Feld Thoughts

APRIL 6, 2021

I sort of took a Q1 Vacation last week. 2021 didn’t really feel like it started for me until January 21st. Yeah, I took a company public on January 4th, but then January 6th happened. It was a cold, dark, and anxious stretch where January felt like it had about 51 days in it. Then I was deep in SPACland and lots of deals and financings. I definitely had some “I just need to get to March 26th, and then I get a break” in my head.

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Software Software Developers Software Development Portfolio 158

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 8, 2021

Last summer, I shifted my personal behavior around racism. I realized that I had spent the previous 20 years providing “passive” support to social justice causes. I decided that I’d spend the next 20 years actively helping to eliminate racism in America. That includes learning, doing, supporting, and being an accomplice. At the end of last week, two articles written by CEOs in our portfolio made the rounds on our CEO list.

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America United States Portfolio Founder 176

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 5, 2021

The Techstars Foundation recently announced a new program called Accelerate Equity. We created the Techstars Foundation in 2015 to help make innovation and entrepreneurship more accessible and inclusive. Since then, the Techstars Foundation has been investing in and accelerating nonprofits that deliver scalable impact for underestimated entrepreneurs.

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Equity North Carolina Early Stage Distribution 163

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

I haven’t been posting about my reading lately. While I continue to read at my typical pace , I think I was a little tired of writing book reports, but that has passed. Last night I read The 80/80 Marriage: A New Model for a Happier, Stronger Relationship. Kaley and Nate Klemp have written an excellent book that can help any married couple improve their relationship.

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Framework Partner Entrepreneur Startup 172

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 26, 2021

Last week I participated in a virtual tour of the Media Archaeology Lab. Amy and I are financial supporters, I gave them my vintage computer collection several years ago, and we’ve underwritten their acquisition of several collections. I believe the Media Archaeology Lab is now one of the largest collections of working vintage computers. “Working” is an important part of the phrase.

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Audio Media Acquisition Video 144

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 25, 2021

I’m working on a new book with Dave Jilk, my first business partner. It is titled The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors. We are in the home stretch (it’ll be published sometime in the second quarter), and I’m adding a little connecting tissue to the major sections this morning. The third major section (of five) is called Free Spirits.

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Partner Developer Entrepreneur 221

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

Daniel Jackson created a magnificent book. It’s a combination of three things: 1) Extraordinary personal stories about 2) The struggle with mental health, anxiety, and depression while 3) at MIT. MIT is a foundational part of my life. I spent seven years there. I got into graduate school in my fourth year and got into a Ph.D. program in my fifth year.

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Boston Partner Programming Technology 150

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 13, 2020

Amy and I, through our Anchor Point Foundation , are supporting the Grid110 – South LA program. Austin Clements was one of the Black VCs I reached out to after George Floyd was murdered with the question, “What are two things you are involved in that I can support with time, money, and influence?” I knew Austin from his time at TenOneTen Ventures (we are an LP) and I reconnected with him when he joined the Kauffman Fellows Program (Class 25).

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Los Angeles LP Cofounder B2B 178

Feld Thoughts

JULY 20, 2020

I recently was in an email thread where a Black founder had a powerful and clear response to the question from one of her corporate partners. The question was: How can our (the corporate partner’s) team better support diversity in our work, particularly in our sourcing, diligence, and onboarding efforts? The entrepreneur responded with a long explanation that was a brilliant and extremely helpful perspective for me.

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Entrepreneur Software Review Metrics Community 221

Feld Thoughts

JULY 3, 2020

As I caught up this morning on the posts in my new Startup Community community (over 1,000 people have already joined – that was a pleasant surprise – click here to join us ) I noticed one from a member from a founder in Adelaide. It was in response to a prompt from Tom Higley to kick off the Complex Systems topic discussion. The response (one of many) was: The video is an excellent short description of Complexity Science with an example of adopting a complexity science mindset to th

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Green Community Video Founder 108

Feld Thoughts

JULY 2, 2020

The Covid crisis has generated, or amplified, a number of separate crises. One of them is a mental health (or mental wellness) crisis. As humans, our entire way of living has been dramatically impacted by Covid. We are isolated from each other, many of us are afraid of being in public, and we are feeling enormous weight from economic, social, familial, and organization pressure.

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Colorado Cost Community Design 175

Feld Thoughts

JULY 1, 2020

My new book The Startup Community Way: Evolving and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is coming out this month ( pre-order it here.). At the same time, the 2nd edition of my book Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City is also coming out ( pre-order it here.). Ever since I started thinking, writing, and talking about startup communities, I’ve always wished there was a global virtual community for anyone interested or involved in startup communities.

