Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 2, 2014

I recently heard a terrifying stat about founder suicides recently. A friend told me that he’d heard of over a dozen suicides from entrepreneurs in the past few years. The post Founder Suicides appeared first on Feld Thoughts. Kim Knoll who was apparently interviewed for the article has a solid response to this.

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Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

My long-time friend and former MIT professor, Professor Edward Roberts, who founded and still chairs the MIT entrepreneurship program, recently published “Celebrating Entrepreneurs: How MIT Nurtured Pioneering Entrepreneurs Who Built Great Companies”. The post Book: Celebrating Entrepreneurs appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2017

He’s been involved in a number of companies that we’ve invested in over the years in different senior and/or co-founder roles, including CEO. It was short and sweet but captured the essence of something I often talk about with founders. I felt this first hand in my experience, both as co-founder and later as CEO.

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Founder Startup 177

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 22, 2012

” But my post yesterday about The Power of Passion When Starting Your Company was about “founder market fit.” ” And I’ve come to believe that – especially among first time entrepreneurs – founder market fit is much more important than product market fit at the inception of the company.

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Feld Thoughts

JUNE 11, 2020

I have an enormous amount to learn about racial inequality in our country and my network for and advocacy of Black entrepreneurs and investors is woefully inadequate. I told Shila that I’d do the AMA and underwrite all eight founders who were not in a position to make the investment. The hurt is everywhere.

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Programming Technical Review Cofounder United States 104

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 16, 2011

So when Jim Franklin, the CEO of SendGrid (one of our portfolio companies and a TechStars Boulder mentor) asked if I would write a post about the Founder Institute program in Boulder, I told him that I’d give him control of my blog to write a guest post on it. Last summer Founder Institute held its inaugural class in Denver.

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Colorado Founder Denver Cofounder 135

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Ari Newman is an entrepreneur, mentor, investor, and a friend. He works at Techstars where his responsibility is to ensure that the connections between alumni, mentors, and staff are as robust as they can be – helping entrepreneurs “ do more faster ” day in and day out. It’s too early for that s**t.

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Burn Rate Software Review Equity Early Stage 152

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 23, 2014

” With Mattermark , I remember the moment clearly – I was at The Kitchen in Boulder with the founders (Danielle Morrill, Kevin Morrill, and Andy Sparks) and my partner Seth. Next, were the entrepreneurs obsessed about their product? Last, did I want to be a long term partner with the entrepreneurs?

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Technical Review Angel Investor Partner Database 154

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 2, 2017

It’s not enough for tech firms to say “we need more diversity – let’s go find different founders!” A classic investor problem is a tension between wanting to be accessible to new founders while at the same time giving existing portfolio companies the time they deserve.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2013

We’ve already had great successes using an entrepreneurial approach to future design, including the launch of our innovative Barclays Pingit app , and we’re keen to ensure we build upon these by supporting entrepreneurs and putting them in an ecosystem where they can grow and develop.”

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Feld Thoughts

APRIL 2, 2011

While I was on vacation Founder Labs announced their New York program this summer. Founder Labs fits in the “pre-accelerator&# category – it’s aimed at people that want to experiment with entrepreneurship. This year’s program is focused primarily on entrepreneurs interested in mobile applications.

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Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2022

Regular readers of this blog know about my long-time (back to 1996) friendship with Reboot co-founder and CEO Jerry Colonna. They are unique and powerful experiences for entrepreneurs. Registration is open for the 2022 Q4 Leadership Bootcamp , which is happening in Boulder, Colorado, on Nov 10-13, 2022.

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Leadership Colorado Cofounder Partner 242

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 7, 2012

Are you watching The Founders Season 3 on TechStars.TV? Early this morning I got a note from Allen Morgan pointing to a blog he wrote titled Entrepreneurs: For Venture Capital Pitches, Say What Your Startup “Does” not What It “Is” It nicely reinforces the point that active voice wins over passive voice.

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Elevator Pitch Founder Venture Capital Audience 135

Feld Thoughts

JULY 15, 2014

The CEO and founder, Steve Olechowski , was co-founder / COO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. In addition to bootstrapping his new company forever (since he’s a multi-time successful entrepreneur), Steve could easily raise an angel round any time he wanted to.

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Feld Thoughts

MARCH 7, 2014

The University of Colorado Boulder has been at the forefront of breeding and teaching entrepreneurship for many years now, but it has been missing a communal area where student entrepreneurs can work, gather, and live. If you’re a local entrepreneur, hold office hours during the weekly Friday event. Enter Spark Boulder.

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Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 7, 2013

The picture to the left is of Ryan Martens, Rally’s founder and CTO, giving Josie Health, the CEO of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County , a check for $676,000. With a handful of others, including my partner Seth Levine and Cooley’s Mike Platt, Ryan helped created the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado.

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Community Colorado Common Stock Equity 182

Feld Thoughts

MAY 13, 2021

After some entertaining back and forth, I encouraged Craig Lewis, the founder/CEO of Gig Wage , to write up a quick story of how things unfolded, as he remembered them, and I’d post it here. I love founder stories, and origin stories, and always learn something from reflecting on them.

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Dallas Cofounder Texas Venture Capital 171

Feld Thoughts

MAY 6, 2013

TechStars hopes that participation in the Patriot Boot Camp will be the catalyst for Veterans and Service Members to kickstart their company, find co-founders and advance as entrepreneurs. The biggest thanks are due to these veteran entrepreneurs for their service to our country. Please encourage them to apply.

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Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 29, 2016

On Friday, the USCIS proposed The International Entrepreneurs Rule. The best summary I’ve seen so far is from Tahmina Watson titled International Entrepreneurs Rule (Obama’s Startup Visa Alternative)- Detailed Summary by Tahmina. The UK created an Entrepreneur Visa. We finally will have a startup visa!

