This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 22, 2016
Today, I'm happy to announce that Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I founded and continue to run as the sole General Partner, has raised a second fund, totalling $15.1 million in commitments. Nearly all of our existing investors returned, and they were joined by a couple of new family offices and a prominent college endowment. What does this mean?
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 29, 2016
GOAT just announced it raised $5 million in venture capital led by our friends at Matrix Partners. On the surface that sounds unremarkable — fundings happen daily. But this isn’t just any funding. GOAT (“Greatest of All Time) is a sneakerhead marketplace that is en fuego, but we led the company’s last financing round in 2012 (yes, four years ago) when they were an application for letting people join group dinners.
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Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 26, 2016
By Charl Vollmer , special to Octane Blog. I’ve heard people say that being an entrepreneur is tough, and that you’ll undoubtedly make many mistakes along the way. As for me, I tried proving everyone wrong. I wanted to show the world that I could beat this entrepreneurial race. Little did I know I would encounter more mistakes than I had ever anticipated, and that which I couldn’t have prepared for.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 16, 2016
A senior SaaS executive once told me, “Reports sell software.” In a top down sale, that’s absolutely true. The CEO wants better predictability of bookings so she’ll buy a CRM tool to gather the data. Classically, software has been built for that mantra. First, a company buys a database. The sales people, marketers or customer care staff continue working as normal.
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Berkonomics
AUGUST 25, 2016
How do you teach your work force that mistakes are OK as long as they learn and don’t repeat them? By being a visible example. A friend and fellow CEO states that he publishes each of his mistakes in his company internal blog along with the lesson he learned. “If the CEO can do this, he gives permission for anyone to confess as well,” he states. You may not know it but the National Transportation Safety Board has for years offered a reporting program for pilots, air controllers and others inv
Startup Catalyst Brief brings together the best content for the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 29, 2016
Investors turn down deals for some pretty dumb reasons. They lack logic, consistency, and sometimes even a grasp of what their own job is. You know. taking actual risk. "We're not interested for this round, but come back to us when Sequoia is leading at a $1.5 pre-money, you have seven enterprise customers and you're cashflow positive. Oh, and make someone from your 25 person Moldova tech team your co-founder.
Derek Sivers
AUGUST 25, 2016
When a friend says something interesting to me, I usually don’t have a reaction until much later. When someone asks me a deep question, I say, “Hmm. I don’t know.” The next day, I have an answer. I’m a disappointing person to try to debate or attack. I just have nothing to say in the moment, except maybe, “Good point.” Then a few days later, after thinking about it a lot, I have a response.
Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 17, 2016
By Kevin Choquette, an EO San Diego member, and president and founder of Fident Capital. If you want to achieve, become a world-class learner. That’s the tweet-sized heart of this blog post. I grew up in a loving home of modest means, and creating a future became a mandate. I don’t chase after success just for the money. My father instilled in me the “work hard” approach to life, and I’ve employed it to address basically all challenges associated with this pursuit.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 28, 2016
Jeff Wiss has managed demand generation and corporate marketing for some iconic software companies. MySQL, the most valuable open-source acquisition; Zendesk*, the $3B leader in customer support software; DataStax, The business commercializing Cassandra; and most recently Duo Security*, an Ann Arbor-based trusted access company that has some of the most sensational SaaS metrics I’ve ever seen.
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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?
Berkonomics
AUGUST 18, 2016
Over fifty years ago, I was CEO of a record manufacturing company in Hollywood. We were the only such facility on the West coast to provide and control the entire process from studio, through finished vinyl record pressings in the same building, therefore able to promise quality control others could only dream about. As founder and CEO of the then public company, I was expert in several of the “clean” processes such as studio recording, record mastering, cover design and photo– lithography.
500 Hats
AUGUST 20, 2016
Yeah, There’s a Bubble… But it Ain’t in Tech Continue reading on 500 Hats »
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 18, 2016
Campaigns, conventional or not, are highly motivated and energetic storytelling machines. They come up with a narrative, figure out who they want to get it in front of, and work like all hell every single minute to get it out there. That's the kind of pace a startup needs to be on--except that most startups treat their PR as if all you need to do is to launch your message at a debate and cross your fingers after that.
Derek Sivers
AUGUST 3, 2016
Until yesterday, I called myself an entrepreneur. Now, I don’t. It’s been years since I started a company, so I can’t keep using that title. Someone who played football in high school can’t call himself an athlete forever. Someone who did something successful long ago can’t keep calling himself a success. You have to keep earning it. Holding on to an old title gives you satisfaction without action.
