Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. We have been on a drive to add more operational partners. What does that mean?

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Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s pretty easy since nearly every VC lists its partners on the website. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.” How many partners are there?

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Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2015

A while back when I was reading the press I saw a quote from Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins that was simple, yet profound. He was quoted as saying, “Being a great partner is as important as being smart or being right.”. What does it mean to be a great partner? Being a great partner is being a mensch.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. That way when my partners in are in …. there is a reason for us to re-engage because they never met that partner before. What do I do now?

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2013

So I had to learn how to best interact with him to be a supportive partner yet get what I wanted / needed, too. And that’s often what your partner is looking for. If your spouse or partner is anything like Mark, he will inevitably try to over-plan his time off. Here are my top tips (and I still use these with Mark!).

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Partner Startup Spain Email 418

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Our last fund was $200 million but as you may already know since we raised that fund we added new partners Greg Bettinelli and Kara Nortman and Venture Partner Hamet Watt – all of whom are busy looking at new deals for the firm in addition to Yves Sisteron (the founder), Steven Dietz (also part of founding team) and myself.

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Las Vegas St. Louis Southern California San Diego 396

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Most firms have “associates” and “partners” and some have an additional role called a “principal.” Usually there roles are a combination of: Deal sourcing for partners. Deal support / analysis / quant / legal for deals a partner is seriously considering. Deal screening. Industry reviews.

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Jordan Technical Review Portfolio Partner 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. That role as sparring partner can be useful if for nothing else than to test your resolve. What Rob wrote in his post is right. Sometimes we fight.

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Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 23, 2012

They are also very active as an early-stage tech investor, partner and acquirer. 27:45 Thank you to Detroit Venture Partners for their support of the show! And thank you to Detroit Venture Partners and to Walker Corporate Law. But did you also know that they are a large cable operator? That they own Reddit?

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Detroit Partner Media Early Stage 285

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

You’re heading into a full partner meeting and you’ve been asked for a full data pack before – should you give it? If you show a list of key customers or key business partners and if this list is sensitive (READ: If you don’t want VCs calling them) then you need to make it explicit with the VCs. Follow Up Engagement.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Cap Table 316

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

My other partner, Steven Dietz, was on the board of my second company. I started working with David when I was an entrepreneur and he was an associate with a VC firmed called … wait for it … GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures)! But he has the added benefit of living in the UK – making him the perfect partner for Nick.

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CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

By September 18th we were ready to bring them to a full partner meeting and as a group we were bought into the vision and the experience of this exact team to pull things off. And to watch my partner Steven really develop a great thesis around where gaming and transmedia are heading into the future.

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Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Often if it’s a bigger firm (say 4 partners or more) and it’s a super small investment for their fund size (let’s say $250-500k when they normally invest $5-7 million) they will just require 1 or 2 partners to decide. What happens next feels like a black box to outsiders. ” Some firms are collegiate.

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Venture Capital Detroit Early Stage Partner 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

And rather than a small group of our partners and associates all thinking it’s a good idea we don’t mind if there is strong internal debate and at Upfront there often is. ” So other partners at the firm might sling mud at your ideas as you go for approval on an investment. As I like to say, “We need to fight.

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Technical Review America Partner United States 362

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners.

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Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

I’m very excited to be finally be able to announce that this week we’ve added Sam Rosen to our ranks at GRP Partners in the role of entrepreneurs-in-residence – EIR. Come to partner meetings. But would my partners buy into Sam? Come to entrepreneur pitches. Help us review a few deals. Intro a few entrepreneurs.

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San Francisco Jordan Angel Investor Partner 372

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

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. The role of VC is sparring partner. That’s why I often say The role of VC is “chief psychologist.” Nothing fancier.

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Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

Some people can skip first base My partner Greg Bettinelli has a sports metaphor that I’ve become fond of which is “skipping first base.” Knowing the style and reputation of the firm and of the partner may guide you towards the right number.

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Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs. Well, both of those things happened but they were lagging indicators.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had really positive experiences such as working with Greg Gretsch at Sigma Partners where he championed us to a partners’ meeting where we sort of got crucified. We made changes and Greg was a gentleman throughout the process rather than berating us for our performance (it was our first partners’ meeting).

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Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

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LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2012

He told me he wondered if we should consider switching partners so the company could get more money and at a higher price. The truth is that I wasn’t as valuation sensitive as my original VC partner was and I would have been willing to raise price. I know it’s tempting to switch partners.

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Reputation Partner 356

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Here’s my advice: Don’t reveal your “skeletons&# in the first meeting but you need to tell your sponsoring partner before the full partner meeting. All prospective partners say that they don’t like to “play games&# yet it is human instinct to do so. In this particular case – I’m right.

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Technical Review Venture Capital Due Diligence Partner 311

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

I had realized that I didn’t have it within me to be as good of a player as many of them did but I had the skills to help as mentor, coach, friend, sparing partner and patient capital provider. I was in it for the love of working with entrepreneurs on business problems and marveling at technology they had built.

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Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. Mentorship.

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Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

Not just the $20 million round at Invoca, the $70 million I helped us raise at Maker Studios , but I was intimately involved with the earliest funding round at DataSift and every subsequent round which has recently announced $42 million led by Insight Venture Partners and $70 million in total.

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Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I had lost a previous deal where the team said they liked me but didn’t know my partners well enough so I promised myself never to let that happen again. So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

China 333

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I had lost a previous deal where the team said they liked me but didn’t know my partners well enough so I promised myself never to let that happen again. So I organized a team dinner with all four of my partners and all three of their founders. 15 companies North of $1 billion exit.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 328

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). Let me not bury the lede. He had had a good run as CEO of RedBeacon but aspired to work on his next project. When he left I called him immediately.

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Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

He and his partner told me about this new idea over the course of nearly a year. Partners in VC funds only wanted to fund entrepreneurs who had a certain percentage of their net worth tied up in their venture. I run the recruiting process for my VC firm, GRP Partners. I introduced him to my partners who liked him.

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Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

Channel Partners Not Yet Formed. I wrote about that extensively in “ the fallacy of channel partners.” Professional services + systems integration = lower churn. I’ve heard many investors / advisors tell startups to have third-parties do the implementations rather than your doing it. But while you’re early?

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Technical Review Software Review Startup API 403

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. And none of our partners actually worked for any of these firms. I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. It’s often a combination of luck, relationships & timing.

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Los Angeles Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 290

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 15, 2014

But I firmly believed the company needed to have a large presence in the US given our major data partners were all here and the biggest companies looking to buy our products were also based here. He travelled tirelessly to clients, data partners and to the UK to make sure the global organization was synchronized. Shaping an industry.

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Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

My job doesn’t involve the daily grind of customer complaints, product outages, business partner / channel problems, hiring / firing, etc. I still like spending time with our teams – at GRP Partners we have a great team – but I don’t have large numbers of people to be responsible for. We travel together.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Spain Warrant 312

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

There was so much great content at the Upfront Summit but I think one held a special place in minds of most people I talked to – our panel on diversity led by my partner Hamet Watt (<– what? We want to partner with you to make money.” you’re not following him?). ” – Earvin Magic Johnson.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley Video Los Angeles Philadelphia 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

So that we’re speaking the same language I would define “exclusive” as a period in which your company is prohibited from doing business with certain customers or business partners, which is why many incorrectly assume this is necessarily bad. Why Exclusivity Matters to Your Customers or Business Development Partners.

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PR Early Stage Software Naming 150