A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 1, 2021

But until very recently, raising capital for your startup was significantly easier if it was located in the major startup hubs, most notably Silicon Valley. It takes a long time, at least five years and more likely a decade, to know how changes in the startup economy and venture capital will play out.

venture capital 279

venture capital capital investment investing 279

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). On the surface the narratives have been. Where are we today?

VC 398

VC venture capital peer-to-peer ventures 398

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2015

So I asked a few founders that I've worked with and they mentioned a word that struck me--because I've never heard any of the hordes of people in my inbox asking for internships, VC job recommendations and advice, etc. I think of venture capital as a service business. mention about themselves. Generosity.

venture capital 393

venture capital capital pitching ventures 393

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 7, 2015

After checking out The Information's "open dataset" on diversity in venture capital , I felt pretty disappointed. I went back and calculated the number of companies in the first Brooklyn Bridge Ventures portfolio who have at least one founder who is female, from an underrepresented minority group, or LGBT.

venture capital 387

venture capital capital ventures VC 387

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

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. That story actually begins about eleven or twelve years ago, with a little bit of VC mentoring.

venture capital 378

venture capital ventures capital consumer retail 378

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. You’d be surprised how many firms are “dictator VCs” – even those that don’t formally acknowledge it internally. ” Some firms are collegiate.

venture capital 336

venture capital peer-to-peer capital ventures 336

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2015

The last thing you want as either a founder or even a VC is to have an investor get stuck with you when you're not on the same page about expectations. I recently met up with an investor who I'm not totally sure is a fit for my second fund , so it was important to me that I was upfront about all the reasons why he shouldn't come in.

venture capital 416

venture capital investment investing ventures 416

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced.

venture capital 292

venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 292

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 18, 2022

Those values, on a schedule of investments we publish to our investors every quarter, flow through to our financial statements and capital accounts and establish how much an interest in our partnerships are worth at that time. Every quarter our firm goes through a process to value our entire portfolio.

venture capital 235

venture capital capital ventures creativity 235

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 14, 2022

There is a lot of criticism of venture capital in web3. Bitcoin did not have or need venture capital. Ethereum did not have or need venture capital. So why would any web3 project need venture capital? That’s why you might want to take venture capital for your web3 project.

venture capital 239

venture capital capital ventures communities 239

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 16, 2014

They count on me to be a good steward of their capital, and to take reasonable and appropriate risk with the expectation of a certain level of returns. That also means that I need to act in a way that ensures my ability to get future opportunities to invest their capital in attractive deals. Venture Capital & Technology'

VC 405

VC frameworks venture capital opportunity 405

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 15, 2020

There have been a lot of calls for VC firms to make more hires from the Black and Brown community, as well as to hire more women. In venture, it’s all about getting an opportunity to make partner and being included in the carry—the economic upside of a fund. Not all hires, however, are made equally.

venture capital 327

venture capital ventures capital mentorship 327

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

I believe that the next generation of top companies are far more likely to be founded by people not on VC radars today. Last week, we ran Fall Fundraising Days , which featured 11 NYC events on raising capital that 800+ individuals attended across the week.

venture capital 252

venture capital communities ventures capital 252

Dream It

MARCH 6, 2020

Dreamit Urbantech Managing Director Andrew Ackerman recently sat down with Jeff for a wide-ranging conversation on real estate tech, and a large part of that conversation focused on what founders can do to successfully raise venture capital from real estate tech investors. Has the founder done his homework before his pitch?

real estate 406

real estate pitching VC opportunity 406

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it.

ventures 545

ventures investment investing VC 545

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 know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. They worry too much about missing out on a deal. I don’t. Price matters.

VC 374

VC investment investing entrepreneurs 374

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 31, 2014

VC is a service industry and the best investors are always looking for ways to help. Getting a round going requires someone willing to say yes before everyone else does, and risk social capital by telling others they''re in. Venture Capital & Technology' 8) Find a lead. How did you pick who to pitch?

VC 393

VC pitching venture capital capital 393

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality.

