This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

This will be the post where I dangerously attempt to walk the minefield of a white male VC opining on the topic. Clearly he assumed that he was using some kind of username, and that it was a gang reference of some sort--like, "Young Blood" as in the bloods and the crips or something to that affect. Makes my skin crawl.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2010

I have no reference point from which to judge whether you were higher on the y-axis 3 months ago or lower. I spoke about this more in depth in these two posts: 4 things I look for in an investment & how to manage VC relationships. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

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investing investment VC advice 411

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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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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.

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investing investment VC board 365

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MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

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JULY 11, 2010

[if you're not old enough to get the reference between this image and the title you can click on the image for a prompter]. This past December I spent a week in Boston to try to get to know some of the local VC’s and entrepreneurs a bit better. If anyone has experience, advice or dollars and wants to help please be in touch.

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peer-to-peer incubation startup advice 285

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FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

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JUNE 8, 2010

My favorite two quotes of the weekend were: “Never trade your cat for somebody else’s dog” (referring to selling your company for stock to another privately held company – quote was from Alan. And awesome to get to spend time with Ian Sigalow “comparing notes” (VC speak ). I’m going to save that for a future blog post.

peer-to-peer 279

peer-to-peer advice VC board 279

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FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close. VC, sales, biz dev, M&A or otherwise. Especially in VC. Push hard to set up the technical reviews, the due diligence meetings, the reference calls – whatever. If they want reference calls be ballsy. Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t ever close.

venture capital 301

venture capital advice VC real estate 301

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MARCH 3, 2013

Back to Mr. Christensen, “We subsidize their education in fields for which there are no jobs” he said in referring to the fact that many courses at universities are still taught with skills that aren’t relevant to the 21st century needs of the US workforce. We spoke about the disruption of VC through crowd funding.

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education disruption entrepreneurship venture capital 403

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MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

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VC communities investment investing 360

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FEBRUARY 4, 2010

I’m not anti VC. But there are a lot of things that become norms in the VC industry that always drove me crazy from entrepreneur’s side of the table. One of them is when VCs say, “I’d like to ‘noodle’ on that for a while.&#. I’d love it if VCs gave more honest and direct feedback.

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entrepreneurs VC advice strategy 297

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JANUARY 25, 2014

So perhaps his king reference was fitting. In tech circles one refers to the firm as either Kleiner Perkins, KP or Kleiner. When it comes for speaking up for venture capitalists for which you are simply not a “king” I have but one bit of advice. Tech Market Analysis VC Industry'

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education real estate economic growth VC 417

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MAY 15, 2010

You make too many reference calls or want to see three more candidates before you decide. You’re a VC. So you make four more reference calls. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. Let me give you some obvious examples. Your’e thinking about investing in a company.

peer-to-peer 299

peer-to-peer advice entrepreneurs leadership 299

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FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. there was no frame of reference for the value. My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important. Advice, coaching, intros?

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mix-use VC advice creativity 303

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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

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JULY 19, 2011

And yes, VC’s, too. Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. But I doubt they’ll dig in as deep as you will in the reference checks. Unfortunately that’s how reference checking works.

real estate 319

real estate VC pitching entrepreneurs 319

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JULY 9, 2012

I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. These engagements went well and he came highly referred by my friend Gary Swart who runs oDesk. I don’t know an entrepreneur or a VC who wouldn’t cut him in on any deal.”

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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.

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startup advice communities VC 373

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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. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. Tags: Start-up Advice Startup Advice. I HATE LOSING. I hate it.

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consulting advice collaboration VC 328

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DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. OK, I know this is true with VC also, but to a lesser extent. Great question.

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advice venture capital frameworks entrepreneurs 279

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DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. And they will offer you some of the best business advice you will ever receive if you’re open to it. It’s precisely because you work so closely with your VCs for so many years that it is unbelievably important that you find the good actors from the bad.

