A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Matt and many members of his leadership team got the band back together early this year and started a new company called Bolster in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank and the early-stage VC firm High Alpha. If you are any of the above and want to engage with the Bolster network, you can sign up here.

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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). As a result we need somebody well networked into these communities already. Upfront Ventures VC Industry'

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OCTOBER 17, 2009

A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. If the large VC doesn’t agree to do your A round then you’re in a bit of trouble. But I’m no longer an entrepreneur – I’m a VC at a $200 million fund called GRP Ventures , the largest active fund in Southern California.

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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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MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. In the intro section of the show we talked a lot about why VC funds are becoming smaller again and where Greycroft fits. I’m guessing if you compete across the board you will struggle to hit scale.

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MARCH 24, 2014

Not every potentially good VC previously worked for Fred Wilson and Josh Kopelman. Not every VC used to get pitched by VC funds for a living and has seen hundreds and hundreds of VC pitch decks. Their guidance and network can also make these companies better. So what about a Techstars-like program for new VCs?

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MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. The following was available: “I kept hearing about startups that raised VC funding, but which hadn’t filed Form Ds (nor issued a press release). Rumored to be appox.

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. This is the same way VC firms, by the way. Bowery Capital).

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MARCH 23, 2015

We also spoke about what it takes to be an effective board member. On the one hand I often find that some board members are seemingly reading the board materials on the fly and don’t have a firm grasp of the business fundamentals while on the other hand some board members like to tinker in the running of the business.

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APRIL 3, 2012

When Chantel at chloe+isabel was getting offers from VCs, one of the things I said to her was to try and get as experienced a VC as possible--because she already had the younger product focused/community networked guy on her board. Of course, you don't always need that experience from a VC.

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APRIL 29, 2011

Then I realized that it's probably not obvious what the dynamics are around how VCs tend to get introduced to companies and what works best for people, so I figured I'd blog about it. A lot of VCs ask to be introduced through someone. Talking to a VC is never a one shot deal. The Cold Intro. Multiple Touchpoints.

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David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

See How to negotiate a partner role at a VC or private equity firm.) You can work as a consultant, an interim executive, a board member, a deal executive partnering to buy a company, an executive in residence, or as an entrepreneur in residence. . At Versatile VC , we’ve used all these models. Expert Networks.

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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. What Did I Learn From the First VC Check I Ever Wrote?

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FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board members having worked with many of them for the past 20 years. The board is where large equity investors get their representation.

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NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. There’s a guy in Los Angeles that I met at several tech networking events. The CEO led every board meeting with vigor and the board members (sans me) were always wowed.

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MAY 7, 2013

The industry finally has one of their own at the helm of the largest YouTube network. And this month we announced that Maker Studios, where I am an investor and board member, crossed 3 billion views. My estimate is that the top 5 YouTube networks will do > $200 million net revenue in 2013 (after Google’s share).

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DECEMBER 2, 2013

It wouldn''t be "networks" or any other standard classification of startup. Scarcity + high demand = Happy VC all too willing to fund playful things and entrepreneurs ready to play. These companies are not only getting millions in VC investments, but huge revenues as well. Forget Enterprise, or Mobile. No geographic focus.

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FEBRUARY 12, 2019

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. So What Impact Did the Drop in Tech Founding Costs Have on VC? This data seems pretty consistent with what we’ve seen across the industry.

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APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. I have sat on a board with Howard and have known him a few years. It is clear that he is simply passionate about being a VC and participating in this industry.

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FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. As an investor, it’s easy to come into a board meeting asking probing questions, demanding information, and sharing your opinion without first having built up a base of trust.

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David Teten VC

MARCH 1, 2022

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is to become a part-time scout, getting paid for sourcing investments. How to win consulting, board, operating, and investment roles with private equity and venture capital funds (video). How to find a job as a VC scout. VC recruiters list and compensation data.

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SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Now that he’s become a VC he’s promising me he’ll provide way more public information and discourse so please welcome him by following him on Twitter and better yet welcoming him with a Tweet of your own linking to his Twitter handle or this post. And he followed through. So he had had a taste of it.

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OCTOBER 5, 2014

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. In my experience many VC’s fall into this “I’m expected to know all the answers” trap. We are their sparring partners, their sounding boards.

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JUNE 8, 2010

Let me start by saying two things: Events like this are invaluable to startups because the significant value comes from building the network across portfolio companies and the discussion one can have with your peer group. And awesome to get to spend time with Ian Sigalow “comparing notes” (VC speak ). He says this is a mistake.

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FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. Oh, yeah. We then spoke about startups.

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AUGUST 30, 2014

People like Vinod Khosla, Keith Rabois, Brian Singerman, Marc Andreessen and others have all made head-scratching private comments to me that sounded so foreign to what I thought other people were doing in VC that they caused me to challenge and ultimately change some of my own views. How to network better ? “ Level Up ” 9.

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FEBRUARY 20, 2012

It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. I blog on entrepreneurship & VC precisely because entrepreneurs and other VCs are my customers. I’m told she just signed with one who will be on-boarded soon.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2012

16k+ Twitter followers, 5500+ e-mail subs a week, 6th most read VC blog, appearences on Bloomberg and CNBC and I can't use any of it to market any kind of financial product--but if I wanted to sell you a watch or build a video game, I'd be set. Want to know why there aren't more female partners at VC funds? scratches bald head].

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FEBRUARY 15, 2011

The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. And this Silicon Valley bias isn’t limited to any single meeting – it has been a recurring theme in my time as a VC. That’s convenience when your VC is hoping to write the next $20 million check.

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FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I often tell people in this scenario to focus on a VC “fixer upper.” You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc. Being a CEO begets the network to be a CEO.

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NOVEMBER 16, 2023

What I’ve been trying to do is to actually describe the level at which “top performance” is happening for all of the various facets of the job—things like reputation, screening, board participation, etc. Is the Midas List the be-all and end-all of the “best VC” list? You get invited to 20 min VC pod interview. So I asked them.

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APRIL 21, 2010

Our “hot deal of the week&# turned out to be more of the “hot theme of the week.&# P2P lending networks are revived and brought it a whopping $40 million in investments announced recently. Increasing this is also migrating to social network messaging but email is still king. The build “implicit social networks.&#

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FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. When I started blogging as a VC I had zero idea it would lead to my current audience level of 350,000 page views / month. Will we get there? I can do that.

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MAY 29, 2012

Being a good angel or VC has a lot to do with pattern matching. 2) Network with as many other angel investors as possible. You're going to want syndication partners on the deals you find and sounding boards on the thesis behind each of your potential investments. Here are just a few suggestions: 1) Advise first, invest later.

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MAY 4, 2022

I’m the on-paper poster child for “who can get VC dollars”. What’s that investor going to be like in a board meeting when you as a female founder need their support or worse, actually their vote? I’m not saying there’s equal access to networks of capital. I’d argue that the answer is no, but that’s easy for me to say, right?

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FEBRUARY 13, 2011

Today’s interview was with Tige ( interesting to follow on Twitter ), who has been involved with funded and/or sitting on the boards of Revolution Money, Living Social, Flexcar (now ZipCar) and UberMedia. I run Revolution’s VC investments. Both AOL and Time Warner had existing VC operations. Can you talk about it?

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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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