It’s 1999 Again: The Bubble 2.0 And Talent Wars Of The Silicon Valley
I have been living in the Silicon Valley for a while, and sure enough I haven’t forgotten the dot com days. A few days back, on my way to the San Francisco airport, I saw a billboard by aol advertising that they are cool (again!). I also observed that …
The Art of Riding the Bubble
People are increasingly asking whether there is a Bubble underway in the tech business. The answer is that by the time you know there is a Bubble it’s probably too late to do anything about it. But if all you’re doing is asking whether there is a Bubble, the Bubble is probably not here, yet. [...]
Silicon Valley > Boston (The Data)
I love Boston. I lived there for five of the best years of my life, when I was working at D. E. Shaw & Co., and then when I attended Harvard Business School. If anyone asks, I always tell them, “if Boston had the same weather and career opportunities for me as Silicon Valley, I’d [...]
8 Questions to Help Decide if You Should be Raising Money Now
A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “Time is the Enemy of all Deals.” When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. Sometimes this pays off, other times it doesn’t. So how should [...]
Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz, [...]
Revolution co-founder talks Living Social, ZipCar, Steve Case & GroupOn Super Bowl Ads
The venture capital industry is so heavily skewed to Northern California, which the remains spilled over Boston, New York & Southern California. There are of course other outposts like Austin and Seattle. So it was wonderful to hear from a leading venture capital firm based in Washington DC. Revolution is a “stage agnostic” fund (means [...]
The Top 30 Most Respected Venture Capitalists (infographic)
A guide for Entrepreneurs There is a lot of content created by the Venture Capital community that has helped countless entrepreneurs. In fact, one of my favorites is How Andreessen Horowitz Evaluates CEOs. I recently stumbled upon the article again and it reminded me of an article I’ve been meaning to write for my entrepreneurial [...]
Cirtas knows enterprise customers like to hug tin… goes with the flow to raise more cash
San Jose-based Cirtas emerged from stealth back in September 2010 with a $10 Million (€7.86 Million then) Series A funding round, their novel Bluejet hardware appliance, and the backing of Amazon. Today they’re back, with a new CEO and another $22.5 Million (€16.6 Million) in the bank. The Series A investors — New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed [...]
Talking to a VC About Your Competitors
Competition. Unless you’re Microsoft selling an OS for a PC you probably have some. And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. So if you’re raising money – from angels or VCs – you’re going to have to address the question of whom you’re competing against. [...]
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 [...]
Software is Roadkill
The fastest way to become roadkill to venture capitalists is to become a software company. Software may not be inherently evil (it has created wealth for many people that is in proportion to the pain it has provided to many customers). Software and specifically on-premise enterprise software, however, is clearly…
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 [...]
What Angel Investing & Florida Condos Have in Common
It’s really hard to zig when the whole world seems to be zagging. One of my favorite quotes I learned in high school was: “Nonconformity is the Highest Form of Social Attainment” It was written as the yearbook quote of the smartest seniors as I was finishing my freshman year. It has always stood with [...]
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 [...]
New Relic Gets Funded And Adds Support For .NET and PHP
New Relic, the SaaS based Application Performance Management (APM) solutions provider, today announced that they have raised $10 Million in Series C funding and they also announced that they now support .NET and PHP applications. They are now positioning themselves to be a strong player in the cloud era with support for diverse platforms. First [...]
