Dream It

APRIL 24, 2019

Over the past week, Zillow announced the rollout of their 3D Home tool, which lets real estate agents show immersive VC views of homes for sale. Site tours of construction projects that are geographically distant, reducing travel time. Site tours of construction projects that are geographically distant, reducing travel time.

real estate 288

real estate construction startup enablement 288

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

OMERS Ventures’ Principal Michelle Killoran has long been looking for a construction tech startup to invest in. Meanwhile, Jim Barrett, chief innovation officer at Turner Construction, was facing a similar challenge. Toronto, Ontario-based OMERS Ventures is the VC arm of OMERS, the pension plan for Ontario’s municipal employees.

construction 81

construction ventures startup incubation 81

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

VCs construct stories in their head as to why they invested in this or that, and much of it is based on prior experience, but they're often awful at articulating the real reasons. Try and figure out exactly what a startup had to show at the moment a VC chose to invest in them. Venture capital is kind of like a knuckleball.

advice 416

advice startup VC strategy 416

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

2 weeks later and we may never have raised any more VC. I hired a senior exec from the building materials industry (we were a document collaboration company for the engineering & construction industry) who was also ex McKinsey. I did almost every VC meeting myself save for when one of my co-founders, Tim Barker, was in town.

startup founder 299

startup founder founder startup VC 299

Haystack

JANUARY 18, 2020

Having spent time around and then in the world of VC in the Bay Area during the last decade, I’ve been reflecting on how different norms in the industry have changed. At the start of 2010, there was some unwritten VC industry conventions that have been tested, challenged, and upended in the last decade. That is for another post.

VC 130

VC construction strategy investment 130

TechCrunch

JANUARY 19, 2021

Bay Area-based construction startup TraceAir today announced a $3.5 The raise includes existing investor Metropolis VC, along with new additions Liquid 2 Ventures, GEM Capital, GPS Ventures and Andrew Filev. The pandemic has thrown the construction industry for a loop (along with countless others). million Series A.

construction 105

construction startup pitching collaboration 105

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know. Thank you. (if

capital 265

capital VC consumer retail entrepreneurs 265

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

I’m often asked about the differences between being at a VC and being an entrepreneur and whether I prefer one or the other. The biggest difference I cite is that Venture Capital often feels like an “individual sport” while startups are a “team sport.” years of her life on this office project journey with me.

culture 339

culture VC communities venture capital 339

TechCrunch

MAY 20, 2021

Builders VC led the round, which included participation from Celtic, Newfund and Wish co-founder Danny Zhang. Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar Jim Kim of Builders VC, said he first encountered Wu and Jung while they were at Wish. “We trillion-dollar industry.

construction 85

construction startup founder founder startup 85

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 13, 2022

The trillion-dollar construction industry is often tarred with the inefficiency brush , accused of failing to move with the times and ignoring digitization in favor of legacy tools. But there is plenty of evidence that things are changing, with countless startups raising large sums of cash to help the construction industry modernize.

construction 79

construction real estate startup VC 79

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2014

” This in response to his 5,500 2-bed penthouse in San Francisco where his construction budget alone was $9 million. Tech Market Analysis VC Industry' . “I’m called the king of Silicon Valley. “Why can’t I have a penthouse?” Who says out loud that they are the king of anything?

education 417

education real estate economic growth VC 417

TechCrunch

AUGUST 19, 2021

The seed round is led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC and features a slew of additional firms, including Dolby Family Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, GFA Venture Partners and Suffolk Construction. The former involves a set of 26 different robotic arm attachments to assist with the construction.

construction 99

construction VC ventures technology 99

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Hire admin / office management after you raise a reasonable size VC round. Be careful about board construction. Limit the number of VCs. It will pay huge dividends in avoiding the CEO tied up in admin and allow him / her to focus on bigger picture items. Equally limit the number of management.

startup 388

startup consulting construction board 388

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Yet how we conceive buildings, architect them for their uses, and ultimately construct them on a site has changed remarkably little over the past few decades. Housing and building costs continue to rise, and there remains a slow linear process from conception to construction for most projects. Photo via WoHo. million in seed capital.

construction 82

construction transportation innovation VC 82

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 5, 2016

Just don't go picking someone who really doesn't compliment you just because it's some kind of VC rule. I've heard a lot of VCs tell founders they need co-founders--and that they wouldn't look at a business at a very early stage without a co-founder. The same holds true for VC funds.

founder 284

founder board VC construction 284

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 20, 2011

This is extra frustrating in an era in which all you read about is how frothy the VC / funding market is these days. Obviously the diagnosis can have many route causes: Sometimes it’s a question of a market that is less sexy than the current VC fad. I try to be constructive. He was price signaling without knowing it.

construction 284

construction VC advice entrepreneurs 284

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 24, 2021

They had constructed a very specific story about how that company’s features would win out over and above the deal that they missed. For years, he went on to advise other founders about how to generate VC interest, which really could have amounted to, “Be a warm body with a pulse in a sector that firm got shut out of a deal in.”

founder 317

founder pitching VC advice 317

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 18, 2020

When an accident on a building site resulted in the death of their friend, the founders of Safesight were inspired to launch the platform to digitize safety programs for construction. million from industrial technology venture capital firms, led by Brick and Mortar Ventures and Builders VC. To date, it has raised $20.5

construction 103

construction consulting VC venture capital 103

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

When it comes to construction projects, any type of delay can result in increased costs both for the contractor and their customer. It is also interesting that Tiger Global is a co-lead as it is yet another example of the investment giant backing a construction tech company — a growing area of interest for the firm.

