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.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. No doubt they spent countless hours arguing for reduced burn rates sometimes with founders, sometimes with investors.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

This lasted from about 2001-2004. Finally, I do want to mention that Mike was the founder of DogPatch Labs , which has facilities in Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. Current round: $2mm Series B from Tomorrow Ventures (Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google) and Lars Hinrichs (Xing founder). Founded in Sunnyvale, CA in 2001.

San Francisco 230

San Francisco Los Angeles Cofounder SMS 230

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Founders however are asked to take low salaries and never really get back the time they worked for free.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

This is exactly what happened in the broader VC industry between 1999-2001 as many people without the requisite skills entered the industry. But with its growth and success it will encourage many people to enter the market who will lack 5 critical success criteria for earning positive returns. I could obviously go on.

Silicon Valley 306

Silicon Valley Deal Flow Angel Investor Cofounder 306

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. I am very grateful to my friend Zoli Erdos for finding this retro posting for me at web.archive.org. I had kept a personal blog for more than a year and was new at keeping a professional blog.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

The founder of Parachute, Ariel Kaye , had a clear vision for what she wanted to disrupt and how she thought she could do it. I will use some examples from Parachute and some other portfolio companies to give you examples from our experiences of watching successful brands grow.

Curation 296

Curation Los Angeles Differentiation Channel 296

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

We have an entire generation of startup founders who don’t have muscle memory from getting their burn rates back into shape from 2008/09 or 2001-2005. When things are hard the best leaders have teams that will rally around them. Some companies have to go first. Others will follow. But many of us have been there.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

when you missed your targets, when your co-founder quit, when the competition chose your competitor or when the other investors around the table lost confidence? My chips were down in late 2000 / early 2001. You’d be surprised how many ex-founders and ex-CEO’s you can find this way. When the world was ending?

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Term Sheet Cofounder Partner 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And people like Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, Dave McClure, Chris Sacca & Eric Paley (at Founder Collective) are leading the charge. Chris Sacca talked about how a $20 million exit can change a founder’s life and that shouldn’t be scoffed at. That’s awesome. I had two kids and a rental house.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. You’re a startup founder. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood. When my company hit the fan in 2001 I could have easily walked and gotten a better paying job. That’s OK.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I sat next to Irwin Jacobs (founder of Qualcomm) on a bus ride. 2001-2004 were very humbling but we built a real company. I had champagne in the private wine cellar of Bernard Arnault (the owner of LVMH, which in turn owns Dom Perignon). I was on CNN, who taped live from the event. I felt I had earned the right to be there.

South Africa 310

South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2015

It’s my hypothesis of why so many founding teams have 3-4 founders. I’ve seen many first-time founders who had fallings out with their co-founders, had lawsuits, had investors bail on them, lost market momentum. I saw this in 2001-2003 and in 2008-2010. I fund both types all the time. Yet failure smells.

South Korea 150

South Korea Italy Recapitalization Germany 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

My co-founder and other management team members wanted us to hold off and see whether we could get the deal done at a higher price. I lived through this again September 2001. My co-founder and other management team members wanted us to hold off and see whether we could get the deal done at a higher price. I was resolute.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. You need to build genuine relationships with these portfolio startup founders as well as trust with them and the rest will follow. It’s just a part of your ongoing activities as a founder. Always be fund raising.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

This was a reasonable achievement when you consider that it was 2001-02, one of the worst years to be selling enterprise software and we were selling it SaaS style, which was still evangelical back then. Let me tell you my story. In my first company we had achieved a small bit of scale. In our first year of sales we did $2.1 million.

Hiring 327

Hiring Startup Equity Sales 327

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice. Joel met his co-founder for Fog Creek software and learned a valuable management lesson. Lesson: Joel had been building a community of readers since 2001. But I loved reading them and so did my team.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

That is why I invited the Founder & CEO, Jonah Peretti , to come talk at the 2017 Upfront Summit and make the case himself. Around 2001 Jonah was studying at MIT Media Lab and began running experiments in viral stories in an era before smart phones (2007) and before social networks took off (2004–2007) and before YouTube (2005).

Media 210

Media Los Angeles Russia Viral 210