Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. So why does a VC ask you?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

As a VC with scores of startups in our portfolio we have ringside seats to many, many fund raising processes plus I had to raise money across about 5 different rounds of capital as an entrepreneur so I’ve developed some thought on the process that I hope can be helpful to some of you before you start. Just send me your dog damn deck 7.

advice 236

advice VC entrepreneurs SaaS 236

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Same with VC. If in high school you got a 3.6

VC 332

VC advice entrepreneurs energy 332

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting.

VC 261

VC pitching advice entrepreneurs 261

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

We talk a lot about his schooling, his early jobs as a developer and then as a VC and we talk about his decision to spend winters in Los Angeles. Fred is generous with his time and advice and I hope has shaped a generation of VCs for the better. You can’t time VC investing markets. VC investing is hard work.

advice 327

advice board VC investment 327

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

If you are a super young, well-connected, Stanford CS or EE, worked at Facebook early, have a bit o’ dosh and have VCs chasing you … you are exempt. My VC told me that if we monetize too early we will scare away our nascent marketplace and not grow as fast. If that’s you, you can ignore my advice.

VC 412

VC advice strategy accelerator 412

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

In a world that is hyper competitive – even amongst VCs – I can honestly say that not only is the media recognition accurate but it is amongst the proudest days I’ve had in developing Upfront Ventures and our future. Great firms find future leaders and develop them. Yet I’m always thinking about it.

disruption 226

disruption VC communities ventures 226

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. What Did I Learn From the First VC Check I Ever Wrote?

VC 223

VC venture capital capital investing 223

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I only say that because after years as a VC I can always tell when my peer group invested in something because “it seemed like it would make money” versus when they invested out of passion. On reflection of the role that I want to play as a VC it is clearly in the camp of passion. I’m a VC. Startup Advice'

peer-to-peer 373

peer-to-peer VC pitching entrepreneurs 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. He looked stunned. I left the board.

entrepreneurs 414

entrepreneurs board advice consulting 414

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. If you’re thinking about joining as the director of marketing, product management manager, senior architect, international business development lead, etc. So a friend recently called to ask for advice on becoming the CTO of a startup. Let’s face it. Let’s face it.

advice 418

advice entrepreneurs startup culture 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat. And we chose to locate ourselves 3 blocks East of The Third Street Promenade where much new development is taking place. Startup Advice' This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million. What’s up with that?

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ventures venture capital advice VC 343

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

” This is a frequent theme of mine when asked to speak to audience about the VC industry. And this is fueled by the VC culture in Silicon Valley. I was recently talking to a VC about a business I was looking at and I was asking whether he found the business interesting, too. It is VC math, like it or not.

startup 390

startup VC venture capital entrepreneurs 390

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. For years I saw myself as the new guy in VC but then you wake up one day and realize that 50% of your peers have been doing it for less time than you and time has moved on. VC Industry' It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable. Lines, Not Dots.

peer-to-peer 317

peer-to-peer pitching VC accelerator 317

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

In 2017 we began inserting an “Inclusion Clause” into our term sheets because we believe that the culture one establishes at the earliest stages of one’s business will set out the course of how it will grow and develop. We believe that diverse teams produce diversity of thought and that this leads to better decisions and outcomes.

VC 284

VC leadership mentorship entrepreneurs 284

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

No one gives a shite about your features other than your product manager and your developers. I spotted my fellow VC Leo Spiegel (from Mission Ventures) who had spoken previously to the same group and asked about his experiences. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. NEVER lead with features.

advice 362

advice VC entrepreneurs education 362

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb.

board 365

board VC advice pitching 365

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2015

So I asked a few founders that I've worked with and they mentioned a word that struck me--because I've never heard any of the hordes of people in my inbox asking for internships, VC job recommendations and advice, etc. If I need to fill an open position for an iOS developer, I don't go around asking people for recommendations.

venture capital 376

venture capital capital pitching ventures 376

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. That’s OK, too.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

I am a VC. But through expressing points-of-view I can raise above the consciousness of my customers (entrepreneurs and limited partners who invest in VC funds) in ways that I couldn’t without breaking through the noise of the hundreds of others of VCs who also have money. I hand out money. How differentiated is that?

mix-use 389

mix-use advice VC technology 389

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2010

It surprising how few people actually follow through this this advice. One of the most practical pieces of early career advice I got was “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.&# The message was clear. with the pickup in tech hiring we’re seeing a lot of our developers getting calls from other startups.&#.

advice 342

advice board consulting development 342

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

You can watch the video above for a very brief overview of why we rebranded and where we see our place in the VC ecosystem along with what has changed in our industry. Relaunching our brand is part of our larger initiative to build a VC firm of the future. Startup Advice' Nearly four months ago we rebranded at Upfront Ventures.

ventures 324

ventures VC strategy advice 324

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2013

From the experience in my earliest days of designing products for Windows and OS2 machines in the early 1990′s I developed a product philosophy, “Design for the novice, configure for the pro.” Sure, your friends and VCs are smart so I’m not saying don’t take input. Startup Advice' Find out for sure.

advice 408

advice education VC technology 408

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

I love how open Danielle has been throughout the development of her startup Mattermark including honest reflections of when she has changed her opinion. They now have a strong VC lead from Foundry Group and from experience when you get advice from Foundry it comes with authority, experience, empathy and the right amount of straight talk.

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startup advice pitching VC 323

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Italy’s ecosystem for tech venture capital and startups has been in development for years and has made decent strides in the last decade. However, while many startups exist in cities like Turin, Bologna, Naples and Rome, Milan is generally seen as a bigger ecosystem because of its mercantile culture and a significant share of VC funds.

VC 122

VC venture capital mix-use accelerator 122

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? I was meeting regularly with entrepreneurs and offering (for better or for worse) advice on how to run a startup and how to raise venture capital from my experience in doing so at two companies. By definition, you read blogs.

startup 373

startup advice communities VC 373

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. Everyone is a rock star developers, every company is crushing it and when they’re not crushing it they’re killing it. Easier said than done.

advice 398

advice VC entrepreneurs transportation 398

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Two Sigma is a technology and finance company in Soho filled with incredibly bright engineers and developers, so I’m really excited about leveraging that partnership in a number of cool ways. VCs pitch for money, too. No one ever thinks about VCs having to pitch, who they pitch to, or how it works.

ventures 280

ventures pitching VC startup ecosystem 280

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 know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. They were looking for a collaboration tool to manage all of their large water development projects. I HATE LOSING. I hate it. Losing sucks.

consulting 328

consulting advice collaboration VC 328

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC. Rinse & repeat.

entrepreneurs 374

entrepreneurs incubation board VC 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

But while universities are developing online content they are not fundamentally disrupting leaning because the method of delivery is not a new business model. We spoke about the disruption of VC through crowd funding. VC can’t don’t invest in these kinds of companies because they can’t get out (no liquidity event).

education 403

education disruption entrepreneurship venture capital 403

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

So it was my great pleasure to host Chamillionaire on This Week in VC this week talking marketing, entrepreneurship, old media and, of course, music. There are many analogies here for software development. Raising Capital – The VC equivalent for musicians is getting signed by a major label.

entrepreneurs 356

entrepreneurs media creativity VC 356

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

As a VC I regularly meet with companies and listen to their plans. Every extra set of features that you added that served one narrow use case end up being features you need to support in future releases adding complexity to future development, usability testing, regression testing, etc. My advice? Let me explain.

startup 415

startup advice VC financing 415

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I will even take to emailing people I don’t know offering small bits of advice. Can you please intro me to XYZ VC? If you do randomly write me I have advice. Research & Development. I know it’s different as a VC than as a startup company providing a product or service. I try to be helpful.

advice 314

advice culture board VC 314

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 know I won’t win every deal I want to in VC. They were looking for a collaboration tool to manage all of their large water development projects. Tags: Startup Advice.

consulting 333

consulting advice collaboration VC 333

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. Heck, you can launch your company if you’re a developer for $50,000. Every single one.

entrepreneurs 341

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341