Why it’s Critical That you Reference Check Your VC
I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. I personally had three separate data points from entrepreneurs who took money from the firm that said “never again.” I really try to stay out [...]
The Art of the Quick Phone Call
All this heavy talk about angels, VCs, bubbles lately. I thought I’d go for a more tactical & practical post today. The art of the quick phone call. I had breakfast with David Tisch the other morning in NYC. If you don’t know David he’s the guy who will be running TechStars New York starting [...]
An Entrepreneur’s Growth Equity Conundrum: Should I sell stock or sell growth?
Two times in the past year, I’ve been close to making an investment in two separate micro-cap growth equity opportunities only to have the opportunity go sideways deep into the process. The two businesses share a lot in common; they are similar in size, profitability, and growth prospects. Both are capital-intensive; the first being asset [...]
Skate Where the Puck is Going
Anyone who works in the venture business or frankly just lives in Silicon Valley will be used to hearing a buzz word rise up out of nowhere to capture the technology zeitgeist and find its way into every entrepreneur’s product development plan or every aspiring entrepreneur’s pitch deck. I call this “the puck at your [...]
Outbound VC Dialing Programs – Total Disrespect for Entrepreneurs
I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. He sent me an email asking whether the approach was real and whether he should take it seriously. Here is the email he received (reprinted without names with his permission). “Hi [entrepreneur], I hope all is well. I’m an [...]
Startup Weekend in Haiti
This is one of the best ideas I have seen all month, taking startup weekend directly to Haiti to help and provide support for budding programmers and entrepreneurs in the earthquake stricken country. If anything will add a bit of hope to that country, startup weekend is one of our best American assets we could [...]
Starting a New Series on Entrepreneurialism
I continually talk about how starting a new company can be one of the smartest things you can do in the current recession. Especially if you are part of the growing legions of the unemployed for 14 weeks or more, it is going to be a difficult 2010 for many people, and many of the [...]
What is this “Momentum” of Which You Speak?
A meeting with an entrepreneur last Friday reminded me of the most frustrating and overused feedback entrepreneurs receive from VCs: Talk to me when you have “momentum”; or I need to see some “traction” first. With more and more VCs looking to make later stage investments, entrepreneurs are receiving this feedback more than ever. You can [...]
Business Plans – Great Value (As Toilet paper)
Yeah – I just love eye catching titles… Rick posted about an almost unbelievable presentation he received from an up and coming (or not so) entrepreneur. It seems the guy broke every rule in the book including; Sending the presentation as a mail merge – with mock personalisation and different fonts for the individual parts [...]
