Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

For many years preceding 1999, the 1982 vintage was known as the industry’s worst vintage year. Most losses happen when you combine Market and Product risk – take one, not both, and take it with a proven entrepreneur. JMB Realty: Real Estate Management company. Taking all five at once is crazy. The fatal flaw of the 80’s was fear”.

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Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 8, 2013

Following is a guest post on DevOps by Gene Kim , Multiple Award-Winning CTO, Researcher, Visible Ops Co-Author, Entrepreneur & Founder of Tripwire. Since 1999, my passion has been studying high performing IT organizations. He wrote it a while ago and it has sat in my draft queue waiting for the perfect moment to emerge.

Phoenix 175

Phoenix Software Review Technical Review Cofounder 175

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2018

If you lived through the Internet-bubble between 1999 and 2002 you know this cycle well. I do know that if you are an entrepreneur or investor, you should pay attention to the context but be very focused on building a durable long-term business. Google), regardless of whether they were private or public at the time.

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DC Equity Hosting Valuation 112

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

A few weeks ago, FG Press released the first book in its Techstars series titled No Vision All Drive: Memoirs of an Entrepreneur. Like many other startups, it had many ups and downs but the David’s created a very successful, profitable business that was acquired by ZOLL (a Boston-based public company) in 1999.

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Boston Cofounder Partner Leadership 137

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 19, 2014

The comment thread was powerful and fascinating, as was the direct email feedback I got, including the following note: “I think it would be interesting to hear your perspective on how an entrepreneur should approach “what’s next” after coming off a failed business. I’ve had many more.

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IPO Technology Community Software 195

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2014

As exits have been flowing nicely again the past few years, many of the entrepreneurs I work with have experienced their first big exit. I refer to this moment as when you find that you have life changing money in your bank account, which I like to call “f**k you money.”

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Alaska Widget Colorado Angel Investor 166

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Seth and I worked together on ServiceMagic in the 1999 – 2004 time frame (IAC acquired it in 2004 for $180m) so we had a deep understanding of how a heavily metric-based buy/sell marketplace worked. Two years ago we probably wouldn’t have considered Rover.com as it would have fallen outside our active themes.

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Seattle New York Metrics Demand 136

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

I know many entrepreneurs who feel that VCs have played them, gamed them, deceived them, or bullshitted them. But this doesn’t only happen to entrepreneurs. But more importantly, it reminded me of how often VCs b t each other and entrepreneurs. VCs play this game with VCs all the time. But is wasn’t always this way.

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LP Advisory Board Venture Capital Early Stage 155

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 8, 2014

I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible entrepreneurs who, over many years and several companies, became remarkable CEOs. Another great CEO I’ve had the honor to work with is Matt Blumberg who has led Return Path since founding the company in 1999. It’s really hard to be a CEO.

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Startup Portfolio Demand Audience 139

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 19, 2010

I’ve known and worked with Andy since 1995 (I was on the board of his first company – Abuzz – which was acquired in 1999 by the New York Times) and am awed by the amazing things he’s doing in Seattle these days, including Founder’s Co-op , RevenueLoan , and of course TechStars Seattle.

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Seattle Angel Investor Cofounder New York 107

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 24, 2016

I remember a moment in what must have been 1999, sitting at Jerry’s desk in NY in a dark office (I never really like office lighting so I work without it on and it had turned into evening in NY.) I was trying to get a deal done and it was a stressful mess. . Work does not have to destroy us. Reboot is a coaching company.

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Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

And, rather than rational and helpful thoughts for entrepreneurs, it often brings out the schadenfreude in even the most talented people. We entrepreneurs have been spinning that line for decades in every boom cycle. Mark’s post is one of the first in this cycle that I’ve seen from a VC giving clear, actionable advice.

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Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70