Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. So VCs made fewer investments at lower prices and generally on terms that were more favorable to investors relative to 2015. Baidu alone raised $3.2

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. For anything that would be considered a normal investment for the partnership most firms try to make sure every partner has seen the deal and has a chance to weigh in.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%).

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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. Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Passive venture capital investing is a relatively new idea. As later stage investors permeate venture capital, they are amassing index funds of startups. If the public equities market is any indication, passive investing is here to stay. Classically, venture capital has been an active asset class.

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venture capital capital ventures investing 144

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? That used to be called A-round investing. Of course we can’t.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Bolster came out of stealth and into a beta period today and is opening up its marketplace to companies that want to access fractional talent and to executives who want to work at high growth companies in interim, fractional, advisory, or board roles. The full marketplace will launch soon.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2014

I''m excited to see Christina and Logan''s vision come to life and I''m excited to be on board as an investor. Venture Capital & Technology' They launched the pre-sale of their first set of rings today--their own design. You should check it out.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 2, 2023

The venture asset class seems to have already decided that AI is the next great investment opportunity, but I’m not so sure it’s going to disrupt business and create the across-the-board wealth that has been predicted. I got to see all of the top VCs pitching their funds. Technology has already made the world pretty efficient.

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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).

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

This is a big news day at Upfront Ventures. But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. Hamet started his career in Venture Capital working for the first post-apartheid VC fund in South Africa.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Venture Capital & Technology' If I take three months, then I''m pretty sure I can forget ever seeing another deal from whoever showed me the opportunity in the first place. Tell me how I''m being unreasonable.

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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. Venture Capital & Technology' Here''s what I came up with. I am not an expert.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Changes in the Software World & in Venture Capital. But notably you had the following changes: Horizontally scalable computing & storage systems, which meant you required less capital up front for hardware. We have invested $17.3 Venture Capital. And then the world changed. Welcome to the future.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

That was a question posed to me by a new analyst at a venture capital fund. While there are lots and lots of really kind, generous people working in venture capital--the recently retired Howard Morgan, Hunter Walk, Brad Feld, and Karin Klein for example--it's really tough to argue that there isn't widespread jerkery.

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VC venture capital entrepreneurship advice 405

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). Competitive (Athlete: skier & rowed at Princeton, hates losing at everything she does).

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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.

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American Entrepreneurship

OCTOBER 18, 2023

30 Investments to date in the areas of AI, autonomy, cybersecurity and space Shield Capital was launched in 2021 by the Managing Partners Philip Bilden and Raj Shah, both of whom have deep experience in technology and investing, driving their passion to support founders of frontier technologies.

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venture capital technology capital ventures 98

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 2, 2013

If I was going to start a venture capital fund around a theme, I''d pick something a little different. I''m talking about companies like littleBits , which makes tiny circuit-boards with specific functions engineered to snap together with magnets--"juiced Lego". Venture Capital & Technology' No geographic focus.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 10, 2014

Since January of 2010, when I led my first seed investment in Backupify , I have led or committed to 27 investments. That also includes 16 Brooklyn Bridge Ventures deals done and five agreed to term sheets. Venture Capital & Technology' It would have lots of philosophy, religion, theory, fiction, and pontification.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Board Meetings. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and talking with all the same people? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently with venture capital?

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Many board meetings are bored meetings. This is a shame since the value that the right board could add is immense if you select the right board members and manage them effectively. Yesterday I wrote a blog post about what the role of a board actually is. Some boards are highly functional, many are not.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. They will have to sit on boards. Social proof can be helpful.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. What’s up with that? Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners.

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Jason Malki

JANUARY 23, 2023

who is a junior investor in the Venture Capital industry. He hopes to find a fulltime position in venture capital after graduation. He currently serves as a Venture Partner at Mech Ventures where they invest in the future of pop culture. How did you break into tech investing?

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venture capital capital ventures startup 98

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2014

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. No wonder people are questioning where the boards of these companies were. No one from the firm leading the deal will join the board.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. As an industry we’re not always as good as we could be about our own “creative destruction” to create the tomorrow of venture capital. So What Does All This Mean?

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ventures leadership mentorship venture capital 361

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2015

That's one thing you have to realize about venture capital. As a single GP (a firm with one investment decision making professional), I get asked a lot of questions about how I manage my time considering the number of investments I make. There are weird parts, like board meetings being an hour a day.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

Just ask the people of Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Iowa, Princeton, Dallas or countless other cities that don’t have enough venture capital. If you don’t live in a major VC zone, I have some tips for how to make it easier to raise Venture Capital. But I do invest outside of LA. Ask SuperCell.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 18, 2021

In early June, I wrote this post explaining that I and we need to do more to reduce the inequality issues for Black people in tech, venture capital, and startups. We have ongoing projects, workstreams, investments, and efforts in each and every one of these areas and we have made tangible progress in almost all of them.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 6, 2021

Venture capitalists are chatting this week about a recent piece from The Information titled “ The End of Venture Capital as We Know It.” A capital explosion. Lessin notes that venture capitalists once made risky wagers on companies that often withered away. Its author, Sam Lessin , makes some pretty good points.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 27, 2023

Earlier this month, we reported that investors’ sentiments surrounding venture capital activity going into this were more reserved than upbeat. Partech: The venture capital outfit pegged funding for African tech at $6.5 The Big Deal: Nigeria topped the African VC investment destination with $1.2

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 11, 2015

I’ve worked very closely with Matt over the past four years as we share an investment in a company in Los Angeles called NextPlus and we sat on a board together for years. In this capacity I can tell any entrepreneurs raising early-stage capital that I would have Matt on my short list if I were raising. Conclusions?

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

Generally speaking in venture capital financings the legal documents will specify that only “major investors” (a threshold set in the agreement – which can be $500,000 investor or more). We led an investment round in a company a while ago in which we wrote a seven-figure check and have taken a board seat.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

I''m super proud of Rob, Ben and the whole Backupify team--and this is particularly special for me because Backupify was the first investment I ever made as a VC, and the first board I ever sat on. I joined the board and I was assuming everything would always be up and to the right, because that''s the way success happens, right?

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board venture capital entrepreneurship creativity 274

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

As it was with crypto, sometimes this leads to the development of “new investment rules” that crowd out traditional norms. The Lack of a Legitimate Board. Delaware law requires a board of directors, and these directors are tasked with a “fiduciary duty” to look after the best interest of the corporation. Theranos) is another.

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