Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

And this era ushered in by Amazon changed everything from the age of founders to the skill sets required to the structure of the VC industry and even to the layout of cities (yes, I would proclaim that boldly that Amazon AWS affected city development). The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5 What Does This All Mean for Seed Investing?

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

It’s why I often advise angel investors to be careful about assuming that being an angel investor is a profitable exercise unless you have the ability to have a wide-enough portfolio to have a few companies doing extraordinarily well plus deep enough pockets to follow your winners. And there’s always a but.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. On August 26th I had an equally effusive intro from Ynon Kreiz, also a friend, trusted source and also the CEO of portfolio company Maker Studios. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. He hit me from two very trusted sources.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

.” The reason is that at a VC you have a group of partners who often have different focus areas of excellence, each pursues deals in their respective field, each makes investments and sits on boards and each spends their most difficult hours tackling problems at portfolio companies vs. solving the challenges at the VC itself.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Jordan Los Angeles Technical Review 150

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

JUNE 8, 2010

We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc. We obviously heard what Greycroft’s portfolio companies did and what their vision for the future was.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

I would call their portfolio companies and ask how helpful or not they’ve been. 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. Nothing blows up great opportunities faster than founders who are constantly fighting.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you’ve been playing the game a bit longer or when you have responsibilities at the fund level you start thinking more about “portfolio construction.” Almost every successful company is a mixture of very hard work by the founders mixed with a pinch of luck, good fortune and perseverance. You’re thinking about one bullet at a time.

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

The other day I was with the founders of Vidme – Warren Shaeffer and Alex Benzer – who are two of my most favorite founders to work with almost precisely because their behavior is antithetical to the frenzied market behavior. I can’t do every deal. I can’t add value in each situation.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

Find a portfolio company or two that they’ve invested in. 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. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.”

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

You’ll notice that Harvard lost 30% of the entire value of its portfolio. He then profiled his portfolio company FourSquare who started with a very small investment. So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Matt Blumberg, who runs one of Fred’s portfolio companies, Return Path, follows up with an additional three : Don’t be a bottleneck (make sure you aren’t holding up people’s work). I have been involved as an investor in many CEO / founder disputes including many that are not in my portfolio.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Biggest Advice I Give to Portfolio Founders? But when a fund writes checks into a portfolio company it typically “reserves” money to invest in future rounds. Paying close attention to the psychology of founders. In short, many founders have “naive optimism,” which is to say “they don’t know what they don’t know.”

Marketing 263

Marketing Valuation Churn Rate Balance Sheet 263

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

We therefore ask that each portfolio company include an “inclusion rule” in its HR policies so that at least one woman and/or member of a population currently underrepresented within the company shall be formally interviewed for any open executive position.” The idea came from a full-day session we held last year at Upfront.

Term Sheet 284

Term Sheet Los Angeles Open Source Portfolio 284

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. Far from it.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America Partner United States 362

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Andrea Benko , the founder & CEO of HDI, is simply one of the most talented CEOs we have worked with in our portfolio and that included 15 companies that have exited north of $1 billion. Lyn Kirby ran Ulta Cosmetics from its early days through its successful IPO.

Partner 285

Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. As a founder I believe you want investors to help and if you want them to help you need to empower them with direct knowledge rather than protect this information or these relationships. 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 25, 2010

So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. I’m not looking to invest there – I’m looking to understand the trends, the people, the innovation, the regions and how China can become an integral part of any of my portfolio companies as they scale.

China 333

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. I’m not looking to invest there – I’m looking to understand the trends, the people, the innovation, the regions and how China can become an integral part of any of my portfolio companies as they scale.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 328

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

One of his investors called him, “the best CFO in our entire portfolio.&# ). I wrote a blog post about being hands on where I argued that startup founders need to be hands-on or in my words, “you can’t run a burger chain if you’ve never flipped burgers.&#. But even then I think it’s funny.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

Another VC called the co-founder & tech head – Parker Harris. So I have taken to recommending to some of my portfolio companies a small addition to my statement above to say, very casually. They can get at the most important information early on by simply asking you : How much of the company do the founders own?

