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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founder VC advice pitching 329

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

It’s meant to be a bit provocative but the reality is that I give this advice to entrepreneurs all the the time and I usually leave the “e&# off of the end. I normally offer this advice in the capacity of really wanting to help entrepreneurs so please bear with me. It is 2010. Not so VC. So what happens?

venture capital 289

venture capital capital ventures advice 289

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Yet the truth is that I see angels with great deal flow & great instincts whom I believe will only perform well in times that favor angel investors (like 2010) where there are early exits. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry. I don’t believe these times will last.

angel investing 288

angel investing investment investing advice 288

Revolution

MARCH 1, 2023

VC dollars are at risk, we conducted a historical analysis of top quartile fund managers over the past quarter century (as far back as we could access reliable Cambridge Associates data). We looked at the analysis in two parts: the 1997–2010 time period and the 2011–2020 time period. But what could that look like?

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advice founder finance financing 147

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I decided to put both of those issues to bed in 2010. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. I HATE LOSING.

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consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

This is an updated post from my ongoing series on Startup Advice that I learned from founding two companies. . On Losing in VC. I decided to put both of those issues to bed in 2010. I know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. I HATE LOSING.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2011

Will you get the TechCrunch bump, the tier-1 VC anointment, followed by great PR firm support and then the NY Times or WSJ story that follows? So as I get around the country speaking at college campus in 2010 & 2011 I have been preaching the same theme. Not every problem has to be a huge VC-fundable business.

transportation 309

transportation VC networking energy 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is where VC comes in and why it’s needed in the industry no matter how much populist sentiment exists agains the industry. I know that in late 2010 it’s not as popular to say this because we’re in the era of “super angels&# and feel good startups. got picked up early without raising a lot of VC.

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angel investing investment investing VC 152

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

I had finally appeared on the front cover of a magazine (TornadoInsider – then the top European VC magazine) but I felt so fat in the picture I never sent it to anybody. My wife said to me, “I thought you weren’t supposed to work entrepreneur hours when you’re a VC?&#. But now I’m nearly 42.

entrepreneurs 308

entrepreneurs advice real estate venture capital 308

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

I wonder what this company would look like in 2010 as an independent? But to understand how super-angels and not just VCs get in on this act check out Aydin Senkut’s record. We talked about her desire to sell the company for personal reasons rather than raise a large round of VC. I agreed to help.

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angel investing investment investing VC 280

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. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC: How big or small their fund is? Beezer did.

entrepreneurs 237

entrepreneurs VC mentorship strategy 237

Venture Hacks

APRIL 17, 2019

Incentives make for bad investing advice. Valuations for pre-traction companies between 2005-2010 were $1-5M pre-money for the first non-friends-and-family round. These valuations moved to $4-6M pre-money after 2010, with some demo days in the $8-10M range. Incentives make for bad investing advice. Back $0B companies.

angel investing 181

angel investing investment investing incubation 181

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

I’ve added it to my list of 2010 lessons learned as a VC and I’m a bit pissed off with myself for not fighting harder – especially because I was convinced I would make a better investor than the “brand name&# they had selected who was thousands of miles away. Tags: Startup Advice.

consulting 309

consulting advice VC support 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

If market slumps persist the woes will extend into LPs who will take a wait-and-see approach to investing in VC funds making 2016 an unpleasant year to be raising. The impact hits VCs in an immediate way that most entrepreneurs don’t realize. Watch the market closely. So I’ll come full circle. I wrote this in one sitting.

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financing finance ventures real estate 344

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

You then get a big VC to invest at a high price and you realize that means your angels are going to be unhappy with how much they own of your company after the financing relative to what they THOUGHT they would own. In frothy markets (like we’re seeing in August 2010) this happens more frequently.

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financing finance entrepreneurs advice 319

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

As I’ve said before, “ You’d Have to be a Really Big Baby to Complain About Being a VC.” I called in the Y0 Yo Life of an Entrepreneur but it really applies to me as a VC as well. I wrote this in January 2010. I value the time with my wife to either chat, read or watch our favorite shows. Back to family.

VC 347

VC entrepreneurs creativity advice 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

This post has some basic advice on how to plan your raise before you hit the road. Many points will seem obvious but since I observe many fund-raising processes as a VC I can tell you that most people get even the basics wrong. In 2010 I didn’t know a single thing about LPs (the people who invest in VC funds).

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board VC entrepreneurs education 215

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

And coming to the end of 2010 I feel a sense of reminiscence of some of the trends from a decade ago. I was reminded of all this this when I read a blog post by one of my favorite thinkers on the VC market, Bryce Roberts, who talked about “ unfundable companies.&#. I suspect when the wind calms down Bryce will be well positioned.

consulting 302

consulting leadership entrepreneurs advice 302

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Defy Ventures runs business plan competitions and has people like us who attend and give business advice and feedback. I know because I went back a second time with 75 or so tech executives and VCs and my inbox is flooded this morning. Catherine (Cat) Hoke founded the program in 2010 and launched the business plan competition in 2012.

education 392

education ventures hospitality opportunity 392

David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

See How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm.) At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Thank you to my co-author for this essay, Paulina Symala, a Consultant at Oliver Wyman and a past intern of Versatile VC. Certain VC funds offer “Fellowships” for industry executives. Expert Networks.

