Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2016

But just like in so many other areas, a Boulder entrepreneur has come up a great idea to address the problem that not only adds to the talent pipeline, but also brings in more diversity — a personal passion of mine. If there’s one consistent concern I hear from the companies I work with, it’s the shortage of qualified tech talent.

Coder 70

Coder Salary Software Engineering Software 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.

Entrepreneur 140

Entrepreneur Cofounder Community America 140

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2014

Amy likes to remind me that when I was an entrepreneur, I used to regularly give talks at MIT about entrepreneurship. Shortly after that VC investment, the VCs hired a new “professional” CEO who lasted less than a year before being replaced by a CEO who then did a great job building the company.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco Boston Venture Capital Angel Investor 159

Feld Thoughts

MAY 13, 2021

When we spoke, it didn’t seem like an investor-entrepreneur thing, just two guys from Dallas talking tech. Entrepreneurs who are part of his portfolio take part in a quarterly book club, where we all read a book and one entrepreneur is chosen to interview the author of the book.

Dallas 171

Dallas Cofounder Texas Venture Capital 171

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 11, 2012

It’s titled Beyond The Blog: Brad Feld’s Burning Entrepreneur – How to Launch, Fund, and Set Your Start-Up On Fire! Inspired by my friend @FAKEGRIMLOCK , I’ve launched a new self-published book with the gang at Hyperink. and available digitally on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Hyperink.

Curation 166

Curation Entrepreneur Web Hiring 166

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 20, 2011

Every entrepreneur should read it. Gnip Is Hiring : Sales people and engineers in Boulder. The Kite is a labor of love for Prashant Bhargava, a relative of Raj Bhargava who is an entrepreneur I’ve been working with for almost 17 years. I’d also encourage every VC and angel investor to read it.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review India Angel Investor New York 118

Feld Thoughts

MAY 9, 2011

Immigration Policy : Make it easy for foreigner entrepreneurs to come to the US, or for foreign students to stay in the US, and start companies. The solution so far has seemed to be “hire more people to process more paper faster.&# I came up with five things that I think are relatively easy to measure over the long run.

Government 143

Government Technical Review Intellectual Property Accredited Investor 143

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. I know the near term plans for Bolster and there’s an enormous amount of value coming quickly around executive and board hires, especially on the dimension of networks, inclusion, and diversity. I encourage you to give it a try and get involved at the beginning.

Networking 144

Networking Colorado Social Network Community 144

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 3, 2013

I know it’s a strange place to find a venture capitalist and entrepreneurs, but it happens to be the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity at CU Boulder. A surprising number of entrepreneurs have legal backgrounds. And larger law firms are significantly cutting back on their entry-level hiring. And it’s no secret why.

Colorado 155

Colorado Denver Community Hiring 155

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 9, 2013

Things like why I didn’t retire at age 30, what Amy’s ring tone is, Startup Communities , Boulder, what motivates me, the different between mentors and advisors, my biggest failures in the Internet bubble, the Foundry Group investment strategy, my angel investment strategy, why Fred Wilson and USV has been so successful, why the objective (..)

Startup 162

Startup Internet Community Hiring 162

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

You have been asked to be a mentor at Techstars because you’ve been successful as an entrepreneur and/or a leader. But at some point, you sense the entrepreneur isn’t simply following your lead. But the entrepreneur continues to “not get it”. Tell the Truth, However Hard. ” But, it’s different. So, you are more direct.

Boston 94

Boston LP Reputation Stock 94

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 6, 2011

Startup Summer, a new program from Startup Colorado , will bring hard working, passionate college-age entrepreneurs to Boulder to work as summer interns for startup companies. Throughout the summer, interns will work during the day at the company that hires them; in the evenings, they will attend various dinners, events, and workshops.

Colorado 138

Colorado Startup Early Stage Matching 138

Feld Thoughts

JULY 7, 2020

A year ago, I decided I needed to permanently change my diet and hired Katie Elliott as my nutritionist. Now that I’ve written a bunch of books, including one very personal one with Amy ( Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur ), I understand how much work it is to write a book like this.

Atlanta 133

Atlanta Equity Networking Naming 133

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

During one of the Techstars Boston cohorts where I’ve been Mentor-in-Residence, I worked with a 20-something CEO founder (code named Mary) who, shortly after raising a seed round of several million dollars, hired a high-powered exec, granting a significant equity option. I hadn’t immediately replied with a solution to her problem.

Boston 118

Boston LP Startup Equity 118

Feld Thoughts

JULY 8, 2014

I got to know Reid while serving on the Zynga board with him and he’s as advertised – a deep thinker, extraordinary strategist, and incredibly supportive partner to an entrepreneur. He’s also a successful entrepreneur, having started Comcate, his first business, at age 14.

Retention 147

Retention Cofounder Angel Investor Employee 147

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 22, 2018

I’ve been consistently public, for almost a decade, about my belief that we should significantly change our approach to immigration in the US, especially for entrepreneurs. Over the years, I’ve invested in many immigrant entrepreneurs. I’ve gotten to know and deeply respect Ayah as a leader and an entrepreneur.

Lebanon 70

Lebanon United Kingdom Canada 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 5, 2012

I hear some form of the following question frequently from founders that are starting to have early success: “How do we hire a bunch of new people and grow the company quickly without losing the culture we’ve worked so hard to establish?” The people you hire will come with their own set of values.

Startup 152

Startup Semantic Employee Hiring 152

Feld Thoughts

JULY 5, 2015

There was one construct that bothered me – Geis’ use of the phrase “acqui-hire” and his effort to categorize acquisitions as acquihires, ACQUI-hires, acqui-HIRES, and ACQUI-HIRES. billion “acquires” a two-person company, isn’t that more like a “hire” with a signing bonus? Google acquires(?)

