Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 13, 2018

Several years ago, I wrote a post titled Why VCs Should Recycle Their Management Fees. The post specifically discussed three items: Management Fees, Recycling, and Carried Interest. From the start of Foundry Group in 2007, we have felt strongly about this.

LP 117

LP Management Carried Interest .Net 117

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 30, 2020

Our legal immigration system is complex and expensive to navigate, and there are few choices for entrepreneurs, especially aspiring entrepreneurs, who haven’t already managed to get a visa. The companies founded by these entrepreneurs employ 940 people and have raised over $500 million in venture capital.

Massachusetts 128

Massachusetts Global United States Entrepreneur 128

Feld Thoughts

MAY 13, 2021

After getting through all my questions about his book, we ended up talking about entrepreneurship, technology, and venture capital. Funny enough, we still didn’t think we were going to do anything, but the managing director for Techstars (who I later ended up hiring) told me that Foundry Group is super legit.

Dallas 171

Dallas Cofounder Texas Venture Capital 171

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

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' Take no less than 5 and no more than 12 companies at a time. Surround those companies with 40-80 mentors.

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 16, 2014

From the post about it: “Throughout the development of the Techstars Mobility program, Techstars worked with Detroit based venture capital firms Fontinalis Partners, Detroit Venture Partners and Renaissance Venture Capital to recruit mentors and ensure capital was ready to deploy in the region.

Detroit 145

Detroit Mobile Programming San Francisco 145

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 29, 2019

We also run Startup Weekends and Startup Weeks in over 150 cities globally, have a venture capital fund that invests in companies after they go through the accelerator program, and have a set of corporate innovation and ecosystem development programs that help bridge the gap between large enterprises, cities, and startups.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Austin Sales Venture Capital 123

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

MAY 12, 2012

” When we did investments at Mobius Venture Capital, in addition to a board seat, we always got board observer rights. Early in the life of a company, this often seems manageable. Ever since I started investing in the mid-1990′s I’ve been exposed to a concept called “board observer rights.”

Venture Capital 132

Venture Capital Finance Management Partner 132

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 3, 2017

Love and Venture Capital. There are a lot of people you can go to who will teach you to be a better manager. If you want a taste of our relationship, I’ve written a lot about him over the years. Following are a few recent ones. GivingThanks: Jerry Colonna and Naropa University. The CEO Whisperer.

Chad 70

Chad Silicon Valley New York Venture Capital 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 30, 2010

When I reflect on my peers, some of the best VCs I’ve worked with are amazing at acknowledging the efforts of the entrepreneurs and management teams, especially when they are dealing with complex situations. At worst, it’s insensitive and offensive to a management team that has performed well, especially in a tough situation.

Venture Capital 119

Venture Capital Leadership Management Entrepreneur 119

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 18, 2019

I still make a lot of mistakes (that’s that nature of venture capital, and of life in general), but I like to believe that I’m a much more effective board member than I was 25 years ago. That said, I still have my bad days and walk out of a board meeting feeling unsettled for one reason or another.

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Leadership Global Design 82

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 23, 2015

” Second, I went through the scale up of the organizational VC firm in the late 1990s at Mobius Venture Capital. Or that how we managed it was ineffective. Venture Capital baremetalvc deeply held beliefs openview scott maxwell Techstars value-add VC' When we started Mobius, we were four founders and two EAs.

Advisory Board 70

Advisory Board Venture Capital LP Seed Stage 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 11, 2010

Over the past 24 months, a deplorable activity in the money management business came to light. Tags: Politics first amendment pay to play sec Venture Capital. It got the name “pay to play&# , but was just another form of bribery.

SEC 133

SEC Pay to Play Colorado Campaign 133

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Matt’s part of Pritzker Group Venture Capital which has offices in Chicago and LA as a result of where JB Pritzker and Tony Pritzker call home (Chicago and LA respectively). I came back to an email in my inbox from Troy Henikoff, the Managing Director of Techstars Chicago, which closed the loop on this thought for me.

Chicago 150

Chicago Community Startup Venture Capital 150

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 12, 2014

Management books delve into every nook and cranny of strategy and tactics. It’s a truism in venture capital that startups fail most often not because their product explodes, but because their team implodes. Business case studies have wrestled through many different components of entrepreneurship.

Stock 130

Stock Venture Capital Lean Product Development 130

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 24, 2016

NetGenesis had raised some money and had created three different products – net.Forms (a web form manager), net.Thread (a web threaded discussion board), and net.Analysis (a weblog analysis tool). In 2002 Jerry retired from venture capital and went on his own personal journey for meaning. We made more investments together.

Non-Compete 70

Non-Compete LP Venture Capital Affiliate 70

Feld Thoughts

MAY 17, 2016

In 2003 I seriously thought about quitting Mobius Venture Capital. While I’d been a partner in Mobius from the beginning, I hadn’t really been engaged in managing the overall firm. For the really major decisions, I try them on for 30 days. Here’s an example. I was tired, burned out, and very frustrated.