Technical Review 316

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Cap Table 316

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

I was at a dinner about a year ago with a few VCs and startup founders. I called a bunch of portfolio companies and asked them to check it out. And even more pertinent to you specifically at your startup … The number of companies I talk to (or even portfolio companies) who are dismissive of their competitors is enormous.

Startup 313

Startup Guerilla Silicon Valley Portfolio 313

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. Ask other portfolio companies how your VC acted when / if they got in a cash pinch. Better that you know early.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

Just ask the founder of JetBlue (Azul Brazilian Airlines), Dave Neeleman. He really only needs a DropBox or Airbnb in his portfolio to do so. My guess is that many VCs are. And so are most startup CEOs for that matter. Many through history became entrepreneurs precisely because they were unemployable. He’s loved by both sides.

China 309

China Incubator Email Portfolio 309

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

In a nutshell – I think airbnb eventually got to the right place and I was impressed with the letter their founder Brian Chesky wrote and their new commitment to safety and damages. With portfolio companies I’m always involved in the planning phase. The short article in Fast Company is here if you’d like to read it.

PR 329

PR Management Startup Vietnam 329

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. And this is especially important since the people who get sucked into this admin the most are the founders – the people who you most want focused on high-value tasks.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

I counsel first-time VCs (as well as founders) to have mid-funnel strategies to get from first LP meeting to close and to put a disproportionate amount of time into this area (I say more about this on the podcast starting at timecode 27:41). what makes you different and complimentary to all the other funds in their portfolio?

LP 375

LP Southern California Los Angeles Differentiation 375

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

An investor called the founder, spoke for 30 minutes on the phone and committed to funding having never met the team. Great seed investors like Bryce Roberts / OATV (and other great ones like Floodgate , Founder Collective , Information Arbitrage or Rincon Ventures ) still get all the dealflow the need. Isolated incident? Hear, hear.

Southern California 267

Southern California Angel Investor Early Stage Silicon Valley 267

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FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Our event this year will feature many portfolio companies and also emerging LA tech companies such as Tinder & Whisper. It is a CEO & founder gathering. The Mayor will come and talk about LA innovation. And every year it seems a celebrity or two sneaks in. I look forward to being back to blogging next week.

Los Angeles 290

Los Angeles LP Startup Portfolio 290

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MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. I was asked again in an LP meeting later in the week and then again at a founder breakfast gathering we hosted yesterday. I fall in love.”

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

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FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.) Between the heavy hitters at the helm, the more than $1.4B

Los Angeles 244

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Mobile Video 244

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

Each VC has their own take on which services to provide and mostly they’re free but some smaller VCs charge portfolio companies for use of these services but usually at a cheap cost. Examples of VC platform services include: recruiting, marketing, design support, inside sales reps, consulting, accounting services and so forth.

Portfolio 150

Portfolio PR Partner Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Our portfolio company Ring had a new “security doorbell” which is truly a new market. That’s why Ring is amongst the fastest growing company in our portfolio. Read plenty of “what went wrong” eulogies by founders and see what you can learn. But to assume there are no substitutes would be wrong.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. I want our associate to have empathy for the customers we serve — our portfolio companies. Few people have it. I told him, “Sorry mate, it was a one-time offer. You had the door cracked open and should have taken it.”.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

But most importantly I lectured founders that you can’t avoid the admin of setting up your ESOP. So in the video I talked about the “stack rank&# of intros: portfolio companies, entrepreneurs, lawyers as the main ones and other investors as the secondary way. Do it early. Tough, but true. Never cold.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

You’ve got entrepreneurs and founders who are really – a lot of them are in the very early stage of their startup. Technical founder. When you meet with founders, do you just see all across the board, like this guy you mentioned with the mortgage, or who wants a mortgage? [00:32:26] President is kind of a weird title.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337