Understanding the Rich Tapestry of American Culture as Experienced Through Food
Like many immigrant families and many Jewish families I grew up around a kitchen table, often outside my house and experiencing food, culture, life and other people through meals. I remember fondly my dad (from Colombia) wanting to eat out of the house and experience the best multi-cultural foods one could actually find in […]
An Inside Scoop on the Funding Environment and What it Might Mean for You
$30 million. That’s how much Invoca raised and we’re announcing it today. It is an heroic accomplishment in a brutal fund-raising market in which only market leaders can bring in that sort of money. But the story started more than 6 months ago. And the narrative may tell you something about your own journey one […]
How to Decrease the Odds That Your Startup Fails
Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. We also know that even though many of us who are experienced in startup successes & failures look at businesses and say, […]
Why You Should Put Yourself Out There and Try New Products
In 2006 I started using Facebook and most of my friends & colleagues thought I was strange. They thought it was like MySpace and why did I need a MySpace page? In 2007 I started using Twitter and most of my friends & colleagues wondered why people would care what I ate for lunch. […]
What Do LPs Think of the Venture Capital Markets for 2016?
At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. While I’m not an LP, the following post represents my discussions with more than 100 LP firms – specifically ones that do fund […]
Spotting, Nurturing and Mentoring Talent – The Power of Troy Carter
I recently sat down with Troy Carter to talk about what he does and why he believes it is applicable to venture capital. The “what” is well known in LA circles – Troy discovered a little known young singer named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga and helped her launch her career. The “what” […]
So What is The Right Level of Burn Rate for a Startup These Days?
There is much talk these days that startup valuations have decreased and may continue to do so and that the amount of time it takes to fund raise may take longer. As I have pointed out in previous posts, 91% of VCs surveyed believe prices are declining (30% believe substantially) and 77% believe that funding […]
What Most People Don’t Understand About How Startup Companies are Valued
There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. And two big changes have happened […]
The One Video Every Silicon Valley Investor Should Watch
There was so much great content at the Upfront Summit but I think one that held a special place in minds of most people I talked to was our panel on diversity led by my partner Hamet Watt (<– what? you’re not following him?). The message of the panel was very clear – “We don’t need your help. […]
The Resetting of the Startup Industry
Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. Of course it’s too early to predict whether this is a trend or an aberration but the smartest people I know in the industry are predicting the former. The startup industry may be “resetting,” which doesn’t […]
Why I’ve Shifted More Attention to Facebook
I’ve been spending a lot more time on Facebook as a blogger than I ever did. So I thought it was worth explaining why. And I’m going to cross post this entire post on Facebook as an experiment rather than just posting a link on FB and trying to drive people to my blog. If […]
Why The Next Generation of Online Video Companies Will be Vertical
Mitu Network is the largest digital media company for Latinos in the US and also targeting Mexico and South America. Founded in Los Angeles by Latinos to address the growing demand for short-form online video for Millennials it is probably single-handedly improving the diversity of the tech industry as the employee base is overwhelmingly Latino and proud. […]
How to Turn a FanBoy into a Hater in 5 Minutes: Lessons from the New WaPo
Like many of you I read in awe about the accomplishments of the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos acquired the company two years ago. The killer chart is below: In the article it raved particularly about the WaPo’s amazing mobile app and how Bezos personally intervened to get the team to improve loading times – […]
Why I Don’t Celebrate Income Inequality
What drives economic inequality in the US? Should we be concerned about the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many? I am not writing about this out of the blue – this seems to be the topic of the day in my social stream based on blogs […]
Some Thoughts on Leadership Going into 2016
Having time to think about “leadership” at most startups feels like a luxury. It feels like something you could turn your attention to once you have tens of millions of dollars and a large staff to run operations and you could step back from it all and think about how to lead. The reality of […]
