Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 6, 2010
One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# That’s true.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 1, 2010
It’s really difficult for me not to get into the thick of discussions about whether or not you can and/or should build a company in New York City. I grew up here, went to school here, and have worked hard over the last 5+ years to help build up the NYC innovation community. I’m extremely passionate about the topic and so when my city gets picked on, I tend to respond confidently and with the same (and sometimes greater) force than I perceive the complaint to have.
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Berkonomics
MARCH 30, 2010
There is a relationship between time and money that is more complex than most managers think. Fixed overhead for salaries, rent, equipment leases and more make up the majority of the “burn rate” (monthly expenses) for most companies. Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 22, 2010
File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. I was over at Robert Scoble’s blog Sunday night reading about the “ Death of the Great Startup Launch.&# I’m not 100% sure that I understood his core thesis but I *think* it was that startup events such as Demo force such a zone of secrecy about what you’re working on (with a threat of being kicked out of the event for leaking your story) that they kill the ability for most companies to dazzle people
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This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 3, 2010
As I prep for my first Backupify board meeting, I asked more experienced pros for their take on setting the right tone and starting things off right for productive board participation. Here’s what I got back: David Hornick, August Capital : "Here's some anti-advice. When I first invested in VideoEgg I was really excited about the company and thrilled to be working with them.
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Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 17, 2010
Los Angeles. People either love it our hate it. All the stereotypes and caricatures are overblown. And we’re left with a city with idyllic weather, major commerce, the media center of the world, and a great emerging technology scene. We have an abundance of ethnicities, culinary options, music and culture. Randy Newman said it best, “ I love LA &# (Worth a 2 minute watch for pure nostalgia.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 29, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, nextNY had a great round table discussion about the explosion of new models and companies in eCommerce—from group buying to flash sales to local discounts. A lot of ideas came out of it—many were ones that we’ve been thinking about at First Round for a while, given our investments in One King’s Lane , Homerun , Bigdeal , Modcloth , Monetate and Packlate , among others.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 13, 2010
There are a lot of great venture capitalists who started out as entrepreneurs like Vinod Khosla or Josh Kopelman. Going the other way, however, seems to be a bit tougher. In fact, I don’t really know anyone who has successfully gone the other way. Many entrepreneurs turned VCs wind up going back, but to start out on the investment side and then successfully launch a company seems to happen much less frequently.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 21, 2010
This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. Large companies can be strange sometimes. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Plus, we’re all allured by the false sense that our contract with BigCo is going to “make us&# because once they start using us it will spread like wildfire and the revenue will flow i
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This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 10, 2010
Content recommendation for years has been a startup graveyard. Sure, a few companies like Sphere/Surphace and StumbleUpon have been able to get out—but the number of folks who have tried to solve this is vast. I feel it’s sort of like the carnival basketball game—where they put a hoop like four feet from you and tell you that you can win a big prize if you get one in on three shots.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 8, 2010
I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. I recently wrote a piece for Mashable on how to create a company blog. Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. I have a very detailed article that covers stuff I won’t cover in detail in this post.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 3, 2010
Many of us in the technology, media and VC world sit on panels at lot. Many of them are painfully boring. It’s a shame since it’s such a golden opportunity for you to build awareness with your audience for who you are and what you do. And it’s a surprisingly great way to meet people in this industry who share the stage with you.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 30, 2010
I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Burstly, a Santa Monica based company, provides an open and free ad management platform that helps mobile application developers better monetize their inventory.
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Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 18, 2010
Today we announced Launchpad LA V2. Full press release with more details is here. We will be selecting 10 startup companies to participate. There is no cost but you must physically be based in or move to Los Angeles for the 6 months of the program. Applications are due April 6th, 2010, the form is on the website and the Twitter address is @launchpadlad.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 2, 2010
After a few days of controversial blog posts I thought I’d try something more light hearted today. Fred Wilson once wrote about the topic of how to introduce two people who don’t know each other via email. He called it the “ double opt-in introduction. &# He talks about the stuggles of email introductions when you’re dealing at scale.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 5, 2010
I attended the inaugural Open Angel Forum in Los Angeles back in January and wrote about it here. Jason Calacanis started this initiative in response to the pay-to-play network of angel events that he despised. I’m a huge supporter of his initiative to help end this practice. The first event was a big success and brought out many of LA’s angel elite.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 18, 2010
When a reader lands on my blog, they’re going to run into a lot of people. First off, there’s me. I am front and center when it comes to being in close proximity to what I write. Not only is my e-mail address on my blog, but I even have a live Plugoo widget that you can type into and send me a message on AIM. Sometimes I’m not there or I’m busy, but I’m generally pretty responsive, since I spend a disproportionate amount of my day in front of the computer with a chat client open.
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This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 17, 2010
If you think you’re going to satisfy every last one of your potential customers, it’s simply not going to happen. For every application, the list of features that your userbase will ask you to implement is a mile long. Often, a feature will only work for a very small number of people—and so perhaps you wouldn’t think twice about dismissing it. However, occasionally, and maybe more often than you’re comfortable with, your userbase will demand something that isn’t critical for you as a business, i
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 9, 2010
First Round Capital could do zero deals in New York over the next 12 months and they would still have a major impact on the NY startup scene because they’re paying Charlie O’Donnell to hang out in the Ace Hotel Lobby and chat with any entrepreneur who walks up to him. Charlie and the rest of the emerging investor class in NYC are guys who can and will connect the finance guys to the media guys, the tech wonks to the policy wonks and the creatives to the quants.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 15, 2010
If you use Twitter and think it is a valuable service then you’re probably tired of the steady stream of your friends who tell you it’s just a fad and they don’t feel compelled to join. They “don’t care what people ate for lunch.&# They’re fine on their existing social networks, which these days mostly means they’re happy with Facebook.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 11, 2010
This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital. Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. It’s a tricky question with no clear answer. There are trade offs. And it obviously depends on the kind of business you’re building.
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Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 27, 2010
This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. OK, hiring is a loooong topic and I couldn’t do it justice in single post. But I thought it might be useful to do a headline view of the key components and then come back and do the individual topics over time if people seem interested. I’ve been recruiting for 20 years so I’ve learned a few things along the way.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 10, 2010
File this under entrepreneurial advice. I know that this will sound like a random post topic for startup advice but I promise it’s relevant. You actually need to give advice to nearly every employee whom you offer a job to on how to best quit their job. This is important to improve conversion rates of accepted offers / joiners, shorten the time-to-join ratio and the improve the ability of that employee to maintaing good relations with their former employer.
Berkonomics
MARCH 17, 2010
An amazing transformation is taking place in the work place. As the new generation of digital natives enters the work force, management is being pressed to open their networks and their thinking to allow social networking inside the firewall, workers who are more productive and comfortable anywhere but in a cubicle, and management of a virtual workforce.
Berkonomics
MARCH 10, 2010
Your customers know what they want more than you do. Find one to teach you. This insight came from personal experience and from a good friend who advanced the notion of the “teacher-customer” years ago. I internalized this phrase, recalling the many times I had partnered with customers to design new feature-functionality into my hotel computer system back when such systems were brand new to the industry. .
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