Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2012

In the fall of 2010 Mahendra Ramsinghani reached out to me by email about a new book he was working on called The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies. If you are an angel investor working with VCs, this book is for you.

Venture Capital 136

Venture Capital Exit Strategy Angel Investor Deal Structure 136

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 6, 2013

I’d heard from a number of VC friends that it was really good, but the idea of watching a documentary on the history of the creation of the venture capital industry doesn’t sound like an awesome Saturday night movie choice. The entrepreneurs who were in the documentary were equally awesome.

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur 164

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 30, 2020

A fundamental belief of mine is that entrepreneurs should be able to start their companies anywhere they want. A corollary to that is some of the historical success of the US as an entrepreneurial ecosystem has been being the place that entrepreneurs want to start a company. Imagine if we had this level of activity in all 50 states?

Massachusetts 128

Massachusetts Global United States Entrepreneur 128

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

This quarter they interviewed me as part of it on Quarterly VC Update: Brad Feld on the State of Venture Capital Investing. There is much less focus on a $1 billion private valuation (thankfully) as both entrepreneurs and VCs have again shifted much of their discussion to what needs to be done long-term to build a successful company.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 13, 2015

A justification by VCs to explain away their lack of capital to invest? A rationalization by entrepreneurs to explain away their inability to raise capital? If you want a few more discussions about this, I did a quick search on “ venture capital capital efficiency ” and came up with: The myth of capital efficiency.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Software Developers Software Development Equity 70

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2014

When people ask me how they can become a VC, I point them to my partner Seth Levine’s excellent blog posts How to become a venture capitalist and How to get a job in venture capital (revisited). Amy likes to remind me that when I was an entrepreneur, I used to regularly give talks at MIT about entrepreneurship.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco Boston Venture Capital Angel Investor 159

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. He’s going back home for a special event and I encourage anyone near Detroit to go hang with him. Prior to this, Jason was an attorney with Cooley.

Detroit 74

Detroit Michigan Cofounder Colorado 74

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Supporting entrepreneurs in our community is a central part of our mission. In addition to events that convene entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, students, and academics to learn from one another, as well as Brad’s extraordinary commitment to mentoring, his scholarship merits notice and praise.

Community 238

Community Colorado Venture Capital Startup 238

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 14, 2019

Renata told me that she wanted to do in-depth individual interviews, to both learn and explain the true state of affairs in the venture capital, while celebrating women who best reflect this industry. Finally, entrepreneurs can benefit from the book by learning how the investors featured in it make investment decisions.

Venture Capital 177

Venture Capital Institutional Investors Boston Engineer 177

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 28, 2016

He has a vision and the experience to create a non-partisan organization to engage and educate people, especially policymakers in government, regarding the critical importance of entrepreneurs and startups to innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Incentivize the Formation and Commitment of Angel Capital.

SBA 102

SBA Government Small Business Administration Green 102

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

JANUARY 27, 2020

Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know. We also significantly updated Chapter 2: Preparing for Fundraising and Chapter 19: Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know (with help from Cooley). The new chapters in this edition are 11. How to Engage an Investment Banker (with help from Golding Partners).

Investment Bankers 108

Investment Bankers Term Sheet Capitalization Table Venture Capital 108

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 13, 2019

Harry is probably best known for his podcast, The Twenty Minute VC , the world’s largest media asset in venture capital, with over five million downloads per month. He’s talked with amazing VCs and entrepreneurs on over 2,800 shows. At 18, he set up the Twenty Minute VC podcast.

China 106

China Venture Capital Social Network Networking 106

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 28, 2011

The venture capital community has finally realized this (again) and much of the physical location of the VCs is shifting to the Cambridge / Kendall Square area with a little in Harvard Square (a 10 minute cab or train ride from Kendall Square.). As I walked back to my hotel, I was buzzing from the day.

Boston 138

Boston Entrepreneur Community Venture Capital 138

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

He reminds me of a young Harry Stebbings of the 20 Minute VC who reached out to me early ( I was on Harry’s 65th episode in 2015), hustled, and did a fun interview with me where we cover the following topics.

Florida 80

Florida Venture Capital Founder Startup 80

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

In 2000, I invested via Mobius Venture Capital in The Feld Group and joined the board. In addition to helping me understand a number of fundamental things about technology at scale, I got exposed to the complexity of very large organizations, both from the top down and outside in. This took our relationship to a new level.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Boston Internet Venture Capital 150

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Take a small amount of equity (usually ~6%) and overall have terms that are favorable to entrepreneurs. Have a strong management team who are typically proven entrepreneurs. Accelerators business david cohen entrepreneur global accelerator network Seed money TechStars United States Venture Capital'

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 11, 2010

Monday night, I’ll again be the co-host of Entrepreneurs Unplugged where we will be interviewing Tyler Tysdal, the Managing Director of Mantucket Capital. Tyler has a neat background as both an entrepreneur and investor and I expect this will be another fun and enlightening session.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Entrepreneur Merger Cofounder 94

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 29, 2015

By the time I co-founded what became Mobius Venture Capital, Softbank (our sponsor – at the time we were called Softbank Venture Capital) was the key investor in Yahoo, E*trade, and a number of other large US-based Internet companies. But I was clear that none of these were fundamentally issues for the big company.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Reputation Affiliate Conversion 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 12, 2014

It was a generic rant that resulted from me watching a couple of VCs blow up their reputations with entrepreneurs I know because of how they treated them. The two people (who I’ll call “Entrepreneur” and “VC”) are both very successful, extremely smart, and very visible. Stupid behavior on his part.

