This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

This will be the post where I dangerously attempt to walk the minefield of a white male VC opining on the topic. Clearly he assumed that he was using some kind of username, and that it was a gang reference of some sort--like, "Young Blood" as in the bloods and the crips or something to that affect. Makes my skin crawl.

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JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. The “Triple Play&# of VC Presentations. But take prompts from the VC.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

In order to understand how to “get to yes” with a VC you first need to understand how VC partnerships make decisions and then you can understand how to increase your odds of closing a deal. VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. Reciprocity is equally destructive.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

Then I realized that it's probably not obvious what the dynamics are around how VCs tend to get introduced to companies and what works best for people, so I figured I'd blog about it. A lot of VCs ask to be introduced through someone. Talking to a VC is never a one shot deal. The Cold Intro. Multiple Touchpoints.

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. I said simply, “That’s the most ambitious project I’ve seen since I became a VC.” With Meredith I did every on-reference-sheet call I could make and many off-reference-list calls.

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MARCH 3, 2013

Back to Mr. Christensen, “We subsidize their education in fields for which there are no jobs” he said in referring to the fact that many courses at universities are still taught with skills that aren’t relevant to the 21st century needs of the US workforce. We spoke about the disruption of VC through crowd funding.

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education disruption entrepreneurship venture capital 403

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Because my role as a VC requires me to take and endless stream of meetings I long ago decided I need to learn as much as I can from the meetings I attend so I often just ask tons of questions and assimilate knowledge. When I think about what defines us as a VC I think: Operationally knowledgeable / strong startup competence.

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JANUARY 8, 2014

What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures? ” Associates have different functions at different VCs. VC firm admin. VC firm policy or fund analysis. Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. inside insight into VC decision-making. Industry reviews.

investing 365

investing investment VC board 365

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NOVEMBER 15, 2010

I have no reference point from which to judge whether you were higher on the y-axis 3 months ago or lower. I spoke about this more in depth in these two posts: 4 things I look for in an investment & how to manage VC relationships. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

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investing investment VC advice 411

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Initial Call VC : “We enjoyed our meeting.

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advice VC entrepreneurs investing 336

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 14, 2013

We used Dumbo as a reference and talked about how the critical mass of Two Trees buildings created a neighborhood with multiple destinations. There was no strategic goal to build venture backed startup companies, but yet at least three companies in her community got VC investment last year. But who is going to run the conference?

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communities coworking spaces economic development funders 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. So I hope that offers you insights into how companies move through the VC system.

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media education VC finance 373

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JULY 19, 2011

And yes, VC’s, too. Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. But I doubt they’ll dig in as deep as you will in the reference checks. Unfortunately that’s how reference checking works.

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real estate VC pitching entrepreneurs 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. The VC industry is segmenting – I have spoken about this many times before. The VC industry has different segments in it that have different fund sizes, different investment amounts and different risk / return expectations. It’s just not a VC investment.

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disruption VC entrepreneurs finance 308

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JANUARY 25, 2014

So perhaps his king reference was fitting. In tech circles one refers to the firm as either Kleiner Perkins, KP or Kleiner. Tech Market Analysis VC Industry' My first thought when I read this letter wasn’t so much about Nazism as it was about the French Revolution and the infamous “ let them eat cake ” comment.

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education real estate economic growth VC 417

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JULY 9, 2012

I knew him well before he became a VC. I knew his as he considered becoming a VC and we talked a lot about how it was going for me in my early years. These engagements went well and he came highly referred by my friend Gary Swart who runs oDesk. I don’t know an entrepreneur or a VC who wouldn’t cut him in on any deal.”

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VC data analysis incubation health 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

When this first ran on TechCrunch I got the greatest comment in the world that I had to repeat here, “VC’s are like martinis: the first is good, the second one great, and the third is a headache.&# I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. In my second company I had only 1 investor. I love that.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

If the deal is from out of your geography and/or out of your focus area or a deal is being referred by a well-know investor who normally co-invests with similar syndicates – at least ask yourself, “Why am I so lucky to be getting this call.” Fred Wilson said it best in his post about loss ratios in VC. VC Industry'

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

As many of you know I run a weekly webcast called This Week in VC that’s getting between 25-35,000 weekly views across ThisWeekIn.com, YouTube & mostly iTunes. there was no frame of reference for the value. My key take away – frame of reference in pricing is important. Yesterday’s show floored me.

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mix-use VC advice creativity 303

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 28, 2022

So I saw this tweet by Semil Shah yesterday: A friend who works in an industry far from tech startups & VC asked what would be the single article I’d share to read on each topic. It is about how a VC can compete and win a deal that many others want. That is a failure of the system. But this post is not about that.