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Community Startup Distribution Global 188

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 15, 2020

As I begin to work my way through the NY Times Antiracist Reading List (by Ibram X. Kendi), I thought I’d start with The Blacker The Berry by Wallace Thurman. I started with the Wikipedia page for Wallace Thurman. Langston Hughes described Thurman as “…a strangely brilliant black boy, who had read everything and whose critical mind could find something wrong with everything he read.” Thurman’s dark skin color attracted comment, including negative reactions from both

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Community 108

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 12, 2020

My digital sabbaths are often running, reading, and napping days. That’s tomorrow for me as I’m feeling fried from another week. I’ve ordered (and received) most of the books from the NY Times Antiracist reading list along with a number of other recommendations. Most are physical books and will be my digital sabbath reading this summer.

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Portfolio Leadership Email Entrepreneur 139

Feld Thoughts

MAY 26, 2020

I took an off the grid vacation last week. I needed it as I was pretty fried feeling on May 15th when I checked out. Amy and I went … nowhere. We stayed at home. I slept late each day. I exercised. I read. I napped. We finished watching Breaking Bad. I played with my Glowforge and made a bunch of Ear Savers. I wrote a little, but not too much, on my next book ( The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors.).

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 5, 2020

If you have a job, have been working from home, and haven’t been spending extra money on Starbucks (or local) coffee, lunch or dinner out, or other random things you spend money on during the day while at work, please consider making a donation to the Colorado COVID Relief Fund today. All contributions made today up to $250,000 will be matched by an anonymous donor.

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Colorado Matching Community Government 139

Feld Thoughts

MAY 3, 2020

I took a digital sabbath yesterday. I ended up doing three things. Read The End of October by Lawrence Wright Took a nap Watched three episodes of Breaking Bad. I feel so much better than I did at the end of the day Friday. After I finish this blog post, I’m going to participate in the Emerge Family Virtual 5k. The End of October was intense. It’s the story of a modern day pandemic.

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Colorado Distribution 119

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 30, 2020

A creative group of Boulder entrepreneurs, led by Vikas Reddy and Kyle Judah and inspired by San Franciso entrepreneurs/investors Frank Barbieri and Ryan Sarver have created and put into action a program that supports both frontline health workers and local independent restaurants. They’ve created a program called Feed the Frontlines Boulder that lets the community donate meals from local restaurants to health workers on the frontlines.

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Distribution Community Programming Partner 161

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 28, 2020

Governor Jared Polis had an excellent and extremely data-driven press conference yesterday to provide quantitive support for his stay at home order (among other things.) The presentation is embedded and worth paging through. Colorado Governor Polis #DoingMyPartCO Presentation – 03-27-2020 from Brad Feld. The basic message is that unless it is absolutely necessary for you, please stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus.

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Colorado Software Engineering Acquisition Software 151

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 13, 2020

I’ve been involved with a number of leaders in the Colorado tech community since Wednesday morning as we’ve aggressively mobilized to address the Covid-19 crisis. Following is a joint statement that a bunch of us have signed on to. A group of us are working quickly to create more mechanisms for a coordinated response, collective action, funding for critical resources, and ideas for things to do that will have a positive impact.

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Colorado Fractional CTO Silicon Valley Cofounder 168

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 13, 2020

The following from C. S. Lewis. was on my fraternity email list this morning. It was written in 1948 after the dawn of the atomic age. In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are

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Email Video 254

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

When I started blogging in 2004, there weren’t many VC bloggers. I followed Fred Wilson and David Hornik’s lead and just started writing what was on my mind about, well, anything that was on my mind. Today, VC content pieces are everywhere. I’ve become less interested in writing this kind of stuff so my blog has evolved into whatever is on my mind, but a lot less “VC stuff.” Every now and then I come across a spectacular VC blog post (or article in Techcrunch, or on

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Partner Networking Entrepreneur Startup 138

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

The Nan Madol. Erling Kagge’s book Walking: One Step at a Time was delightful. On Friday night I had dinner with John Underkoffler. John and I lived together at college and have been friends for over 35 years, working together for the past 13 or so. Our conversation rambled on a variety of topics, as is usually the case when we spend 1:1 time together.

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Naming Conversion 104

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 21, 2020

As I was reading The Atlantic article Silicon Valley Abandons the Culture That Made It the Envy of the World I kept flashing to the end of Anna Wiener’s awesome memoir Uncanny Valley. And it was no surprise to see this article in the Boulder Daily Camera titled Big tech in hot seat at congressional hearing at CU Boulder. Readers of this blog and my book Startup Communities know that I’m a huge fan of AnnaLee Saxenian.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 24, 2019

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. “ This is a confusing time of year for me. Hanna Ingber described it well this morning in her article My Jewish Sons Have a Christmas Tree, and I Need to Deal.

