Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. In the essay below, I outline some of the reasons I believe that an MBA isn’t the best path for prospective entrepreneurs.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance, and planning. The founder of what became General Motors was William (Billy) Durant.

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Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

bizthoughts.mikelee.org

MARCH 8, 2012

BizThoughts Thoughts about business, technology, the web & entrepreneurship About Booklist Contact Nov 15 2011 Finding a Technical Cofounder By Mike Lee Categories: Entrepreneurship , Leadership Since I have a technical background, I get about one offer a month to join some engineering team, or to be a technical cofounder.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 40

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

I don’t recommend anyone become an entrepreneur. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Prior to founding Andela , he co-founded 2U , an education technology startup that went public in 2014.

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Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Nearly every major Silicon Valley venture-capital firm has now invested in a B Corp ; maybe you will be one of them! Our program mixes the best of both Washington and Silicon Valley, bringing together stakeholders in policy and technology to train the next generation of policy entrepreneurs. Aspen Tech Policy Hub.

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Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

On the heels of our research on HBS entrepreneurs , NextView’s Dimitri Dadiomov (HBS ’15) interviewed several top founders on the early stages of their companies. Matt Prince , Co-Founder and CEO, CloudFlare (Web performance and security to protect and accelerate websites; $72.1

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Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

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Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

My mom was an entrepreneur – she was kind of my inspiration for entrepreneurship. I got a job at a bank, and I worked in their corporate finance group. There was one in Silicon Valley, unsurprising, one in Chicago, and there was this group out of the south of France that served all of Europe.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things. Founder’s perspective.

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Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 19, 2019

Andy Rachleff co-founded the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital in 1995. Meanwhile, we recently talked with him about his thoughts on 35 years in Silicon Valley, why the skill sets of venture capitalists and CEOs are so different, and why telling a good story about your product is so crucial. Employees are not entrepreneurs.

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Silicon Valley Lean Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation 159

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

Dan is the co-founder of Standard Treasury, a Y Combinator backed company. He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. It is the entrepreneurs that are singing their heart out, playing the instruments, et cetera. On Sushi and VC. We’re in the first bucket.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

ReadWriteStart

MAY 22, 2023

According to Rolf Illenberger, co-founder of VRdirect, a virtual reality platform in Munich, none of the big European tech companies are currently relevant to the future of the Metaverse. Europe has also lagged behind the US in venture to finance. However, he also admits that they face major challenges.

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The Next Web

MAY 13, 2013

If you’re a student and aspiring startup founder, you’re going to want to pay close attention to the following. On top of that, there will be weekly pitch sessions with a host of mentors, obligatory startup visits and regular talks from top entrepreneurs and investors from the Bay Area. Image credit: Thinkstock.

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Silicon Valley United States Europe Cofounder 157

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Bigfoot Capital. Key elements: .

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Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Version One Ventures

MAY 24, 2016

Just a few years ago, if you wanted to do something big, you needed to go to Silicon Valley. billion in financing in 2015 (with 395 deals). A few years ago, Boris wrote that something special was happening in the Toronto-KW corridor (for those of you non-Canadians, that would be like SF and the Valley).

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Silicon Valley San Francisco Startup DC 113

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

This week's One Million by One Million roundtable was our 75th session, and we worked today with three entrepreneurs from the Midwest region of the United States. Our co-host for the program was TiE Midwest, based in Chicago. The discussion today was around Social Media financing and go-to-market strategy.

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Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2018

It’s stocked with free food, drinks and wifi but the real reason you want to be there is because we’ve curated all of the top entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators at SXSW and invited them to stop by. Then ask questions of our panel of experts and mix and mingle with other EdTech entrepreneurs visiting for SXSW.

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Technical Review Austin Texas Cofounder 89

View from Seed

MARCH 1, 2016

I find it intriguing that species not only evolve against their environment, but their environment co-evolves simultaneously against them. When you look at a biological ecosystem, the creatures in it have spent thousands and thousands of years co-evolving against one another in a careful dance. A nice account of Stuart’s story is here.

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Founder Technical Review Cofounder Non-Compete 120

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

3 Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a Cofounder – [link]. If there’s one video 1st time founders should watch to understand VC financing it’s this one – [link]. 3 Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a Cofounder – [link]. 10 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From High School Seniors – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. Welcome to the Internet bubble.)

