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MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Burstly, a Santa Monica based company, provides an open and free ad management platform that helps mobile application developers better monetize their inventory.

Mobile 282

Mobile Management Southern California Application Development 282

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APRIL 5, 2010

“Staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science&# (Thomas Friedman). I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Canada Green South Carolina 282

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NOVEMBER 22, 2010

I recently wrote about my philosophy of minimalism that “ less is more &# with the mantra “when in doubt, leave it out.&#. I’ve had a long-standing rule of thumb in product design, which I call “design for the novice, configure for the pro.&# I started saying this back in 2001/02, long before the era of Web 2.0, lean startups or even the advent of AJAX.

Design 325

Design AJAX Green Web Development 325

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I’ve had a post in my head for months – maybe longer – about the role of a CEO. It originally appeared on TechCrunch as a guest post but just in case you missed it there. My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. Both are basically people businesses.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

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JULY 16, 2010

Lots of discussion these days about the changes in the VC industry. Here’s my take: 1. 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. 2.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

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AUGUST 23, 2010

I was an early user of Quora and like all new technologies they take a bit of playing with them for a while, discussing them with others and reflecting on them to let them sink in. I’m no wall flower so when something doesn’t resonate I’m usually pretty vocal about it. With Quora , it was the opposite – something has always felt right but it took me a while to. really understand it.

Silicon Valley 301

Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Software Review 301

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JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. It was accept the terms or go into bankruptcy so we took the money.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

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DECEMBER 5, 2010

This blog post originally appeared in serialized form here on TechCrunch. This version is the shorter, ADHD version. If you came here via a direct link you might want to check out the more detailed full version on my blog, which is here. Social Networks: Past, Present & Future. I recently spoke at Caltech at the Caltech / MIT Enterprise Forum on “the future of social networking,&# the 30-minute video is here and the PowerPoint presentation is here on DocStoc ).

Social Network 297

Social Network Networking Internet EC2 297

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MARCH 5, 2010

I attended the inaugural Open Angel Forum in Los Angeles back in January and wrote about it here. Jason Calacanis started this initiative in response to the pay-to-play network of angel events that he despised. I’m a huge supporter of his initiative to help end this practice. The first event was a big success and brought out many of LA’s angel elite.

San Francisco 254

San Francisco Technical Review Los Angeles Software Review 254

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JANUARY 10, 2010

A couple of years ago I read the popular book, “The Four Hour Workweek &# by Tim Ferriss. It was recommended to me by my friend, Net Jacobsson , who was trying to do some basic Life Hacking. If you’re not familiar with the term it’s basically trying to help all of us who are deluged with technology to find ways to cope with the masses of information without having it ruin our lives.

France 295

France Spain Technical Review Hungary 295

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JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. 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 , Inspiration and Perspiration.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

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FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Nature vs. Nurture. You’ve all heard the question before. Let’s talk about kids for a moment. I grew up believing that human behavior was 20% nature, 80% nurture. Now that I have two boys (4 and 7) I’m convinced it’s the other way around. There’s no question that both factors are involved. There have been many studies done on the topic including looking at twins raised in separate families.

Silicon Valley 289

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur United States Leadership 289

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’ I initially didn’t agree with the premise of the post. Photo credit: D. Story/J. Blanchard/O’Reilly Media. I just re-read it and on second reflection, I’m surprised just how much I found myself in near TOTAL agreement with Paul.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

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OCTOBER 31, 2010

This article was originally posted in a much more concise version over GigaOm if you prefer the shorter version. This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback.

Sales 286

Sales PR Forecast Technical Review 286

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JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. We will continue to do more of this. If you want to watch the show click the image above or this link , but if you want a quick read – here’s a summary: 1.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

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JANUARY 16, 2010

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe. That’s always stuck with me. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. But when I read thoughtful pieces on the future of technology I start to imagine where our lives will be in 10 years.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Alabama Silicon Valley 278

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AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. They get premature merge elation. You know, they get so excited about doing deals all the time instead of doing the hard work of figuring out their businesses. I understand this. I was a premature merge elater once. Here’s what I learned: 1. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

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AUGUST 18, 2010

I suffer from the “urgency addiction.&# I know it sounds like one of the falsely humble things like telling somebody in a job interview that your weakness is that you’re too much of a perfectionist. But the urgency addiction is a bad thing that I’m fortunate enough to get away with. When I first discovered the concept I found it enlightening.

China 374

China Asia Email Technical Review 374

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APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. I’m writing this series because if you better understand how VC firms work you can better target which firms make sense for you to speak with. It in not uncommon to see a VC talk about “total assets under management&# as in “We have $1.5 billion under management.&# I don’t really understand why VCs do this since it’s mostly a meaningless number.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

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SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

I was recently involved with a company (not as an investor) where an embarrassing mistake was made. One of the leaders took a sort of “heads will roll&# approach. It’s not my company so I basically stayed out but tried to encourage him to think differently about the “punishment.&# I didn’t stick around for the repercussions so I hope the process was balanced.

