Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. Where are Things Headed for VC in 2031?

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ventures VC venture capital funders 471

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. What Did I Learn From the First VC Check I Ever Wrote?

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VC venture capital capital investment 223

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I can’t help feel a bit of rear-view mirror analysis in all of “VC model is broken” bears in our industry. To really assess what opportunities the VC industry has over the next decade, one needs to first look at some of the root causes of poor returns in the past decade. The number of venture capital funds has shrunk by two-thirds.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 347

Entrepreneur's Handbook

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Since then, I’ve founded several startups, was employee #3 at a $65m VC firm in San Francisco, and realized that there is a similar phenomenon to what Robert Kiyosaki is talking about in Rich Dad, Poor Dad currently occurring in Silicon Valley. Anything that is high-margin, simple, and enabled by the internet.

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founder VC venture capital entrepreneurship 144

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

However, while many startups exist in cities like Turin, Bologna, Naples and Rome, Milan is generally seen as a bigger ecosystem because of its mercantile culture and a significant share of VC funds. The good news: VC funding in Italy has grown. It has an estimated 67 VC funds, with 18 of them started since 2015. More than 50%?

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

million seed funding led by Los Angeles–based early-stage VC firm MaC Venture Capital. Closing on $103M, MaC VC is changing the face of venture capital. led by MaC VC to scale its property management products by Tage Kene-Okafor originally published on TechCrunch. Now it is announcing the completion of its $2.6

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VC real estate venture capital finance 131

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

That’s a shame because many of these people missed out on what will be a few great VC vintages. I wrote about this in a blog post last year titled “ It’s Morning in VC ” but I never made the full deck available until now. Here is a preview of what we found & what we will publish: 1.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 362

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

The latest to get VC recognition is KNN3, a Singapore-based startup working to help developers make sense of relational data across blockchains. One of KNN3’s better-known customers is Mask Network, which enables users to send cryptocurrencies on Web 2.0 The Graph offers an API for developers to query blockchain data.

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enablement data analysis networking SaaS 98

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. I blog on entrepreneurship & VC precisely because entrepreneurs and other VCs are my customers. Just not the kind you would initially read about on TechCrunch. That may soon change.

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peer-to-peer entrepreneurs startup entrepreneurship 363

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). If not, somebody else will.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Tola Capital, investing in AI-enabled enterprise software, is the latest venture capital firm to announce its new fund, securing $230 million in capital commitments for its third fund, raising the largest amount to date. It’s been a great couple of weeks for new VC funds. Tola joins firms like NXTP, …

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enablement capital investing investment 113

TechCrunch

JANUARY 18, 2022

McKinsey expects the chemical and pharma industries to be the first potential users of quantum computing, enabling the accurate simulation of larger numbers of atoms and molecules, which is not possible today using classical supercomputers.

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VC consulting technology enablement 141

Dream It

APRIL 24, 2019

Over the past week, Zillow announced the rollout of their 3D Home tool, which lets real estate agents show immersive VC views of homes for sale. The startup has raised over $13 million to enable designers and individuals to build dream homes using a massive product library of digital furniture from retailers like Amazon, Houzz, and Wayfair.

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real estate construction startup enablement 288

Hunter Walk

JANUARY 17, 2023

I’m going to make the case that early stage venture *firms* who want to lead seed/A Rounds can be generalists (in the sense they have a set of GPs who cover a broad set of areas collectively), but that as a VC you, now more than ever, need some degree of focus. and finally the FRC transformation.

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VC networking health investing 86

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below.

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venture capital capital ventures peer-to-peer 292

Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Case in point: only 1% of 2022 VC dollars went to Black founders, a marked decrease year over year. Rheaply has diverted tens of thousands of lbs of waste from landfills by enabling organizations of all stripes to create sharing economies through its technology solutions.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

“Giving teams access to an AI colleague who can understand legacy code and help new developers navigate it will enable companies to scale the impact of their current employees and train new employees with less personal coaching. “This raises the bar for new entrants like us.” The short-term goal (i.e.,

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2015

Try to imagine if you *didn’t* already know Amazon and the company walking into VC meetings telling people they were going to disrupt the selling of all goods starting with books but then extending into electronics, apparel, toys and so forth. But can you really tell me MakeSpace is a tech company?

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real estate startup disruption incumbents 364

TechCrunch

MAY 18, 2022

billion industry this year, startups in the e-commerce enablement software space are looking to carve out a niche in this huge market. Because raised $650,000 in angel investment last year, which enabled the company to grow to over 900 merchants and 150 paying customers. With global e-commerce sales poised to be a $5.5

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enablement capital startup angel investing 98

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

I saw this tweet in my feed yesterday and read the New Yorker piece when I woke up this morning: @fdestin @MacConwell @HarryStebbings any VC 'fairy godfathers of success' viewpoints? "Building All of that said, the vast majority of VC-backed companies are not WeWork. "Building a solid business, but the V.C.s

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VC venture capital enablement strategy 173

Revolution

DECEMBER 20, 2023

While VC dollars still overwhelmingly funnel into places like Silicon Valley, Brookings research shows tech jobs are finally spreading out — movement spurred by the availability of hybrid and remote work, private investment, and federal initiatives. The soundbite: “Every local problem is personal.

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real estate entrepreneurial ecosystem collaboration incubation 242

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

As a VC you want to feel like you have “proprietary sources” of deal flow. The sheer number of relationships I’ve built through being public, transparent and being willing to engage in comments and through social media has enabled me to get to know entrepreneurs even before they launch their next company.

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advice VC pitching entrepreneurs 361

TechCrunch

APRIL 26, 2023

AirOps , an early-stage startup, is in the right place at the right time, helping companies take advantage of these new capabilities to build AI-enabled applications on top of large language models. AirOps is helping companies build AI-enabled applications on top of LLMs by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

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enablement VC opportunity founder 92

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 5, 2022

I tend to believe that it is more likely to automate out tasks, not whole jobs—that making it easier to get from zero to one in the creative process will only enable more creative experts to work on higher order, more challenging and interesting tasks. It’s also interesting to think about what AI will do to the creative workforce.

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creativity media enablement technology 243

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

Using the proliferation of newly GPS-enabled mobile devices to enable taxi hailing and beat out stagnant incumbent providers was always going to be a big win for consumers. It provided a better service than existing cabs were going to be able to do for at least several years—cutting out lots of unnecessary overhead in the system.

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culture incumbents enablement sustainability 317

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 19, 2022

However, we are focused on delivering products people love and hitting metrics that enable us to continue to raise capital despite the economic condition. 3 Black founders predict little will change in VC in 2023 by Dominic-Madori Davis originally published on TechCrunch. What plans have you made to stay afloat?

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VC founder venture capital creativity 85

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

They need to be focused on housing cost, transportation crime, and the kind of zoning that enables a critical mass of interesting local businesses to thrive. In 2005, it was a risky bet to join Union Square Ventures and plant my VC career here in NYC. Mayors don’t build startup cities. They can’t make a place a “bitcoin city”.

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communities startup real estate mentorship 434

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

In a VC pitch this type of messaging will do just fine. Even the VC who invested in your deal struggles to properly position why you’re going to be huge when they’re calling big tech companies or other VCs on your behalf. If he opened up and gave her an angle to make him bad it was he who enabled it.

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entrepreneurs pitching startup education 370

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2015

As a VC (especially based in LA), I see hundreds of video apps. The backend services to enable scrolling, click-and-watch, scroll forward with minimal buffering, etc. That was just a question of limited resources and wanting to get V1 right. We will port it to Android ASAP after our first rev of proper user feedback. is non trivial.

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investing investment media collaboration 323

TechCrunch

AUGUST 28, 2022

VC firm Baukunst led the Five Flute investment, and I sat down with Axel Bichara and Tyler Mincey to learn how they evaluate a potential early-stage deal. In VC, we are looking for the outliers.” Covering Five Flute’s fundraising and tearing down the deck the company used to raise its $1.2 That’s not helpful.

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VC venture capital opportunity investing 98

TechCrunch

JUNE 28, 2022

The new fund will enable the bank to make deals ranging from $50 million to $100 million in capital. Our role is to help both the entrepreneur and their VC partners grow that business with incremental capital,” he told TechCrunch. “We We don’t replace equity, but extend the runway. It’s also now why CIBC can claim it is the No.

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finance financing VC innovation 92

TechCrunch

APRIL 17, 2023

in a seed investment round led by La Famiglia VC , out of Berlin, the €250M fund raise for which we covered just last month. Equipme has a B2B marketplace and asset management portal which – it says – enables suppliers to offer their products and services in this XaaS manner. It’s now secured $3.8M

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VC enablement strategy founder 84

Red Rocket

MAY 22, 2024

For example, the VC’s may not have liked your $1MM profit business, but if you merge with four of your same-sized competitors, the PE investors may like your $5MM profit rolled-up business. Roll-ups are a pretty complicated topic, so get some help if you decide to pursue this path.

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VC venture capital real estate creativity 88

TechCrunch

APRIL 19, 2023

Reshape invests in tech-enabled businesses that need real estate to scale, according to Crunchbase. Of course, Blank Street isn’t the first VC-backed coffee shop. Blank Street cracked the code on making coffee shops attractive to VC by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch

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VC real estate ventures enablement 80

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

I have a lot of respect for the product that they offer, and the community that they offer, and the way in which fundraising is enabled as a result of that. VC Ann Miura-Ko is looking to help more students answer the question: Is this idea big enough? For me, it’s just a harder platform to engage with.

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VC networking incubation investment 96

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Startups and VC. And five more for you: Driving into acquisition : Mullen Automotive acquires ELMS for $240 million in a deal that helps out the bankrupt company, but also enables Mullen to build up to 50,000 electric vehicles each year, Jaclyn reports. They have made 150,000 of those connections since 2018.

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VC disruption startup health 88

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I know because I marked the occasion with a blog post on how to have a great VC meeting. The decisions were endless, the choices not obvious and the VC involved a pain in the ass. How could these statements live in the same sentence? *. I first met Jonathan nearly 4 years ago. I saw it first hand.

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peer-to-peer energy founder advice 303