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How to Decrease the Odds That Your Startup Fails

Both Sides of the Table

Most of this advice boils down to an argument in favor of basic planning before starting a company or raising money. In many ways the fact that it has become so cheap to start a company and relatively cheap to raise angel/seed money that we as an industry have gotten lazy on basic planning. Incumbent Strengths & Weaknesses.

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This Week in VC with @VCMike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures

Both Sides of the Table

When he entered the industry he caught the tail end of the dot com bubble and then was immediately thrust into a 3-year period of “triage&# where VC’s had to deal with problems in portfolio companies. So how is Mike able to do this at a time where others have warned against taking seed money from VC funds?

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Understanding the Risks of VC Signaling

Both Sides of the Table

Chris Dixon provided some commentary on Twitter that he believes I missed “the most important point about fund size.&# He’s specifically referring to his point of view that entrepreneurs shouldn’t take seed money from “big VC’s&# (he defines them as > $100 million). You raised angel money.

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A conversation with Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz, author and speaker at Lean Startup Conference 2019

Startup Lessons Learned

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have.

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The Future of Web Startups

www.paulgraham.com

In the last batch of startups we funded, we had several founders who said theyd thought of applying before, but werent sure and got jobs instead. This is a problem for founders, because it makes raising money take longer and cost more in legal fees. Founders and investors have different attitudes to risk.

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