Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

Dave is terrible with email. He’s so bad that his email auto-responder tells you he likely won’t email you back. Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. He doesn’t email you. I don’t know an entrepreneur or a VC who wouldn’t cut him in on any deal.” And thoughtful.

China 309

China Incubator Email Portfolio 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

Getting Your Work Schedule on Your Terms – Many people in America sit at their desk much of the day and have email open. When a new email comes in you see the little pop-up in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and like Pavlov’s dog you feel an adrenaline rush and need to read that email. Yeah, right!

France 295

France Spain Technical Review Hungary 295

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

A couple of years ago an entrepreneur had requested a meeting with me to present his business. I wrote him the following email. “As an entrepreneur myself I COMPLETELY understand that you wouldn’t pass up on the impromptu and opportunistic chance to meet somebody so important to your business. They came from New York.

Las Vegas 369

Las Vegas Warrant Technical Review Cofounder 369

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. My Skype address is bradfeld.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,&# some mythical 2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business. But be polite.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

I recently got an email from a friend who had been approached by a well known VC. He sent me an email asking whether the approach was real and whether he should take it seriously. Here is the email he received (reprinted without names with his permission). “Hi [entrepreneur], I hope all is well.

Programming 294

Programming Entrepreneur Private Equity Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Shervin Pishevar, another person who I respect wrote the following on Twitter, “ Saying you don’t like @AngelList is like saying you don’t like Email. Babak Nivi is one of the most understated, helpful & important people on the entrepreneur / startup scene in NorCal. But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&#

Southern California 267

Southern California Angel Investor Early Stage Silicon Valley 267

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

I wrote out 3 pages of bullet point notes on paper and delivered a 20-minute speech to a crowd of entrepreneurs (which included the Minister of Technology for China). I though to myself, “too many young entrepreneurs in LA seem to feel pressured by NorCal VCs to move to the Bay Area. Get some seasoned entrepreneurs to come.

China 374

China Asia Email Technical Review 374

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. On August 23rd, 2013 I had an email intro from my good friend and trusted source Jeff Berman who only sends me stuff when it is somebody he respects (ie a strong filter vs. those who send casual intros).

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

Like you, I struggle to return everybody’s emails because I get too many. So I often try to stay off of email during the day. They take all incoming calls on my mobile phone and work phone, transcribe them for me and send me an email with a text transcription and a.WAV file to listen to messages if I feel the need to.

Product 280

Product Technical Review Email Search 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. He sent me a few nice emails. I thought Sam might know some talented young entrepreneurs to apply. Come to entrepreneur pitches.

San Francisco 372

San Francisco Jordan Angel Investor Partner 372

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

One entrepreneur refrain I sometimes hear is “We want to raise some extra money for M&A activities.” Sometimes I hear entrepreneurs make claims like, “I’m raising extra cash as a cushion” but this usually falls on deaf ears with a VC. This is a red flag for VCs. They don’t want you experimenting for many years on their capital?

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. On Being an Entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I usually judge people’s reactions not by the comments section of my post (where people are a little bit more polite so you get selective bias) but by the private emails I get. I’d say about 80% of the experienced entrepreneurs & VCs I know privately agreed with me. Naturally some didn’t.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

And I had been telling my partners for a couple of years that I thought Ethan was one of the more talented entrepreneurs I had come across in San Francisco. We generally have a policy to only fund entrepreneurs once the first version of a product has shipped or it near to shipping. We like to be able to see the concept.

Southern California 359

Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Many entrepreneurs struggle with their setbacks.

Entrepreneur 288

Entrepreneur Early Stage Leadership Salary 288

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

One of my favorite entrepreneur-Twitterer weighed in, “You want to keep tapping into their collective intelligence so you keep saying ‘Thank you for the feedback’ and they keep sending it,” Ms. I’ll give Sam Altman the last quote from the article , YCombinator also warns young entrepreneurs about taking on too much, too fast. “We

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

One of the hardest things for most entrepreneurs to know is how hard to push in situations where people tell you “no.” ” But then again most entrepreneurs fail. I’d say less than 20% of of entrepreneurs fit into that bucket. But my post isn’t for the haters.

