Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. But unlike the popular press reporting of this conflict — 80% of the time it is founder-to-founder conflict and not investor-to-founder conflict.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. I don’t think VCs care as much about co-founders & economics as people think. Equally – a great VP Finance can be leveraged well to take on finance, legal, HR and much of the operational tasks. I think they care that there is a deep bench of talent.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

Amongst the most often asked questions I get from founders is, “How much money should I raise?” Reflexively founders want to raise as much money as they can because they figure it will give them more resources, better chances of competing and a longer runways before they have to do the often painful job of asking, yet again, for money.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

Find one that’s on the earlier-stage size or one that raised a long time ago and never scaled and get to know the founder & CEO. These can be called: Operating Partners, Venture Partners, Board Partners or similar. We operate a policy of “no retribution” and “no reciprocity.”

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

They talk to customers, operations, sales, marketing and engineering to determine the company product roadmap. I often worry about founders who have a deep-seated need to be loved because it can lead to bad decisions. And then there’s product management. They review competitors offerings and analyst reports. What do you do?

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Industry or Operating Experience? I know many VCs who don’t have operating experience and frankly some of them are fantastic. When you look at a deal so much of what you’re trying to understand are the skills, resiliency , work ethic, motivation and team dynamics of the founders. Now you’re talking.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage. After a year I asked Jordan to work alongside me as the head of our internal “strategy & operations” team as we worked to define the kind of firm we wanted to build for the future. Just ask Rob Bailey. And believe me they were vocal about it.

Jordan 365

Jordan Technical Review Portfolio Partner 365

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

This week I sat down with Chris Dixon, co-founder / CEO of Hunch and Partner at Founder Collective in the most recent installment of This Week in Venture Capital. 2. Chris then discussed his time as founder and CEO of SiteAdvisor, his first venture-backed startup. Such that during that time, Chris “learned how to learn.”.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Cofounder API 281

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

At this level, as a founder you feel SO CLOSE to profitability that many say, “I’m going to keep my costs really low this year to try and hit profitability. Operating Costs. million to fund operations in their first year of operations. In many Internet startups 80% of the operating costs will be people.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. One of the first boards that I ever got involved with where I wasn’t the CEO was with a company in which I hadn’t invested but was brought on board to look deeper into operational issues. But I work hard not to “skip&# below the CEO or founders.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. million and we seemed likely to raise another $40 million within the first 18 months of operations. Even better if he/she can double as a VP Operations & HR.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Howard Lindzon weighed in with his comments : “As a CEO of a venture backed business myself and founder of many others, I would add one thing… Thick Skin. My first company was founded in Ireland, headquartered in England and had country operations in the UK, France & Germany. If you fail, you need to start all over.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. So operating at a higher level, helping to set the framework for decision making and then sitting down and watching the game be played, is certainly the way to go.”

Startup 150

Startup CTO Hire Sales Leadership 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

It is not uncommon for founders to fight amongst themselves or teams to develop silos that simple can’t stomach talking with other groups so they avoid human contact and revert to flaming wars on email or Slack. My observation is that many companies become Game of Thrones with warring factions and competing interests.

Pakistan 150

Pakistan Technical Review Iran Russia 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. Howard Morgan earned a PhD in Operations Research/Computer Science in 1968. If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

“Why do founders want to take the VCs’ money? The constraint between good ideas and growth operates in both directions. Founders will continue to take the “growth at all options” path that leads to privacy & trust creep at places like Quora. Growth, again.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We operate at scale and speed unprecedented in human history.” * I first wrote about the changes to the Venture Capital ecosystem 10 years ago and this still serves as a good primer of how we arrived at 2011, a decade on from the Web 1.0 two founders in a garage?—?(HP dot-com bonanza. The legends of Silicon Valley?—?two

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. TWTFelipe is the founder of TWTApps , who had developed some really cool add-on applications for Twitter to extend its functionality. university in math or science&# (Thomas Friedman).

