Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that the pace of VC investments in early-stage technology companies has picked up in the past few months. I hear from several sources that Sequoia is very active in the market aggressively chasing several deals and even driving up prices on some early-stage deals.

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. Instagram happens to be one of the few social networks I regularly use along with Twitter. Clichés abound about, “You know what would be cool? Just checked their balance sheet.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We all know media companies are suffering as CPMs (the amount they can charge per thousand visitors) are falling, available inventory is climbing, free content and blogs are proliferating, user attention is being divided with social networks and the core media business cash cows like classified ads have been disrupted by companies like CraigsList.

Media 288

Media Advertising Early Stage Algorithm 288

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2009

On Facebook (and nearly all social networks that preceded it) the relationship was always reciprocal – if I accept your invitation to follow me then I have to follow you. I see many early-stage businesses pitching me today talking about solving this need. Facebook.

Conversion 235

Conversion Management Social Network Philadelphia 235

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

It’s not uncommon for incredibly smart and talented Phd’s or CS majors from Stanford to raise $10 million on an early-stage “platform&# that if it succeeds it will be huge. LA generally doesn’t have an appetite for this kind of investment at early stages. LA investors are more pragmatic.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. Web service that allows parents to monitor children’s activity on social networks in realtime for about $10/child/month. Total raised: $30mm.

San Francisco 230

San Francisco Los Angeles Cofounder SMS 230

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

We had an excellent opening panel on early-stage investing with Dave McClure (Founders Fund – NorCal), Brad Feld (Foundry Group, Boulder) and Andy Sack (Founders Co-Op, Seattle). From this crowd of 12 I believe you’ll see 4-5 companies with the potential to rise to prominence.

Silicon Valley 228

Silicon Valley Cofounder Hawaii Semantic 228

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital.

Founder 299

Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. We have lower costs to create companies – leading to more early stage innovation. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! People are connected all the time and when they’re mobile.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. Swipely is a social network orientated around users credit card transaction data. I think this episode is worth watching ( video is here ) but as always I’ll try to summarize for anybody short on time.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

In the era of social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook messaging, Quora and email addresses that are easily guessable, it’s easy to think that maybe you should just approach a VC directly. And trust me, if you’re early stage you DO want to meet Bryce. He’s awesome for early-stage entrepreneurs.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

Many VCs who do lots of seed stage deals are very supportive and active. They do many early-stage deals. One of the hotter companies lately in the mobile social networking is FourSquare, which raised $1.35 Look at Josh Kopelman over at First Round Capital. What exactly is seed funding anymore?

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

Our firm invested at a very early stage in retail brands including CostCo, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ulta, Starbucks and many more. I said as much in my post about The Future of Social Networking. The Deal – I instantly loved the idea for the application, the market and Dustin’s vision. They loved his vision, too.

Term Sheet 303

Term Sheet Mobile Cofounder Early Stage 303

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

We’re co-leading the $6 million investment with Roger Ehrenberg at IA Ventures in NY and one of the most respected early-stage investors in the country in “big data&# companies. They know this because Twitter is social, open & asymmetric. Not so on Twitter. People can follow me and I don’t have to follow them back.

Viral 307

Viral Las Vegas Tunisia Syndicate 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

On the one hand innovation is clearly at an all time high unleashed by smart phones, fast telecom networks, social networks that spread commerce and the fact that we are all one click away from buying things on Amazon, Apple, Google or PayPal. There are no quick bucks in venture outside of bubbles.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150