Email 389

Email Europe Venture Capital Leadership 389

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). Because many great entrepreneurs work with lawyers in registering their companies they have their ear to the pavement on the earliest of company formations.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. And it’s true that I still take a whole lot of first meetings with entrepreneurs.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock. Office Hours – Two or three partners post a sign-up sheet to meet with entrepreneurs. These partners travel to a city and take ten minute pitches from the entrepreneurs. Ultimately, only 25 will be chosen.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

And if there is a term for that which helps entrepreneurs stay focused on these good and true objectives then I’m all for it. ” Whenever I work with early-stage teams I have discussions about the meat & potatoes of online marketing. But I still believe Sean Ellis was right.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

If you’ve got the skills to be a strong entrepreneur then it shouldn’t be too difficult to find people who know a partner at a VC firm and if you can build relationship with them you can get introduced. Most entrepreneurs (and VCs raising from LPs) think this means progress. Entrepreneur : “Sure. Some people find this elitist?—?I

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! Continue reading on Medium »

RSS 152

RSS Entrepreneur Email 152

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

An entrepreneur wrote me randomly to my public email address and asked about attending and meeting me there. This is my actual email back (minus comments about her business): “Thanks for reaching out. It is certainly not like being part of an exclusive club.

Web 150

Web Las Vegas Technical Review Term Sheet 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. The first post & the full outline if you click the link.) Poppycock.

Portfolio 261

Portfolio IP Later Stage Email 261

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2012

My working theory is that the best task lists would be fully integrated with email since that’s where we spend much of our working lives anyways. Hopefully some enterprising entrepreneur will build a tool to port between the two in case I ever decide to change. I know there’s other tools, too.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review Search Product Email 332

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

I have seen some entrepreneurs go into first meetings willing to share almost anything about their company. I’ve seen this back fire on entrepreneurs who say things like, “Well, we’re not talking financials with investors yet.”. He forwarded an annoyed email to my main contact at Salesforce. The First Meeting. What did he do?

Technical Review 316

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Cap Table 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

So I recommend a high-level “state of the company” email a couple of times a year but a message that you assume might get shown to others. But I have always warned of the consequences of not very well regulated situations in wish investors (and even entrepreneurs) produce information bordering on financial malfeasance.

SEC 352

SEC Venture Capital Early Stage Cofounder 352

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. On Being an Entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

Any SoCal entrepreneur raising early-stage money should put Rincon on their short list. He covers this is the first 15 minutes or so of the video and he’s awesome to listen to (more than 25,000 people have listend to this video so far – mostly entrepreneurs ;-)). It is how angel rounds come together.&#.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

I was recently with an entrepreneur and talking with him about his fund raising process. Note: If you enjoy my posts please subscribe to my newsletter by adding your email below. link] Another entrepreneur was recently in my office. If you’ve enjoyed or learned please email to a friend or share through social.

Term Sheet 217

Term Sheet Later Stage Demand Email 217

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2011

About a month ago I was meeting with a seasoned entrepreneur. When you haven’t been decisive in years, when you botched a profitable exit, when you hired a non-visionary CEO and then fired her by email – it’s time to get out of the way. Today’s post courtesy of the Dave McClure school of vocabulary.

Leadership 418

Leadership Technical Review Software Review PR 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC). Most entrepreneurs don’t put enough effort into these phases.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. I’m sure you’ve heard the meme that “email is dead” – if fact if you Google it you’ll find a long list of articles that will mislead you.

Mobile 339

Mobile Email Social Media Global 339

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? You probably follow some high-profile entrepreneurs on Instagram and Twitter and see conference pictures of them in Davos, Mexico, Monaco or wherever.

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420