Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. It’s even more exciting when you can report an exit of a company that is a major win. That’s why I’m proud to announce today that HealthDataInsights (founded by Victor Chaltiel), where GRP Partners was a 30% owner, has been acquired for $400 million. It maps to several themes about “solving bigger problems,” “taking more meaningful ownership positions” and “women in entrepreneurs

Partner 285

Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

deal architect

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

As you may notice, the book badge on the left now has a blue cover – Amazon just announced it is taking pre-orders for my next book (due in February according to Wiley, my publisher) In the meantime, I am.

Technical Review 186

Technical Review Technology 186

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

These days I’m regularly exposed to patent trolls. Sometimes I read about them, sometimes friends email me about them, and sometimes companies I’m an investor in gets sued by them. Whenever I read the claims in the lawsuits, I often think that the claim in question is “obvious.” For those of you out there who know how patents are supposed to work, for something to be patentable it needs to be “non-obvious” as well as “unique.” While the specific cl

Software Engineering 143

Software Engineering Software Government America 143

Gust

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

If your startup can’t be bothered with social media, or has no plan to take advantage of it, then you are definitely at risk these days. But simply jumping in is not enough. Before you start spending money and time being a user, you need to understand how it can help you and your business. Using it randomly or incorrectly is a waste of your precious time.

Social Media 125

Social Media Media Startup Curation 125

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

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The everyday grind of running a business can be tough. I am not talking about wooing potential partners at fancy lunches, or drinks with clients after work, or even the whiteboard sessions that can fill our days. I am talking about the nitty-gritty reality of operating a business, paying the bills, washing the dishes, and managing employees. Most small businesses and startups do not have a dedicated human resource professional to manage the endless details of benefit plans, recruiting, payroll,

Small Business 102

Small Business Utah Startup Software Review 102

Growthink Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Is your website as effective as it could be? Even though I've probably never seen your website, I'm willing to answer the question for you. And my answer is that your website is not as effective as it could be. How can I be so sure? Because I'd venture to say that every website on the planet could be improved in one way or another. It's a matter of identifying which attributes of the website should be modified, and testing whether a change in one or more of those attributes boosts performance.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Email Search Differentiation 78

Gust

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

We recently started a series of posts on establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup companies for purposes of investment by seed and startup investors. The High Tech Startup Valuation Estimator is an online tool developed by Cayenne Consulting to assist entrepreneurs and investors in estimating the pre-money valuation of startup enterprises.

Valuation 87

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Venture Capital Technical Review 87

Guy Nirpaz

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

I am at the Cloud Channel Summit today. A topic that seems to be coming up over and over again today is the need to come up with innovative sales compensation (commission) models that align with the subscription business model of cloud. While this is mentioned as an issue, not too many solutions were discussed so far (we are only at lunch time) so I went hunting online for some good blog posts on the topic.

Sales 48

Sales Technical Review Salary Channel 48

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

By definition, most entrepreneurs are thought leaders. They have the ability to recognize a market need, the skills to design and implement a solution, and the drive to start a business from that solution. It all comes from within themselves. A business leader does the same thing and more through the people around them. Most entrepreneurs are not both.

Leadership 253

Leadership Venture Capital Hiring Entrepreneur 253

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. We have significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. For any company interested in applying please visit the website.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Incubator Startup 287

Gust

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Many local angel investment groups work with a local event that creates the illusion of a business pitch contest, awarding investment to the winner. There are multiple benefits to this type of arrangement. The event generates local buzz. Local media cover it. Startups and investors discover each other, and the community wins because the event becomes visible evidence of new business and new jobs locally.

Software Review 79

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Angel Investor 79

deal architect

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

One of my favorite chapters to research and write in my last book was on Analytics – Big Data, Visualization, Pattern Recognition, storage implications and several other angles. And in my next book, I touch on data driven business model.

Analytics 231

Analytics Business Model 231

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

By Darren Hardy, author of “ The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success ” A lot of jobs that once were, aren’t coming back. Ever. To look for what isn’t there is a waste of time and an insult to your dignity. If you haven’t noticed, the world has changed – radically. The traditional yellow brick road to success and financial security has imploded.

Distribution 220

Distribution Channel America Entrepreneur 220

Rembrandt Communications

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Ugh! I just had a long conversation with another small business owner who was ripped off by several, search engine optimization (SEO) firms. I hear this all the time, and it breaks my heart. As a fellow entrepreneur, I know how important it is to get value out of all the services you purchase. How [.].

SEO 159

SEO Engineer Search Conversion 159

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

I recently spent some time with a long time friend and entrepreneur who I’ve funded in the past. He’s working on a new company which I think is really neat and I’m already a user of. He called me for feedback on his fundraising strategy as well as to see if it’s something that we’d be interested in investing in. It’s outside our themes and different than the type of business we invest in.

Bootstrapping 151

Bootstrapping Partner Entrepreneur Customer 151

deal architect

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Rick Perry in a brain freeze during the Presidential debate last night could not remember which federal agency he would cut. I was surprised he did not blurt out NASA (of course not, given how big NASA is in Houston.

Houston 210

Houston 210

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Not every boss likes to admit that they’ve been a self-focused jerk, but that’s exactly what Jay Steinfeld did. The founder and CEO of Blinds.com – a leading Internet retailer of custom window treatments on the internet, specializing in blinds, shades, shutters and draperies – confesses that he was a jerk of a boss who used to terrorize his employees and micro-managed every detail of his business. “I’d be incensed at watching people merely talk to each other when th

Alaska 193

Alaska Houston Employee Leadership 193

David Teten

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

(This is the second of three blog posts on financial models for startups. Yesterday I wrote about best practices in spreadsheet design.). I couldn’t find a good template financial model online, so I decided to create one. We started with a sanitized version of a financial model I had developed for startups I have run. I gave it to Rodi Blokh , founder of New Prospect Ventures , who dramatically improved and formalized my model to be suitable for publication.

Balance Sheet 154

Balance Sheet Startup Equity Valuation 154

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

My friends at Standing Cloud have closed another $3 million financing from us ( Foundry Group ) and Avalon Ventures. They’ve also added a long time friend, co-investor, and amazing entrepreneur Will Herman to the board. Standing Cloud is a great example how one of our funding strategies plays out. We are the seed investors and have been working closely with the company since inception.

Cloud 148

Cloud Java PHP Open Source 148

deal architect

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

on the innovation blog massive Asteroid 2005 YU55 passes us Tuesday Lowes commercial decomposes many of our everyday possessions 30 Technologies through the ages that changed everything

Technology 186

Technology 186

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

On November 18, leading thinkers from government, academia, industry, citizen organizations in Singapore – will converge together for GovCampSG. With the theme “Connecting People, Data and Ideas” the second-ever GovCampSG – the first was held earlier this year in January – will see an “ un-conference ” style conference will see a sharing of ideas that have the potential to shape and transform the future of the government and its citizenry.

Singapore 185

Singapore Government Social Media Analytics 185

Life Beyond Code

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

There are some smart people who think they know everything and they are not even looking for any advice. We are not talking about them. Then there are a vast majority of smart people who are open to good advice but they don’t do anything with it. You may know someone who fits the bill or you may fit the bill, I don’t know but that question had been bothering me for a while so I went in search for an answer.

Search 130

Search Networking Entrepreneur Startup 130

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 5, 2011

My twitter stream this morning had a conversation between Kara Swisher and Chris Sacca about a TED video from Jill Bolte Taylor. Kara recently had a TIA (minor stroke) and wrote about it. The conversation between them prompted me to watch the TED Talk by Jill Bolte Taylor about a massive stroke that she’d had. Taylor is a brain scientist, which makes the whole discussion even more incredible as she had a chance to study and think about her own experience of having a stroke.

Idaho 136

Idaho Conversion Video 136

Start Up Blog

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

I am a Foxtel subscriber and every day I get that little bit closer to turning off my $100 per month payment. Not because it is too expensive, but because the value equation is getting worse, at a time when alternatives are becoming more attractive. Sure, their penetration in Australia might be growing, but we are on the precipice of disruptive change to Television, in a way that Foxtel must respond to if they want to survive.

Australia 129

Australia Demand Web Channel 129

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Reznick Group ’s Growth Markets Practice in Tyson’s Corner, Va., has built its reputation working with companies through challenging times, helping to analyze business opportunities and maximize tax savings. Over the years, they’ve seen patterns in what makes some businesses thrive while others struggle and fail to take advantage of opportunities that are presented even when the market is down.

