Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. Before I started my first company in 1999 I worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). One of the things I noticed was that when really talented people – The “A players&# – wanted to quit, the firm would quickly scramble to try and keep that person from resigning. Suddenly it was star treatment and all sorts of promises about the future.

San Francisco 322

San Francisco South Africa CTO Hire Fractional CTO 322

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. My blog was wiped out. I am very grateful to my friend Zoli Erdos for finding this retro posting for me at web.archive.org.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Turn Your Organization Inside Out. This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. The world has changed much since I started my first company in 1999. As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. In the first 4 years of running BuildOnline we were an “Outside In&# organization.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. In the second post I argued that as of September 2009 the pace of VC investments has increased rapidly (at least for software / Internet investments – the only sector on which I’m competent to comment), but only for those remaining VCs who have new enough funds and aren’t plagued by “the triage problem.&# This is a direct result of innovat

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Start-up Lessons.&#. Recently I wrote a blog post about how I hated losing, but I embrace it. My starting line with every entrepreneur is that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned from F’ing it up on my first business. I even put that in the the preamble to my Start-up Lessons outline.

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Venture Capital Campaign Software Review Technical Review 247

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. I recently wrote a post on how to Deal with your Elephants in the Room during your VC meetings. Elephants being big issues that the VC will be thinking whether you bring it to his/her attention or not. My advice with Elephants was that you need to take them head on in your first VC meeting because the VC is already thinking about the issue whether you bring it up or not.

Technical Review 311

Technical Review Venture Capital Due Diligence Partner 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. It’s very tempting. It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company. It’s done partly in hopes of gaining their wisdom but it’s also done to portray the company in a positive light through association.

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Advisory Board Startup Equity Valuation 306

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. 2. Street Smarts - OK, so you’re a tenacious person – you never give up.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. I then covered Street Smarts. 3. Ability to Pivot – I don’t like to invest in people that I’ve never met before who come through my office wanting to have a term sheet within 30

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Term Sheet Early Stage Affiliate 291

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. Yesterday I had lunch with a really interesting and capable serial entrepreneur who is raising his A round. The topic of &# strategic&# investors came up. It felt like Groundhog Day because I have this conversation again and again – literally dozens of times each year. And I had 2 “strategic&# investors in my first company.

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Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2009

The topic of whether in-stream advertising has heated up. I just read well written pieces on the topic by Ross Kimbarovsky , Robert Scoble , Paul Carr and the NY Times. I myself recently covered the topic when I spoke about why GRP Partners invested in Ad.ly. Let me lay out my defense of In-Stream Advertising because I believe the topic is really important. 1.

Advertising 277

Advertising Technical Review Affiliate SEM 277

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants &# then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. It’s called “The Elephant in the Room&# and there’s a lot of truth in this adage.

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Venture Capital Due Diligence Flash Strategic Investors 264

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry. Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

Montgomery & Co Projects Deal Volume to Grow by 167% in Just 2 Years with No End to Growth in Sight. On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA).

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Start-up Lessons that I learned from founding two companies. I HATE LOSING. I hate it. I really, really, really hate it. It chaps my hide. It rips at my core. I don’t get over it easily. I lose sleep. I fucking hate losing. I think about it for months, often years. But I embrace losing. It is how I learn.

Software Review 151

Software Review Technical Review Silicon Valley France 151

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2009

The post is part of a series called “Pitching a VC&# – the outlines is here. You’ve been trying to raise VC for months. You’ve obviously talked with several funds to hedge your bets. You finally get your first term sheet. Time to celebrate! But wait. What? They’re giving me 48 hours to sign the term sheet or it expires?

Term Sheet 197

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 197

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X&# or not. I usually pull the old trick of answering a question with a question. My reply is usually, “is it time for you to earn or to learn?&#. Let’s face it.

Stock Options 418

Stock Options Stock Liquidation Preference Option Pool 418

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. Nearly all of the mistakes I made at my first company I fixed by the time of my second company. This is the only mistake I repeated twice and it is a mistake that I see many, many companies make. I know that this advice won’t apply to every possible startup – but I think it applies to many.