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VC entrepreneurs venture capital strategy 261

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

David Teten is founder of Versatile VC and writes periodically at teten.com and @dteten. Akshat Dixit is a senior at North Carolina State University, an intern at Versatile VC , and a past intern with the HBS Alumni Angels Association and the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Scouts help promote diversity in VC.

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VC peer-to-peer consulting board 93

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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.

peer-to-peer 341

peer-to-peer VC entrepreneurs support 341

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 27, 2017

Make references to founders you've backed available upon request. Does the VC need to call a special partner meeting because you already have three term sheets or is this the beginning? I know you want to move fast, but don't make a VC prioritize your timing when I'm literally the first meeting.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Just literally this week I had breakfast with a guy giving a reference who said, “He’s brilliant. In fact, just a short Google search reveals that I’ve referred to him frequently through the years. But he knows it.

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MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. If you haven’t read the other VC fund-raising posts I’ve done as part of this series you can find the whole outline and this first in the series here.]

VC 239

VC pitching strategy investing 239

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. And VC’s are tough customers. I’ve talked before about how to build long-term relationships with VCs.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

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JUNE 22, 2021

Why buy me” is also a good time to leverage references and external people who can vouch for you, who can champion who you are and why you’re a good bet. You don’t need everyone, you just need a few core believers and having a hard “why buy me” pitch makes it easier to find and convert those leads.

investing 375

investing investment ventures pitching 375

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 25, 2013

Back in 2006, when I started working on putting together some community groups for entrepreneurs and tech people, I looked for a better name to reference this collection of people. Three companies from the Studiomates community-- Sherpaa , Tinybop , and Editorially --received VC dollars in 2012. via Brownstoner.

communities 315

communities innovation creativity real estate 315

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

But honestly there are times when being a VC can feel like that, too. It’s precisely because you work so closely with your VCs for so many years that it is unbelievably important that you find the good actors from the bad. And that’s why it’s super important to reference check your VC as I wrote in the linked post.

startup 363

startup real estate VC venture capital 363

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JUNE 11, 2015

I watched him jump on a plane regularly to be down at all of our board meetings and while I know that sounds like an obvious commitment from a VC, I’ve watched other scenarios where NorCal VCs find reasons to always dial in via Google Hangouts or ask non-Silicon Valley investments to travel to Menlo Park or San Francisco for meetings.

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ventures board VC culture 291

TechCrunch

MARCH 4, 2022

The D’Amelio family, including TikTok stars and digital creators Charli D’Amelio and sister Dixie , are formalizing their investments in startups with the launch of a new VC fund, 444 Capital. Renert notes the fund doesn’t conflict with his work at Tandem, however, as the VC firm chose not to raise another fund at this time.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2015

It has become so synonymous with Internet companies that the French have invented a disdainful term including Amazon: “les GAFA,” which they refer to as Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon to talk about American dominance of the Internet.

real estate 364

real estate startup disruption incumbents 364

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 28, 2013

I don't know if it was by design that I reference Descartes when I think about risk and uncertainty or by accident, but I wish I had started doing that earlier. For anyone who wants to be a VC, those are the skills I would work on. Pattern matching for early warning signs of trouble. The abilty to be direct and honest.

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frameworks startup ecosystem VC accelerator 348

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JUNE 5, 2016

Non VC Growth Rounds. The other major trend of 2012–2015 was the entrance of “non VCs” into late-stages of venture capital , which mostly consisted of hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors, sovereign wealth funds and even LPs doing direct deals. The fact that I still see it referred to in pitch decks is farcical.

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venture capital capital ventures VC 271

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OCTOBER 26, 2020

She worked for 5 years as a VC at Battery Ventures and co-headed M&A at IAC working with Barry Diller. The fact that Kara doesn’t have what my wife likes to refer jokingly as my “Y chromosome problem” is beside the fact. He said to me (only 9 years ago), “I hope you’re not just hiring her because she’s a woman.” (I

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ventures leadership mentorship venture capital 361

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

Here are a few key things I’ve learned: While VCs work with entrepreneurs, they often need reminders to be entrepreneurial themselves—to strive to take on new projects that create community (and exclusive deal flow), teach them something new, or help them stand out. In fact, why wasn’t he just putting a term sheet on the table now?

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VC board venture capital communities 195

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

” TechCrunch: Let me start by asking, why do you want to become a VC? So there are entrepreneurs and operators I know that are referring other entrepreneurs to me. I basically tend to invest quite a lot with VCs and in some cases they are referring deals to me. Another bucket is venture capitalists.

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