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.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures A question I often hear is “how is Upfront changing given the current market?” What do you do with a $650 million platform?

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Today we’re announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her new role. She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?

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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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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

It's a story that just hit a milestone--a $4mm round of venture funding that I'm ecstatic to say Brooklyn Bridge Ventures just led. But just because you could see them everywhere doesn't make them an obvious venture bet--nor does it tell the story of how the round even came to be.

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

In New York, for instance, there are now venture funds with a West Coast mentality and firms with an East Coast mentality; the same is true for firms in San Francisco. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital? The biggest question for a venture firm is whether LPs will fail to make capital calls in a crisis. “It

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The Seraf Compass

JANUARY 19, 2022

Liz Leahy is the Founding Partner of Purple Sage Ventures, Board Member of the Columbia Business School Lang Entrepreneurship Center and Chairperson of the Georgetown Angel Investor Network (GAIN). This profile is the third in a series of interviews highlighting the work of interesting female investors.

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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. I understand that and actually think it’s ok because that partner gets experience with making investments, sitting on boards, finding co-investors, managing founder relationships, etc.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures). Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. She is a coach and mentor to team members.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 14, 2019

Taking board seats? Want to only invest in diverse boards? Because I had previously met Jack Dorsey through the Union Square Ventures network, in 2009 I was able to grab coffee with him before he launched Square. I think the results will surprise you how hard it is to be successful. For how long? Spending any time with family?

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Berkonomics

MARCH 28, 2024

All other board functions are secondary. Even venture capitalists who sit on boards where they have significant investments often forget this point. Actually, there are two legal duties of board members. Second is the duty of loyalty… …Loyalty to the corporate person, not to the shareholders who elected the board member.

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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. But it’s transforming the industry.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? I think it’s great for some people because it really does give you some solid benefits: board exposure / experience.

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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. We're not jerks.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

One area I’ve had much discussion with the companies in which I’ve invested in is bringing on board an operationally focused CFO. I think Ophir would agree that the business was transformed after we brought on board Phil Schraeder at the CFO (and later promoted to COO). And board confidence matters in growing companies.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 24, 2014

Venture capitalists play an important role in burgeoning ecosystems. In particular, I''m always trying to improve as a board member, but their aren''t any programs or classes for that. Venture Capital & Technology' Not every VC used to get pitched by VC funds for a living and has seen hundreds and hundreds of VC pitch decks.

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Paul G. Silva

MARCH 31, 2022

About 20 years ago I was a kid running my first startup and Baer was one of the early people to join our Board of Advisors. He came to every board meeting with deep insights and deeper belly laughs. He went on to help every student I sent his way, and continued mentoring me on each of my ventures. May we all live so.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2014

I remember back in the Union Square Ventures days when we had an internal debate over the price of the first round of Indeed. No wonder people are questioning where the boards of these companies were. No one from the firm leading the deal will join the board. That might be a board seat, or at least an observer right.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Venture capitalists have raised increasing amounts of money from their investors (LPs) every year. Make sure your board challenges you enough about long-term vision & innovation. Run board meetings that force strategic discussions rather than cheering sessions focused on financial metrics. That’s management by fire.

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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 venture most notably incubated the blogging platform Medium. However, in 2013, Stone and the others shifted their focus to individual startups. million in seed funding (5.1

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Dream It

MAY 19, 2021

Your inflection points need to put the company in a position for a liquidity event - raising more money at a higher valuation or achieving an exit that delivers venture-level returns. If there is sincere interest on the part of the investor, offer to review a smaller raise and revised plan with your board.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 10, 2014

I could probably write a book on venture round pricing dynamics. That also includes 16 Brooklyn Bridge Ventures deals done and five agreed to term sheets. Venture Capital & Technology' What should you price your seed round at? Well, it depends. It would have lots of philosophy, religion, theory, fiction, and pontification.

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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. Venture Capital & Technology' I am not trying to build a big firm, employ a lot of people, or manage the most money possible.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Changes in the Software World & in Venture Capital. That didn’t make them bad – it just didn’t make them efficient at making rapid decisions of whether to fund a startup or not and the terms on which they would fund were typically not “market” for a startup company that would become venture backed one day.

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Berkonomics

AUGUST 22, 2024

And because you need their money, the temptation is to listen a bit too well, and take all of the advice thrown at you during your presentations and during due diligence and finally from the vantage point of a board seat. Some board members may show dismay. After several months on the board, he spoke up. “I And push back.

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 18, 2019

Very little time and effort is spent helping professional, full time investors raise capital for venture funds. A lot of these strategic entities have boards that are filled with some of the most successful high net worth individuals, family offices, foundations, etc.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

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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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MAY 11, 2015

That's one thing you have to realize about venture capital. Softball is also networking, though, because we have some entrepreneurs, another investor, and a left-handed female infielder who works at a venture bank and turns a double play as well as anyone in the league. There are weird parts, like board meetings being an hour a day.

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This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2014

First, I''ve finished raising the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures fund--tallying $8.3 I''m announcing two things today. This is what I set out to do just about two years ago when I first broke out on my own and started raising, so I''m thrilled to say that it has finally happened. So there ya go.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 6, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are reliant on outside funding, whether angel investors, venture capitalists or strategic investors , to keep the venture going. 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. Deal with the reality of the situation.

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Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 11, 2025

Breaking the “Impossible” at VVM When I was at Valley Venture Mentors, we set this BHAG: “In ten years, catalyze entrepreneurs to change the economy of Western Massachusetts by generating $1 billion in cumulative revenue and investment.” ” At the time, we were running a startup accelerator for 6 companies.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Sutton, an entrepreneur, is a Board Member of YPO, a global leadership community of extraordinary chief executives, and the Nevada Policy Research Institute. The Fund’s team values the unique experience that veterans bring to startup ventures.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures makespace' Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? And could we then compete?”

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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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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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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 23, 2024

As I grow into my new role as EO’s Global Board Chair , I begin by looking back on my entrepreneurial journey over the past decade and see now, with the benefit of hindsight, how my understanding and approach to leadership have drastically evolved. Or as one of my EO Board Chair predecessors, Marc Stockli, once wrote, as a Leader’s Leader.

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