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Canada Green Vietnam 282

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

And so things operate on a CYA basis. And when we didn’t ship product on time, didn’t get the biz dev deals we wanted competed, didn’t get our market messages out and the founder says, “sorry, I had too many other priorities – like fund raising” they know it will fall on deaf ears with me. Good enough isn’t.

Hiring 335

Hiring Technical Review Startup Framework 335

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. And for many of these they were (over) funded 7-10 years ago and don’t necessarily all represent great returns for investors or founders. some founders lose their life savings.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The key to being able to run a business that isn’t yet profitable (on operating margin) is availability of capital to finance losses and preferably at a cost that isn’t too punitive to the founders and employees. The reason one would accept losses is when they are investments in fueling faster growth.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

” I want to do the best deals wherever they are, but I thought, most VCs I met didn’t have very good operational experience, so I thought, “Well, what if I created a blog called Both Sides of the Table and could emphasize the fact that I used to sit on your side of the table? [00:14:38] Technical founder.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Startups that are backed by professional financial investors almost always have a Board of Directors that consists of some set of founders, investors and sometimes independent directors. These are truly protective even though sometimes founders find them to be an unwelcome level of approval required.

Startup 204

Startup Dilution Government Stock Options 204

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Since selling Matt has gone on to become one of the smartest angels I have seen operate. Mark’s view: too much money can eliminate discipline.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Such was my recent meeting with Seth Sternberg, founder & CEO of Meebo. And I’d recommend them to any talented startup founders out there.&#. Seth raised $100k in angel funding to fuel operations. With three co-founders, what was decision making and roles and responsibilities like? And there you have it.

Connecticut 286

Connecticut Cofounder Silicon Valley Web 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

He was to head up UK operations. From then on I was forced to do detailed sales calls, get intimately involved with product management decisions and even make minute technical operation decisions. I did almost every VC meeting myself save for when one of my co-founders, Tim Barker, was in town.

Founder 299

Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

I find the over-introducers especially corrosive around first-time founders who often struggle with the balance of their time between tasks like building product versus tasks like speaking at conferences or meeting with potential business development partners. Showing founders they know important people makes them feel more self important.

Angel Investor 255

Angel Investor Founder Global Conversion 255

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

It feels like something you could turn your attention to once you have tens of millions of dollars and a large staff to run operations and you could step back from it all and think about how to lead. Most founders have a strong sense of what they’re trying to achieve. The reality of most startups is about survival.

Leadership 150

Leadership Southern California Hiring San Diego 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

He reached out to younger founders and offered to help via his network at AT&T, Google, media agencies … you name it. We have been on a drive to add more operational partners. I was the first operational startup partner added – having built and sold two software companies. I stayed close.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

years ago and told me, “I just got offered the chance to buy this company because the founder doesn’t want to continue. During the weekend Alan Patricoff , the famed investor & founder of Greycroft said, “don’t trade your cat for somebody else’s dog&# when talking about merging early stage companies.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2015

And it will make you a significantly better negotiator and operator. The hardest thing about starting a company is that from day one you emerge as this completely vulnerable entity trying its hardest to project success, power, trajectory and inevitability while you secretly know that you’re one knock-out blow from extinction.

Oauth 150

Oauth Software Review Technical Review IPO 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

People who think of fund raising as a “distraction away from the core business” fundamentally don’t understand that running a business comprises of: Shipping products, selling to & servicing customers, marketing, HR, recruiting, financial reporting AND making sure you have enough money to support operations.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Operating experience (Helped run parts of CitySearch & UrbanSpoon, tons of product management experience, Board of Hatch Labs which helped spawn Tinder). Wonderful human being who is civically engaged, mother of 3, mentorer of younger founders, hard worker and arguer extraordinaire (so says her current Twitter bio).

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Tracy DiNunzio isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup founder. And when her assets were tapped she rented out her bedroom and even her couch on Airbnb to afford her year-one operations. Without this money she wouldn’t have been able to finance operations. She now recognizes the need to have co-founders.

Silicon Valley 363

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur Startup 363