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

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. Patience is a virtue.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

Genuine VC

AUGUST 27, 2015

My partner Lee likes to talk about successful fundraising as “ finding the believers, not convincing the skeptics.” When I think to the best performing companies in our NextView portfolio, the investment process was driven by (at least) one of the three of us who became a true believer. And it wouldn’t be an opportunity.

Software Review 100

Software Review Portfolio Framework Distribution 100

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. Patience is a virtue.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 2, 2018

Headout announced their $10M Series A , led by Nexus Venture Partners and V1. Cleargraph (Distributed Systems) joined Coinbase to continue their work on human-friendly decentralized identity. We’re particularly proud and excited for this development, as it’s two portfolio companies joining forces!

Portfolio 113

Portfolio Metadata Acquisition Distribution 113

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. Welcome to our annual boldstart recap and enterprise predictions letter. First check to Series B?—?congrats

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. However, they have been sending VCs far more investment checks in the last ten years than they’ve gotten back as distributions.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

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. What guidance for your portfolio companies? We have multiple companies in our portfolio.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

2017 was another year of growing, learning, investing and partnering with amazing founders. 6 portfolio companies raised Series A financings including Manifold , Hypr , and 4 unannounced, 1 raised a Series B (unannounced), and Security Scorecard raised a $28mm Series C. Our partners include IBM and one unannounced Fortune 50.

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 7, 2013

The new software offering expands Intel’s extensive portfolio of datacenter computing, networking, storage and intelligent system products.

Distribution 154

Distribution Software Open Source Framework 154

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. The market for our product was global, and we had unique advantages in terms of our product and how we distributed it to customers. If the companies in their portfolio don’t have much in common with yours, it’s usually better to look elsewhere.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

So here’s the solution I have recommended to some of my portfolio companies: “ agile budgeting ”, i.e., monitoring a few key variables while giving managers significant flexibility. Without systems in place to manage distributed spending, finance teams will leave money on the table.”. Guest contributed to Techcrunch.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Silicon Valley 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

They are tasked with “getting deals done&# so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. I love that saying.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

For example, Coke added snack foods, which could be distributed through its existing distribution channels. Third, smart companies manage an innovation portfolio where they can pursue potential disruption in a variety of ways. Fourth and finally is disruptive innovation – this is the innovation we associate with startups.

Private Equity 326

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 326

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. I visited Bend last year and caught up with his progress.

Early Stage 287

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 287

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition. So if it’s not necessarily revenue that’s preventing an investment, then WTF is traction?

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

And additionally, my partners and I use other, more differentiated, lenses like asking if a startup has an “ unfair distribution advantage.” has become a mantra here at NextView over the past few years after we were introduced to the concept by one of our portfolio CEOs. Asking “Is it JDCC?” Go (re)read that post.

Boston 149

Boston B2B Early Stage Portfolio 149

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

JANUARY 18, 2022

But the portfolio of options available to Admiral Nimitz and President Roosevelt were not limited to battleships. If you look at the Navy force structure today and its plan for the next decade, at first glance you might say they have a diversified portfolio and a plan for more. woke up on Dec.

Agile 379

Agile China Artificial Inteligence Taiwan 379

David Teten

JANUARY 11, 2020

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

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Media Private Equity 60

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

So that we’re speaking the same language I would define “exclusive” as a period in which your company is prohibited from doing business with certain customers or business partners, which is why many incorrectly assume this is necessarily bad. Why Exclusivity Matters to Your Customers or Business Development Partners.

PR 150

PR Early Stage Software Naming 150

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

Pascal's View

MARCH 12, 2010

Susan Mangiero , CEO of Investment Governance’s Fiduciary X , asked me the following: Question: Please differentiate between the governance of a VC fund versus the governance of companies in a VC fund’s portfolio? An important question to ask is, do the partners evaluate themselves and each other on an annual basis or at all?

Government 28

Government Portfolio Technical Review Due Diligence 28

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Custommade – Marketplace for Customer Products (NextView Portfolio Company). GrabCAD – 3D Community and Collaboration (NextView Portfolio Company). Gridco Systems – Power Distribution Systems (backed by General Catalyst and Northbridge). Insight Squared – SMB Business Intelligence (NextView Portfolio Company).

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

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

Version One Ventures

JULY 1, 2020

And while these past three months have been far from typical, there was a lot of activity across our portfolio. Lolli closed an oversubscribed $3 million Seed II round and continues to add partners weekly. . As we focus on staying safe and healing, we continue to look forward, keeping our heads down to build great companies. .

North Carolina 148

North Carolina Raleigh Stealth Seattle 148

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.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

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

Version One Ventures

APRIL 4, 2020

This time of year, we normally provide a portfolio update that highlights the various product launches, accolades and funding announcements from the past quarter. As such, we’d like to run through some of the “other” activities and accomplishments across our portfolio. . This has been the longest quarter ever. Coinbase pumped $1.1M

Dallas 130

Dallas Washington Portfolio Community 130

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

I’m excited to let you know that David Norris joined us today as my Partner. Today I am proud to join Forward Partners as a VC. Forward Partners, London. At Forward Partners we look to invest in early stage tech businesses. I am truly excited about being instrumental in defining that model.

Partner 91

Partner Early Stage Business Model HTML 91

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. My partners and I have been impressed and perhaps not-so-surprised with the nimbleness and ingenuity in entrepreneurs’ response to the pandemic.

Early Stage 227

Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio Distribution 227

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. . And the company has been able to create an early distribution wedge through their excellent and authentic presence on Youtube that reaches millions of end users. .

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. . And the company has been able to create an early distribution wedge through their excellent and authentic presence on Youtube that reaches millions of end users. .

Distribution 156

Distribution Community Software Partner 156

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 14, 2019

It started out with initial investment size, pricing, and outcome behavior for each deal and then it made a prediction around the distribution of outcomes. A Time and Attention Model How much time will you be spending on each portfolio company? How long is your partner meeting going to be? Taking board seats? For how long?

LP 97

LP Due Diligence Portfolio Distribution 97

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

When they promise to help you with marketing, sales, distribution, integrated product development, etc. Make sure to reference check with other portfolio companies. As a VC I need to get buy-in from my partners when tough stuff comes up. it sure is tempting. And they probably have every intent of helping you.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279