Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Absolute Power Corrupts, Absolutely. I was living in Europe in 2000 when the first WAP phones (Wireless Access Protocol) were introduced. These phones were so over hyped. They were going to bring the Internet to your mobile phones ushering in the era of “m-commerce.&# Gag. I had just returned from living in Japan where I witnessed the hugely successful launch of i-mode by NTT DoCoMo so I knew the potential that the mobile web would ultimately bring, but I saw so many flaws in the launch

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

I am excited to share the news of First Round Capital 's recent investment in cloud-to-cloud backup service Backupify. This is the first deal I've closed for FRC and I've also joined the board of the company. Josh Kopelman will be working closely on this investment as well. Joining our investment in the $900k round were General Catalyst, Betaworks, Jason Calacanis, and Chris Sacca.

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Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I have stated previously that I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. . Let me tell you a short story at my own expense. In 1994, (I know a long time ago), I invested over a million dollars into a company whose entrepreneurs had a vision that I bought into for many reasons,

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abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

American journalists and corporate executives have been slow to appreciate the beauty, brilliance, and consumer allure of the virtual goods business model.It’s not that they did not have data points – China is chock full of multi-US$billion market capitalization companies that are based on this business model. That said, many luddites predicted it was an [.].

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strategy

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. One recession later and the US advertising market is about $245 billion – but still only 10-12% is online and measurable.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” I think the perfect saying to have as a reminder is “time is the enemy of all deals,” or as my wife is all too tired of hearing me say, “Don’t pop the champagne until the ink is dry on the contract and the money is in the bank.”. So, where does this all come from and how can you apply it in practice?

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venture capital advice VC real estate 301

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Nature vs. Nurture. You’ve all heard the question before. Let’s talk about kids for a moment. I grew up believing that human behavior was 20% nature, 80% nurture. Now that I have two boys (4 and 7) I’m convinced it’s the other way around. There’s no question that both factors are involved. There have been many studies done on the topic including looking at twins raised in separate families.

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entrepreneurship entrepreneurs advice VC 289

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

I generally like NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. I think she's smart, hardworking, and I think she'd probably make a good mayor someday. However, her take on the NYC innovation economy during her recent State of the City Address confirmed my thinking: Most of what the NYC government should be doing to support technology entrepreneurship in NYC is to try and stay out of the way.

innovation 273

innovation real estate communities entrepreneurship 273

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

If you know of senior level business and technical professionals looking for exciting startup opportunities, they can sign up here: [link]. **Correction: Last week's CTO position at Modcloth is actually a San Francisco opportunity, not Pittsburgh. VP of Business Development, DNAnexus - Palo Alto, California In the not too distant future, everything will be determined by your DNA--your job, what retro 50's decor you'll buy, how tightly you'll slick back your hair, whether or not you can date Uma

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startup

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

This is part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks. I know this series has been running for a while (and is getting long in the tooth) – I promise it’s nearly over. I started with a “top 11″ list – only because I couldn’t fit them into a top 10. But in the end I ended up with 12.

entrepreneurs 297

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. No advice I give will ever apply to 100% of companies, 100% of startups or even 100% of tech startups. I just want to state that up front because while I believe that this post will apply to most startup technology companies out there, I’m sure there will be exceptions.

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startup advice energy strategy 293

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. I often tell people that raising money is worse than getting married. I have to be careful in how that sounds because I love my wife and am happily married. But the truth is that in marriage if you’re unhappy you can at least get divorced (in most countries). Not so in venture capital.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Are you still not getting this weekly in your e-mail inbox? Fill out this form so you're not missing anything. Nothing interesting to say here. I'm still trying to figure out this curling thing. How do you get into curling as a kid? Are there now kids in the projects tying cinder blocks to skateboards as we speak--inspired by their idols in Vancouver?

innovation 186

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financing

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Your industry? It’s in trouble. Your most experienced execs can’t stop the bleeding and they’re jumping ship—or you’re having to throw them over the side to save money. Yet, somewhere deep within the halls of your enterprise, you have bright young talent that was once really motivated. Corporate bureaucracy, reluctance to take risks, lack of innovation and protectionism have beaten down their morale—and frankly, your earnings.

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innovation media venture capital technology 250

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

About a year and a half ago, I wrote that New York needed more dedicated early stage capital. Let’s look back at what has happened since the beginning of August ‘08… Betaworks raises more than $10 million in September ‘08. First Growth Venture Network formed to mentor high potential seed and early stage companies. First Round Capital makes 11 new investments in NYC, hires me to be here fulltime, and announces a new NYC office in Union Square.

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incubation venture capital pitching capital 191

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

A week or so ago, we launched the Key Hire Wire at First Round. We realized that there were certain open positions in our portfolio we wanted to call extra attention to. Over 1,000 senior professionals have since signed up for the mailer, which goes out on Fridays. I tried to make it a little more entertaining than your average job RSS feed. If you know of senior level business and technical professionals looking for exciting startup opportunities, they can sign up here.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

Like many of you I’ve sat through my fair share of Board Meetings over the past decade. For the most part I’d call them Bored Meetings. The first 7 years I was running them and the past 3 years I’ve been attending them. Most board meetings aren’t as effective as they could be. Everyone has their own opinion on board meetings so you’ll get conflicting advice.

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board startup advice entrepreneurs 331

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technology

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

This statement could be considered controversial. We have previously made the case that professional investors demand more in the form of restrictive covenants and lower valuations. Now we explore the other side of that coin. Professional investors usually bring “smart money” to the table, defined as money that comes along with good advice and great relationships for corporate growth.

VC 59

VC advice board financing 59

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This insight follows closely the conclusions from the previous declaration, that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more. And yet, in an earlier insight, we spoke of the problems that come when taking unstructured investments from friends and family.

board 59

board entrepreneurs investment investing 59

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies. I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California. Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic. I also loved learning all of their sayings. My favorite was when I guy told me to beware of Crocodile Salesmen.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur. This is the last post in that series. This is actually an addendum to my list rather than “on&# my list. That in itself will be controversial, I know. When Nivi published the series he titled it “the top 10 things I look for before I write a check.&# As a result I felt compelled to add this final attribute because it matters a lot to me.

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entrepreneurs advice VC media 284

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opportunity

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

This is the final part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks. OK, it’s not really my final part. I started with a Top 10 list for Nivi (at VentureHacks), but I couldn’t cram it into 10 so it became a Top 11 list. I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11.

entrepreneurs 267

entrepreneurs advice SaaS networking 267

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

"Growing up, my mom would overcook steak, and so I never really liked it. I didn't know I loved steak until I went to a work event at Del Frisco's--didn't really know how good steak could be. The problem in this scenario, is that it would be prohibitively expensive for a steakhouse to try and acquire me by giving me a free steak.and you have a market where customer acquisition costs are "steak" expensive, and we all grew up with similarly overcooked experiences.".

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 10, 2010

As you can see, things are looking quite different around here. I'm in the middle of porting my blog over to SquareSpace. I have *most* of the comments moved over with the most excellent help of Daniel Ha and fellow Regian Paolo DeDios. They would have ported fine, but SquareSpace and Typepad don't have the same URL creation syntaxes and that's the only way Disqus can tell what set of comments to post, so we have a few missing ones here and there that should get fixed soon.

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venture capital media capital technology 220

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 10, 2010

Photo: First Round Capital's new NYC office under construction , originally uploaded by ceonyc.

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