Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

The Innovation Portfolio. Companies manage these three types of innovation with an innovation portfolio – they build innovation internally, they buy it or they partner with resources outside their company. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies?

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Genuine VC

AUGUST 27, 2015

Tales become legends about founders of exceptionally transformative companies who truly struggled to get any investors’ attention early on. These rejection emails to the founder of Airbnb represent just one of the most recent example of this familiar theme. A long-standing relationship with a founder and her ability to execute.

Software Review 100

Software Review Portfolio Framework Distribution 100

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We had another solid year filled with learning, growth, laughter, and new projects and partners. Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. ABM/Demand Gen), Richard Crowley (Slack, Ops Architect), Misha Brukman (JanusGraph, co-founder).

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

2017 was another year of growing, learning, investing and partnering with amazing founders. Once again, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work with so many amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, and other collaborators to bring the boldstart family together. Our partners include IBM and one unannounced Fortune 50.

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

How to Scale Unicorns With Partner David Zhang, TVC. Joining us for this episode is our partner David Zhang, Partner at TCV (( Technology Crossover Ventures ). I’m a partner at TCV, which we founded in 1996. So, think of the typical two founders with a pitch book in a garage. Jonathan Siddharth . David Zhang.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest. Focus on capital efficient, scalable startups and founders.

Early Stage 287

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 287

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

For example, Coke added snack foods, which could be distributed through its existing distribution channels. If they don’t, then the management team has simply become caretakers of the founders’ legacy. Third, smart companies manage an innovation portfolio where they can pursue potential disruption in a variety of ways.

Private Equity 326

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 326

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Biggest Advice I Give to Portfolio Founders? Food production and distribution, group collaboration, remote training or education, sensor technology (tracking people movement, temperatures, etc), certain biotech deals. But when a fund writes checks into a portfolio company it typically “reserves” money to invest in future rounds.

Marketing 263

Marketing Valuation Churn Rate Balance Sheet 263

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

“I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining [New Firm] as a Partner where I will continue to invest in great Founders across the industries I care about.”. “I In any professional service industry, there is natural shuffling in the junior roles, as the race up the pyramid towards a Partner title is like musical chairs.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

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. Boston Hardware Startup Meetup – Meetup organized by the founders of BOLT.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Version One Ventures

APRIL 20, 2021

Filebase is very much an API-as-a-marketplace – similar to our portfolio companies Shippo and Patch. Decentralized storage networks are among the most distributed and secure networks in the world, but they can also require custom development and complex integration. It’s not simple. P.S.: Filebase is hiring !

API 102

API Portfolio Distribution Networking 102

David Teten

JANUARY 11, 2020

They’re taking a $1m check from me, or giving $5m to me as a limited partner. We market to four populations: High-potential founders. Other coinvestors: Limited partners, other VCs who are coinvestors, private equity funds which are potential growth-stage investors, etc. Jourdan Urbach, Managing Partner of Brandt & Co.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Media Private Equity 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

You can stop making new investments, but it will take years to actually work through your active portfolio companies. It’s been incredibly rewarding to be able to offer relevant advice or a connection at the right time and to see when a founder builds on that key turning point and it leads to success. No more founder pitch meetings.

Later Stage 218

Later Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Limited Partner 218

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2020

The simple truth is that all venture capitalists have told their portfolio Founder/CEOs that if they don’t absolutely need to raise capital now that they shouldn’t be out there attempting to do so. If founders must raise now, or soon, then there are three approaches to addressing the current situation. Wait until fall.

Early Stage 227

Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio Distribution 227

Genuine VC

JULY 19, 2010

Micro VCs will continue to come in many flavors with slightly different strategies, but there are a few distinctive defining characteristics: On a per partner basis, each investor is investing less than $25M in any given fund. The capital deployment velocity is notably higher than a traditional 1-2 investment per partner per year.

Seed Stage 175

Seed Stage Technical Review Dilution Offshore 175

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

If you are going to do the tour up and down Sandhill Road to try and raise your 1st round of financing you need a pitch deck because the vast majority of those meetings you are going to be sitting around a table and you will be presenting to one or more partners and that is going to be your first engagement.”. Distribution.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

At a startup, this can be as simple as defining why the founder started the company in the first place. It helps them audit existing content portfolios (blog posts, landing pages, etc.) CXL’s founder, Peep Laja, has a specific “reason why” his company Wynter exists. and identify ways they can optimize them for better results.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Non-Compete Audience 109

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

Companies pursuing innovation can Buy, Build, Partner or use Open Innovation. Here the company executes a known business model (known customers, product features, competitors, pricing, distribution channel, supply chain, etc.) Horizon 3 is focused on unknown business models. Horizon 1 is the company’s core business. Do it Again!?

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2021

You can read the update from the company’s CEO Zach here , and we are excited to be partnering with our friends at Flybridge and Long Journey on this investment. . The founders are steep-slope, magnetic learning machines. I’m very excited to announce our investment in YAA.

