Genuine VC

DECEMBER 3, 2014

In a world which is increasingly won by startups who reach and then accelerate their product-market fit, not technology-market fit, this matters. Former HubSpot marketing leader Rick Burnes also recently left for consumer-facing BookBub, where I’m on the Board, as VP of Content Products. Here’s Rick’s take on HubSpot’s company DNA.)

Boston 279

Boston IPO B2B Cofounder 279

Genuine VC

JUNE 6, 2012

Of course it’s productive to follow the mantra of “always be selling” in business interactions no matter what your business is, entrepreneur or not. But not all conversations with venture capitalists are formal pitches, nor are they expected to be. And sometimes it’s unclear if it’s a pitch meeting or not.

Software Review 125

Software Review Conversion Boston Networking 125

Genuine VC

JANUARY 29, 2008

You go to the site, enter or find the name of their product, and rate its condition. It’s been gratifying for me to visit the Second Rotation facilities and see the multitude of products en route to new owners. I am happy to share that we at Venrock have made an investment in a startup which directly addresses this problem.

Technical Cofounder 101

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Angel Investor 101

Genuine VC

JANUARY 29, 2008

You go to the site, enter or find the name of their product, and rate its condition. It’s been gratifying for me to visit the Second Rotation facilities and see the multitude of products en route to new owners. I am happy to share that we at Venrock have made an investment in a startup which directly addresses this problem.

Technical Cofounder 100

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Angel Investor 100

Genuine VC

JULY 1, 2014

This closeness of the entire team allowed for the company to rapidly react (see next point) in fast moving ad-tech space, empowering them to hone on product-market fit and begin scaling much more quickly than I’d ever seen before. Over the past year and half with a product in the market, the customer demand has been insane.

Founder 142

Founder Syndicate Syndication Mobile 142

Genuine VC

AUGUST 3, 2012

The company’s familiarity is along what we consider to be the three most important criteria for an investment in a seed-stage startup – team, market, and product: Team – Two of the co-founders were well-known to the NextView partnership years before a line of code was even written.

Seed Stage 199

Seed Stage Cofounder Portfolio Curation 199

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

For those who did, I was offered a set of confusing options with opaque pricing without any relative understanding of the quality of the service or the product itself. Renoviso has established direct relationships with both product manufacturers and high-quality installers to enable a seamless experience for the end-consumer.

Syndicate 100

Syndicate Syndication Lead Generation Acquisition 100

Genuine VC

JULY 17, 2012

While I guess you could develop a “strategy” to networking successfully (… with many a book written about the subject), I think becoming especially productive at networking is largely tactical. Practice makes better.” Along the way, I’ve stumbled across two tactics which I think are valuable.

Networking 136

Networking Seed Stage Early Stage Mobile 136

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

The strategy here is to foster product development and marketing which creates overall (semi-)organic user momentum. For B2B startups especially, revenue is the best signal of product-market fit. The four winning strategies for startups to go from Seed to A are: Build Scale/Momentum. Generate Real Revenue.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Genuine VC

MARCH 4, 2013

The content on these sites are laden with products, largely submitted by consumers. These product images represent valuable brands – in categories ranging from beauty and home goods to fashion and food. Triple Lift is an ad tech company, which means that the power of the offering is really under the hood.

Seed Stage 124

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 124

Genuine VC

AUGUST 14, 2012

But that doesn’t mean it can’t be productive beyond obtaining the capital itself : Running a great fundraising process involves crafting real story and not just a pitch. But there can real benefits that come out of a fundraising process if you’re proactively seeking them as a by-product beyond just adding cash to the bank account.

Seed Capital 163

Seed Capital Customer Development Partner Developer 163

Genuine VC

JULY 9, 2013

But rather than just keep the info internal, wouldn’t it be more productive to publicly publish the aggregate results for the whole community? And the results were pretty interesting, especially as they clustered with meaningful overlap among companies. When we took the poll itself, one founder said: “This is a great idea.

Early Stage 246

Early Stage Boston Portfolio Silicon Valley 246

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Some are pre-product, while all the way on the other side of the spectrum, some have meaningful revenue and clear up-and-to-the-right metrics. Often, the more “raw” the startup when Seed funding occurs, the more risk there is in product-market fit, the better it is to take a larger firm’s capital. Not all startups are the same.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

In many cases, there were already cases of these types of products already being purchased online, but given a new wave of innovation and greater acceptance, I think we’re at an inflection point where an increasing number of high-ticket, larger, enduring goods will be bought on the web.

Web 134

Web Portfolio Security Engineer 134

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Large VC firms resemble Budweiser-type macrobrews, competing based on scale and brand with a standardized product across multiple geographies, sectors, and stages. Last September I wrote a post outlining my view of the venture capital industry: increasingly evolving like the beer industry as it continues to mature.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Product 107

Genuine VC

JANUARY 7, 2010

In a decade in which we saw the web become increasingly distributed with a proliferation websites and content, this acquisition served as a foundation to empower Google to move beyond their core search Adwords product. With it, Google monetized via advertising not only on their own search pages, but beyond.

