2010

Genuine VC

article thumbnail

A Beer Drinker's View of the Venture Industry

Genuine VC

Most VCs drink beer, but how much do they realize that their industry is increasingly resembling that of the beer industry? Forgive me if I start a bit theoretical. The famed business strategist Michael Porter described a set of successful general strategies which firms employ to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage: differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy for those firms with a broad market scope, and a segmentation strategy for those with a narrow market scope.

Belgium 191
article thumbnail

Seed Stage Firms are Dead, Long Live Micro VCs

Genuine VC

Before I wrote a couple detailed posts on Micro VCs, I thought I’d write an overview one sharing my broad perspective on this portion of the VC world. It’s clear that despite the varied terminology (Super Angel, Micro VC, Seed Stage VC, Seed Firms, etc.), a new segment of the institutional venture market is emerging. Both super-angels are institutionalizing “up” and formerly traditional VCs shifting “down” to fill a market opportunity.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Seven Lessons I've Learned Organizing Events

Genuine VC

For the past five years, I’ve been organizing a regular event here in Boston called the Web Innovators Group (aka “WebInno”). Every couple months, 700-1000 web & mobile entrepreneurs, techies, startup junkies, and investors gather for one big meetup of the community. It’s been personally fulfilling to start something which begun as a small informal gathering grow into a real component of the local startup scene (and now drawing people from New York and Washington DC).

article thumbnail

Excited to Co-Found a New Micro VC Firm

Genuine VC

I thought I would share a quick update on my blog about my professional plans. With the support and encouragement of my Venrock colleagues, I am pleased to share that I am moving on to co-found a new Micro VC firm focused on seed internet investments. I am excited to remain on the Board of Directors for Venrock’s portfolio company BlogHer. I believe that the company is dramatically changing the face of women’s-focused media with an authentic & powerful community of bloggers, and

article thumbnail

Majority of both Drivers and VCs are Above Average

Genuine VC

Whenever I am navigating through the notorious Boston traffic, I am often reminded of the cognitive bias of illusory superiority. That is, the “above average effect,” which “causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others.” The Wikipedia article on the subject cites the classic study where a full 93% of U.S. drivers put themselves in the top half of the driving population.

Boston 150
article thumbnail

What's Your Founder Superpower?

Genuine VC

If you ask any VC what they look for in an investment opportunity, they’ll tell you that the people are at the top of their list. Extraordinary companies can’t be built without extraordinary entrepreneurs, especially at the earliest stages. I’d argue that successful founders must actually possess real a superpower to make the nearly impossible task of getting a startup off the ground become a reality.

Founder 138
article thumbnail

Micro VCs Are all BFFs. Forever?

Genuine VC

Micro VCs are notorious for building large and friendly syndicates. One or two players decide (sometimes rather quickly) to make a seed-stage investment in a new startup, and as a round comes together they invite in a number of their Micro VC and angel cohorts. What’s the reasoning for all of this chummy behavior? While traditional VCs sometimes have a love/hate relationship with their syndicate partners (often depending on how well their mutual portfolio companies are performing), it seem

Syndicate 128