Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

For public investors in Facebook to achieve returns comparable to those of Microsoft shareholders, Facebook would need to reach a market cap of $500 trillion, a number that well exceeds the total global market cap of all listed stocks. In fact, if you exclude the Dot Com Bubble of 1999-2000, they have been steady for nearly thirty years.

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

is the leading consumer internet company with Terry Semel as CEO. I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Gust

JUNE 19, 2012

Thoughts on startups by investors that fund them & entrepreneurs that run them. I bought the Rocket eBook Reader in 1999. Even for low-tech startups, the scope of information available on the Internet, and its global reach, has had a similar financial impact on the many other challenges facing every startup founder.

Startup 180

Startup Forecast Angel Investor Software 180

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 3, 2011

But more interestingly I saw it in my twitter feed from some entrepreneurs and VCs who I respect a lot. In the tech industry, the great Internet bubble inflated between 1999 and 2000 and deflated (or popped) in 2001. In 2008, everyone in business and politics was consumed with the “global economic crisis&#.

Entrepreneur 143

Entrepreneur Finance Internet Web 143

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 29, 2010

By way of anecdote, from the time Dave Lavinsky and I founded Growthink in 1999 through 2008, more than 95% of our firm’s clients and investors were U.S. entrepreneurs targeting U.S. Since the great “financial crisis” of 2008-2009, the firm’s clientele – really without us even trying – has becoming increasingly global.

Small Business 81

Small Business South Korea South Africa Uruguay 81

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 30, 2015

Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality. We asked some entrepreneurs “why they started their businesses.”

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Software Review LLC 48

Up and Running

OCTOBER 31, 2017

A study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found that 73 percent of entrepreneurs fund their ventures through their own savings, an average of $15,000. Thanks to the internet, we have access to dozens of passive income ideas. Lessons from successful entrepreneurs. Good debt can make you wealthy.

Entrepreneur 121

Entrepreneur Affiliate Finance United States 121

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 10, 2011

But if that observation led them to refrain from investing in the Internet sector, they would have missed one of the most stunning legal creations of wealth in history. The Internet bull market continued to run for four more years after the Open Market IPO, finally ending in the spring of 2000.

IPO 48

IPO IRR Brazil Government 48

Berkonomics

JUNE 22, 2017

And the prime motivators of this massive destruction are the same class of entrepreneurs and innovators that have done it before. This time they are aided by tail winds brought on by the rapid spread of access to the Internet. In 1995, thirty-five million people used the Internet. Since 1999, the U.S.

Artificial Inteligence 118

Artificial Inteligence Internet Hiring Global 118

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

At ffVC, our primary origination strategy is to provide a high level of services to entrepreneurs, and then let word of mouth spread. Out of over 70 companies that we have invested in since 1999, about 20 are in our home city, New York. They’re the entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of their respective disciplines.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Austin Startup

JANUARY 8, 2018

In the mid 1990s I knew that the internet was a game-changing technology. In 1997 I founded an internet company named Perficient, and it went public in 1999. Today the company still uses the logo that my college roommate created, employs thousands of people globally, and has a market cap well over half a billion dollars.

RSS 63

RSS Government Internet Technology 63

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

If you take a snapshot during an extraordinary surge in valuations, M&A activity, IPOs and thus wealth creation you’d echo John Doerr’s famous quote from 1999 that, “The Internet is the greatest legal creation of wealth in history.&# I hope to offer experiences from being an entrepreneur and being a VC.&#.

IPO 391

IPO Finance Valuation Naming 391

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2011

Every entrepreneur that has ever walked this earth has always asked if now is the right time to start. There are many articles on the Internet and in periodicals that will counsel you on “ when to take the plunge ”, but your overall effort will be guided by adhering to the “5 P’s” delineated below: Passion.

Cleveland 145

Cleveland Matching Small Business Government 145

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Fortunately, the rise of the Internet, and specifically Internet marketplace models, act as accelerants to the productivity benefits of the division of labour AND comparative advantage by reducing information asymmetry and increasing the likelihood of a perfect match with regard to the exchange of goods or services.

