This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 25, 2023

A recurring theme in a lot of my BSList posts is that, if an investor thinks they can make a boatload of money with you, they’ll go to all sorts of lengths to invest. That includes investing way earlier than they would normally, investing outside of scope, investing with their personal capital outside of the fund, etc.

founder 368

founder VC board pitching 368

Dream It

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

It doesn’t matter whether your business model is B2B, B2C, or any other model, you still need to “sell to people” to get your key hires on board, critical partnerships and suppliers, and maybe even a deal from your landlord. co-founder). It set you miles apart from other founders and quickly demonstrate your sales skills.

startup founder 397

startup founder founder startup pitching 397

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I started this series in part to help entrepreneurs but also to help newer investors because I’ve know with so many new companies you have so many new board members and many people are trying to figure out there respective roles.

board 251

board advice founder construction 251

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. thus the rise of “pre seed” investing). It’s very noticeable in terms of funds raised, dollars invested and deals completed. What gives? The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

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investing investment VC venture capital 328

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

It’s an entirely fair question—and the risk is that limited partners, founders, or other VCs might not want to work with me because I’m vocal about my political views. I suspect, though, there are even some founders out there who could be put off by the things I write and probably how I write them. We get judged all the time.

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investing investment communities founder 294

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members).

board 236

board startup venture capital finance 236

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

The initial investment certainly wasn’t a consensus decision at Upfront, but that’s how we invest. We we backed Team Grove’s mission (Kevin sourced the deal and joined the board) and just encouraged the team not to ramp up costs like many contemporary startups because we’re going to play the long game.

founder 363

founder ecology sustainability culture 363

Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

. — Shivani Gupta, EO Queensland, multi-business founder, author, speaker and coach Profit from profit My big learning from EO Malaysia member Fong Leng Wong is: Profit from profit. My first female mentor was the incredible Janine Allis , founder of Boost Juice. She is assertive, asks questions and stands up for what she believes in.

founder 267

founder advice entrepreneurship entrepreneurs 267

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2015

We recently released the video sharing app Ferris and announced that Upfront Ventures led the funding in the company in our seed round of $2 million and I personally joined the board. So Why Did We Invest? I first met the Ferris founders ( Paul Boukadakis & Chris Shaheen ) more than a year ago. Building for Android.

investment 323

investment investing media collaboration 323

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea. two founders in a garage?—?(HP The most connected and high-potential founders start with wads of cash.

ventures 471

ventures VC venture capital funders 471

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They''re not well networked and all of the founders they meet essentially start out as strangers out of the blue. Let''s start respecting founders'' time more and realizing that the more time we take, the more time it takes away from their business. Plus, it effects our dealflow.

investment 363

investment investing construction venture capital 363

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 19, 2021

” Unlike public markets, private market investments are held for many years, often a decade or more. It is unlikely that founders will be able to force investors out of their cap tables via the secondary markets, but a voluntary separation via the secondary market seems more likely to me. There is no divorce court for startups.

board 276

board financing finance sustainability 276

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. It can start 2–1 founders to investors and then sometimes moves to 3–2 but sometime around the A, B or C round the idea of “independent” directors comes up. The board is where large equity investors get their representation.

board 187

board peer-to-peer VC funders 187

TechCrunch

JANUARY 27, 2023

Chroma , a startup working to build a new type of audiovisual entertainment specifically for mobile devices, is now adding a Twitter co-founder to its board. The two hit it off and began to have monthly calls after Stone’s angel investment. The venture most notably incubated the blogging platform Medium. Chroma did.

board 110

board founder startup incubation 110

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 16, 2014

There''s been some writing about how VCs and founders interact with each other and it inspired me to take a step back and reflect on what my role is supposed to be with regards to the investments I make and the founders I deal with. Here''s what I came up with. I am not an expert.

VC 405

VC frameworks venture capital entrepreneurship 405

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

I left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. After my board meeting I had to do an interview with a CFO candidate that one of my portfolio companies asked me to speak with. Some were interesting, some weren’t. A few weeks have slipped by.

pitching 381

pitching board funders entrepreneurs 381

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

We're "kingmakers" whose investment has the "Midas Touch." Generally speaking, women are more inclined to listen well, work with others and to offer help--so when the job gets seen as just a lone, final yes/no, where you bark out advice after listening to a founder for five minutes, that might seem less interesting. 3) Access to money.

VC 405

VC venture capital entrepreneurship advice 405

Dream It

APRIL 8, 2020

Jason sat down with Steve Barsh , Managing Partner of Dreamit, to give founders relevant downturn strategies. In fact, Jason started investing during the financial crisis. Jason answers critical questions for founders, including: How can your company ensure survival? Your primary job as a founder is to save the business.

founder 195

founder economic environments sustainability pitching 195

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Operating experience (Helped run parts of CitySearch & UrbanSpoon, tons of product management experience, Board of Hatch Labs which helped spawn Tinder). For starters we’re an LA-based venture fund who invests nationally (and sometimes internationally, but less so).