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Stock Partner 70

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2019

It’s that time of year again where we like to shop at our portfolio companies. We thought it would be fun to highlight some of our direct investments and partner funds’ portfolio companies this holiday season. You can check out the full Foundry Group Gift Guide here. If you want even more gift options, Techstars also has an awesome gift guide.

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Portfolio Partner 91

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

My partner Lindel pointed me at the Lux Capital 2019 Annual Dinner Talk. I watched it the other day and thought it was one of the best examples of a VC think piece that I’ve seen in a long time. Lux ‘s premise is that technology evolves out of the infinite arms race between deception and its detection. It touches on many contemporary ideas about truth and lies and the use of data in the pursuit of outcomes based on humans’ perceptions of truth and lies.

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Technology Partner 133

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 18, 2019

One of the many great things about the Governor of Colorado is that he’s an entrepreneur, having started multiple successful technology companies, including BlueMountainArts.com (acquired by Excite for $800m) and Provide Commerce (IPO, then acquired by Liberty Media for $500m). He’s also a co-founder of Techstars with me, David Cohen, and David Brown.

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Colorado Government IPO Cofounder 70

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

I’m a proud investor (and crowdfunding backer) in Misty Robotics. As of today, Misty Robotics has started shipping Misty II to its crowdfunding backers. The team at Misty Robotics has been hard at working getting Misty in shape to ship. The backers now have a key role in the next step of Misty’s journey, as they get the first crack at Misty II and her SDK in advance of Misty’s general availability in the market later this year.

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Audio Software Community Mobile 22

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

I’m an enormous Jim Collins fan. It’s a special bonus that he lives in Boulder. He just came out with a short monograph called Turning the Flywheel. It’s only 40 pages but stunningly good. In it, he dissects the concept of the flywheel, which he first described in his seminal book Good to Great. Every CEO in our portfolio will be receiving a copy in the next month as part of our “book of the almost every month club.” If you are a CEO trying to build an enduring comp

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Portfolio 22

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 15, 2019

Techstars and Kauffman Fellows are once again running the Venture Deals online course that Jason Mendelson and I put together several years ago. If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to raise capital and grow your business, this online course teaches you the basics you need to know for working with VCs. And, if you are starting off as a VC or a lawyer for venture capital deals and you want a refresher on the core issues in a term sheet, this online course is for you.

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Term Sheet Capitalization Table Venture Capital Video 34

Feld Thoughts

JULY 10, 2019

Over the years, I’ve written about my belief in the importance of giving back to your communities and #givefirst. In this spirit, one of the key organizations my partners at Foundry Group have helped create and nurture is Pledge 1%. In 2007, we were a founding member in the predecessor organization to Pledge 1%, called Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (or EFCO).

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Colorado Cofounder Distribution Community 108

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 5, 2019

David Cohen and I just released Episode 4 of our Give First podcast. We interviewed Mary Grove on the origins of Google for Startups & Startup Weekend among other things. Mary has been a long time friend and supporter of Techstars and is currently a partner at Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, the co-founder of Silicon North Stars, and on the Advisory Board for the Techstars Foundation.

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Advisory Board Cofounder Restful Partner 121

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

One of my guilty pleasures is reading biographies about financiers and their companies. On Saturday, I gobbled down King of Capital , which is the story of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone from inception through 2011. While I’ve never met Schwarzman, I’ve had a handful of experiences with Blackstone, mostly with the Blackstone Foundation and the head of it, Amy Stursberg.

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Private Equity Cofounder Equity Venture Capital 82

Feld Thoughts

MAY 1, 2019

I recently recorded two free courses with LinkedIn Learning. They are each under an hour long and broken up into a bunch of small segments. The first one is on Raising Venture Capital and is based on content from the book Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist that I wrote with Jason Mendelson. Amy tells me that this is her favorite shirt from my current rotation of Robert Graham shirts.

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Venture Capital Startup Finance 111

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 4, 2019

Amy and I recently decided to support Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) and their national expansion to Colorado through our Anchor Point Foundation. EforAll’s mission is to accelerate economic development and social impact through inclusive entrepreneurship in emerging communities. They are focused on fostering small business development and entrepreneurial activity amongst under-networked and under-resourced populations in communities that have been traditionally overlooked for economic inves

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Colorado Massachusetts Community Metrics 122

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 12, 2019

Formlabs Digital Factory is happening on May 7th, 2019. If you are into 3D printers, this is shaping up to be a key event of 2019. The speaker list is epic and one you don’t want to miss. Yeah – there’s more … Formlabs also recently released two new printers – the Form 3 and the Form 3L. The Form 3 is impressive on its own, but the Form 3L is five times the build platform and double the laser power.

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Customer 82