BeyondVC

MARCH 24, 2005

I was talking to a portfolio company CEO today about his sales pipeline and one of the key items of interest for me was understanding competitive dynamics. Besides looking at the raw numbers, I like to understand whether or not we are seeing more or less competition, why we are winning, and why we are losing. As I started to dig into this area over the last two quarters I have noticed that the big boys or incumbents have started to show up in more deals.

Sales Cycle 68

Sales Cycle Portfolio Agile Differentiation 68

BeyondVC

MARCH 19, 2005

It is clear that we are moving towards a consolidation phase in the technology sector. M&A activity has been heating up over the last 18 months as strategic acquirers are looking to bulk up and broaden their product offerings. During the last few months, we have had a few board discussions on this very topic. The conversations were not about us trying to shop any of our companies as I firmly believe that companies are bought and not sold (see an earlier post ).

Acquisition 60

Acquisition Channel Global Sales 60

BeyondVC

MARCH 5, 2005

I was reading Barron’s this morning and came across an article (sorry-need subscription for this) claiming Cisco’s potential appeal as a value stock. It is hard to believe that this high flying company which once was the largest market cap company at $600b is now potentially a great value play. The hot growth sector these days is energy and now Exxon Mobil is the largest market cap company at $400b.

Merger 60

Merger Acquisition Stock Mobile 60

BeyondVC

MARCH 3, 2005

I have said many times before that with respect to doing deals that saying No is as important as saying Yes. Let me elaborate. A portfolio company has recently been in trials with a potential strategic partner about a reseller relationship. We got in first, set the criteria for success to leverage our technical and business advantages, and were selected as the winner.

Partner 60

Partner Portfolio Restful Finance 60

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup