Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

*. What is the role of a VC for entrepreneurs? I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. I was recently contacted by an entrepreneur who was consider a few different business models for his company.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 3, 2015

It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. All advice you receive is too generic to help you – you need to decide for yourself in your exact situation.

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advice peer-to-peer startup frameworks 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

So here’s advice I give people all the time when they’re raising money. Many entrepreneurs pitching err on the side of too much information. Or they’ll remind me of my common advice to take “ 50 coffee meetings.” ” The report also notes that 75% of mega financings are led by non-VCs.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

So why are so many diverse entrepreneurs shortchanging themselves? Right this very minute, I'm also working hard to secure my spot in an oversubscribed round for a pre-product company led by a female entrepreneur, while simultaneously wrapping up a seed round in a founder of color who didn't have a problem raising at all.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

We have been advising a lot of entrepreneurs so I thought I’d “open source” some of the advice I have been sharing. But I have been in close contact with the NVCA, many of the major law firms and many of the major VC firms. Am I ineligible since I’m VC-backed? I am not claiming to be the world expert on this. shouldn’t I?

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

For some aspiring to be tech entrepreneurs, I often suggest a two-step process, as I argued in this post that “ The First Startup Founder You Need to Invest in Is You.” But I also have advice for the 15% that really do want to be a startup CEO. I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.”

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advice peer-to-peer VC board 334

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I’m enjoying being a VC. I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. Sam is the managing director of Launchpad LA and we were about to pick our 2012 class of entrepreneurs.

peer-to-peer 363

peer-to-peer entrepreneurs startup entrepreneurship 363

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2015

I’m so tired of seeing young entrepreneurs get screwed by their angel investors on convertible notes and I know I can’t convince you not to do it so I’d like to offer one simple bit of advice to help you avoid getting screwed (at least on one part of your note). It’s the silent screwing that stings.

entrepreneurs 381

entrepreneurs VC advice finance 381

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

And I am often approached by entrepreneurs in cities which don’t have a vibrant VC community. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. It’s a goal to help you understand the life of a VC. I travel the country a lot. Ask SuperCell.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2013

I spent countless hours with VC firms, startups & LPs (the people who invest in VC firms). On my first real day back the first thought I have is that most entrepreneurs don’t manage their VC relationships as well as they could. It’s best to think of your VC partnership as a customer.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. So what does a VC do when he or she isn’t ready to say “no” or perhaps might like to talk with you in a year but not now? It doesn’t.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I attended events.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. It is election season.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” 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. So why does a VC ask you?

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

At least, that's how a lot of entrepreneurs feel. Why do VC's get such a bad rap? That's literally your baby--and 98% of the time, a VC will tell you that your baby is ugly. That's probably why the vast majority of applications for VC positions tend to be from males. So what gives? 3) Access to money. 5) We *are* jerks.

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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

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2012

And no wonder, lately he and his partners are on a tear, investing out of their $200+ million VC fund. We also spent a fair bit of time talking about the changing nature of venture capital and in particular the hand-on practitioner role of early-stage VC led by accelerators such as YC, 500Startups, Betaworks and the like.

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VC culture incubation venture capital 279

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

The best entrepreneurs in our industry focus on it year-round as opposed to just once every 18 months. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll get 8. Below is the outline Upfront. Confidence sells 10.

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advice VC entrepreneurs SaaS 236

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I just want to figure out what a fair valuation is.&# I figured all the VC’s talked so we should. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. Investors own 25%, the founders own 75%.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

This sometimes frustrates entrepreneurs who just want to “get back to running the business.&# But if you understand it you’ll see that it is perfectly rational and it should also influence how you form relationships with investors. For this reason I tell entrepreneurs the following: Meet your potential investors early.

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investment investing VC advice 411

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. inside insight into VC decision-making. Industry reviews.

investment 365

investment investing VC board 365

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

This is something I think entrepreneurs don’t totally understand and it’s worthwhile they do. No VC will be so naive as not to see straight through it. When I first became a VC, seed rounds were typically $500k – $1.5 If you''re newer to VC math here''s a great primer]. Nobody cares. Why the latter?

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VC advice financing finance 399

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. You can sense when it is a “mission” for this entrepreneur to succeed and she will continue the journey even if success isn’t easy or immediate.

peer-to-peer 373

peer-to-peer VC pitching entrepreneurs 373

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. The VC will smile, thank you, and later pass. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game.

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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

JUNE 12, 2013

But less as a complaint and more as advice to younger networkers, the more you invest in relationships the more you will get when you need. ” In it he talked about how he gets daily emails asking for intros to Oprah (he does a lot of work with her) and his advice. “I’ve never been a VC before. ” So true.

advice 407

advice VC networking entrepreneurs 407

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. Wouldn’t we be a bit hypocritical if we talked with entrepreneurs about innovation and change but we weren’t willing to take it on ourselves? We also saw that the same types of entrepreneurs were repeatedly getting funded.

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ventures venture capital advice VC 343

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.

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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.

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VC advice strategy accelerator 412

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? I’m still not sure.

entrepreneurs 237

entrepreneurs VC mentorship strategy 237

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. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. I thought Sam might know some talented young entrepreneurs to apply. Come to entrepreneur pitches. Intro a few entrepreneurs. Kevin Zhang.

pitching 372

pitching advice VC entrepreneurs 372

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

In the VC insider baseball world a discussion has gone on about “VC platforms” over the past 5 or so years. While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros.

VC 198

VC peer-to-peer mix-use leadership 198

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

Greg truly is a prolific deal maker and is amongst the most helpful people to entrepreneurs in our ecosystem. He’s a force of nature. 7 times out of 10 he knows what’s going on before I do and is either slipping a paper on my desk, texting me or emailing me something about to go down. Yet I’m always thinking about it.

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disruption VC communities ventures 226

Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Many people think multitasking is a skill that women are naturally good at, but eventually working as an entrepreneur at a million miles an hour will take its toll. As female entrepreneurs, we are independent-minded and innovative, and this advice is critical for securing our future and the future of our families.

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founder advice entrepreneurship entrepreneurs 262