Startup 389

Startup Early Stage Demand Channel 389

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons.&# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow [.]. Tags: Start-up Advice startup.

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RSS Email Startup 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I had to laugh a bit reading it.

NPV 337

NPV Chicago Balance Sheet Database 337

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series of posts. I heard Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital say these words at a conference in London nearly 10 years ago. I jotted the words down (I normally pay little attention to anything said at conferences. Most of it is BS) and thought about them much over the years. I later learned that the quote was taken from somewhere else ( perhaps as early as the 13th century!

Silicon Valley 333

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Entrepreneur Naming 333

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons Building companies is hard work. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. We also had facilities in Dublin, Ireland where our company was initially founded. We went through the euphoria of massive exposure at the time of our [.]. Tags: Start-up Advice.

Ireland 332

Ireland Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences.

Email 322

Email Hosting Boston Partner 322

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1.

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Sales Sales Cycle Startup Reputation 319

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks. Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to [.]. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

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Venture Capital Technology Startup 316

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons”. Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. Worth a read on how to maximize the traffic that comes to you site since much of it will be fleeting.

South Africa 310

South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and [.]. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice.

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Hosting Media 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2009

This is part of my blog series “Pitching a VC.&#. I’ve sat through a lot of VC pitches and having been CEO of an enterprise software firm for many years I’ve also sat through many customer meetings with sales teams. There is one classic mistake that I see across both types of meetings – “the tell & [.]. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

Sales 292

Sales Venture Capital Software Technology 292

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 4, 2009

There is much confusion on how to use the Twitter @ sign – even amongst daily Twitter users. So as part of my ongoing series Twitter Insights , I wanted to cover how the @ actually works (even experienced users may be surprised by some of the points). The basics: 1. When you use the @username (e.g. @msuster for me) the message you write appears in my @msuster inbox on Twitter.com and on any of the desktop or mobile clients.

Social Network 291

Social Network Social Media Valuation Naming 291

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. He had pitched me in the past and I told him that for a variety of reasons his company was too early stage for me but that I would happily keep track of their progress.

PR 291

PR Bankruptcy Venture Capital Acquisition 291

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 21, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. I then covered Street Smarts , Ability to Pivot , Resiliency and Inspiration.

San Jose 290

San Jose Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Los Angeles 290

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder. If you’ve read my blog for a while you’ll know that I’m a fan of starting businesses in a non-traditional way. I recommend that you start a company by yourself and own 100% of it.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. I then covered Street Smarts , Ability to Pivot and Resiliency.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Early Stage Leadership Salary 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Many people agreed and added that even the best sales meetings are also discussions and not pitches. A few weeks ago I sat through two very contrasting presentations and wrote this blog post right afterward.

Seed Stage 288

Seed Stage Advertising Widget Video 288

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2009

I sometimes think that certain advice is BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) and doesn’t warrant mentioning. But then people’s actions tell me otherwise. I wrote recently about etiquette when you meet people at conferences or events so now that I have this done I feel I need to say some words about connecting on social networks. Let’s start with a discussion of existing social networks and then how to approach people on them.

Social Network 282

Social Network Networking Warrant Conversion 282

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. This post covers the day after. I spoke about the topic on Fox Business News yesterday in a great session with TechCrunch50 winner RedBeacon and will post it along with my other VC Videos when Fox puts it on their website.

Campaign 277

Campaign Email Venture Capital Term Sheet 277

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about comments lately. I recently wrote a post about how to get access to people at conferences and how to connect with people on social networks. These posts encouraged groups of people to provide their thoughts on these topics. As usual we began a dialog with lots of people sharing their points of view. Arnold Waldstein , who stops by periodically on my blog and always leaves relevant comments, made the observation that, “if I want to connect with you, I

Social Network 276

Social Network Networking RSS Vertical 276