David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. Traditional venture investing is challenging. My friend sat in the conference room, and Cohen walked in. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. Traditional venture investing is challenging. My friend sat in the conference room, and Cohen walked in. – Thesis. – Execution.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Smart is simply not a differentiator. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. I would call their portfolio companies and ask how helpful or not they’ve been. And so is venture capital. Connections?

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Marketing with long payback is precisely what requires venture capital. They literally can’t respond to our core differentiator. That marketing can be PR or SEO or influencer distribution or other forms of “unpaid” marketing. That’s why Ring is amongst the fastest growing company in our portfolio.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Haystack

JUNE 5, 2018

Not yet profitable but invaluable to developers worldwide, the decade-old company bootstrapped, differentiated from formidable competitors GitLab and Atlassian’s BitBucket, weathered leadership upheavals, and eventually ingested lots of venture capital which helped them weather the challenges they faced.

Acquisition 71

Acquisition Azure Open Source Seattle 71

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

But the short answer is that the best intro is from a portfolio company of that VC or by other entrepreneurs whom that VC respects. You need to build genuine relationships with these portfolio startup founders as well as trust with them and the rest will follow. So why would raising venture capital be any different.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

However the VC’s are managing a portfolio while you, the entrepreneur are managing one company – yours. Your point about the VC portfolio model vs. the entrepreneur’s “portfolio of 1″ is one I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and have also discussed with many other entrepreneurs.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207