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The Twenty Year Itch: My Last VC Investment Out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures

This is going to be BIG.

Sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll complete my next investment. Last August, I passed the point at which I had spent literally half my entire life working in this asset class, having started at the General Motors pension fund doing institutional investments in venture funds and late-stage directs back in February of 2001.

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Angel Investing (1): Dealflow – Are You Sitting at The Right Poker Table?

Both Sides of the Table

I believe the rise in angel investing is here to stay and the professionalization of this class (aka “super angels&# or “micro VC&# ) is a good thing for the VC industry and for entrepreneurs. But I fear that for most angel investors who invest over the long haul angel investing will not be a profitable endeavor.

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The Changing Venture Landscape

Both Sides of the Table

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.” That used to be called A-round investing.

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i2E & Plains Ventures Surpasses $100M Milestone in Total Investments

Innovation 2 Enterprise

a nonprofit dedicated to fostering the growth of startups and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma, is proud to announce surpassing the $100 million mark in total investments. These investments, collectively over $100 million, have provided vital early capital to help startups throughout the state to thrive. million in 2001. i2E, Inc.,

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This Week in VC with @VCMike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures

Both Sides of the Table

This lasted from about 2001-2004. Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. Simple: according to Mike Polaris has followed on nearly every seed investment that they’ve done. Total raised: $30mm.

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Want to Know How VC’s Calculate Valuation Differently from Founders?

Both Sides of the Table

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. In an early round of investment where there is not an extremely high price relative to normal valuations this is anything but benign. Those were the dog days of entrepreneurship.

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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

At an accelerator … 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. And so forth.