Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2023

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999.

Intellectual Property 314

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Bankruptcy Viral 314

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2020

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999.

Intellectual Property 310

Intellectual Property Startup Bankruptcy Viral 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2016

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999.

Business Model 120

Business Model Intellectual Property Startup Bankruptcy 120

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

For many years preceding 1999, the 1982 vintage was known as the industry’s worst vintage year. There are five key risks in any deal: Market, Product (a/k/a technology), Management, Business Model, and Capital. Neumann’s definition of the era’s venture deals and each generated returns we would welcome today.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2015

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Just because you would have loved to have your groceries picked out and delivered, doesn’t mean the mainstream customer was ready for Webvan in 1999.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Bankruptcy Viral 120

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Every investor and entrepreneur knows there is something scary about the current startup economy. More entrepreneurs get to try out their ideas with smaller amounts of capital, but the bar remains the same to get to the bigger rounds. Valuations. Are their valuations justified? The have actual revenues that are growing.

Angel Investor 104

Angel Investor Valuation Startup Revenue 104

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 3, 2012

Facebook and Google would be obvious choices for this, but so much has been written about each of them and they represent such special business models, I worried that it would be both hard for entrepreneurs to relate and hard for me to develop new insights. The first one I’ll focus on is Akamai. Akamai: The Present.

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49