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 from a different angle, I believe investors also want to … Continue reading Measuring Investment Performance by Measuring Deal Flow
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 a small observation, but meaningful in a lot of ways. … Continue reading The “Un-Pitch Deck”
It has been very interesting to read the many recent articles of prominent venture capitalists speaking out about the mistreatment of women in venture. Here we are in 2017, just 45 years after Congress passed Equal Rights for Women that outlined employers could no longer discriminate base on a person’s sex, and it is still a topic of conversation. Sigh… In the course of American … Continue reading We Need More Women In Venture Capital
As soon as I wrote the title of this blog post I jokingly thought to myself, “Wait, is there a such thing as a non-difficult entrepreneur?” The obvious answer to that question is yes, but for anyone who consistently works with entrepreneurs, it seems the really difficult entrepreneurs are the ones that are most memorable (and not in a good way). When you examine the … Continue reading Dealing With Difficult Entrepreneurs
Let me start by saying that I have a deep respect for entrepreneurs because they put it all on the line to make their dreams happen. But what I often wonder about is the underlying reason for why people want to become entrepreneurs in the first place. I’m sure there are many reasons, but I’ve narrowed it down to the three reasons that I believe … Continue reading Don’t Build What you Despise. Build Something Great.
I went to San Francisco last week to attend the Angel Capital Association (ACA) conference. ACA hosts several smaller conferences throughout the year, but the larger, annual conference is held just once a year usually in a cool city that everyone wants to go to. The purpose of the conference was for angel investors, entrepreneurs, and some venture capital groups to share ideas, hear from … Continue reading Unconscious Bias and its Affect on Women and People of Color in Tech
One of the hardest things for some entrepreneurs to do is admit failure and move on. I view it as a sign of maturity and business intelligence, but all too often, many entrepreneurs do not see it that way. But the better question is “How do you know when it’s time to let go?” It’s not like there are manuals out there that tell you … Continue reading Saying “Goodbye” to Your Startup
This week I had the opportunity to speak with several early-stage, technology companies throughout the country. No matter where a company is based, I am usually most focused on learning the following things in the first meeting: What problem is being solved Is there enough evidence to justify the problem is big enough (can it scale) Can I clearly understand who benefits most from using … Continue reading Entrepreneur’s Guide to Problem Solving
Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Pete Sonsini, General Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA). NEA is based in Silicon Valley along Sand Hill Road and has more than $3B in assets under management in their latest fund. For more than 30 years the firm has invested in over 350 companies and has had 208 companies IPO – quite an achievement by … Continue reading Key Takeaways from one of the Most Successful VC Firms in the World
TheJCurve 