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Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. She found non-traditional financing. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. Without this money she wouldn’t have been able to finance operations. More on that later.

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Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur Startup 363

mashable.com

JUNE 11, 2013

Or maybe the co-founders have a poisonous relationship that will hinder the companys growth. Lucky for you, time-strapped entrepreneur, weve gathered some tips from the pros to help you avoid some of the most common, game-ending mistakes committed by young startups. Some startups are destined for failure. Hiring Poorly.

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Cofounder Technical Review Startup Software Review 111

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Knowing these will help a founder position her pitch to get investors’ attention. Founders need to keep their eye on the prize — not just the next funding round. Step 5: Series, C, D….

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Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner with questions about funding your small business? Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going. My name is John Bates.

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Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Malaysia will see over 500 youth descend on its capital Kuala Lumpur this October for Global Startup Youth (GSY) , a three-day idea accelerator program aimed at helping young entrepreneurs shape and launch new projects that will hopefully evolve into sustainable global businesses.

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Malaysia Global United Kingdom New Zealand 229

Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

Developers, designers, and finance experts from around the world go through a rigorous process that includes live screening and weeks-long test projects before being invited to join Toptal’s network. Why did you prioritize finance over another capability? How did you come up with the idea for Toptal? Focus on what to focus on.

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Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Cofounder 40

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. As founders, remind yourself that you aren’t ever alone.

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Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 110

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

Silicon Valley’s pay-it-forward culture means that others will help when you’re starting up. The show follows the journeys of founders sharing their experiences of what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Wayne Sutton. Dave Kashen.

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Silicon Valley North Carolina Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

Lightspeed Venture Partners

OCTOBER 7, 2012

I’ve been writing up reviews of this season’s Shark Tank pitches from a silicon valley VCs perspective. The founders were very sympathetic; a man, laid off from his job, and his very pregnant wife, who sold their house and investing $150k into the business and are working hard to make a go of it. BACK 9 DIPS.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 110

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

. × At Greylock , my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. Entrepreneurs often ask me for help with their pitch decks.

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Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

So, I’d like to start by sharing the story of a female entrepreneur who did experience VC funding success—but still also felt the impact of the biases held by the industry. According to Fortune , in 2006, female founders were involved in only 2.95 Teams of male and female founders and the implication for team composition.

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Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

The Next Web

MARCH 2, 2014

As European talent in the form of startups and entrepreneurs continue to flock towards the USA, the question remains: why? Many entrepreneurs claim that there’s just not enough money, and that investors in Europe fear failure. But it stifles those with the potential to be great entrepreneurs. Is it attitude or is it money?

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Europe South Korea San Francisco Portugal 163

Cracking the Code

JULY 14, 2020

This new financing of $225m valuing the company at a post-money of $10.2B This success is the testament of the hard work and relentless ambition of the founder, Daniel Dines and his co-founder Marius Tirca. It shows that innovation can come from anywhere in the continent and “Silicon Valley” is a state of mind.

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Silicon Valley Europe Cloud Romania 71

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2013

Amsterdam-based startup accelerator Rockstart last year launched a program to find and support ten teams of startup founders in Europe. Of the ten startups in the inaugural 2012 class, four have raised follow-on funding to date, and one even reached the break-even point and expanded to Silicon Valley.

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Silicon Valley Europe Venture Capital Incubator 231

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2013

I’m sure you know, but Elon was the co-founder (and largest shareholder) of PayPal, the most important payment transfer technology of its era and still the most instrumental to date. This made my friend Dorrian Porter ‘s KickStarter initiative to create a statue of Tesla in Silicon Valley even more poignant.

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Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Video 315

Start Up Blog

OCTOBER 11, 2018

The Silicon Valley ethic now runs deep – despite the current tech-lash. Access to knowledge, finance, manufacturing, promotional tools, distribution, logistics, publishing, you name it. If entrepreneurs do that, then they might have a better chance to scale and actually change more than their suburb. To self-fund.

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Startup Silicon Valley Cofounder Distribution 144

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Founder Dialogues : Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event that has featured Boston’s BEST founders. OnStartups: One of the largest online startup communities founded by HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah. Babson Entrepreneur Resource Center. University Resources: MIT 100K. MIT Start Lab.

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Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71