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startup real estate VC venture capital 363

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DECEMBER 7, 2014

This was customer interaction at its finest and as a result they invited him to meet with our entire sales staff and offer advice on the sales process from a customer’s perspective. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. I even once met with one very, very well known VC who told me, “I don’t attend LP meetings.

peer-to-peer 341

peer-to-peer VC entrepreneurs support 341

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APRIL 22, 2010

This is part of my startup advice series. It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. And good VC’s feel the same way. Or if you need that next job here is some advice: Try to merge jobs on your resume. Tags: Start-up Advice. I’m sure of that.

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advice peer-to-peer consulting startup founder 392

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. If you haven’t read how to build VC relationships and demonstrate traction make sure to read it.

VC 277

VC pitching advice strategy 277

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MAY 10, 2015

I would like to just offer some very simple advice: 1. I was forced to explain why I say “I switched to the Dark Side” (referring to VC) on my blog. If you think you may have to terminate employees always have legal advice. If you want to start a company create a legal entity – it’s dirt cheap.

startup 352

startup advice board founder 352

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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. We assumed they would take our advice and upgrade. Tags: Startup Advice. I HATE LOSING. I hate it. It chaps my hide. Losing sucks.

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consulting advice collaboration VC 333

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MAY 5, 2013

.” In the article I discussed the downside of raising capital at a too high of a price and referred people to a previous article I had written encouraging founders to raise “ At the Top end of Normal ” as opposed to stratospheric prices. And most VCs are over-whelmed with deals. Startup Advice'

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advice investment investing VC 302

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MAY 23, 2010

VC’s money comes from mostly institutional investors called LPs (limited partners). They trust the judgment of the VCs to source, finance, help manage and then create some sort of exit for the investments that they make. They also trust VC’s to determine the right price to pay for the company securities that they buy.

startup 290

startup advice finance financing 290

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JANUARY 21, 2010

If you don’t follow the image reference above or the tag line, “ You don’t need double talk; you need Bob Loblaw “ (try saying it out loud) , and if you care! Founded it as a California LLC but your potential VC wants a Delaware C-Corp? the link is here. Shame about that pesky FAS 157 ruling.

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startup advice entrepreneurs VC 318

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JULY 1, 2010

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. And Finally, a word about VC … We VCs need to be as conscious of dipping & skipping as management teams are. Again, I can’t imagine being a VC and NOT doing this. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

startup 308

startup board advice VC 308

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OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Incidentally, VC’s hate when they hear companies pitching who say, “ I don’t have real competitors &# as I outlined point three in the linked post). Tags: Start-up Advice. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t.

startup 319

startup advice entrepreneurs networking 319

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JULY 26, 2010

Taking reference calls from prospects considering using our products. Think about this – what is more powerful – a VC who tells you how great he/she is or when you read your peers reviews on The Funded ? Tags: Sales & Marketing Advice Startup Advice. Heroes told our success stories, not us.

peer-to-peer 294

peer-to-peer advice innovation support 294

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JANUARY 6, 2014

Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. With small amounts of money invested (sub $3 million) the risks are reasonably low for most VCs and the consequences of bad decisions or decisions a VC has limited say in is tolerable. Startup Advice'

board 325

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MARCH 8, 2010

I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. Much of my traffic is through referring websites and/or social media. Now I’m a VC. My strategy was to keep it advice based for the first 6 months so I never really employed this as a strategy to drive traffic. Some search. Both Sides of the Table.

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advice mix-use entrepreneurs strategy 286

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DECEMBER 2, 2010

As a VC I’m acutely that a “yes&# decision to support an entrepreneur can do just that, yet I only write 2-4 of them per year and maybe another 3-4 as an angel. Your advice made a difference.&#. I know his life touched many of us that worked with him – in ways he never knew.

consulting 352

consulting peer-to-peer advice entrepreneurs 352

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MAY 7, 2018

There is an old management saying, “measure twice, cut once” which refers to the benefit of doing some planning. This post has some basic advice on how to plan your raise before you hit the road. This post has some basic advice on how to plan your raise before you hit the road. All of this, of course, is Sales 101.

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board VC entrepreneurs education 215