VC 416

VC strategy investment investing 416

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Back in 2009, I wrote a post called The Venture Capital Math Problem. This 2009 piece from @fredwilson (literally the best in the biz) predicted significant venture industry contraction when in fact the last 10yrs have seen massive expansion. So what did I get wrong in my attempt to solve the venture capital math problem?

venture capital 199

venture capital capital ventures VC 199

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? How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges?

ventures 471

ventures VC venture capital funders 471

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

VC 247

VC capital financing finance 247

Dream It

JANUARY 13, 2021

The venture capital screening call is an important step to get right in due diligence. Learn how to pass a VC associate screen in under 10 minutes! To get to partners, often you’ll have to go through the associate first. These are easy tips if you know what to look out for. These are easy tips if you know what to look out for.

VC 364

VC founder consulting networking 364

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 12, 2014

million of initial capital with all its fees and stuff, and you''ve got about $6 million of gains. A fund that returns three dollars for every dollar of capital invested would be a $2.4 Venture Capital & Technology' Subtract the $8.3 That''s a little over a million dollar gain for me personally. million return for me.

VC 419

VC venture capital capital ventures 419

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 16, 2014

How long does it take from first meeting a VC to getting cash in the bank? Here were the results: I would guess that getting a third of my deals from events is probably disproportionately high compared to other seed investors on the east coast--and that my VC intro percentage is probably somewhat low. Venture Capital & Technology'

VC 418

VC pitching networking venture capital 418

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2020

But I have been in close contact with the NVCA, many of the major law firms and many of the major VC firms. 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.

VC 279

VC peer-to-peer startup advice 279

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.

VC 405

VC venture capital entrepreneurship advice 405

David Teten VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

It’s hard enough to raise capital from VC, private equity fund, and family offices. The vastly larger universe of B2B companies, many of which have teams focused on pushing VC and private equity funds to evangelize their product to their portfolio. See my list of due diligence questions for VC and private equity funds. .

venture capital 126

venture capital capital ventures VC 126

This is going to be BIG.

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. Venture capitalists play an important role in burgeoning ecosystems. Venture Capital & Technology'

accelerator 388

accelerator mentorship VC incubation 388

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

*. What is the role of a VC for entrepreneurs? I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. They are unique to you and not to each other situation that VC has faced. ” I responded. Your decisions are unknowable.

VC 353

VC advice consulting frameworks 353

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 28, 2013

However, in this moment, I think one''s career in venture capital depends on changing your perspective. The biggest question I think VC''s face right now is whether or not, in the future, the best founders will look and act like the best founders of the past. Venture Capital & Technology' That''s 25%.

venture capital 410

venture capital VC ventures capital 410

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.

investment 328

investment investing VC venture capital 328

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 14, 2014

It also doesn''t take into consideration many important factors: One, venture backed companies are a tiny hiccup in the grand scheme of entrepreneurship. Most companies don''t ever raise venture capital and they do just fine. I scratch my head over why raising venture is put on such a podium.

founder 400

founder pitching mix-use venture capital 400

Founder Bounty

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Time and time again i hear about founders that have bigger egos then anything else rejecting offers from top tier VC's (like YC ) and eventually leading thier companies to fail. If you do get and offer from top US VC's take them, dont be greedy and stay humble. Dont have a big ego.

VC 105

VC accelerator investment investing 105

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Any VC will tell you that the ones they said yes to, they mostly got there right away—and that there are very few “maybe” deals that get tipped over the fence. Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? We know what the racial and gender wealth disparity looks like: This is a lesson taught to be by Jewel from Collab Capital.

advice 476

advice pitching venture capital VC 476

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 24, 2015

I recently interviewed Matt Mazzeo of Lowercase Capital. By now most of you know that Chris Sacca invested in what is now thought to be one of the best performing VC funds of all time having invested an $8.4 million fund in: Uber, Instagram, Docker and Twitter, amongst others.

VC 334

VC venture capital energy culture 334

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching.

VC 314

VC board investment investing 314

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2015

That's one thing you have to realize about venture capital. I have no idea. I just know what I do--and what I saw partners at other firms I've worked at do. Every single firm is different. How a partner at a firm spends their time is a function of the number of deals they do, the stage of the company, and their own personal style.

VC 419

VC pitching board construction 419