Agile VC

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Konekt takes care of the full “stack” for you from the hardware modules to connectivity with major carriers to a simple to use REST API to manage all your devices and pipe the data back into your core application(s).

Cofounder 100

Cofounder API Internet Networking 100

Agile VC

JULY 19, 2012

Though there might have been short term benefits to continuing to manage this fund, the long-run success of CRV would be hurt by doing so ( there’s an HBR case on this ). A firm that’s continuously managed to look beyond it’s network has been Sequoia.

Cofounder 193

Cofounder Limited Partner Early Stage LP 193

Agile VC

DECEMBER 19, 2013

My NextView partners & I have a fiduciary responsibility to invest and manage our LPs money… we cannot look them in the face and tell them “We lost a ton of dough on a bunch of companies, but man… we learned a bunch along the way.” ” But as an angel one can overweight this factor.

Angel Investor 265

Angel Investor Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 265

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

But here’s the very troubling byproduct of this: I’ve met plenty of entrepreneurs who, surrounded by this hype, find it hard to manage when their own startup hits challenges, which are inevitable in any startup (even successful ones like PayPal). This is the vernacular of today’s startup ecosystem, for better or worse.

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

When you’re company is growing >10x year over year, I suppose if management didn’t invest a lot in continued growth their board directors would line them up against the wall. The company is currently unprofitable, though generating meaningful free cash flow.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

MAY 22, 2014

Some Taobao sellers also pay a monthly subscription for software (Wangpu) which helps them create better looking and easier to manage storefronts. There are no commissions on closed sales (other than Taobaoke) or placement fees on Taobao.

China 159

China Revenue Flash Affiliate 159

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

I started off as a product manager and while I never actually slept over at the office, there were frequently late nights. When I first started working there, I only made it home for dinner with my cohabiting girlfriend (now wife) probably 3-5 times a month.

Startup 188

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 188

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Small ball would be acquisitions of companies which help manage and power cloud applications and there’s lots to choose from here: stodgy old guys like BMC to recently public ServiceNow or Splunk to privately held startups (MongoDB, et al). Want names?

Cloud 113

Cloud Azure Phoenix Non-Compete 113

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

But here’s the very troubling byproduct of this: I’ve met plenty of entrepreneurs who, surrounded by this hype, find it hard to manage when their own startup hits challenges, which are inevitable in any startup (even successful ones like PayPal). This is the vernacular of today’s startup ecosystem, for better or worse.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 100

Agile VC

JANUARY 18, 2012

5) That Inner Control Freak - Founders always have to balance their own perspective with that of their various constituents (employees, investors, customers, strategic partners, etc), and the best ones manage to do so in an even-handed manner.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Cofounder Silicon Valley Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

I started off as a product manager and while I never actually slept over at the office, there were frequently late nights. When I first started working there, I only made it home for dinner with my cohabiting girlfriend (now wife) probably 3-5 times a month.

Startup 100

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 100

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

As Qwikster becomes a more expensive and conceptually separate product (remember, you’ll have to manage queues on 2 separate sites for both DVD and streaming) to consumers, I suspect you’ll see at least some turn to their pay TV providers for the occasional recent blockbuster instead of getting DVDs by mail from Qwikster.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Private Equity Seed Stage Syndicate 100

Agile VC

AUGUST 9, 2012

Management Shake-ups – most notably the sudden departure of COO John Schappert and shuffling of Marc Pincus’s direct reports. IP Litigation – EA is suing Zynga for copyright infringement , and regardless of the merits this is a headache Zynga will have to deal with and pay to defend itself.

Stock 160

Stock LBO .Net Valuation 160

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

Groupon didn’t manage to get out until November and Zynga in December. There’s some natural seasonality to the capital markets, but if you recall companies like Zynga and Groupon originally expected to price offerings in September 2011 after the summer lull. Right now the macro economic conditions are comparatively calm.

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Some institutional investors simply aren’t big enough to have in-house employees to vet and manage a portfolio of VC funds. The definition of “big enough” varies widely but, generally speaking, entities that manage less than $1 billion in assets will often go the indirect route. The first is a staff constraint.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital LP Private Equity Institutional Investors 279

Agile VC

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

For those who aren’t familiar, Mobius was a VC fund with offices in Silicon Valley and Boulder CO and at it’s peak Mobius had $2B+ under management. a VC fund’s entire portfolio in aggregate, net of management fees and carried interest) a good return from an LP’s perspective would be 2.5-3.0x

LP 154

LP Portfolio Venture Capital IRR 154

Agile VC

JULY 24, 2013

Or to invest in mediocre startups at a low valuation but hope to “manage” this portfolio to better than expected outcomes. There are both specialty lenders and large banks that have built big, successful businesses in subprime lending. [see see Note 1 below re: subprime crisis of 2008-9].

Valuation 200

Valuation Early Stage Distribution LP 200

Agile VC

JUNE 25, 2012

And of course email, CRM, and other tools for managing your network of contacts are far older. Though he’s been both a CTO and a VP Product and managed large teams before, he built all of Cloze’s initial product himself from the back end through to the presentation layer.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Stealth Silicon Valley Mobile 140

Agile VC

MAY 10, 2012

So it took me a minute to describe to my partners why SaaS for cows is incredibly exciting… Farmeron is a SaaS company focused on the data management challenges facing the agriculture sector. age, weight, immunization, breeding status, etc) to inventory management info (e.g. feedstocks).

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate 223

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

A little more inside baseball from the VC biz… why VC’s rarely make “crossover” investments, with capital from multiple funds the VC firm manages invested in a single startup (see note 1). I was talking with an entrepreneur recently about this phenomenon.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Agile VC

JUNE 12, 2012

In fact my first job as an early employee of PayPal was as Product Manager responsible for our mobile products (WAP-enabled cell phones and our legacy Palm Pilot IR port product) and the first international version of PayPal. carriers, Google, et al) covet an economic stream they believe they can take a slice of.

Mobile 250

Mobile Disintermediation SMS Government 250

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

As an entrepreneur I only participated in a single board, presenting as a member of LinkedIn’s management team in the early days when we still had a pretty small board. Each startup CEO has their own style and each board has its own quirks in terms of composition and DNA (size, investors vs founders vs independents, etc).

Startup 209

Startup Early Stage Leadership Conversion 209

Agile VC

MAY 7, 2014

This lets sellers on Alibaba’s marketplaces connect effectively with packing and delivery providers, and for consumers to seamlessly track and manage delivery of their purchases. China Smart Logistics – this is a JV that Alibaba Group owns 48% of, created in partnership with the 5 largest delivery companies in China (e.g.

China 187

China B2B Flash IPO 187