August, 2019

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The Fundamentals of Talking "Exit Strategy" with Investors

Dream It

At the seed stage, talking about exit strategy always seems a bit premature, even presumptuous. But this topic is always in the back of mind for VCs and other investors, so it’s important to formulate a plan around the topic, even if those exit strategies might change as you grow your startup. Investors are giving you capital to make 10x, 20x, or 100x their investment.

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Should Entpreneurs Trust Their Gut?

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Written for EO by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, disaster avoidance expert, speaker and author. . Decision-making research shows that many entrepreneurs don’t know when to rely on their gut instincts and when to follow reason. Here’s a pop quiz for you: Let’s say you’re interviewing a new applicant for a job and the interview feels a little off. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you’re uncomfortable talking with this person.

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Entrepreneurship Activities on Campus: Helping Students Leverage the Power of an Ecosystem

Venture Well

Faculty play a key role in helping students identify campus entrepreneurship activities that most align with their personal and professional interests. The post Entrepreneurship Activities on Campus: Helping Students Leverage the Power of an Ecosystem appeared first on VentureWell.

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The Long Engagement

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The Gotham Gal and I met when we were 19 and got married when we were 25. We lived together for most of those six years before we got married. By the time we tied the knot, we knew each other very well. While venture capital investing and marriage are two different things, I think there are some things one can take from love and marriage into the world of startups and venture capital investing.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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Preparing for the Inevitable: Angel Investors, Death & Taxes

The Seraf Compass

Things don’t always go exactly as planned in life or in angel investing. And just as in life, with angel investing, it pays to be prepared. So here are some thoughts on planning for the inevitable, and how to prevent catastrophes by fitting your angel investments into your estate plan from the beginning.

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Some Seriously Great News. No, Seriously …

Both Sides of the Table

Some Seriously Great News. No, Seriously … Exactly six years ago today I received an email from my friend Ynon Kreiz introducing me to Andrew Stalbow and Petri Järvilehto. Ynon had been the CEO of Maker Studios and I trust his opinion a great deal so of course I took the meeting. Andrew and Petri had left game developer Rovio (of Angry Birds fame) and were creating a new games company called Seriously that would combine compelling intellectual property (characters), great narratives, and fun gam

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How to Build Authentic Customer Relationships That Spark Innovation

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Written for EO by Jason McCann , a lifelong entrepreneur and experienced founder. You wouldn’t be surprised if I said that customer feedback is essential for a startup. And nobody doubts the connection between long-term customer relationships and success. However, some companies never find a way to fit it all together. Seeking out feedback is one thing.

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Faculty Spotlight: Marc Facciotti from the University of California-Davis

Venture Well

Marc Facciotti from the University of California-Davis a strong advocate for creative work that is initiated by students or that is student-directed. The post Faculty Spotlight: Marc Facciotti from the University of California-Davis appeared first on VentureWell.

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Open Finance First, Open Data Second

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

My partner Nick put together a deck outlining USV’s approach to crypto investing earlier this year and we have been using it with founders and investors since then. One slide I particularly like from that deck is this one which describes how we think the crypto market will develop over time. We have already seen an explosion of assets issued on blockchains and a number of very large and profitable custody/brokerage/exchange businesses built.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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Spade Work: How Early Stage Board Directors Add Value

The Seraf Compass

Over the past few years, there has been much talk about the importance of investing both financial and human capital into the rapidly expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem. From our perspective, human capital is as important as financial capital in driving the long term success of startup companies. So how do we go about the job of applying human capital to foster this success?

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Innovative businesses that support local communities

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

YLAI Network members Juliana Nieva de Castillo from Tucumán, Argentina and Julio César Bueno Cruz from Cali, Colombia illustrate two forms of social innovation and community support through unique business concepts. Recycling and Design. Juliana Nieva de Castillo created Ecomué Diseño Sustentable, a business that designs and builds furniture out of recycled materials.

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The Up and Coming Startups Aiming to Disrupt Healthcare

500

Healthcare has a notorious reputation for being intimidating. From complex insurance policies and payments to the intense legal regulations on its processes, many innovators stray away from trying to tackle the industry. But at 500, we believe in being bold. It’s one of the many reasons why we chose these health industry startups to join our 25th seed program batch in downtown San Francisco.

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How to Use a Ghostwriter to Build Your Authority and Generate Sales

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Written for EO by Nico Prins, a communications consultant who specializes in internet marketing. . When you read articles by busy CEOs on sites like Forbes or Entrepreneur, you might wonder how they managed to find the time to write the content. After all, if their daily workload is half what you are managing, they’d be struggling to fit in the hours needed to draft a 1,500-word, SEO-optimized article.

