This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2012

I think Fred was trying to offer some friendly advice to young investors that you're going to "take lumps" and that it's worth learning from those who are more experienced. So the next time you read something that you have a viceral reaction to, re-read it. Try to think about why the person said what they said.

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DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? How’s that advice holding up?

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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. We found a way to make our venture capital last when it shouldn’t have, at around the same time one of my all time favorite New Yorker cartoons was published on this topic. You can do it.

entrepreneurs 308

entrepreneurs advice real estate venture capital 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

source: Capital IQ. To anybody who asks my advice I repeat the same line, “I don’t know whether this party will last 6 weeks, 6 months or 18 months. An obvious example is Google who may have gotten less market attention if there would have been 8 well-financed competitors during the 2001-2005 timeframe.

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real estate entrepreneurs finance financing 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

I’ve seen friends (and family members) lose much of their savings that way over the years because “Black Swans” happen and in 1987, 2001, 2003 & 2008 (just to name a few from my memory) huge market gyrations caused much financial distress to people seeking short-term gains. At least later stage investors.

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finance financing ventures real estate 344

Revolution

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Great advice, but hard to do the “correct” thing when consumed by either of those emotions. Taking extra risk in the 2001–02 and 2008–09 time periods paid off. Not coincidentally, these are often the times that people feel more fearful and risk-averse. That discomfort is the point. The highest score ever was 97.6

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real estate frameworks investing investment 130

Revolution

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Great advice, but hard to do the “correct” thing when consumed by either of those emotions. Taking extra risk in the 2001–02 and 2008–09 time periods paid off. Not coincidentally, these are often the times that people feel more fearful and risk-averse. That discomfort is the point. The highest score ever was 97.6

real estate 130

real estate frameworks investing investment 130

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: So, you raised venture capital? Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. On the phone ….

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VC finance financing entrepreneurs 153

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. It’s a tricky question with no clear answer. There are trade offs.

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startup advice venture capital VC 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

If you want that advice please click on the link. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. My company had raised venture capital in April 2001 but we were told that there may never be any more coming.

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advice venture capital VC construction 285

TechCrunch

MARCH 21, 2023

I haven’t been involved in return-of-capital scenarios prior to this cycle. I do know one company that returned 70% of its capital during the 2001 cycle after everything shut down, and one of the co-founders was able to raise a successful round a few years later, but I’m unclear if it was correlation or causality.

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founder board entrepreneurs capital 97

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

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. 2001-2004 were very humbling but we built a real company.

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media advice VC energy 310

Unvalidated Learnings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Johnson, the company’s first employee, built an epistolary community of fellow runners (a forum of sorts), who, in exchange for his expert advice, would provide him with invaluable product feedback: “ Unlike me, however, most customers came to depend on Johnson’s letters. Most wrote him back. I recall one day, sitting in Wallace’s office.

startup 40

startup entrepreneurship culture communities 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006). Thus is venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies.

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strategy development VC advice 366

TechCrunch

JANUARY 29, 2021

Benoit Wirz , partner, Brighteye Ventures (an active edtech-focused venture capital fund in Europe that backs YouSchool, Lightneer and Aula). Charles Birnbaum , partner, Bessemer Venture Partners (a generalist fund with portfolio companies including Guild Education and Brightwheel). Jerry Lu , senior associate, Maveron.

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VC founder media education 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Lesson: Joel had been building a community of readers since 2001. With StackOverflow, Joel raised money through venture capital. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

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