VC 408

VC networking board ventures 408

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

founder 242

founder advice energy venture capital 242

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

Clearly the founders and senior executives of a company are the most valuable resources and their time should be maximized on the most valuable tasks. One area I’ve had much discussion with the companies in which I’ve invested in is bringing on board an operationally focused CFO. Board Preparation.

board 338

board energy finance financing 338

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 18, 2022

Get everyone on board with your WHY. They should always be balanced with as much effort, resources, and financial investment on internal talent retention and growth. The post 5 ways founders and CEOs can diversify their leadership teams appeared first on THE BLOG. Clarify your EVP.

leadership 214

leadership founder strategy culture 214

Founders Coop

JANUARY 11, 2023

Founders’ Co-op turns fifteen this year. But as a “company town” where most engineers come for a well-paying job, not as founders seeking like-minded peers, our region’s entrepreneurial support systems are surprisingly weak. First, the increment of learning in VC is investment decisions managed to maturity.

founder 154

founder peer-to-peer VC sustainability 154

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

These are people that didn’t make their money through a tech startup or startup investing. Some of these folks are founders and CEOs, but not at high-growth tech startups. That’s why I normally ask for a Board Observer seat. I’m talking about what someone I know recently referred to as “dentists”. Perhaps they inherited it.

investment 221

investment investing startup real estate 221

Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

Seasoned founders have a particular way of answering this question. In this Dreamit Dose, Managing Director Adam Dakin presents his view on the right way to answer it after hearing hundreds, if not thousands, of founder pitches. When you don’t state the ask upfront, here’s the incorrect answer most founders give when pressed.

pitching 393

pitching board health VC 393

Paul G. Silva

MAY 29, 2020

In 2014 the great Steve Blank gave the startup world its first widely-respected quantitative assessment system: the Investment Readiness Level (IRL). A few years later Village Capital took the IRL to the next level, creating the Venture Investment and ReAdiness Level (VIRAL). She fills it in and shows it to her board of advisors.

founder 182

founder board venture capital strategy 182

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

This meant: Less capital to start a company thus the rise of “micro VCs” Younger, more technical founders (not as big of a leap to take a risk on a 24-year-old when it’s $250k and not $5 million. So the startup work moves to where the startup founders live and not vice versa. We have invested $17.3

startup 390

startup communities venture capital angel capital 390

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 18, 2019

Accelerators can be great, but they’re not giving companies enough money to achieve the kind of escape velocity needed to get on the radar of national Series A firms that will invest anywhere. I first met Daniela Perdomo , goTenna’s founder, at SXSW. Raising for a seed fund is exceptionally difficult.

startup ecosystem 364

startup ecosystem real estate startup economic development 364

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

And while over the past few years we have been laser-focused on cash returns, we are equally planting seeds for our next 10–15 years of returns by actively investing in today’s market. We are excited to share the news that we have raised $650 million across three vehicles to allow us to continue making investments for many years ahead.

ventures 408

ventures startup peer-to-peer venture capital 408

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. So I naturally spend much time with the companies in which I invest helping them: recruit. Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. Be careful about board construction. Final startup grind from msuster.

startup 388

startup consulting construction board 388

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It just seemed like a fitting title for a company built around narrative by a founder who used to write stories for a living. I'm joined by Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, NucleasHG, the founders of Seamless, a host of extremely helpful angels, and a CircleUp syndicate led by my friend Tom Potter, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery.

venture capital 378

venture capital ventures capital consumer retail 378

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs. She made the right decisions not joining back then because that founder empathy is the “++” that makes a difference in this business. So why now? So What Does All This Mean?

ventures 361

ventures leadership mentorship venture capital 361

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

DECEMBER 15, 2020

This is a theme I have come back to many times over the last decade but in the wake of all of the headlines about high profile founders, VCs, and companies leaving the bay area, I thought I would return to it. In the first decade of USV, the 2000s, we mostly invested in NYC and Silicon Valley.

VC 279

VC entrepreneurship board investing 279

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

How many more investments could I do? These are things that other VCs think about, but founders who come to pitch don''t think about too much. Was the fund enough to keep me going? How where things going? That''s also why I''m finally launching a real website at brooklynbridge.vc. So there ya go.

pitching 413

pitching board VC opportunity 413

Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 6, 2020

At the same time, many investors are being more cautious with making new investments, preferring to focus on their existing portfolio before investing in new companies. It’s important to enlist the ideas of others that are invested in your venture. A startup is not a lone adventure. Join a CEO peer group.

peer-to-peer 328

peer-to-peer startup advice entrepreneurs 328

TechCrunch

MARCH 6, 2023

Serial entrepreneur and seasoned investor Vinod Khosla has some strong, contrarian advice for the venture capital industry: don’t sit on your founders’ boards. Other VCs accuse us of being very active and very engaged — but the flip side of it is they vote on boards. We don’t — no matter how important an issue.”

board 100

board advice founder VC 100

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MARCH 15, 2023

Miranda Naiman, a 7-year EO Tanzania member and an unstoppable force for good, is the founder of Empower , a disruptive consulting firm that passionately provides talent, advisory and insight services to clients across the African continent. board director to multiple organisations, coach, mentor and volunteer can weigh us down.

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entrepreneurs energy board entrepreneurship 269