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

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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David Teten VC

JUNE 9, 2021

Would you like to work with private equity and venture capital funds? There are relatively few jobs directly inside private equity and venture capital funds, and those jobs are highly competitive. Venture Capital. Asian Venture Capital Journal (free trial). Private Equity. Preqin (free demo).

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Matt is a great CEO and has even written a book about leading and growing a company called Startup CEO. Their new company Bolster is all about scaling and building a great management team for your startup. Bolster also will allow venture capital firms and startup investors to participate in its platform as super users.

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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? With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how

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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. Classically, venture capital has been an active asset class. The board is fully staffed, the executive team as well.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I have one failed attempt at a startup under my belt as a founder and I don't have any particularly usable skills that anyone would pay for like selling, designing, building, etc. Conferences, startup blogs, meetups--they're all filled with people telling you how to build your company. Venture capital is kind of like a knuckleball.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

We remain confident in the long-term trend that software enables and the value accrued to disruptive startups; we also recognized that in a strong market it is important to ring the cash register and this doesn’t come without a concentrated effort to do so. In short, In Venture Capital, Size Matters Size matters for a few reasons.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

And that person has almost certainly chosen specifically to be a startup lawyer over serving other types of customers because he or she enjoys working with entrepreneurs. She was lamenting that some startups simply see their PR company as merely somebody who corrals the press when you want to get some inches. VENTURE CAPITAL.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!” What did they actually do?

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups. You didn’t join startups then. You joined a startup if you couldn’t get a real job.

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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. Azriel Nicdao otherwise known as (A.Z.)

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Board Meetings. Startups Are for Doers. But trust me when I say that my observations across many startups (and other companies, frankly) is that not enough time goes into thinking. Startups are filled with the stresses of the here and now and it’s hard to break out of this mold of focusing two feet in front of you.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 24, 2014

These days, there are a ton of options for you if you''re a startup seeking guidence. We''ve done a lot to make sure startups get all the help we can get--and it''s leading to higher companies getting off the ground. In particular, I''m always trying to improve as a board member, but their aren''t any programs or classes for that.

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This is going to be BIG.

JULY 16, 2014

I am there, along with other investors and board members to audit their thinking--to make sure they were considerate about the plans *they* came up with, not me. Fourth , I am highly incentivized to provide assistance to my portfolio companies in any way that I can--whether it means connections to talent, PR, other capital, customers, etc.

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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. But before that, there was shared optimism that African startups would raise more VC funding last year than in 2021 when the continent, for the first time, passed the $4-5 billion threshold.

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American Entrepreneurship

JANUARY 21, 2025

million pre-A funding round, the FinTech startup aims to expand its regional footprint while laying the groundwork for future global growth. Now, with Flourish Ventures on board, we are laying the foundation for global expansion. With its just closed $5.2

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Turns out being in a quiet place with good WIFI minding someone who basically just eats and sleeps most of the time while tethered to all manner of monitors actually makes for a great work environment for venture capital. She’s even been on several board calls already and last week showed up on her first pitch call.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Operating experience (Helped run parts of CitySearch & UrbanSpoon, tons of product management experience, Board of Hatch Labs which helped spawn Tinder). Startup CEO experience (Founded P.S. XO along with my good friend Soleil Moon Frye. But there are tons of great startup folks so you need a narrower filter.

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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

APRIL 6, 2020

If your US-based business is adversely affected by Covid-19 such that you would need to lay off employees imminently and having access to capital would enable you to keep more employees on the payroll then you might be eligible. The NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) Guidelines are below. It is not “free money.”

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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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Both Sides of the Table

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. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Santa Monica is the place where the highest concentration of early-stage startups are created if you consider also the contiguous geography of Venice Beach. 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. Startup Advice'

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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. I think MLK day is a good time to talk about what has happened since that post.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 28, 2013

And yet the number of software developers in NYC who work at startups has probably grown tenfold in the last eight years, leading me to ask the question of whether or not putting code in the classroom will make the biggest impact on innovation in our community. Venture Capital & Technology'

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? Startups should know how VCs work.

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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.” Higher-than-average investment risk meant that returns from winning bets had to be very lucrative, or else the venture model would have failed.

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abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

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. As such, the task of governance falls squarely on the shoulders of the board of directors. Filling a board with friends is one way to do this.

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venture capital capital ventures board 113

Dream It

APRIL 7, 2020

Friday, April 3 was supposed to be the orderly launch of the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) providing $349B of urgently needed funding to struggling startups and small businesses. What are the immediate do’s and don’ts for startups? For instance, one of our startups applied to J.P.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. 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). Has written a book on venture capital. You betcha.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 4, 2024

In support of military Veteran-founded startups, the Fund focuses on space, AI, and cybersecurity leveraging a veteran’s leadership. Head of Global Operations of The Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, and the Co-Founder & COO of the Vet-Tech Startup Accelerator.

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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. “ Startup Advice' Ask SuperCell. Or UrbanAirship.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

The biggest difference I cite is that Venture Capital often feels like an “individual sport” while startups are a “team sport.” Startups are team sports because you’re all working on the same shared objective of the company. It was more hedge fund than venture capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. But none of this matters if you run out of money.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

What we did: Revolution Ventures Managing Partner, Tige Savage , Associate, Anant Pai , and Rise of the Rest VP, James Barlia , were all in attendance at 2023’s Cintrifuse Summit, which focused on “homegrown hustle,” inspiring innovation, and retaining talent in the greater Cincinnati startup ecosystem. Where we went: Detroit, MI?

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 30, 2025

The company touts over 200,000 businesses with, a large portion being startups that use its services as a financial backbone, replacing cumbersome platform switching or thejuggling third-party apps. Mercury is a disruptive company with a bold vision for the future of banking, said Sonya Huang, partner at Sequoia Capital. The result?

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