Vesting 168

Vesting Security Reputation Entrepreneur 168

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Tweet. There are a lot of reasons not to like the space that Publicstuff is in. The company sells to local governments, real estate management companies, educational institutions--anyone responsible for public or private infrastructure. That alone is enough to make a lot of VCs throw up a little in their mouths. Slow sales cycles. Joe and Mary Bureaucrat who don't even use the internet because Smalltown, USA blocks it as the decisionmakers.

Sales Cycle 121

Sales Cycle Government Revenue Sales 121

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

For some time Jason and I have felt that VC’s have had an unfair advantage when it comes to understanding term sheets. So a few years back we wrote a whole series of blog posts (the Term Sheet series ) which became the basis for the book Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist. Our goal with all of this was to help put entrepreneurs on a more even footing in negotiating a deal with a VC.

Term Sheet 133

Term Sheet Naming Entrepreneur 133

Gust

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

All entrepreneurs know the feeling: your vision is crystal clear, but potential investors don’t get it. They ask small-minded questions. They niggle over details. They hem and haw as the weeks melt away your first-to-market advantage. It’s maddening! So, there are two things you can do after getting incredibly frustrated. You can keep pounding your head against the wall.

eCommerce 107

eCommerce Valuation Stock Community 107

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The entrepreneurship movement around the world is growing from strength to strength, and much of that momentum can be attributed to the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week. Held every year, the Global Entrepreneurship Week sees many organizations in different countries around the world host and participate in various events that foster originality, imagination and ingenuity.

Global 167

Global Non-Compete United States New York 167

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Tweet. I've been reading this book called " A Geography of Time " on a rec from my super cool friend Pants. The book is an exploration of how different cultures experience time, and how our current notions of time came to be. In layman's terms, it's why when you're two minutes late in New York City, you're late, but in Brazil, you'd be a half hour early.

New York City 106

New York City Brazil New York Portfolio 106

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

I entered Gmail hell yesterday morning. Whenever I sent an email from within a browser, I got a 707 error back and Gmail would go into an endless “Retry” loop. It was early Monday morning and I wasn’t ready to deal with this, so I grabbed my iPad and did a bunch of email on it. I didn’t connect that the client was working fine, but the browser version wasn’t until I got the office.

Caching 121

Caching Email Engineer Search 121

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

I was chatting to a friend that had ‘investor problems’ and we came to the conclusion that many angels suffer from paranoia. The World Health Organization paranoid personality disorder is characterized by the following: excessive sensitivity to setbacks and rebuffs; tendency to bear grudges persistently, i.e. refusal to forgive insults and injuries or slights; suspiciousness and a pervasive tendency to distort experience by misconstruing the neutral or friendly actions of others as

Due Diligence 102

Due Diligence Partner Startup 102

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

If there’s anyone who knows anything about entrepreneurship, it would be Adam and Matthew Toren. The brothers are the founders of leading entrepreneur community and website YoungEntrepreneur.com , and have themselves started, operated, turned around and sold off various businesses such as a billiards parlor, a printing company as well as a media and publishing company.

Small Business 158

Small Business New York Social Media Restful 158

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Just as an additional disclosure, these are my thoughts, not that of First Round Capital, my employer. The other day, Adeo Ressi wrote in TechCrunch about how we need more venture funds, because. "Every investor and entrepreneur knows there is something scary about the current startup economy. There is an enormous amount of angel capital available, while at the same time there is a small amount of Series A and a large and concentrated amount of late stage capital.

Angel Investor 104

Angel Investor Valuation Startup Revenue 104

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

I’ll be interviewing Nancy Phillips on Monday, November 14th for our latest installment of Entrepreneurs Unplugged. I’ve worked with Nancy over the past few years on a few things, including National Center for Women & Information Technology , and she’s awesome. Nancy is the co-founder and COO of ViaWest , a leading co-location and managed services provider well known to many companies in Colorado.

Colorado 120

Colorado Entrepreneur Cofounder Global 120

Scott Edward Walker

NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a crowdfunding bill that will allow startups to offer and sell securities via crowdfunding sites and social networking sites. What is Crowdfunding? As the term suggests, crowdfunding is funding from a crowd of people — that is, many people provide small amounts of money to finance something. Crowdfunding has its roots in charitable causes (including the advent of microfinancing to provide financial services to poor people), but has progr

SEC 111

SEC Accredited Investor Subscription Agreement Finder 111