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The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

Steve Blank

The story starts with a company you probably never heard of – Engineering Research Associates. While it seemed like a good idea and had the Navy’s backing, the founders got turned down for funding by companies, investment bankers and everyone, until they talked to John Parker. Why Minneapolis/St. Parker agreed to invest.

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10 Rosh Hashanah Resolutions for Startup Founders

VC Cafe

The past year was a wild ride for startups and founders, giving a whole new meaning to the ”rollercoaster” aspect of being an entrepreneur. Patrick Collison , self-made billionaire founder of Stripe. Bill Gates , founder of Microsoft. A good way to think about valuation in seed/pre-seed is to reverse engineer the next round.

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15 Steps to Fundraising for Your New Venture Capital or Private Equity Fund

David Teten

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. For ideas, see How Executives Can Work from Home with Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. Julia Rhee , Advisor to Typhon Capital Management, observes, “You need to reverse-engineer institutions’ checkboxes.

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ESG in Venture Capital: Interview with Blue Future Partners (VC Fund of Funds)

David Teten

Blue Future Partners, a venture capital fund of funds, recently interviewed me on ESG in venture capital. For example, I’m an investor via ff Venture Capital in: – Plated.com is a meal kit company, delivering you the recipe and fresh ingredients to make a gourmet meal in your own kitchen.

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Why Uber is The Revenge of the Founders

Steve Blank

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. A pre-IPO board usually had two founders, two VCs and one “independent” member. Technology Cycles Measured in Years.

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How to Scale a Venture Capital (or Private Equity) Fund

David Teten

Managers of VC funds typically want to grow their business aggressively, just like the founders we back. But, we normally have a clear ceiling on how high we can grow AUM, before hitting practical limits to deploying capital within the traditional VC model. . – Launch a “ venture studio ” or “ foundry ”. (I’m

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Leadership is More Than a Memo

Steve Blank

The book explores the role of gender in the tech industry – at startups and venture capital firms – and the interaction between men and women in the two. While Silicon Valley has grown to have global influence, in many ways the cultural leadership from the venture community has dramatically shrunk in the last decade.