Distribution 156

Distribution Community Software Partner 156

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2021

You can read the update from the company’s CEO Zach here , and we are excited to be partnering with our friends at Flybridge and Long Journey on this investment. . The founders are steep-slope, magnetic learning machines. I’m very excited to announce our investment in YAA.

Distribution 156

Distribution Community Software Partner 156

Hunter Walker

JUNE 29, 2014

I’m suprised how many founders – even multiple time entrepreneurs – are unfamiliar with the institutional investors that back most of the major venture funds. At Homebrew’s first annual meeting this past spring we invited founders and fund advisors to a dinner with our four major LPs.

Founder 99

Founder Institutional Investors Silicon Valley Portfolio 99

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 1, 2011

Bryce Roberts , a partner at O?Reilly Chris McCann is the co-founder of StartupDigest , the members-only guide to the tech startup world. Dave argues that instead of providing connections you should let founders do 95% of the work and offer support with operational areas of expertise like design, data and distribution.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Due Diligence Cofounder Startup 123

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

I’m excited to let you know that David Norris joined us today as my Partner. He’s been COO of some amazing businesses, including HouseTrip and LiveBookings, and will now help our founders succeed just as he helped the founders of those companies. Today I am proud to join Forward Partners as a VC.

Partner 91

Partner Early Stage Business Model HTML 91

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2022

It’s a tough time for a lot of startup founders right now. This is not meant to be a negative post, but rather a temperature check of today’s market environment and the levers founders can pull on to survive this period. The pressure to protect portfolio startups seen as potential fund returners will be profound.

Founder 173

Founder Technical Review Down Round Liquidation Preference 173

Genuine VC

AUGUST 3, 2012

For us, the investment is certainly fresh and newest in our portfolio, but it also feels familiar. CEO Anne Raimondi and my partner Rob were colleagues together at eBay in the early 2000’s before she went on the lead product and/or marketing at many household internet names like Zazzle, InsiderPages, and SurveyMonkey.

Seed Stage 199

Seed Stage Cofounder Portfolio Curation 199

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 24, 2017

In addition, we were lucky enough to finally find reliable partners, thus adding a few more services to our portfolio – like Locksmith and Childcare. We finally found a reliable partner and I am very confident that this service will be as successful as the others we deliver. Thanks to Craig Wolfe, CelebriDucks ! #15-

Las Vegas 88

Las Vegas Entrepreneur Software Review Community 88

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

It’s hard enough to get a job at a venture capital or private equity firm; it’s even more complex to join as a Partner. Sean Seton-Rogers, Partner, Profounders Capital, breaks the conversation into three areas: Control: voting/veto for new deals, share of management company. So assessing fit is critical. What should the firm do?

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Partner 60

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

This alumni network of YC founders became extremely helpful & influential, both online and off, and in many ways began bearing some resemblance to a modern-day guild – an association or union of craftsmen, or in this case a union of startups & startup founders that was unlike any other.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I’m a female founder. I don’t have a technical co-founder. These are all of the things I heard from a founder that I recently backed. So what about all of the above statements—things that founders widely hold to be true barriers to fundraising? It’s the “hook” that gets a team noticed in a partner meeting.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

www.allthingsdistributed.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

All Things Distributed Werner Vogels weblog on building scalable and robust distributed systems. When John Brockman ,founder of Edge , interviewed NathanMyhrvold his first question was “ What’s a CTO ”,to which Nathan replied: “Hell if I know. I am posting it here as it might be of generalinterest.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Syndicate Syndication 40

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) No newly hired sales and marketing exec is going to tell a founder, “Hey my prior experience and assumptions may not actually be relevant to this new startup.” This means the founders are isolated from directly hearing customer input – good, bad and ugly.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

The other half is more distributed, but consists on tools for content creation and distribution and finally a minority of tools focused on admin tools (fintech, managing the business, back office, etc). Pre-seed founders building interesting tech in the creator economy space? To understand the trends, follow the money.

Startup 207

Startup Social Media Venture Capital Audio 207

Lightspeed Venture Partners

DECEMBER 10, 2014

When Avi Networks founders Umesh Mahajan, Murali Basavaiah, and Ranga Rajagopalan first came to Lightspeed in 2012 with their vision of bringing the benefits of a hyperscale approach to application delivery and layer 4-7 services, it made perfect sense to us.

Architecture 121

Architecture Stealth Agile Distribution 121

K9 Ventures

DECEMBER 22, 2021

The audience can be either external (customers, partners, developers) or internal (employees). The idea is that the company can very easily and quickly create high-quality podcasts for distributing to these audiences as first-party content. Theo Miller , the founder of Hit Start Media was an early Carta employee.

Media 62

Media Audience Distribution Product Development 62

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Union Square Ventures The next morning I got to spend time with Brad Burnham , partner at Union Square Ventures talking about their investment strategy and insights about web-based businesses. Bill and his partner Fred Wilson have invested in ~30 or so companies with 27 still active. It’s an impressive portfolio.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223