Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. This will be seen as a watershed moment in the wake-up call and rationalization of our industry.

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StartupNation

OCTOBER 3, 2021

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and nationwide protests, venture capital firms are making newfound commitments to invest in, or at least evaluate, potential investments that are led by diverse founders. So, what exactly do those action steps look like? So, what exactly do those action steps look like? Sourcing deals.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

Changes in the Software World & in Venture Capital. Changes in the Startup Ecosystem. But notably you had the following changes: Horizontally scalable computing & storage systems, which meant you required less capital up front for hardware. Venture Capital. And then the world changed.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She did her first tech startup after the age of 30. She hasn’t raised any venture capital. It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press.

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AsiaTechDaily

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

” Further, upon asking about the specific qualities of startup founders, “the motivation, unique insight and resourcefulness of startup are things that I look out for,” Jeshua expressed. For founders opting for VC funding, swift closure of funding rounds is advised to maintain focus on product development.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. The reason is that no VC wants to see the venture debt provider get burned if you become bankrupt.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. I need to take some VC meetings. or the countless other successful startup firms. There is no question NY startups get disproportionate press.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Since the beginning of modern venture capital investing — a relatively nascent asset class — the industry has been biased toward funding what it knows best: founders with familiar demographics (white, male) in familiar geographies (Silicon Valley).

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company? Acquihires and Venture Capital. I’m a VC. But that’s not how you make money in the venture capital business. Change industries.

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TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Though some businesses may never be truly sustainable, a venture firm in Seoul argues that emerging climate-tech startups will help big manufacturers do better overall. The early-stage VC had already set up five social impact funds and backed 81 startups since 2020, after Han acquired the firm in December 2019.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VC growth. How do we plan to do it?

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

It needs a couple of successful exits, which in turn drives angel investing as entrepreneurs growing increasingly wealthy look to help new founders building companies reach their own goals. It requires accelerators and incubators and coworking spaces to help nurture early ideas, and it needs VC firms investing across stages.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

Most early-stage entrepreneurs who have worked with me (either as an angel or as a seed VC) know that I don’t rely at all on the social proof of other investors. Importantly any VC investor will understand the “first close&# mentality since nearly all VC funds are raised this way from our investors.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 30, 2022

is still the best place in the world for Black startup founders to raise money. It’s quite easy to harp on the dismal funding and often discriminatory treatment that Black founders receive in the U.S. As an ironic result, founders look to the U.S. Despite, well, everything, the U.S. for networking opportunities.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 4, 2022

All right, here are the final five business Brahmins who will help judge the Startup Battlefield pitch competition. Mar Hershenson , co-founder and managing partner at Pear VC. He also served on the National Venture Capital Association board of directors. David Tisch , managing partner at BoxGroup.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 14, 2023

To put it mildly, the meteoric collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has been a historic time of confusion for everyone the startup ecosystem touches. Niko Bonatsos, MD, General Catalyst While many founders and VCs have shared similar experiences as they try to navigate this confusion, the future ahead is even hazier.

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Startup Blogpost

OCTOBER 28, 2022

How do you determine if corporate venture capital is right for your startup? To help you determine if corporate venture capital is right for your startup, we asked startup founders, investors, and business leaders this question for their best pieces of advice.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 19, 2022

“Venture capital” is semantically equivalent to “dangerous money,” which is part of its mystique. Essentially, VC is a high-stakes extreme sport in which top players can accumulate startling amounts of wealth and power. But where does all that money actually come from, and how do VCs actually make money?

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 16, 2022

A “warm introduction” is one made by someone the VC knows well, by someone relevant. The VC might know their kids’ school teacher pretty well, for example, but the school teacher may not have a lot of startup or investing experience. You don’t need an intro for that. Mine your LinkedIn connections.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. Oh, yeah. And there you have it. Not a chance.

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Founders Coop

JANUARY 11, 2023

Aviel and I are both self-taught VCs: the parts of the job we learned as founders and operators of our own companies covered just a fraction of what it means to be effective money managers, fundraisers, board members and trusted partners within the tight-knit community of professional investors. The implications of this are many.