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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Active Learning Classroom Activities for Student Innovators

Venture Well

We’ve asked some of our faculty grantees to share their active learning exercises that you can use to help refine your own coursework for maximum impact. The post Active Learning Classroom Activities for Student Innovators appeared first on VentureWell.

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Hypothetical Value To Real Value

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I remember when my son came home one day in high school and told me he wanted to “day trade” along with some friends who were doing it. We opened a TD Ameritrade account and staked him with a small amount of money, enough to trade but not enough that if he lost it all it would be an issue. And off he went. A few weeks later he asked me “Dad, what is a PE ratio?

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Seismic Forces Driving The Growth of Angel Investing

The Seraf Compass

It feels like there is more written about angel investing lately than ever before. This form of early-stage investing seems to be having its 15 minutes of fame. Is it a passing fad? I don’t think so. As someone who worked with venture capital in the run-up to the first dot.com boom and is presently an active angel and co-head of one of the largest and busiest U.S. angel groups, I've watched and charted these market changes since the early 1990s.

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Prize Money=Nice | Funded Pilots=Amazing

Paul G. Silva

This summer I had the pleasure of facilitating the 2019 Energy (CleanTech) cohort for the AccelVT accelerator in Burlington, VT. At last week’s graduation they showed one of the critical differentiators between their accelerator and most others: funded pilots with utilities. Most CleanTech companies need to interface with local utilities in order to deliver their innovations to the world.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

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500’s Latest San Francisco Batch is Hoping to Innovate in Music, TV, and Intellectual Property

500

Music, TV, and intellectual property all have the potential of influencing what content we consume and what technology we use to go about our daily lives. And because all three of these are huge, established, and complex industries, they are ripe for scalable solutions. It’s solutions with this kind of mass potential that are exactly what we go for in our San Francisco seed program.

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On the Rise on the Fort Worth Food Scene

Entrepreneurs' Organization

In a July 2019 episode of the Food Network’s show “ Chopped ,” EO Fort Worth member Juan Rodriguez competed against other chefs in hopes of landing the top stop. (Spoiler alert.). Juan Rodriguez was chopped. But he’s OK with it because he landed a table at Red Rooster, the acclaimed restaurant by James Beard Foundation Award winner Marcus Samuelsson, one of the judges on “Chopped.”.

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Practical Ways to Integrate Principles of Environmental Responsibility into STEM Courses

Venture Well

Many faculty struggle to incorporate environmental responsibility into existing STEM courses. Jeremy Faludi explains how he did it—and how you can, too. The post Practical Ways to Integrate Principles of Environmental Responsibility into STEM Courses appeared first on VentureWell.

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Tumblr

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The news hit yesterday that WordPress has purchased Tumblr from Verizon (which owns it by virtue of its acquisition of Yahoo! and AOL). USV seeded Tumblr along with our friends at Spark in the summer of 2007 and were actively involved in the development of the company until its sale to Yahoo! in 2013. I maintained an active Tumblog from before we invested in 2007 until October 2016, when I stopped posting there.

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

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Apples, Oranges and Rotten Tomatoes: Owning A Diverse Portfolio

The Seraf Compass

I believe building a diverse portfolio is critical to success as an angel investor. But when I first sat down to write an article on diversification of angel investments, I knew right away I was facing a serious challenge.

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How Biotech Startup Funding Will Change in the Next 10 Years

Y Combinator

Back when YC was getting started about 10 years ago, Paul Graham wrote some essays that predicted the way startup fundraising would change in the next decade – accurately, it turns out. In short, Paul Graham predicted that there would be way more startups, that they’d be cheaper to start, that new kinds of investors would fund them, that founders would be more technical, and that founders would keep control of their companies.

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Boost Your Corporate Innovation: Activate Business Intelligence

UBI Global

Understanding the Innovation Landscape Innovation is a key focus for businesses looking to stay competitive. Many corporations hunt for new ways to gain an edge and have noticed that there are lots of exciting actors in their local (and even wider) innovation ecosystem. But how does one begin to understand this far-reaching and dynamic innovation […].

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EO GSEA Finalist Talks Takeaways

Entrepreneurs' Organization

EO is committed to supporting the next wave of entrepreneurs. One way do that is through the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) , EO’s premier competition for university students who own and operate a business. The annual competition culminates with the Global Finals, where finalists from 50-plus countries compete and make connections with both seasoned entrepreneurs and fellow “studentpreneurs.” One of the 2019 EO GSEA US finalists, Benjamin Steinhorn , is an Oregon

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr