Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 1, 2012
Occasionally on this blog I break away from industry commentary and write more broadly. The first day of 2012 seems the perfect day to do so. One of the most important articles I read during the entire year was David Brook’s op-ed article on “ The Haimish Line.” In it Brooks talks about his recent trip to Africa with his 12-year-old son.
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 17, 2012
Tweet. I am ecstatic to announce the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures --my new seed investment fund. It is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn--the city’s most exciting and creative borough. It is home to cool startups like Etsy, Makerbot, Pontiflex, HowAboutWe, Energyhub, and Loosecubes. Gilt Groupe maintains a significant presence there, as does scores of creative agencies and design firms.
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Gust
JANUARY 4, 2012
Given that 2011 is already behind us, I’d like to take a brief time-out from the usual legal and financial wonkery to wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year. Many thanks to David Rose , Ilana Grossman , Justin Stanwix , and the whole Gust team for making the Gust Blog such a valuable platform and resource for entrepreneurs and angel investors.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 12, 2012
Professional investors want to live by this rule. With the first round of funding, there should be milestones to be achieved. If they are not achieved within the expected time, the reasons must be analyzed and acted upon to avoid loss of capital beyond plan or expectation. And if the vision of the entrepreneur is flawed, or the product impossible to create within cost and time expectations, or the demand impossible to quantify, or revenues never close to plan, then it is time to rethink the pla
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abovethecrowd.com
JANUARY 5, 2012
[Follow Me on Twitter] Each January, being the season of New Year’s resolutions, it is common to find people you know discussing the pros and cons of various dietary pursuits. Individuals across the globe are eager to turn over a new leaf, get on a new bandwagon, make a new start. Yet, even with a strong will, its not at all obvious what the [.].
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 28, 2012
Fred Wilson wrote two posts in 2010 that were very influential with the startup community. The titles were: Mobile First, Web Second. Mobile First, Web Second (continued). If you’re in the minority that never read them – you should. I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” Part of the beauty of blogging that in two sittings F
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 5, 2012
Over the holiday I became aware of a new tech blog that aims to have deep insights into the next generation of technology, which they call The Hypernet. Why should you care? Well, it is established by some of the industries more successful investors – Mike Maples and Roger McNamee. My favorite post was this one (image above) in which they talked about their 10 hypothesis for technology investing.
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 27, 2012
I was listening to a sports call-in show the other morning and the host made an interesting point. In the NFL, the coaches pick the players. In college, the players pick the coaches. He tried to generalize and say that's why all the college coaches are the fresh-faced energetic types and why the NFL coaches look like they've been doing nothing but pouring over video at a desk for 90 hours a week with coffee and a donut.
Gust
JANUARY 5, 2012
The U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, section 12(g), generally limits a privately held company to fewer than 500 shareholders. The assumption has been that companies with 500 investors are quasi-public anyway, and for disclosure and other reasons should be forced to go public when the shareholder number approaches this limit. Since the IPO market has been in the doldrums for most of the past decade, high-profile private companies have chosen (or been forced) to stay private while raising hug
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Gust
JANUARY 4, 2012
Entrepreneurs: if you’re looking seriously at angel investment, and you have the kind of product-market fit and management experience investors will like, you need to take a good look at convertible notes. Do yourself and the investors you want to talk to a favor: take a few minutes and do some homework on this issue. I’d suggest you start with Fred Wilson’s Financing Options: Convertible Debt , one of his MBA Mondays series on his AVC blog.
Gust
JANUARY 3, 2012
The dictionary definition of a mentor is “an experienced and trusted advisor,” or “leader, tutor or coach.” The definition of a critic sounds similar, “a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis.” The big difference, of course, is that a mentor looks ahead to help you, while a critic looks backward to tell you what you did wrong. We can all learn from both of these approaches, but in my view the mentor is far more valuable than a critic.
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 25, 2012
1) An investor is taking a meeting with you to confirm or deny a hypothesis they undoubtedly already have about your business. Find out what those are right off the bat by saying something like, "Based on what you know, what interests you about what we're doing so far and what are some of the concerns I can address?" No sense going on and on about the market if being excited about your market is why I asked you to meet me in the first place. 2) Investors will jump around no matter what order you
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 3, 2012
"Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself." - Baz Luhrmann, Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen). Jordan Williamson, the Stanford kicker who missed three field goals in the Fiesta Bowl, will wake up today and feel like crap. Tomorrow, he'll wake up and still feel like crap, but a little less. and a little less the day after that, and less the day after that.
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This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 23, 2012
Fifty years ago this year, the New York City Board of Estimate voted down Robert Moses ' plan to build a ten-lane elevated highway across lower Manhattan--leveling fourteen blocks along Broome Street in Little Italy and what is now SoHo, as well as the West Village. Jane Jacobs , a community activist, led the community resistance to the highway. When it was turned down, Assemblyman Louis DeSalvio said in a speech: "Except for one old man [reference to Robert Moses ], I’ve been unable to fi
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 5, 2012
The other day, a guy I met was raving about the idea behind Loosecubes. He's always looking for random desks and conference rooms and so booking them on the fly like AirBnB seemed like a great idea to him. He put in a request for a space but didn't hear back right away. This wasn't all that surprising, because it's a relatively new community and I'm sure people aren't getting requests everyday from it yet.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 5, 2012
Yes, this is a takeoff from Frank Sinatra’s song, where he did it his way and got away with it. You’re building a company from your vision and a passion, and lots of people are going to tell you that you have this or that wrong, and that it just won’t work. The truth is that very, very few early business plans survive in a form completely recognizable when looking back a few years.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 16, 2012
Raising money is hard. And when you’re relatively new to the process it’s easy to be confused by the process. There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. Of course much of it is conflicting. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls.
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Berkonomics
JANUARY 27, 2012
What if you are the seller of a previous business or shares amounting to more than an insignificant percentage of a previous business? Certainly the buyer’s asset purchase documents included a non-compete clause, usually valid for two years from the date of the closing. And because there was consideration paid to you in the sale, that clause is binding upon you and is effective almost everywhere.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 20, 2012
Entrepreneurs tend to remain in the business arena they came from. Some are alumni from companies that would be a competitor to the enterprise being created or joined. And some are former selling shareholders of just those businesses. What is the rule about those pesky non-compete agreements signed upon discharge or sale of the previous company? The good news is that if you were not a significant (usually 5% or more) selling shareholder of a previous company, many states specifically exempt n
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