I recently reviewed a new book called The Startup MixTape written by a friend of mine, Elliott Adams. The book provides a comprehensive approach to the methods entrepreneurs use to start and grow successful companies. In my opinion, this book is perfect for anyone who is looking for an all-in-one summary of the steps involved with getting a new company off the ground. The book … Continue reading Book Review: The Startup MixTape
Overall, the VC market is experiencing significant growth. In the last two years, deal value has reached a combined $160 billion value. This number will likely increase as the results for the fourth quarter are not yet included. While valuations have increased across the board, pricing for companies in Series A rounds remains relatively tame compared to later stage funding rounds where median valuations have … Continue reading Current Environment in VC (brief)
I attended an annual meeting this week in San Francisco for one of the venture capital funds in our portfolio and I came away very impressed with not only the content shared at the meeting but by the people I met there as well. There were investors there from all over the world including China, Spain, Canada, Israel, India, and several other countries. What I … Continue reading Venture Capitalists Must Be Globally Minded
I attended a conference this week in San Francisco and had the opportunity to briefly talk one-on-one with several entrepreneurs that are in my opinion “world-changers.” One of the first conversations I had was with Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella Space. Capella Space has developed a miniature, cube-shaped satellite that provides hourly, reliable, and persistent imagery of any location on the globe delivered … Continue reading Entrepreneurs Who Are Shooting For The Stars
The reason I started blogging was to contribute my small part to the entrepreneurial/venture capital ecosystem by sharing knowledge, insights, and experiences. I am not famous and I don’t know if I care to be. There are several individuals who have become widely known for their success and contribution to the ecosystem. People like Eric Ries who wrote the Lean Start-up; Ben Horowitz who wrote … Continue reading Starting Your Own Venture Investment Fund
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fascinating technology that has been under development for decades. The premise of AI is that computers can be built to function like the human brain, endowed with the ability to think and reason. In the 50’s and 60’s scientists were convinced they could build such a machine, but later realized the computing power necessary to accomplish such a task did … Continue reading My Perspective on Hot Topics in Venture Part 2 – Artificial Intelligence
At the end of each year I like to reflect on things I’d like to improve on in the following year. As such, I’ve decided to perform a SWOT analysis on myself to thoroughly assess where I am and where I want to go. A SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. No matter the industry, all businesses and organizations regularly perform … Continue reading Self S.W.O.T Analysis
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”
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
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