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TechCrunch

MAY 20, 2021

One startup that aims to help make the process simpler, cheaper and less stressful by helping people manage the home renovation process has raised $6 million to help it grow even faster. Builders VC led the round, which included participation from Celtic, Newfund and Wish co-founder Danny Zhang.

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 21, 2022

500 Global’s Christine Tsai shares her 2022 VC predictions. 2021 was a year like no other when it came to venture investment, and this year is poised to tread a similar path, writes 500 Global’s CEO and co-founder, Christine Tsai. 500 Global’s Christine Tsai shares her 2022 VC predictions.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 19, 2022

Farmers don’t get embarrassed when the price of corn drops; similarly, there’s no reason for startup founders to lose their joy because publicly traded tech stocks are undercutting their valuations. If making as much money as you can is your primary goal, however, prepare to be disappointed.

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TechCrunch

MAY 10, 2021

It is clear that Black, women, Latinx and LGBTQ+ startup founders face an uphill battle when it comes to getting a share of the VC investment pie in Silicon Valley. It’s working with another Indy based VC firm, Allos Ventures , and Paul Ehlinger from Allos will be a venture partner at Sixty8.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 31, 2021

While some major global companies like Xero, Rocket Lab, LanzaTech and Seequent have shined a spotlight on New Zealand’s startup scene, the country historically hasn’t had access to much venture capital.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Leah Edwards is a passionate fan and connector in technology and impact, a lecturer at UC Berkeley and Stanford and a partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures , a Silicon Valley-based VC firm. As a partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures , I’m aware that the VC industry boasts about finding teams with outlying and industry-changing ideas.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 12, 2021

The unprecedented liquidity that has entered the venture market in the past year has spurred several trends that require VCs to adapt to a more competitive environment where startup founders have far more leverage than they did in the past.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 9, 2022

So often, when he stopped recording, a number of founders would talk to Latka about the possibility of taking on debt. It opened up a new world for Latka, who said he “quickly realized that debt was the secret to keeping control of your SaaS business, getting capital quickly and avoiding the VC dilution.”.

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TechCrunch

JUNE 30, 2021

In particular, StartHER aims to tackle the difficulties specific groups have in raising their first capital — something typically referred to as the “friends and family round.” “The assumption that founders should have networks able to invest in their businesses creates an unfair starting line for most groups.

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TechCrunch

JULY 15, 2021

Startup founders often turn to pitch decks when fundraising as a visual representation of their story — from the origins to total addressable market to those juicy metrics. And so, it’s just up to the founders to really just tell the story to us. Don’t send VC a cold deck ever again: Start sending video pitches.

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Revolution

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

According to PitchBook , VC investments were down 30% in Q2 2022 compared with 2021, and IPOs hit a 50-year low. While a few iconic brands including Uber, Airbnb, and Square emerged successfully from the last downturn, most venture-backed companies struggled during this period, and many ended up pursuing M&A strategies.

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TechCrunch

MARCH 26, 2021

Pre-seed round funding is under scrutiny: Is VC pandemic posturing here to stay? Amid the pandemic, investors became laser-focused on sections of the pitch deck that address monetization and business viability — signs that founders need to come to the table with better-defined businesses in order to succeed.

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Founders Coop

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Not coincidentally, they also serve as training grounds for some of the world’s most successful startup founders. Although we haven’t been on the inside at Techstars for several years, we grew up with the program and have watched with growing dismay as it drifted away from its original focus on founders.

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TechCrunch

AUGUST 13, 2021

Singh Cassidy, founder of premium talent marketplace theBoardlist, will discuss making the leap into entrepreneurship after leaving Google, her time as CEO-in-Residence at venture capital firm Accel Partners and the framework she’s developed for taking career risks. We simply must take the time to get to know founders.”.

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TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

But most venture-backed startups are “still overwhelmingly white, male, Ivy-League-educated and based in Silicon Valley,” according to a study conducted by RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC. Or will we have to repeat the same conversations about representation failings within VC funds?

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” If you want to be the marketing person or you want to be perceived as a businessperson or a VC or technical person or whatever you want to be perceived, people will always define you.

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