Matching 177

Matching Venture Capital Reputation PR 177

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

I know many entrepreneurs who feel that VCs have played them, gamed them, deceived them, or bullshitted them. But this doesn’t only happen to entrepreneurs. The prior fund that I had co-founded – Mobius Venture Capital – had blown up after having a very successful first fund in 1997.

LP 155

LP Advisory Board Venture Capital Early Stage 155

Feld Thoughts

MAY 3, 2010

Over the years, I’ve occasionally thought about writing a book about how venture capital actually works. I no longer have to contemplate doing this as Jeff Bussgang has nailed it with his book Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on YOUR Terms.

Venture Capital 121

Venture Capital IPO Entrepreneur 121

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 23, 2016

As I crawled into bed last night after jamming through my email, I smiled and thought to myself that Seth and I had a good day with a bunch of people talking about the power of entrepreneurship – and how the entrepreneurs are the leaders – while getting to work with a bunch of entrepreneurs. VCs are not heroes.

Minneapolis 70

Minneapolis Entrepreneur Community Partner 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 27, 2013

And – importantly – how it impacts the entrepreneur, his choices, and the dynamics between the entrepreneur and the VC. And then reflect on the post from the anonymous entrepreneur that I highlighted yesterday titled My Startup has 30 Days to Live. Venture Capital equity mendelson ownership sale valuation wilson'

Valuation 132

Valuation Venture Capital Equity Partner 132

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 8, 2013

VCs love to say things like “we are entrepreneur friendly.” Rather, I’m making an observation about something I’ve experienced – both as an entrepreneur and investor – since my first angel investment in 1994. Venture Capital actions entrepreneur life reputation VC words'

Reputation 171

Reputation Venture Capital Matching Email 171

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

The two most notable are the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network Colorado and the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars. King of Capital was a really useful book to read on a number of levels. While 2011 is only eight years ago, it’s a lifetime in the world of finance, private equity, venture capital, and business.

Private Equity 82

Private Equity Cofounder Equity Venture Capital 82

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 28, 2014

I remember in 2007 when the idea of a super angel appeared, where successful entrepreneurs were suddenly angel investors making 10 or more seed investments a year. Entrepreneurship cycles investing Venture Capital' I know I’m getting old. This was a “new” innovation that was celebrated with much fanfare.

Angel Investor 140

Angel Investor Venture Capital IPO Sales 140

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Announcing the Greater Colorado Venture Fund ! I am proud to share that the Colorado Venture Capital Authority (VCA), in conjunction with the Office of Economic Growth and International Trade (OEDIT), has selected the Greater Colorado Venture Fund to steward the state’s rural venture capital allocation.

Colorado 46

Colorado Venture Capital Community Global 46

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

Mark Suster interviews Ian Rogers , the CEO of Topspin Media, on ThisWeekIn Venture Capital. I find him incredibly passionate and articulate about what he does – he exemplifies the kind of entrepreneur we want to back in our Distribution theme.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Distribution Media Entrepreneur 123

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

This came out of a series of interviews with Google recently where we explained why Foundry Group takes venture capital to the cloud with Google Apps and how Techstars assists tomorrow’s entrepreneurs with help from Google Apps. We’ll be talking about Techstars , Colorado, tech, and anything else that comes up.

Colorado 128

Colorado Venture Capital Cloud Founder 128

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 29, 2019

When we started Techstars in 2006 we had one core goal in mind – helping entrepreneurs succeed. A key part of the ethos of Techstars is to always look for more ways to help entrepreneurs succeed whether or not they are part of the Techstars network.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Austin Sales Venture Capital 123

Feld Thoughts

JULY 18, 2011

The book originated in 2005 when Jason and I wrote a long series of posts on this blog about a typical Venture Capital term sheet. The Capitalization Table. How Venture Capital Funds Work. Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know. Control Terms of the Term Sheet. Other Terms of the Term Sheet.

Term Sheet 162

Term Sheet Venture Capital Capitalization Table Finance 162

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 25, 2013

By doing so, they are saying to the world “welcome immigrant entrepreneurs – please come start your business in Canada.” I continue to be really discouraged by the US government activity around the Startup Visa movement, and more specifically around immigration reform as it applies to entrepreneurs.

Programming 190

Programming Canada Washington Government 190

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 5, 2016

I was around at the beginning, spending a day a month in Kansas City with the Kauffman Foundation as an entrepreneur-in-residence when the program was originally created by a team at the Kauffman Foundation to identify, develop, and network the next generation of global leaders in the venture capital industry using a two-year apprenticeship program.

Kansas City 70

Kansas City Kansas Venture Capital Programming 70

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 6, 2012

She explores the entrepreneur – VC relationship and suggests four warning signs for an entrepreneur when interacting with a VC. He’s had an enormous influence on how I behave as an investor and how I interact with entrepreneurs. Minda Zetlin just put up an interview with us on the Inc.

Entrepreneur 136

Entrepreneur Operations Product Venture Capital 136

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 21, 2014

If you are interested in learning about Venture Deals , my partner Jason Mendelson and I created a course with the Kauffman Fellows Academy on NovoEd which is running for the first time from 3/31/14 – 5/19/14. If you want to sign up for the course , use the discount code of “ventureds” to get 20% off the price.

New York 139

New York Venture Capital Programming Finance 139

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 10, 2013

” For a long time, I’ve talked about “business intimacy” – it’s the relationship I try to develop with the entrepreneurs I fund and the people who I work with. How they treat each other spills over to how they treat their entrepreneurs and investors. In fact, they love each other.

LP 152

LP Venture Capital Conversion Restful 152