The “Dry Bubble” We May Be In. What That Means.
The other day, Bill Gurley, who has to be on the Top 5 most successful and smartest VCs, had a few semi-cryptic tweets. Cryptic to non-VCs, at least: Wet bubbles (1999) are more fun than dry ones (2015). — Bill Gurley (@bgurley) June 10, 2015 At our recent LP meeting, an LP told me industry […]
Why Only 12% of VCs Can Be Considered Successful. Max.
Continuing our recent series on The Catharsis is Understanding How VC Really Works, it was only recently, spurred by Quora, I really thought through just how many VC partners can really be considered a success. Turns out math says it can’t be that many. No matter how it may look from the outside. . Why? Well… […]
Why VCs Need Unicorns Just to Survive
One of the most tiring things for founders can be always being compared to Unicorns. Certainly sometimes it’s inspirational. I loved it when many of the founders I work with came out of the ’15 SaaStrAnnual saying they needed to grow faster, at a Zenefits-like level: But the reality is there are different ways to make […]
5 Tips To Make The Journey More Fun
Really, there’s nothing I’ve done in my life that is harder than being a founder CEO. Nothing. It’s 100x harder than being a VP. Even if the actual work is easier. It’s 100x harder than being a VC. Even if delivering top returns as a VC is maybe even harder than as a founder. But I […]
A Great Discussion with @skuper @davemcclure @msuster on Changes in the VC Industry
I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. I go every year because I love events hosted & moderated by insiders involving discussions by insiders because it maximizes the amount of real discussions people have. What you’ll see if you watch the video is an unscripted and unfiltered look into […]
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”.
A Real Life SaaS Case Study: Eloqua. Marketo. Pardot. There Are 3 Different Paths to Success, My Young Padwan.
I don’t know about you, but I really can’t stand case studies. They always seem either contrived (forcing contrasts in companies that aren’t really there) or else too hypothetical, because we know which way things really worked out in real life (Case Study: Company A had to decide whether to do action X or Y. […]
Wanted dead or alive: any Facebook user, $ 125 reward
With the upcoming IPO of Facebook this week, I got a little worried. I told a few people “Mark my words, this IPO is going to blow the Social Media bubble once and for all” and even “Wouldn’t be surprised if FB’s IPO is going to start the final leg of this crisis and finish […]
Intuit Pushing Intacct for QuickBooks Graduates
Now this is an interesting piece of scuttlebutt that I was alerted to via a private message. It seems that Intuit have quietly begun pushing QuickBooks users who have “outgrown” their own solutions on to Intacct. This is particularly interesting given the fact that Intuit, a venerable provider with a
The Coming Brick Wall in Venture Capital & Why This is Good for US Innovation
This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. The series started here if you want to read from the start. Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs […]