Acquisition 70

Acquisition Cap Table Framework Retention 70

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 29, 2013

I’m especially glad that Xconomy hired Michael Davidson as the Boulder/Denver editor. Boulder/Denver joins the other six regions – Boston, Detroit, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle – and is now part of the broad and expanding coverage that Xconomy is providing on business, life sciences, and technology news.

Denver 126

Denver San Diego San Francisco Colorado 126

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 11, 2011

I’ve got an entrepreneur focused deal on Brad Feld’s Amazing Deals today. The deal is for Udemy.com , a website that has online courses on a variety of interesting topics. When Udemy came to me, they were interested in offering a deal on one of their $99 courses that was pertinent to startups.

Hiring 135

Hiring Business Plan Technology Startup 135

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

We hired, then fired, a bunch of part time people and then just worked together – the two of us – for the next 18 months until we hired our first employee (Shawn Broderick). The CEOs and entrepreneurs I work with need to learn how to get to the answer. First, some context. Feld Technologies was my first company.

Boston 146

Boston Management Hiring Technology 146

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 28, 2012

“So if I can give entrepreneurs a single piece of advice for 2013 it would be to deliver on your promises. Hire only when this growth materializes. I sent Fred Wilson’s post Advice for 2013: Deliver On Your Promises out to our CEO email list. I felt like Fred’s punch line was powerful.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley Startup Europe Operations 167

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 21, 2012

But recognize that if you are an entrepreneur, trying to create a business, raise money from investors, sell products to customers, and hire employees, that angry, hostile, and bitter is not a winning strategy. But every time I’m on the receiving end of one, I think to myself “that’s not a winning strategy.”

Washington 165

Washington Internet Email Naming 165

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 6, 2014

I attended as a special guest (I’m the only non-CEO / entrepreneur here) but participated as a peer. Grateful to be able to be human in the midst of a group of other entrepreneur/CEOs. Thursday was extremely intense with the focus on what a CEO does and the five challenges of a CEO. Grateful to be with peers.

Italy 140

Italy Leadership Founder Hiring 140

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 29, 2011

In my book, there is only one real reason for this – to a ttract new potential employees : “We’ve just raised $X and are hiring 20 people including types A through types Q – see our jobs page at jobs.companyname.com and apply now.” Make it clear that you are hiring. Have your jobs page up.

Finance 133

Finance SEC Term Sheet Acquisition 133

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 17, 2013

I embrace this – my goal is to help these entrepreneurs and management teams win. Assume you hire someone and grant them 10,000 options with monthly vesting of four years with a one year cliff. The key difference is you are separating the “refresh grant” from a bonus, or retrading, of the hire grant.

Stock Options 134

Stock Options Stock Vesting Retention 134

Feld Thoughts

MAY 6, 2012

The Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman is another book that belongs on every entrepreneur’s bookshelf. It’s excellent. I met Noam for the first time last week when I was at HBS. I was on a panel of VCs (me, Mike Maples Jr., Kate Mitchell, and David Frankel) talking to a room full of HBS alumni who are VCs.

Founder 138

Founder Equity Hiring Email 138

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2010

Four years ago I co-founded TechStars with David Cohen (CEO of TechStars) to help first-time entrepreneurs create new software and Internet companies while simultaneously working to energize the Boulder, Colo., We decided to write a book by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. entrepreneurial community, which was vibrant but small.

Term Sheet 106

Term Sheet Seattle Angel Investor Bootstrapping 106

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

Or in 2015 you had raised a bunch of money, hired a lot of people, and assumed it was all going to just work out according to the spreadsheet model you used to build headcount and revenue expectations based on the headcount. Let’s assume 2016 resulted in some layoffs in the second half of the year.

Forecast 70

Forecast Revenue Hiring Management 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 14, 2012

In fact, empathy and humility in potential hires are the best predictors that they’re going to fit with our team and be TAGFEE. If you line up You Are What You Do, TAGFEE, and Silent Killers you start to get a feel for the type of entrepreneurs we love to work with. Thankfully, it’s incredibly rewarding, too. For humility.

New York 136

New York Finance Metrics Email 136

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 22, 2010

It was an awesome weekend – we held an event modeled after the Apprentice TV show (without the bad hair) that had three challenges: (1) Marketing, (2) Hiring / Interview, and (3) 5-Year Plan & Budget. They are clearly the future – and we want more of them to be entrepreneurs. Congrats to all of you – you make me proud to know you.

Massachusetts 99

Massachusetts Aggregator Boston Venture Capital 99

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 10, 2010

We also lived next door (WILG – 355 Mass Ave) to some other impressive entrepreneurs including Megan Smith (Google and PlanetOut). If you should be on the ADP entrepreneur list, please comment on this blog and add your name for posterity (and Google searches). While interviewing him I asked what he had done over the summer.

Massachusetts 118

Massachusetts Boston Startup Cloud 118

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 25, 2015

Lately, the success of the entrepreneur ecosystem has started to become the target for criticism around these issues. ” This project resulted in us bringing Becky Boone , last year’s fellow with the City of Denver, to Boulder to spend seven months working with the city.

America 70

America Community Denver Colorado 70

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. ” Many companies have hired ahead of their growth rate because they had the cash to do so.

Cap Table 70

Cap Table Down Round Liquidation Preference Founder 70

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 21, 2016

Also, they have a strong belief that any sign of weakness (such as a down round) will have a catastrophic impact on their culture, hiring process, and ability to retain employees. Entrepreneurs and CEOs should make the hard call today and take the poison and move on. Their own ego is also a factor – will a down round signal weakness?

Marketing 70

Marketing Down Round Startup IRR 70