Remove board Remove founder Remove opportunity
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Founders. Run. Amok. It Starts With a Term Sheet.

This is going to be BIG.

Last week, for just the second time ever, I passed on an investment opportunity because of the terms of the deal--both the price and the legal structure of the agreement. Then, I read about the idiotic comments made by a co-founder of Rap Genius. No wonder people are questioning where the boards of these companies were.

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When Should Technical Founders Become CEO?

Both Sides of the Table

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). I like technical founders so this wasn’t an issue.

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My Role as a VC: What I am and what I am not.

This is going to be BIG.

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. It also means I need to be really careful about how I''m spending my time.

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The Bad Marriage Problem

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

There are a few opportunities to address this issue. 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. I also think startup boards need to evolve.

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The Changing Venture Landscape

Both Sides of the Table

We have global opportunities from these trends but of course also big challenges. 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.

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5 ways founders and CEOs can diversify their leadership teams

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Get everyone on board with your WHY. A key reason many companies are compelled to consider external hiring strategies when they’re trying to diversify their leadership teams is because they don’t have a sufficiently diverse talent pipeline internally, ready for promotion when the opportunity arises.

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The Achilles Heel of Startup Ecosystems

This is going to be BIG.

I first met Daniela Perdomo , goTenna’s founder, at SXSW. Resistor is a bit under the radar as a very cool community—and so being associated with it was a signal that I could have only known about if, again, I spent all of my efforts as a seed investor turning over every rock looking for opportunity.