Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. NewTV will depend on partners like telcos to distribute the content. Lean was designed to inform the founders’ vision while they operated frugally at speed. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm. It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. This one is controversial.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Dear Brightly (a NextView portfolio company) provides a telemedicine-powered ecommerce experience for prescription-grade retinoids so consumers no longer need to take time off work to go see a dermatologist for 10 minutes just to obtain a prescription for the serum. appeared first on NextView Ventures.

Vertical 156

Vertical Software Review Portfolio Demand 156

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 195

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 195

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm. It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. This one is controversial.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

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. And as part of their transition to predictable processes, their founders may or may not still be at the helm.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Our portfolio company Top Hat just closed a $22.5M (USD) Series C round. They took an innovative approach to distribution. Top Hat adopted a bottoms-up approach to distribution, as covered in the Globe and Mail article: Sales took off after Top Hat ignored advice and flipped its sales strategy. They hustle.

Vertical 132

Vertical Technical Review Cofounder Sales Cycle 132

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

VC Cafe

MARCH 6, 2024

Calling Israeli startup founders in Interactive Entertainment, AI & Gaming! With the rapid advancement of generative AI, we’re seeing content creation, distribution and monetisation being disrupted faster than ever before. You may have noticed that the fundraising market for startups has slowed down. Not for us.

Artificial Inteligence 141

Artificial Inteligence Generative AI Startup Vertical 141

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. To that point, we are most excited when our founders are able to go from slide deck to product-market fit and Series A and beyond. AWS Reinvent Survivor Dinner with founders, Fortune 500 execs, and VCs.

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. 2017 Recap. 2 exits including yhat (sold to Alteryx?

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

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 118

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 118

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2024

At the time, this metaphor really rang true and resonated with both founders and LPs. VC’s across the board have generally upped their game and are much more involved in the startup ecosystem and with their portfolios. In the subsequent years, we moved away from this metaphor for a variety of reasons.

Merger 343

Merger Non-Compete Early Stage Venture Capital 343

Haystack

MAY 4, 2019

Today, I am excited to share some data on the Haystack portfolio as it relates to geography. Over the past year, and especially over the last few days, the Bay Area tech Twitter echo chamber has been tweeting about the advent of remote, or distributed, or satellite teams for their companies across the country and the world.

United States 87

United States Portfolio San Francisco New York City 87

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 70

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 70

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2017

by Joe Duncan, founder of Duncan Capital LP. PC and mobile interfaces dynamically display portfolio valuations and exposures, along with system-generated investment recommendations tailored to a specific client’s financial goals and risk appetite. At least for investment banks the answer is not so clear cut. Transaction Processing.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Software Review IPO 131

Version One Ventures

APRIL 26, 2021

The rapid transition to remote work also triggered dramatic changes across our portfolio and startups everywhere, most notably by collapsing geographic boundaries. Many of our portfolio companies were able to recruit incredible talent that they never would have had access to previously. . The entire world becomes your talent pool.

North America 126

North America Spain Seed Stage Distribution 126

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 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Years later Clavier's name now comes up all the time when one of his portfolio companies finds success; his exits include Mint, Tapulous, and UserPlane, other investments include Mashery (a ReadWriteWeb sponsor), Rapleaf, Fitbit, bitly, GroupOn, Twitter and many more. Are all co-founders equal, Clavier asked?

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Matt Blumberg, who runs one of Fred’s portfolio companies, Return Path, follows up with an additional three : Don’t be a bottleneck (make sure you aren’t holding up people’s work). But this isn’t restricted to distributed teams, multi-country environments or even large companies.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest. With a portfolio of at least 20 investments, or you are at risk of the adverse selection problem.) Focus on capital efficient, scalable startups and founders. Lessons Learned. Build $10-30M funds.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

You might have started searching for a tech-oriented co-founder to help you launch your idea, only to find that your startup can’t afford the ongoing salary for a skilled software developer. You could then distribute flyers asking potential customers to contact you about the service, and find out how many are interested.

Web 160

Web Silicon Valley Salary Demand 160

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

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

thebarefootvc

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

– Austin Hill , co-founder Blockstream (FPV’s newest portfolio company). The combination of mobile technology, sensors, robotics, and data analytics will create businesses that can empower billions of people around the world through decentralized and distributed networks where the “middlemen” are no longer required.

Kenya 109

Kenya Africa United States Global 109

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

kaChing launched a virtual portfolio management game on Facebook in January 2008 and a similar version shortly thereafter on kaChing.com. Because kaChing prefers its portfolio managers to have a long track record, the marketplace launch (i.e., A portfolio manager’s entire track record & holdings had to be disclosed.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

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.

API 102

API Portfolio Distribution Networking 102

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 1, 2020

As we do at the end of every quarter, we’ve summarized some of the key highlights and activities across our portfolio. . In addition, UNI arrived and was probably one of the largest token distribution events ever with 15% of all tokens going to nearly 300K liquidity providers and users. Announcements. Stay tuned!!

Portfolio 95

Portfolio Software Review Cofounder Canada 95

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

dominated by a few very large incumbents who control much of the distribution or are you going into a market that is “fragmented” where nobody controls the industry. That marketing can be PR or SEO or influencer distribution or other forms of “unpaid” marketing. Competition. Validate data. ”

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Following the inevitable ups and downs of the VC investment cycle, and what founders can do when it all turns cold. Normal distributions do not exist; standard deviations are meaningless. The “venture recession” of 2016 is in full swing. Combined with the usual summer slowdown, some are already raising the spectre of 2001 or 2008.

Harvest 60

Harvest Vertical IPO Early Stage 60

Genuine VC

DECEMBER 3, 2014

The benefits have been touted previously : an anchor for attracting and retaining talent in Boston, as well as a breeding ground for the next set of great Boston entrepreneurs and founders. I can’t tell you how many pitch decks from local startups I’ve received over the past decade that barely even touch upon the key subject of distribution.

Boston 279

Boston IPO B2B Cofounder 279

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

David Teten

JANUARY 11, 2020

We market to four populations: High-potential founders. High-potential prospective employees of portfolio companies. Executives of large companies which may acquire or become clients of our portfolio companies. Distributing content. We don’t worry too much about marketing to the broader world, who are less relevant. .

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Media Private Equity 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

Here the company executes a known business model (known customers, product features, competitors, pricing, distribution channel, supply chain, etc.) And we can use Lean Metrics ( Investment Readiness Level and Technology Readiness Levels ) and Lean Portfolio management tools to provide rigor to go/no go funding decisions. Do it Again!?

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120