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The year ahead: 2011

This is going to be BIG.

I will start the year on the board of a yet to be announced investment and as an observer on four other companies. There will be an estimated 50+ million tablets sold in the US in 2011, and 36 million of them will be iPads—I’m likely to be a buyer at some point before I head to Strata.

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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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My Investment in Hungryroot: A Tasty Lesson in Products vs. Services

This is going to be BIG.

I first met Ben on January 29th, 2011 at an SLP mentoring session. Getting to this deal early and being able to put down a fair term sheet was a function of the Brooklyn Bridge Ventures strategy of going deep in the NYC community and making super long term investments in relationship building over time.

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Angel Investing: Skill 3 – Relationships with VCs

Both Sides of the Table

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on the skills I’ve developed in my career. To some extent Keith Rabois agreed with me about domain knowledge and argued that most of his investments are in the consumer Internet space as a result. Always have been.

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Investments That Don’t Work

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I woke up to a dream this morning where I was playing a game that was very similar to Turntable.fm , a failed effort to create a social music experience that had a moment back in 2011 and that I had invested in via USV. Investments that don’t work haunt me. I met the founders and was happy for them. Then I woke up.

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To succeed as an entrepreneur, make these 8 investments

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Invest in Yourself. We all invest our time and money in people and things. The best investment for entrepreneurs is always going to be in themselves. Invest in yourself in both small and big ways. Giving yourself set times to think and focus is a valuable investment. Invest in Your Business.

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Pacific Crest’s 2011 SaaS Survey

For Entrepreneurs

Pacific Crest, an investment banking firm with a strong focus on SaaS, has surveyed a 70 SaaS companies with very interesting results. There is some great data on topics such as growth rates, cost of customer acquisition, churn/retention, expense models, capital efficiency, etc.

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