Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. The music stops. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

It’s also meaningless if they had four $200 million funds and the last one they closed was in 2000. Unfortunately over the period of 2000-2010 the VC industry hasn’t performed well and therefore the number of funds going forward is likely to reduce greatly. And funds also have investments from the partners of the firm.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Some disgruntled younger partners left to go start a new firm in 1965 called Greylock. Some disgruntled younger partners left in the 90s to form what is now Redpoint Ventures (IT team) and Versant Ventures (healthcare team). Big success was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in which ARD invested about $2.1M

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. On July 27th, 2001 Accenture IPO’s and many of the partners grew fabulously wealthy. “Reality is, at the seed stage, most rocketships look more like the cardboard variety you’d make as a kid than something NASA developed.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

I was an early employee at PayPal and back in the 2000-2001 timeframe, and we ended up taking a fairly significant amount of strategic investment (tens of millions of $) from various banks in the US, Europe, and Asia. All things being equal, seed and early stage startups are not usually well suited to take strategic investments.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 13, 2012

He is on the board of the Angel Resource Institute, and is a partner with Montlake Capital (a late stage growth capital fund) and with Revenue Capital Management (a royalty based lender). Conventional wisdom dictated that they made reckless investments in very early-stage ventures mostly doomed to fail. and the U.K.,

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 103