Management 350

Management Employee Technical Review Warrant 350

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MARCH 15, 2010

If you use Twitter and think it is a valuable service then you’re probably tired of the steady stream of your friends who tell you it’s just a fad and they don’t feel compelled to join. They “don’t care what people ate for lunch.&# They’re fine on their existing social networks, which these days mostly means they’re happy with Facebook.

Social Network 347

Social Network Networking Southern California Term Sheet 347

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OCTOBER 12, 2010

A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. So I hope these posts will be useful to all and not just those who need road warriors.

Hiring 346

Hiring Sales Startup Early Stage 346

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AUGUST 26, 2010

There are times to fight. I must admit it’s part of my DNA to enjoy a good fight (not as much as does Jason Calacanis, mind you ahem: Facebook. Er: Comscore , Cough: Angel funding payola ). But there are times to given in and compromise. Don’t confuse the two. When you give in, do so graciously. Take the high road. Act and feel zen.

Demand 340

Demand Equity Reputation Hosting 340

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NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. Using Balsamiq instead of SnagIt, Website Optimizer over just Google Analytics and FTP). It’s a great topic, his post is well written and given that he’s going through it right now in his startup it’s worth reading his point of view on the topic.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

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MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. When the show has been processed it will be available here (estimated 8pm PDT).

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

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JULY 14, 2010

Yesterday I wrote a post about top-down versus bottom-up thinking. There is a corollary to that advice, which is “doing the right things is more important than doing things right.&# Sounds simple but in practice I promise you most organization fall into the latter trap. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

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JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed. Much of this is unfounded – some is not. If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

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MARCH 6, 2010

One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “what’s it like being a VC?&# I’ve been a VC for nearly 3 years now. Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# That’s true.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Spain Warrant 312

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JUNE 6, 2010

The ability to ask questions effectively is one of the most important skills in business as is the ability to actively listen. Yet as important as these two skills are they really don’t seem to ever be taught in school. I wonder if more college students ought to take a journalism course for a semester or do an internship at their school newspaper in investigative reporting.

Churn Rate 311

Churn Rate Due Diligence Dividend Conversion 311

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NOVEMBER 14, 2010

It’s really hard to zig when the whole world seems to be zagging. One of my favorite quotes I learned in high school was: “Nonconformity is the Highest Form of Social Attainment&#. It was written as the yearbook quote of the smartest seniors as I was finishing my freshman year. It has always stood with me. I have had a low bullshit meter.

Florida 299

Florida Technical Review San Antonio Los Angeles 299

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JULY 26, 2010

Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. If you didn’t read that yet it might be worth having a quick skim as a primer. Social proof is defined as “looking for others to guide our decisions&# and is also one of the most important techniques in acquiring customers in your company.

Customer 294

Customer Marketing Technical Review Iowa 294

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AUGUST 24, 2010

Two days ago I wrote about Quora. I’ve been loving the product even if it sucks up some of my time. I prefer my time go into a very focused Q&A website than into a more generic Facebook. What Quora has done is wrap social networking around Q&A with the more clever next-gen UX I’ve seen. But my post today is not about Quora, it’s about an answer that I wrote on Quora.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Distribution Social Network Networking 294

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JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received book called “ Influence &# (which I plan to read). “Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is fille

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

OMG. This is super funny. I wrote the post below after work. I had to race to meet my wife for dinner & a movie (we have “date night&# once / week) and went to see Town (which was awesome). I figured I needed time to spell check and edit before publishing so I would hit publish when I got home. Wow! I returned to my house, flipped on my Mac and see AngelGate, The Sequel.

Entrepreneur 292

Entrepreneur Technical Review Stealth Valuation 292

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OCTOBER 29, 2010

I’m often asked by people, “how do I get into VC?&# and I normally respond by saying, “there is no easy path. It’s often a combination of luck, relationships & timing. Often these jobs aren’t even publicized.&#. Well, I know 3-4 VC jobs that are publicly available. GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles 290

Los Angeles Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 290

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JULY 12, 2010

There’s a famous line about consultants that clients love to repeat, “consultants take your watch and then tell you the time.&#. I suppose there’s some truth to that but of course it’s an over simplification. I used to work for Andersen Consulting (for > 8 years) – mostly building computer systems for large companies in the fixed telecoms, mobile and Internet sectors.

Startup 288

Startup Merger Technical Review Framework 288

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AUGUST 8, 2010

Around a month ago I heard people talking about Twitter’s bucket test ( definition ) of their new personalized suggested user list and this past week I actually got to experience it myself. The results for me have been excellent and in this post I’ll explain why this is critical to Twitter’s continued adoption. Twitter has implemented its recommended users on your Twitter.com home page as the “who to follow&# (see graphic above) and you have a list of two recommended peo

Algorithm 287

Algorithm Technical Review Hosting Conversion 287