Internet 88

Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

thebarefootvc

DECEMBER 31, 2017

Once I started my venture capital career in 1999 after being on Wall Street and an entrepreneur, no one was going to come in the way of my doing what I loved and knew I was good at. Ones that struggled to raise venture capital funding when most VC’s thought that the business models of the internet could not be displaced.

Kenya 45

Kenya Venture Capital United States Internet 45

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

By 1999 we had grown into the largest independent consulting firm in the world. By 1999 it seemed like everybody was growing, though. Increasingly it became difficult to tell any system integration company apart and there was a whole new breed of competitors in the market helping companies build Internet businesses. I love that.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. In 1997, the year the Kauffman Report begins its analysis; there were 70 million users online globally. In 1998 it was 150 million, 1999 250 million and by 2000 it had crossed 350 million.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

thebarefootvc

JULY 3, 2016

Like any motivated entrepreneur, I started a company (in this case, an investment platform), to fill the gaps – which I also believed FPV was uniquely capable of filling. I am thankful to all of FPV’s early LPs, advisors and entrepreneurs who are an indispensable part of FPV’s mission and success to date. Below is a recap.

North America 40

North America Early Stage New York City Portfolio 40

thebarefootvc

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Like any motivated entrepreneur, I started a company (in this case, an investment platform), to fill the gaps – which I also believed FPV was uniquely capable of filling. I am thankful to all of FPV’s early LPs, advisors and entrepreneurs who are an indispensable part of FPV’s mission and success to date. Below is a recap.

North America 40

North America Early Stage New York City Portfolio 40

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 1, 2013

I invested in Silicon Valley from 1999-2003 and in NYC pre and post 2008 financial crisis. Given the growth of the Internet, fueled by smartphones and high speed broadband, it’s no surprise that the tech world has been awash in capital in the past few years. Two significant boom and bust cycles of the modern era.

Silicon Valley 84

Silicon Valley United States Portfolio Internet 84

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. Just as an additional disclosure, these are my thoughts, not that of First Round Capital, my employer.

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. Many people know Akamai as the purveyor of the Internet’s backbone.

Distribution 49

Distribution Lean Massachusetts Cofounder 49

Austin Startup

MAY 14, 2019

Coworking spaces strive to create an office experience for people who would not otherwise have an office such as freelancers, entrepreneurs, remote workers, and anyone who can work from home. People can pay for a membership to work from a shared workspace which often includes internet, coffee, desks, and other amenities. -

Austin 48

Austin Community Networking America 48

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

The Wall Street Journal is phasing out support of the Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) browser. Internet Explorer. Andreessen Horowitz is telling entrepreneurs it prefers situations where the founders have controlling stakes, reckoning that theyll be better able to resist outside distraction and focus on making great products.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Austin Startup

MAY 3, 2017

Today’s economy is substantially more freelance for one, but as it pertains to technology and innovative entrepreneurship, we find ourselves in an era that is bringing tech to traditional industries that have yet to have fully embraced what the internet has caused: data, connectivity, globalization, scalability, and efficiency.

Texas 48

Texas Startup Silicon Valley Bootstrapping 48

Scalable Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

And now all of a sudden you have got this global market of all these early adopters that have smartphones connected to the Internet, and they can just pick up their things and run with them. So it would seem like they are an antidote to, or at least less offensive than, social/consumer Internet companies are to the public markets.

Software Review 22

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Stock 22

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley San Diego Non-Compete 308

Scalable Startup

MAY 16, 2015

While the global financial crash of 2008 and the resulting Great Recession initially slowed job growth in Silicon Valley, the meteoric rise of smart phones and social media helped the tech industry as a whole to power ahead despite the near collapse of the global economy. A Variation on the Global Economic Crash of 2008?

San Francisco 20

San Francisco Silicon Valley California Oakland 20

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I thought about things I never had to as an entrepreneur: check size, ownership percentage, deal stage, portfolio construction and risk. So I encouraged entrepreneurs to think about raising their funds as quickly as they could because. I have a young entrepreneur friend who IMs me a lot. Don’t spend like it’s 1999.

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

In more than a decade of writing about the Internet and tech-enabled businesses I’ve learned that mobs don’t do nuance well. Decentralized Internet — This is perhaps the most unsexy part of cryptocurrency but the one that most purists I follow on this topic are most excited about.

Government 280

Government Distribution Stock United States 280