TheJCurve

Understanding Risk and Uncertainty: Making Wise Decisions As An Entrepreneur

October 14, 2017

I was listening to a Freakonomics podcast this week about the major difference between risk and uncertainty. Like most people, I previously assumed risk and uncertainty were essentially the same thing. But after listening to the researchers on this podcast it became blaringly apparent how different the two are. Webster defines risk as the … More Understanding Risk and Uncertainty: Making Wise Decisions As An Entrepreneur

Measuring Investment Performance by Measuring Deal Flow

October 4, 2017

In the past week or so I’ve been asked by a couple up-and-coming VC fund managers what investors really want to know before they’ll invest in a fund. Without much concentration, I think it’s easy to say that most investors want to know about current and past performance. But if you think about this question … More Measuring Investment Performance by Measuring Deal Flow

Caught In The “Dead Zone”

September 24, 2017

My wife and I went out with a group of friends and family last night to celebrate my birthday and had a great time. We spent a fair amount of time standing around waiting for our table because the restaurant was crowded and there were several in our group (like 11 or so). Once we … More Caught In The “Dead Zone”

The Few Things I Admire about My Dog

September 20, 2017

Let me start off by saying that I have nothing against dogs and that in general, I think dogs are great. In fact, ever since we got our dog two years ago, I’ve noticed patterns in his behavior that suggest he might make for a great CEO. To set the stage, I never had any … More The Few Things I Admire about My Dog

The “Un-Pitch Deck”

September 19, 2017

Over the last week or so, I have seen quite a few pitch decks from VC fund managers who are either raising a new or follow-on fund investment fund. One of the interesting things about the majority of these meetings is not going page by page through the firm’s pitch deck in its entirety. It’s … More The “Un-Pitch Deck”

Mutual Funds, Index Funds, or VC Funds?

August 31, 2017

Over the last few years there has been an ongoing dialogue amongst pension funds on whether or not actively managed funds are better than passively managed funds. This has been an ongoing topic in the pension world for several years now. Having observed and participated in these conversations I have noticed there are usually two sides … More Mutual Funds, Index Funds, or VC Funds?

Picking Winners is Hard

August 24, 2017

I was in the middle of reviewing some of our VC investment managers and I started to think about the difficulty VC managers have in finding and selecting good companies to invest in. Having worked with individual companies before, I can attest it is an extremely difficult task. Entrepreneurs have tough jobs too. For first-time … More Picking Winners is Hard

Thoughts and insights on venture and entrepreneurship