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 [...]
Invest in Lines, not Dots
Everyone seems to be in such a rush to get shacked up these days. In normal times investors will look for “traction” before investing. We want to make sure we’re in love. This sometimes frustrates entrepreneurs who just want to “get back to running the business.” But if you understand it you’ll see that it [...]
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 [...]
The Four Main Things that Investors Look for in a Startup
I obviously don’t speak for all investors. 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 they’re easy to remember because they all begin with an M: [...]
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 [...]
Is Convertible Debt Preferable to Equity?
Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “Has Convertible Debt Won?”Seth was basing this on a Tweet by Paul Graham that said” “Convertible notes have won. Every investment so far in this YC batch (and there have been a lot) has been done on a [...]
Slide's Slide Down to Google
Not much to add. It’s all in the pic. Well, perhaps this quote from Will Price, a smart VC-turned Startup CEO: It may well be that Slide raising $55m from mutual fund companies at $500m+ pre-money will be the “what were we thinking” moment of the current cycle. Slide is believed to have raised $78M in [...]
Atlassian: Fully Funded. By Customer Revenue. Oh, and the $60M T-shirt
It was 2006, the first Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco and I just met Jeffrey Walker, President of Atlassian. I had followed the company for a while (OK, I admit, had been a fan), met Mike, but this was the first time with Jeffrey, so we took our box lunch to a cozy little [...]
This Week in VC – Scott Painter, CEO of Zag & TrueCar
Our guest this week was Scott Painter. Scott is the kind of guy you could just grab a drink with, sit back and listen to him tell stories for hours. Actually, I’ve done this! Especially fun when you get him telling stories about his pilot experiences. But the most interesting is that all of his [...]
Will Angel Crash And VC Have Its Revenge?
The investing socialsphere has been all a-Twitter ever since Kedrosky predicted an upcoming super-seed crash. The result has been a series of opinion pieces, both for and against, that tackle various aspects of the issue–whether super angels are a fad, if there is a seed bubble (I’m on record as saying that there is), what [...]
This Week in VC with @VCMike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures
Here is the link to this week’s TWiVC with Mike Hirshland. I apologize for the audio quality – we did this in a rush because we found a last minute studio and recorded in San Francisco. But you can see & hear the entire interview well and I think it will be well worth your [...]
AbleAdvisory: Foursquare Halts Talks With Facebook, Completes Next Round
According to Kara Swisher, Foursquare is close to completing a funding deal with the Andressen Horowitz, the firm that "had publicly dissed the hot social location site and walked away from earlier talks.The last curve came with serious talks for Foursquare to be acquired by Facebook, which very close to happening–”one inch to the end [...]
Launch Silicon Valley: 30 Startups Debut Tomorrow
Somewhat late notice, but there’s an exciting startup debut event in Mountain View tomorrow: Launch: Silicon Valley, co-presented by SVASE, Garage Technology Ventures and Microsoft, provides the next generation of emerging technology companies with the opportunity to pitch their products to, and network with, an audience of Silicon Valley’s top VCs, Angels, corporate business development [...]
An Investors View on Twitter’s Announcements – I’m not Abandoning the Ecosystem
I have read much commentary on my Twitter stream (ironically) and in the press about how investors are going to abandon investments in the Twitter ecosystem because they seem to appear hostile to ecosystem partners. Let me be the first to say that I don’t agree with this notion. Let me explain. 1. Regarding protecting [...]
Woman in High Tech & The New York Times Out of the Loop
Out of the loop is the original title of a New York Times article discussing how difficult it is for women entrepreneurs to get funded, or generally to get into the management ranks in business. A title that backfires … but you’ll have to wait to see why. The first case discussed @ the NYT [...]
