Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 22, 2015
I’ve heard many investors and some executives repeat the mantra, “Never offer exclusive deals,” and since this blanket statement is generally bad advice I thought I’d offer the less conventional but I believe more practical version of why exclusive deals can actually be a huge bonus for a startup and why I actively encourage them.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 10, 2015
I recently met up with an investor who I'm not totally sure is a fit for my second fund , so it was important to me that I was upfront about all the reasons why he shouldn't come in. The last thing you want as either a founder or even a VC is to have an investor get stuck with you when you're not on the same page about expectations. So here's all the reasons I told him he shouldn't be in: 1) Fund investing is boring.
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The Entrepreneurs Library
JUNE 19, 2015
A summary of things you should know about The Four Steps to the Epiphany according to Steve Blank. Introduction (0:34). I am an eight time serial entrepreneur. I’ve done eight different start ups in a series of ever increasing roles and after I retired I became an educator and started teaching at Berkley in the business school, Stanford in the engineering school, and now at Columbia and NYU as well.
Tomasz Tunguz
JUNE 15, 2015
Open Source Software started the movement in the late 1990s. Since then, open source software has transformed the software industry. Today, many infrastructure software startups employ open source strategies to market their software and win dominant market share. Open source is a disruptive distribution strategy. It allows potential users and buyers of a software to try it, evaluate it, and understand exactly how it works because the source code is freely available.
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WSJ - The Accelerators
JUNE 24, 2015
Whether by design or circumstance, every startup will eventually get disrupted. You have the next big idea and have been tenacious enough to get funded. Your insights and drive have given you a huge lead on competitors who are too slow to realize how much the market is changing and how obsolete their products have become. Your fledgling company hires more employees and becomes a global player.
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Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 25, 2015
Many people don’t know that I actually became Chairman of my first company and relinquishing the CEO role before the company was sold. It’s a topic I’m well versed in personally and I understand the difficult emotional decision of whether to hand the reigns to someone else of the baby you’ve struggled so hard to launch into the world.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 24, 2015
In the last two days, I've had three different conversations with people who were asking me what I do with the people who want to grab coffee when the mutual benefit isn't immediately mutual. Don't get me wrong--these are people who are all extremely generous with their time--and that's probably why more people reach out to them. You have a useful meeting with someone and then they tell someone else it was useful, and so on, and so on.
The Entrepreneurs Library
JUNE 30, 2015
A summary of things you should know about How On Earth according to DONNIE MACLURCAN. Introduction (0:51). I’m an Australian who moved to the west coast of the US a couple of years ago. I have a background that expands over a few different fields. I worked as an exercise physiologist for about 8 years, as a sports coach for about 15 years, and then I went on to get a PhD looking at the impacts of nano technology.
Tomasz Tunguz
JUNE 22, 2015
One smart SaaS entrepreneur told me last week he prefers bottoms up businesses to top-down companies because bottoms up sales and marketing efforts enable startups to pursue hundreds of paths into a company. Unlike top down sales processes which offer a startup one shot at closing an account (a meeting with a CEO or VP), for bottoms up products, each employee is a credit-card-carrying-decision-maker.
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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?
WSJ - The Accelerators
JUNE 18, 2015
Carter Cast. The strong pace of initial public offerings has many entrepreneurs contemplating if, when and how to look for an exit. The latest deals — including file sharing and cloud management service Box and online marketplace Etsy — may encourage exit-minded founders toward an IPO. Entrepreneurs have to consider a myriad of challenges that come with preparing for a liquidity event.
Berkonomics
JUNE 18, 2015
If you could predict a crisis within your business before its occurrence, wouldn’t you move to prevent or reduce its impact? Making such predictions is a skill that can be developed, and here’s one method of doing so. There are five basic kinds of internal risks than a business faces over time. Of course, there are external risks that cannot be controlled or predicted, but can be planned for as well –. natural disasters, sudden political or economic events that rattle the entire economy, and mo
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 18, 2015
We are experiencing a frenetic time. I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. One would think entrepreneurs would never want less available cash – until such time as their competitors ridiculously and unnecessarily all raise $50 million in the name of a “land grab” thus mak
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 15, 2015
I was chatting with a friend about going to work for startup companies, and told her that career development really came down to two simple things: 1. Do you know what you do? Do you offer a clear deliverable , best suited for a particular segment of customers or clients, that aligns with their near term goals ? In other words, do you "do marketing" or do you "help seed and Series A backed companies test and optimize their marketing content, deploy it across multiple channels, and analyze the cu
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The Entrepreneurs Library
JUNE 26, 2015
A summary of things you should know about Rejection Proof according to Jia Jiang. Introduction (00:37). I am an entrepreneur and what I do is deal with everything that comes with rejection. Help people overcome their fear of rejection, tell stories about rejection, and help businesses turn rejection into opportunities. The Book’s Unique Quality (03:27).
Tomasz Tunguz
JUNE 8, 2015
Worth $11.5B, ServiceNow is the third public SaaS company, after Salesforce and LinkedIn. Based in San Diego, ServiceNow employs roughly 3000 people, and sells a system of record for IT operations teams to manage IT assets, facilities, and human resources. ServiceNow’s software allows clients to develop custom applications for their own needs, often with the help of the company’s professional services team.
WSJ - The Accelerators
JUNE 30, 2015
CHRISTINA BECHHOLD: Speech and debate was one of my first and favorite club activities in high school, encompassing interscholastic debate, Model United Nations and Model Congress. Debate requires one to speak in declaratives, poke holes in your opponents reasoning and exude confidence possibly bordering on condescension. You are right and everyone else is wrong.
Berkonomics
JUNE 11, 2015
By Frank Peters. Our guest insight this week is from Frank Peters, well-known in the angel and in the bicycle worlds for his podcasts and passion. His personal story is full of lessons for us all. – Dave. We’ve all heard the modern day mantra: Fail Fast. It’s good advice; the theory being that entrepreneurs can discover the flaws in their business models sooner, make course corrections and move in a more favorable direction.
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Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 11, 2015
This morning it was announced that Matt Murphy had left his role as a partner Kleiner Perkins to join as a partner in Menlo Ventures. As much of the coverage in the press this morning acknowledges it’s rare for a partner to leave from one firm to another. It’s even more rare for VCs to talk publicly about other VCs, so I thought it would be fun to break rank and tell you about Matt.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 1, 2015
Every other day, some startup is raising some ludicrous amount of money at some outlandish valuation. It feels like the mother of all p **g contests and tech journalists seem all too willing to play along. Is it really going to make or break your career if you're the first to Uber's Series H round, the one between the $60 billion valuation and the $90 billion valuation.
The Entrepreneurs Library
JUNE 23, 2015
A summary of things you should know about Simple Rules according to Kathleen Eisenhardt. Introduction (00:36). I’m on the faculty at Stanford in the School of Engineering and I’m also the Co-Director of Stanford’s Technology Ventures Program. I’ve been deeply embedded in the Silicon Valley entrepreneur scene but also in entrepreneurship US-wide and even global.
Tomasz Tunguz
JUNE 2, 2015
In a recent podcast , Ron Gill, the CFO of Netsuite - a $7B+ market cap company with about $600M in 2014 revenue, which provides ERP software to mid-market companies - articulated the importance of the Lifetime Value / Cost of Customer Acquisition (LTV/CAC) ratio for his company. LTV/CAC is often used to justify marketing and sales investment to acquire customers.
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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.
WSJ - The Accelerators
JUNE 29, 2015
MATT MALONEY: Companies cannot survive, let alone thrive, without innovation. That is clear to most — if not all — leaders. Something that may be less obvious: the absolute necessity of not only welcoming innovation in your business space, but encouraging — and even helping to fuel — that innovation. GrubHub was founded because I wanted to make it easier for people to find and order great takeout food.
Berkonomics
JUNE 4, 2015
This week, our guest post is by David Steakley, a past President of the Houston Angel Network, and a reformed management consultant. David is an active angel investor, and manages several angel funds in Texas. . I have a positive fetish for recurring revenue. When I hear a company pitch a business model which I believe has the potential to acquire a customer once, and keep the customer paying for a multi-year period without further marketing expense, my ears perk up.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 5, 2015
Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. The truth is that I’ve been warning about convertible notes since 2010 it was first declared that “convertible notes have won.” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 24, 2015
I recently interviewed Matt Mazzeo of Lowercase Capital. By now most of you know that Chris Sacca invested in what is now thought to be one of the best performing VC funds of all time having invested an $8.4 million fund in: Uber, Instagram, Docker and Twitter, amongst others. He then went on to build perhaps the largest single shareholding in Twitter.
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