construction 95

construction startup VC capital 95

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 16, 2012

There's nothing personal about this particular area for them and it's unclear what motivates them to keep going--other than the prospect of having a VC validate them. Stories create a construct-a framework to make sure we've accounted for all the parts. I wasn't just watching game and a psychologically satisfying stat being reached.

pitching 264

pitching frameworks construction consulting 264

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

There are countless posts on portfolio construction, or how many investments are ideal in a venture portfolio, and so forth. What I do is that the topic of VC fund portfolio construction is not an easy way to grasp, and is likely even harder to master in practice. I am not qualified to opine on the topic.

construction 83

construction VC investing investment 83

TechCrunch

JULY 16, 2021

She left NEA to start her own fund, Construct Capital, that focuses exclusively on early-stage startups, with a portfolio that includes Copia, ChargeLab, Tradeswell and Hadrian. That’s where Construct Capital came in. A former NEA partner and a former Uber exec just closed their $140 million debut VC fund.

construction 95

construction disruption startup board 95

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Understanding TAM is essential for startup success — especially in a down market when VC dollars are harder to come by. That’s why we’re thrilled that Dayna Grayson, the co-founder and general partner at Construct Capital, will join us onstage at TechCrunch Early Stage on April 20 in Boston, Massachusetts.

VC 79

VC construction board accelerator 79

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

The perverse nature of raising capital is that “no’s” almost always precede “yeses” because it’s very easy for a VC to tell you that you’re not a good fit without doing any real work to evaluate your company so you hear “no” far before others start doing more work. The best VCs follow up but then so, too, to the best entrepreneurs.

pitching 238

pitching VC mix-use entrepreneurs 238

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 17, 2011

I talked specifically about it in the context of raising VC / establishing credibility over on the Sales School blog where there’s a video & a transcript. So some quick guides although building a narrative is a very hard thing to teach (at least for me). They’re going t0 publish all 4 parts of my talk.

peer-to-peer 365

peer-to-peer leadership support construction 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2017

He introduced a term in that book that I invoke often — “the narrative fallacy” in which we construct narrative from our past to give us assuredness that we “know” what will happen in the future. The Black Swan should be required reading for any VC or investor.

construction 182

construction venture capital consulting support 182

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

The firm has an Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Tel Aviv presence, and now has a $160 million sack of funds to deploy across its focus areas: sustainability and technological innovation in the construction, real estate and manufacturing industries. It especially wants to reduce waste and CO2 emissions.

sustainability 99

sustainability real estate construction VC 99

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Stuart is well worth following on Twitter & now that’s he’s a VC he is likely to share his wisdom more freely. I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! The stories still to be told?:

board 320

board VC construction opportunity 320

David Teten VC

MARCH 5, 2021

(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck , a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022); past intern at Versatile VC ; and a current intern at Metaprop NYC.). We reviewed CB Insights’ global list of “40 of the Best VC Bets of all Time.” For funds with an overall return of 3-5x, which is what VC funds aim for, the overall return was 4.6x

VC 82

VC investing investment founder 82

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 5, 2011

You can do nearly absolutely anything within one or two years time--as long as you put your mind to it and construct a plan. That leaves them in the infinite loop of not being able to get the job because you don't have experience, but not being able to get any experience, etc, etc. It's a solvable problem.

venture capital 335

venture capital VC construction consulting 335

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

Constructions such as inflatable plastic lounges (photos here and here ), giant see-saws, and art projects involving flame throwers provided entertainment for the 800 to 1500 partygoers that showed up each weekend night. Three companies from the Studiomates community-- Sherpaa , Tinybop , and Editorially --received VC dollars in 2012.

communities 294

communities innovation creativity real estate 294

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

SPACs are the construct VCs need to fund clean tech. and globally, VC activity in 2022 is well on track to exceed a long-term trend that started in 2006 for total amount invested. Focusing on a narrow slice of the VC pie. What you should know about working with corporate venture investment committees. In the U.S.

VC 87

VC venture capital construction ventures 87

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 31, 2020

In a guest post for Extra Crunch, seed-stage VC Ann Miura-Ko shared some of what she’s learned about “the magic of product-market fit,” which she termed “ the defining quality of an early-stage startup.” Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar Robotics and supply chain.

construction 128

construction mix-use education SaaS 128

American Entrepreneurship

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Early stage climate tech VC firm Anthropocene Ventures also joins Kind Designs’ seed round. Rapidly growing climate and construction tech startup Kind Designs gained the support of entrepreneur Mark Cuban and VC firm Anthropocene Ventures for its $5 million seed round. This has presented a great opportunity to Kind Designs.

construction 52

construction startup VC entrepreneurs 52

TechCrunch

APRIL 27, 2021

In 2016, we set out to develop a rigorous methodology for tracking progress on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in venture capital, and to measure and benchmark those data through our biennial VC Human Capital Survey. More firms are prioritizing these constructive conversations, both within their firms and publicly with industry peers.

VC 77

VC peer-to-peer venture capital strategy 77

Haystack

JANUARY 2, 2020

From what I’ve gathered from LPs and VC mentors, in previous eras, the initial deployment period of a VC fund (not including reserves for follow-ons, etc.) A topic that’s been on my mind a lot in 2019 is “time diversity” in venture capital funds. used to be around 5 years. I know of one.

VC 76

VC mix-use construction venture capital 76

Red Rocket

MAY 22, 2024

If they give you any constructive feedback or suggest pivots, listen to them, and consider taking those actions, if it will help you raise capital a couple years from now. But when you approach them, instead of raising capital and asking for cash, you are asking them what they are looking for in the limited investments they are making today.

VC 88

VC venture capital real estate creativity 88