Sandy Hook Promise and Tech Activism
The tech community has become more politically active over the past 5 years and this is a good thing. We live in a representative democracy and organizing, having a voice and expressing views is critical to our functioning democracy. One of the most visible, active and admirable leaders of this movement is Ron Conway and [...]
I’m Back. Why I Love January
It’s January. Happy New Year! My last post was December 17 – nearly a month ago. I miss blogging because it serves as a great repository for me of my current thinking, as a way of organizing my thoughts and clarifying what I think and as a conversation started with so many of you (as Hunter [...]
Heading into 2013: Thoughts on Ways The Start-Up World is Just So Much Better Now
I came of age in the tech/venture start-up world in the late ’90s. As we go into 2013, I’ve reflected a bit on just how much better things are for founders and entrepreneurs now than they used to be, even just in 2005, when we started EchoSign, let alone the old days of Web 1.0. [...]
The Valuable Unsung Heroes of Startups
I got a call Sunday from a business colleague while I was sitting in the lounge at LAX waiting for yet another delayed flight. This colleague is a lawyer with whom I work on a deal and have done so for a couple of years. By all accounts I now consider him a friend. He [...]
Don’t Accidentally Bootstrap Yourself to Death
There’s a phenomenon, a type of SaaS company, that I think if you are scrappy, if you can make things happen as a founder — that you need to be careful not to become. It’s the Bootstrapped-to-Death Start-up. I’ve known quite a few over the past 7 years, and each and every one is [...]
Making Sense of Color after Meraki, and Going Big
I had a draft post I’d written weeks ago entitled something like “Color: Just an Enormously Large Seed Round Gone Horribly Wrong”, or something like that. Which I guess it was — $41,000,000 to build an iOS app with no revenue that no one ever used. But it wasn’t that interesting, that post/story, so I [...]
Entrepreneur’s Don’t Think Enough. Here’s What You Can Do About It …
Every so often I find myself caught up in a really hectic 3-4 week schedule where it seems like I float endlessly betweens meetings. Pitches. Intros. Board Meetings. Conferences. And I get flooded with legal docs, end-of-quarter financial administration, recruiting, whatever. I get sucked up in “Do” mode. Startups Are for Doers Now, I’m pretty [...]
Some Quick Thoughts on Exits for Technology Startups
Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster I thought you might like to see an advance copy of what I’m going to cover. I speak privately a lot about getting an exit at a startup. I haven’t spoken publicly about it much but [...]
Unfortunately, We (Probably) Have No Idea If Your SaaS Idea is Any Good
Here’s the thing in SaaS: I appreciate you asking me. But, honestly, generally speaking — I probably have no idea if your pre-launch SaaS idea is any good. So no need even to show me any deck, any static demo, any mock-ups of your product-to-be. Because I have no idea if it’s truly a great [...]
The 10x Rule: What Raising $1 of Venture Capital Really Means
Recently, a good friend of mine asked me how much he should raise in his round. He was lucky enough to have a range of options. My simple advice was: assume you have to return a liquidity event (sale or IPO) of at least 10x the amount you raise. Valuations change from round to round. [...]
The Pernicious Effect of Dilution in SaaS: The Cold, Hard, Bloody numbers
And there was my first real-world lesson in dilution. One founder. A decade of dedication. IPO. Yet just a percent or two in ownership. Not enough to even “make the table”.
How to Know If You Should Go for Venture Capital, In One Easy Question
Lately I’ve been meeting with a lot of early-stage entrepreneurs and I’ve realized that one byproduct of acqui-hires, incubators, seed fund explosions, etc. is that people don’t always really think about whether venture capital is a good idea for them or not. Especially with seed and Series A rounds, often no one really asks them [...]
Why if You are a VC You Should be Insanely Rich
Ok – First, I know some folks are going to challenge this math, but I think it’s basically correct. Second, being a VC is hard. Not always 100 hours-a-week hard work, but hard to do well. But — investing in someone else’s hard work is obviously far easier than founding and inventing something yourself. With [...]
Want to Know How to Better Partner With, Raise Money From or Be Acquired by a Big Media Company?
This is one of the best episodes of This Week in VC for a long time. I had the chance to speak with Andrew Siegel who runs corp dev & strategy for Condé Nast (aka Advance Publications). In case you don’t know, they are one of the biggest media companies in the world. They are [...]
VC 2006-11: $136 Billion In, $146 Billion Out
There’s a lot of talk recently about a Kaufmann Foundation report on the venture capital industry that states: Over the past decade, public stock markets have outperformed the average venture capital fund and for 15 years, VC funds have failed to return to investors the significant amounts of cash invested, despite high-profile successes, including Google, [...]
