. Andrew Chan.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. I spent a bunch of time thinking about this position — especially since Beezer is an investor in Upfront Ventures. Beezer did.

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Tomasz Tunguz

JANUARY 26, 2020

Nathan Heller published an article called Is Venture Capital Worth the Risk? It’s a well-researched critique of the venture industry. If you have ideas for how to improve venture capital for founders, please tweet me or send me an email with the link above. First, venture capital has become much bigger.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. I said that I felt that Micro-VCs were the most important change in our industry. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

In addition, the public offerings of LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga, and eventually Facebook are going to create a lot of new angel investors--so whatever the VCs don't pickup, I'm sure you'll see individuals continue to fund. Is 2012 going to be 2000 all over again? When the bubble burst in 2000, many of us felt it in our pockets.

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Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

In addition, angels were up against a selection problem: All the best entrepreneurs and opportunities would naturally gravitate to the best venture capital funds, leaving only the “scraps” for angel investors. This is absolutely competitive with venture capital returns. So which is it? Only they’re not.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. What is the True Sentiment of VCs? Brad was openly writing about this and it felt like he was giving the VC playbook away for free!

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias. It was early 2000. I saw this kind of pricing when I first entered the VC market in 2007. I saw this kind of pricing when I first entered the VC market in 2007. What I caution entrepreneurs from doing is raising money at significantly ABOVE market valuations. That was market.

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OurCrowd

MAY 11, 2020

Historically, venture investing right after major market downturns – such as after the Internet bubble burst in 2000-2002, and after the financial crisis of 2007-2009 — has proved lucrative because you’re buying at a discount. That’s a very good entry point for new venture investors. Director of Operations for Rewire (Israel).

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Y Combinator

AUGUST 5, 2019

In 2005, when Y Combinator started, there was already a well developed ecosystem of venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and Boston. But access to those venture capital firms was limited. VCs preferred to fund companies that already seemed like a sure bet – in other words, were far along.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 11, 2022

At the same time, he added, “high interest rates may also increase the demand for venture capital when bank lending is less attractive to entrepreneurs.” The biggest VC firms are managing a lot more moolah than you thought. Indeed, some of his earlier work has found few consistent effects of interest rates.

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Angel Capital Association

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

By: Dror Futter, Legal and Business Adviser to Startups, Venture Capital Firms and Technology Companies. Based on recent data provided by the National Venture Capital Association in partnership with Aumni, the market for venture capital deal terms seem to be that kind of store.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

As the recipients of less than 1% of venture capital raise, institutionalized systems are visibly at play. When you think about the intersection of venture capital and technology, and specifically how it works — it is being led from an engineering perspective. I was in college from 2000 to 2004.

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David Teten VC

AUGUST 7, 2019

The first is Momentum Investing , “a strategy to capitalize on the continuance of an existing market trend”, which usually meaning that the price has been rising in the recent past. In VC, this means you source companies by talking with other VCs and tracking the investment patterns and new Linkedin connections of other VCs.

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Tomasz Tunguz

JULY 15, 2015

In Q2 2015, VC investment totaled $16.7B, about a 66% of the $28B deployed in Q2 2000 according to a new report. Amazingly, each of the last four quarters of venture investment from Q3 2014 to Q2 2015, are in the top 10 all-time for venture capital investment. And the trends shows no sign of stopping.

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