San Francisco 108

San Francisco Internet Portfolio New York 108

Feld Thoughts

MAY 5, 2010

The board members begin holding themselves accountable and the management team is much more comfortable working directly with the individual board members. Tags: Entrepreneurship board members Venture Capital. In companies where the CEO hands out regular assignments, I’ve experienced an awesome tempo after about six months.

Venture Capital 135

Venture Capital Leadership Finance Entrepreneur 135

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 19, 2017

When we started Foundry Group in 2006, we were very clear that we were not going to build a legacy venture capital firm; one meant to outlive its founders. The venture business is an inherently challenging one to scale. We are excited to announce that Chris Moody is joining Foundry Group as a partner.

Partner 91

Partner Venture Capital Conversion Portfolio 91

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’s background follows: Mr. Tysdal serves on the Board of Directors for the following Mantucket Capital portfolio companies: BrandJourney Capital and PRN Medical Services.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Entrepreneur Merger Cofounder 94

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2014

We figured we could easily live for the rest of our life on consulting income and what we’d managed to save, even if none of the angel investments I was making turned into anything.

Alaska 166

Alaska Widget Colorado Angel Investor 166

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 19, 2017

This was an artifact of the last 30 years of venture capital, where VCs often would use the board meeting as the way to primarily engage with the company. In addition, there is a cover MD&A (hopefully written by the CFO – not a formal SEC one, but a comprehensive management discussion and analysis).

Balance Sheet 70

Balance Sheet Metrics SEC Distribution 70

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 22, 2010

In between events, Mark gave a talk titled “How Does Venture Capital Work”, Sameer gave a talk titled “Business Plan 101”, and I gave a talk titled “Do You Have The Balls To Start A Company?”. Josh Runge ‘07 and Zach Clifford ‘08 are working furiously on a task management/task optimization startup called Lazymeter.

Massachusetts 99

Massachusetts Aggregator Boston Venture Capital 99

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 5, 2018

How much capital do you have under management, and how much of that is invested in venture? How many venture managers are you currently allocating to? Will you be allocating to any new managers this year? What has been your history of supporting fund managers in follow-on funds?

LP 87

LP Portfolio Management Founder 87

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

I’m an investor in Danielle’s company Mattermark and was parters with Heidi at Mobius Venture Capital. “A small pool of angel and venture investors fund a majority of Black women Founders.

United States 70

United States Cofounder Angel Investor Government 70

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

In addition, there are the managing directors as executive bodies. In the VC sector, it is common to introduce a third body in addition to the shareholders’ meeting and the management. The shareholders are represented there and usually have voting rights in proportion to their shareholdings. German Startups Association).

Germany 165

Germany Liquidation Preference Option Pool Advisory Board 165

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 31, 2015

If you are in any kind of investment business (including Venture Capital) you should read this book right now. It also prompted us to download the best of Belushi on SNL and watch it, although we managed to restrain ourselves from watching Neighbors. I should have read this book when it first came out.

Angel Investor 70

Angel Investor Investment Bankers Term Sheet Texas 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 26, 2017

I could be wrong, but it felt like it was written by a crisis management PR firm. It’s not a tone setting exercise, or a plea for sympathy, for the one making the apology. I was fuming after seeing the public apology on Axios from Justin Caldbeck. I spent most of Friday evening angry and upset. Embarrassed by the behavior of some men.

PR 133

PR Partner Conversion Management 133

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 30, 2017

Was Person X well respected by the people he managed? How does Person X rank concerning analytical ability? What about Person X’s vision and ability to communicate it to others? What are Person X’s strengths? What are Person X’s weaknesses or areas for development? Would you hire Person X again? If so, what size company?

Hiring 70

Hiring Private Equity Term Sheet Equity 70

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 24, 2017

“Over this long weekend with Jerry, Brad Feld and Team Reboot, we’ll work to uncover your authentic leadership style and teach practical skills for managing the array of feelings that can be triggered–all in the name of helping you become the best investor/board member/supporter you can be.”

Portfolio 70

Portfolio Leadership Naming Management 70

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2020

The Foundry Network , as we’ve been calling it, encompasses founders, CEOs, executives, general partners of our underlying venture capital fund investments, limited partners (our investors as well as other investors in the funds we have investments in), and other members of our ecosystem. At Foundry, we are not top-down managers.

Networking 176

Networking Hiring North America Venture Capital 176

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2015

It’s also been fun – a great way to get close to new managers, build lasting personal relationships, and see deal flow for our Foundry Group investing activity. While we never thought hard about this activity, over the years we’ve amassed a very strong track record through these fund investments.

Later Stage 70

Later Stage Early Stage Advisory Board Deal Flow 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

The founders usually get wiped out completely, but existing management usually ends up with new options for between 10% and 20% of the company. It’s not pretty, but it happens. But in this cycle, I hadn’t seen it in a seed round.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70