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Entrepreneur Startup Canada Cofounder 117

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 22, 2010

A handful of folks that I know and respect have gotten involved in the Founder Institute’ Denver program. Andy Vuong of the Denver Post wrote a nice article on it titled Founder Institute is training minds for a great idea. Jon Nordmark, a well known Denver entrepreneurs who founded eBags is running the program.

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Denver Founder Programming Entrepreneur 107

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. The vesting schedule protects each of the co-founders in case one gets hit by a bus or decides to drop the project after a short period of time. As first time entrepreneurs they did not create an employee options pool; we’ll fix that in a little while.

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Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 30, 2022

There have been many different approaches to ranking VC Firms over the years I’ve been an entrepreneur and a VC. I got the following note from Roy Bahat at Bloomberg Beta a while ago about a new approach called Founder’s Choice. The post Founder’s Choice VC Firm Ranking appeared first on Brad Feld.

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Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 18, 2019

One of the many great things about the Governor of Colorado is that he’s an entrepreneur, having started multiple successful technology companies, including BlueMountainArts.com (acquired by Excite for $800m) and Provide Commerce (IPO, then acquired by Liberty Media for $500m).

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Colorado Government IPO Cofounder 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 19, 2015

Has the word entrepreneur become too trendy as to have lost its meaning? On a daily basis, I have an email exchange with someone who says they are an entrepreneur. But I’m critical of the use of the word entrepreneur in these contexts. And that takes us back to the word entrepreneur. Here’s a simple example.

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Entrepreneur Small Business Administration New York Government 70

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 29, 2012

Since then I’ve had a few emails exchanges about the lack of veterans, especially entrepreneurs who are veterans, in Boulder. What if I told you there is a valuable group of entrepreneurs that know Boulder to be a great place for startups BUT a place that is not welcoming to them…WHAT?…”our It follows. …”our Boulder.

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Community America 140

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

This Entrepreneurs Unplugged with Larry Gold is going to be special. Next week on February 18th, I have the honor of having a conversation with him as a part of the Silicon Flatirons Entrepreneurs Unplugged series. The post Entrepreneurs Unplugged with Larry Gold – 2/18, 6:15pm appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 28, 2011

The companies will interact with and have access to mentors during the course of the program including Microsoft executives, entrepreneurs, and investors. Some of the mentors, in addition to me, include: Jeff Powers, Founder, Occipital, Andrew Tschesnok, Founder, Organic Motion. Eran Egozy, Founder and CTO Harmonix.

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Intellectual Property Common Stock Seattle Cofounder 134

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 30, 2011

I received an email from an entrepreneur today asking me about something that made my stomach turn. It’s a first time entrepreneur who is raising a modest (< $750k) seed round). There are two founders and they’ve been talking to a VC they met several months ago. Entrepreneurs – beware.

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Entrepreneur Vesting Cofounder Angel Investor 162

Feld Thoughts

MAY 28, 2015

At the same time, his partner at his previous company – Tim Miller – was doing an entrepreneur-in-residence at a local Boulder VC firm (Boulder Ventures). Tim Miller (CEO) and Ryan Martens (CTO, founder) have been working together from the start of the journey. Million To The Boulder Community after their IPO.

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Software Technology Agile SCRUM 70

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 28, 2013

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, 1/29) I’ll be doing another Entrepreneurs Unplugged – this time I’ll be interviewing Jeremy Bloom , the co-founder of Integrate. He’s also the founder of a dynamite non-profit called Wish of a Lifetime. Jeremy has been a total joy to work with and has an amazing story.

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Colorado Cofounder Entrepreneur Naming 135

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

And, rather than rational and helpful thoughts for entrepreneurs, it often brings out the schadenfreude in even the most talented people. We entrepreneurs have been spinning that line for decades in every boom cycle. I have two simple rules for founders in my head from this experience. It’s simply not true.

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Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 13, 2020

Grid110 is a non-profit with a mission is to foster the most thriving, inviting and inclusive community for entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. They believe that anyone with the goal of becoming an entrepreneur should have the chance to pursue it and receive support along the way.

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Los Angeles LP Cofounder B2B 178

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Once again I’m moderating the Entrepreneurs Unplugged series hosted by Silicon Flatirons. Our first interviewee – this coming Monday night – is Andre Durand, the founder and CEO of Ping Identity. Tags: Conferences entrepreneurs interview silicon flatirons. Prior to Jabber, Inc.,

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Incubator California 120

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 13, 2012

I get asked some version of this question, often in the form of “I’m thinking about becoming an entrepreneur”, every day. I’ve been pointing people at a number of resources to help them get a feel for what being an entrepreneur is like and two that I’m involved in top the list.

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Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

I’ll be interviewing Nancy Phillips on Monday, November 14th for our latest installment of Entrepreneurs Unplugged. Nancy is the co-founder and COO of ViaWest , a leading co-location and managed services provider well known to many companies in Colorado.

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Colorado Entrepreneur Cofounder Global 120

Feld Thoughts

MAY 4, 2021

For many years, Seth has been frustrated about the entrepreneurial narrative around the White male tech founder. Seth and Elizabeth obliterate the myth of the White male tech founder. These entrepreneurs, including immigrants, are the next generation of business owners. It’s extraordinary – buy a copy now!

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Africa Colorado America Community 147

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 20, 2018

In case you don’t know about Jason, prior to co-founding Foundry Group, Jason was a co-founder of SRS Acquiom and a Managing Director and General Counsel for Mobius Venture Capital. Startup Grind Detroit is one of over 350+ chapters around the world, holding Fireside Chats with notable entrepreneurs and bringing startup communities together.

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Detroit Michigan Cofounder Colorado 74