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consulting venture capital board capital 128

Founders Coop

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Just two years later, in 2009, we worked out a deal to create the Techstars Seattle program, with our first program running in 2010. What did we owe our sponsors, and did that put us in conflict with our commitments to give founders the best possible advice, and to never waste their time?

startup ecosystem 189

startup ecosystem accelerator communities support 189

David Teten VC

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? VC Josh Kopelman makes the analogy of jet fuel vs. motorcycle fuel. VCs sell jet fuel which works well for jets; motorcycles are more common but need a different type of fuel. . 2018 also had the fewest number of angel-led financing rounds since before 2010.

founder 99

founder investment investing VC 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

Fred Wilson wrote two posts in 2010 that were very influential with the startup community. Kind of like a law firm (or VC firm) with four partners but shortened to just two, people dropped off his second two words. The titles were: Mobile First, Web Second. Mobile First, Web Second (continued).

real estate 334

real estate strategy development enablement 334

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Maybe this is reverse “hanging around the rim” where if you keep you VC process going long enough you’ll eventually get to “yes?” I once had a potential LP back in 2010 (when fund-raising as a VC was harder for me) tell me that he thought he was a better fit to look at our next fund rather than this one. Wait, there’s more!

peer-to-peer 189

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs VC investing 189

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. There is every likelihood that Zennström’s Atomico would have joined Klarna’s cap table in 2010 if it weren’t for a single line of text published on the VC firm’s website, which read something like, “don’t contact us, we’ll contact you.”

investing 143

investing investment media mix-use 143

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

This morning marked the kickoff of VC firm 500 Global’s Fall 2022 Demo Day, which saw over a dozen startups give their best pitches to prospective investors — and customers. Both outfits look to back early-stage founders with money and advice in exchange for equity. It’s demo day season.

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accelerator health advice hospitality 88

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 24, 2021

Founders from outside a tech-ecosystem are surrounded by bad advice, since building a startup is different from other kinds of businesses. 1) Don’t hoard your idea, share it freely The 2010 drama, the Social Network , depicted every entrepreneur’s worst fears. I found that the opposite is true. Let’s dive in. (1)

startup 106

startup entrepreneurship advice capital 106

TechCrunch

JUNE 29, 2022

The Bank for International Settlements, meanwhile, estimates that in the decade between 2010 and 2020, fintech companies attracted more than $1 trillion in backing. But as my colleagues Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo recently wrote , the pace of fintech investing has generally outshone the global VC boom. The tides might be turning.

incumbents 87

incumbents finance financing advice 87

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

A great recent example of this was a successful group of entrepreneurs who had created a company that will do $10-12 million in revenue at their system integration business (read: services business) in 2011 after having done $5 million or so in 2010 and $2-3 million in 2009. They wanted advice. That’s the right answer for VCs.

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VC advice finance financing 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

Let me assume for this discussion it’s a garden variety 2010 IT or Internet business (as opposed to something requiring capital equipment or a life sciences project). It also takes options off the table if you eventually find out that this isn’t a VC backable business. It’s a tricky question with no clear answer.

startup 319

startup advice venture capital VC 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. But many of these aren’t integrated with the way that their customers want to communicate with them in 2010. Pitching a VC – As I said in a previous post – the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic.

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advice pitching VC support 314

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 8, 2020

“We did hear that and I think it’s very poor advice,” he says. There is every likelihood that Zennström’s Atomico would have joined Klarna’s cap table in 2010 if it weren’t for a single line of text published on the VC firm’s website, which read something like, “don’t contact us, we’ll contact you.”

investing 82

investing investment media mix-use 82

Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 25, 2022

Here’s the advice I wish someone told me when I started. you don’t want to be the guy who sold 10,000 bitcoin to purchase two pizzas in 2010. Kevin Rose ( @kevinrose ): partner at VC firm True Ventures , host of the Modern Finance and Proof podcasts. But it wasn’t always this way. Trust me?—?you So, why is crypto revolutionary?

networking 52

networking advice investing investment 52

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. He didn’t finish the sentence.

startup 40

startup entrepreneurship culture communities 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

One year ago I predicted that in 2010/11 the economy, far from being on the path of permanent recovery was on a temporary resurgence and there was a strong possibility of a “double dip” recession. My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs real estate VC advice 298

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

But I guess you could say the same about VC. Stock market declines would bring back dog days of VC. If you want a comprehensive summary of the industry in this era it’s worth a read: VC Ice Age Part 1 – What Happens When a Market Comes to a Standstill? VC Ice Age Part 2 – Why the Market Started Moving Again?

VC 305

VC disruption entrepreneurs venture capital 305

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

It all started in 2010 with Klout. From this debate about Klout John and I have had a series of in person meetings and debates about our industry (both VC & tech) and what is changing. 2:00 Why don’t you like the term VC? 7:00 80% of the VC funds last year went to a small handful of funds. SHOW NOTES.

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venture capital VC ventures capital 303