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Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 14, 2016
By Sid Bala, an EO Chicago member, and president and CEO of alligatortek. A company using technology to run their business may not have a CIO, but each member of the team should think like one. In today’s business landscape, the success and profitability of a company is more dependent on smarter IT and new software. In the day-to-day operation of your business, system and process bottlenecks highlight opportunities for growth and a better bottom line.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 2, 2016
Channel distribution represents one of the biggest and most important changes in customers acquisition for SMB SaaS startups in quite a while. Historically, channel distribution has been reserved for the most expensive software and hardware. IBM, Intel, Cisco and their kin generate more than 80% of their revenues through a universe of resellers and distributors.
Berkonomics
AUGUST 11, 2016
It happens all the time when you’re a CEO. Somebody important leaves or is let go, and you worry over the impact upon remaining employees and customers. You worry that the person leaving will begin to unload all the pent–up garbage from the past, perhaps damaging the company and causing customer defections and even employee unrest. Your worry is real.
Unvalidated Learnings
AUGUST 12, 2016
Very true. Wouldn’t call it a problem per se but it is indeed what we spend a lot of our time trying to figure out. It’s obviously harder for businesses that create or expand existing markets, which is what the most significant companies typically do. That’s why bottom up analysis (how many potential users x potential aov) tend to work better than top down (current market size of x).
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This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 14, 2016
There is always more to do. Right now, I have about 1000 unread e-mails in my inbox and I have a bunch of personal errands and projects around the house that I've been unable to get to. One of the hardest things to learn is that if I don't get to all the e-mails, that's ok. You can't live your life in your inbox. You have to put your personal priorities into your schedule or else other people will put theirs on yours.
Derek Sivers
AUGUST 1, 2016
Like everyone, I get those times when I’m unmotivated to do anything. Brain dead. No energy. Everything feels like, “Why bother? What’s the point?”. But I’ve finally figured out what to do with those times. Like everyone, I have a list of boring chores that need to be done but that I’ve been putting off for years. I never do them because I’m always more excited about something else.
Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 2, 2016
We were very intrigued by an article posted on Inc.com by Art Markman , a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas. Professor Markman argued that one core behavior of brilliant thinkers was to “learn widely”: “The best innovators have a base of knowledge that is both broad and deep. They start with an area of expertise that they deeply understand.
Tomasz Tunguz
AUGUST 23, 2016
Success has 1000 fathers and failure is an orphan. I heard this aphorism in my first year as a venture capitalist having forgotten it. There’s a lot of wisdom to it and I think it’s most applicable when interviewing. I remind myself of the same each time I speak with a candidate for a role. When I see a sterling resume, I know that I am susceptible to confirmation bias.
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Berkonomics
AUGUST 4, 2016
It’s a term rooted in ancient philosophy. Robert Greenleaf may have been the first to resurrect the concept in his book published in 1970. Not quite as bold as inverting the management triangle, the concept of servant leadership requires that a business manager focus upon his or her people’s highest priority needs first. The question begged by the headline above is whether this form of leadership is perceived as soft, indecisive, and inappropriate for the fast–moving world of today’s business.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 14, 2016
I love reading non-fiction as a way to challenge myself to understand topics that stretch my understanding of the world around me. I love history and biographies and even novels that are “faction.” This Summer I read “The Third Chimpanze” by Jared Diamond and since he’s my favorite history writer I of course loved it. If you haven’t read Diamond, though, I’d recommend starting with “Guns, Germs & Steel” & then “Collapse” but all three are worth reading.
This is going to be BIG.
AUGUST 31, 2016
Last night, while I was speaking on a panel about food entrepreneurship, my cellphone suddenly lit up with frantic texts asking if I was ok. Something about some kayaks on the Hudson and a crash. I quickly searched Twitter while still on the panel and saw the horrific news. A group of kayakers had been run over by a ferry boat backing out of a dock near West 39th Street.
Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 31, 2016
By Sanjay Agarwal, an EO Winnipeg member, and the founder and president of Orientworks, Inc. My first visit to Bangladesh was in 2002, and I had no illusions about this country. I expected poverty and there was plenty of it. However, only a few people truly know about Bangladesh’s developmental surprise in the last decade. For example, Bangladesh is one of the few developing countries that is on target for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals.
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