Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners. Like many modern VCs, we’re committed to investing in the community and in our portfolio companies. We also run annual CEO summits and topical discussions groups in marketing, technology, recruiting and the like. We think it’s best to embrace this role from the start.

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. In this post I set out to explain why the seed market emerged as its own category in the first place and why it’s declined as of late. ( The “A Round” of my startup in 1999 was $16.5

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing. I’ve definitely been wrong on market value.

Bankruptcy 294

Bankruptcy Bridge Financing Portfolio Angel Investor 294

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. So the people who invest in VC funds have two problems.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I often tell people that in some ways it’s easier to build great companies in down markets. ” But as entrepreneurs you don’t get to sit these years out and as investors we don’t get just let a few years pass and return back to the market. .” One needs to be in during bull markets and bear markets.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies. First Round Capital invests heavily in its own infrastructure to help add value to the portfolio companies. I'm a huge fan of this innovation.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

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JUNE 21, 2014

Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs). The problem is – the perfect guy for the job was head of European Marketing for Salesforce.com and Saleforce has continued to go from strength to strength. Luckily we had history together.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

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JUNE 19, 2015

Meeting a lot of candidates to find your head of marketing is all well and good but if 2 months later you still have no one in the role you’re still down a person. I worked with a successful portfolio company recently that had to make some big moves in the market. Opening is easier than closing.

LP 150

LP Warrant Portfolio Framework 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. Get your product/market fit working before you ramp up your costs (or raise too much money). And market your brand, not your personality.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

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

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MAY 10, 2012

I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon.

Marketing 297

Marketing Metrics Campaign Portfolio 297

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. A first or second-time fund has an easier time fund raising when they can show a few 4-8x’s in their portfolio than if they always average up. And sometimes they take part of their prorata right.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. Integrate PS Work Into Sales & Marketing Processes. Another rule I outline with our portfolio companies who sell enterprise solutions is that I don’t want them to become a distraction for management.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2020

I had originally signed up to talk about the “VC Market Trends” overall but it seemed inauthentic to speak about VC funding without addressing the virus in the room. So I wrote a brand new deck outlining some Upfront views on what we may see in the funding markets ahead.

Audio 314

Audio Open Source Portfolio Conversion 314

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OCTOBER 11, 2016

It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. But Gregg stayed and grew and took on more responsibilities and became a senior member of Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud team. Marketing departments, software partners and investors have now woken up to this opportunity.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

SEO marketing vs. social marketing. I would call their portfolio companies and ask how helpful or not they’ve been. look at their portfolio list. The problem with this is that past successes aren’t always relevant to future ones as the methods and environment of the past may no longer apply.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). But markets value high growth over short-term profitability. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

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. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. (it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. Find a portfolio company or two that they’ve invested in. If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling It’s super easy to suss all this out.

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Are you cynical about their chances in the market just because they seem to be hot in the press and that bugs you? If you think it’s all a marketing gimmick [I don't] then let’s discuss how we could be better at marketing in the way that they have. I hear views like this all the time. “It will never work.

Startup 313

Startup Guerilla Silicon Valley Portfolio 313

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AUGUST 24, 2015

If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation. And by this I assume he meant that “market prognosticator twitter” was vomitous. It was a nerve racking morning. Neither do I.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

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JUNE 28, 2021

The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio , which I called “shots on goal.” In the current market it’s not that hard to find executives leaving: Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Netflix, Snap, Salesforce.com, SpaceX … you name it?—?to On Funding?—?The

Angel Investor 301

Angel Investor Deal Flow Portfolio Forecast 301

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

They are tasked with “getting deals done&# so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. You have a marketing department with three people. I love that saying.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

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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). As things got bigger we hired a head of European sales and a head of European marketing.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

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OCTOBER 19, 2014

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. Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures' So this was definitely an introduction I was going to take. And one more big announcement to come in the next 30 days. Watch this space. (as

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

portfolios. The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. So, definition: when I talk about a business plan I’m not talking about a 40-page Word document outlining your market approach. Do so at your peril.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

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APRIL 27, 2013

This afternoon (Saturday) I have a coffee meeting with a portfolio company founder. Plus, they know the local market better and therefore don’t have the uninformed biases of those that don’t. They also view it as a responsibility of the money they manage on behalf of others to provide oversight of these companies.

Kansas City 365

Kansas City San Diego Kansas Dallas 365

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NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. 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. ” Let me explain all three.

Partner 285

Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

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AUGUST 14, 2011

But I thought I’d use the situation to talk more broadly about some PR lessons you might learn for your own business and also incorporate some situations I’ve faced recently with some portfolio companies. But if you’re going to say something controversial make it about the market you serve. You just burned a story.

PR 329

PR Management Startup Vietnam 329

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. When the market run started in March people were relieved that “the world wasn’t ending” so they started spending again. Unemployment coupled with a stock market drop will stop this spending cold IMHO.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. You may have an opinion on your market-entry strategy for Europe. Always seek input.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

They point out perceived market risks, they might question the management team’s experience, they might worry about regulatory risk or incumbent competitive powers. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. Let’s just make sure we do it fairly.”

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America Partner United States 362

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

The “more traction&# feedback is a very typical scenario is a down market economy like the one we’re in. But many Series A firms tell people they have a “revenue rule&# and then you look at their portfolio and see many exceptions. It’s marketing 101 for tech companies in terms of how you market to customers.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. I know some people think the whole market has been disrupted and startups and funding work differently these days. Total disruption on the funding market? This is actually the norm. I doubt it.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Deal Flow 283

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2021

When raising a first fund (or a fifth or even a tenth), it’s all about establishing your core target market and finding out who is in the market for what you are selling? that’s your target market. what makes you different and complimentary to all the other funds in their portfolio? Why buy me? Why buy now? Why Buy Me?

LP 375

LP Southern California Los Angeles Differentiation 375

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

Fred Wilson supports Montgomery’s view in this thoughtful post on the return of the tech IPO market. More interestingly Montgomery expect the M&A market to grow to 600 in 2011 and 750 in 2012. Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital hopes IPO’s will pick up in this CNBC Video but stopped short of saying it would for sure.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241