Acquisition 115

Acquisition Semantic Distribution Advertising 115

Genuine VC

JANUARY 7, 2010

In a decade in which we saw the web become increasingly distributed with a proliferation websites and content, this acquisition served as a foundation to empower Google to move beyond their core search Adwords product. With it, Google monetized via advertising not only on their own search pages, but beyond.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition Semantic Distribution Advertising 100

Genuine VC

MARCH 4, 2015

But a strong inbound reference from the same person can be even more productive. If a person is merely on a reference list after the first couple meetings, the standard expectation of course is that she is going to say good things about the entrepreneur.

Finance 100

Finance Email Entrepreneur Partner 100

Genuine VC

DECEMBER 17, 2012

It’s productive then for entrepreneurs to play detective to ensure that they don’t waste their time on conversations with firms without the capacity to invest, but also to be realistic about the clarity of the answer uncovered. So in the end, the grey area of a fund’s initial investment period end is going to be opaque at best.

Venture Capital 196

Venture Capital Conversion Search Entrepreneur 196

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Just like in school, the homework can actually be productive, as in this case it can lead to a new customer or advisor. VCs like to give out homework. They won’t call it that, though. But rather they use words like “diligence” and “information requests.”

Affiliate 236

Affiliate Partner Entrepreneur Customer 236

Genuine VC

JANUARY 22, 2014

Possessing hands-on proficiency with many online tools for managing social media interactions, event production, and project management. Requirements: A “digital native” with an established personal web presence and a strong interest in new technology.

Community 113

Community Boston Seed Stage Venture Capital 113

Genuine VC

JANUARY 15, 2015

And a lot of it in a short period of time: making diligence calls, using the product, striving to understand your market, engaging with questions to learn more about business. The best litmus test to suss out whether or not a potential come-from-behind investor is worth paying attention to is if they’re “doing work.”

Lead Investor 100

Lead Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital Portfolio 100

Genuine VC

MAY 1, 2014

This funding will empower the company to hire more aggressively, expand internationally, and unveil some new products beyond its current core which will allow it to take an even bigger role in an industry in transition… more to come there before too long. Today BookBub is announcing its $3.8M Series A financing.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Social Network 118

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Given communication tools and an array of online services which foster and empower remote working, many startups are successfully building and creating product with teams all around the world. Here at NextView, we typically invest in companies headquartered along the U.S.

Estonia 130

Estonia Startup Distribution Chicago 130

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

And the larger imports (Microsoft, Google, eBay… recent challenges not withstanding) have now been established for a time that people have had at least a few years to formally train in internet software product development areas.

Boston 206

Boston Internet Entrepreneur .Net 206

Genuine VC

JULY 22, 2012

On one side are the large VC firms resembling Budweiser-type macrobrews, competing based on scale and brand with a standardized product across multiple geographies, sectors, and stages. Two years ago, I wrote a blog post analogizing the beer industry to the VC industry as it has matured to create two bifurcated poles.

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital Aggregator Portfolio Search 164

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Even for consumer-facing online services, UI and product design is about selling users on what actions you’d like them to take. Everything in startups is selling. Selling to financiers. Selling to customers.

Startup 123

Startup Cofounder Employee Hiring 123

Genuine VC

MAY 18, 2011

Yet for us at NextView, our investment isn’t just about the product and market, but rather it’s all about the entrepreneur. Given the unique and original service, it’s no surprise that TurningArt has been featured in dozens of media outlets in the past few months like NPR , CBS News , and the Boston Globe.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Boston Angel Investor Founder 118

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Given communication tools and an array of online services which foster and empower remote working, many startups are successfully building and creating product with teams all around the world. Here at NextView, we typically invest in companies headquartered along the U.S.

Estonia 100

Estonia Startup Distribution Chicago 100

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

With extremely few resources, these scrappy founders are able to cobble together product, customers, and partnerships out of merely thin air. . • Spontaneous creation ( Animation ). Some people have the aptitude to literally create something out of nothing.

Founder 138

Founder Early Stage Portfolio Entrepreneur 138

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Large VC firms resemble Budweiser-type macrobrews, competing based on scale and brand with a standardized product across multiple geographies, sectors, and stages. Last September I wrote a post outlining my view of the venture capital industry: increasingly evolving like the beer industry as it continues to mature.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Seed Stage Entrepreneur LP 150

Genuine VC

JUNE 28, 2011

Some founders triumph when innovating on product, but not on managing people. In fact, once three separate individuals have a similar story to tell, it’s fairly certain that the message should ring loud and clear. Mixed feedback is mixed, but not necessarily bad. Different people excel in different situations.

Due Diligence 159

Due Diligence Green Conversion Founder 159

Genuine VC

JANUARY 15, 2010

When I started WebInno it was a dozen people gathering in a bar with nametags, now it’s certainly a production. An event changes over time, both in the size and the composition of the crowd, but also in the context of the environment. I’ve found that people forgive authentic mistakes but not contrived errors.

Silicon Valley 208

Silicon Valley Boston DC Cofounder 208

Genuine VC

JULY 30, 2012

Like any economic transaction, the pricing of a startup’s seed round ultimately depends on the equation of perceived supply (the quality of the team, product, & market) and demand (how many competitive alternatives there are to any one given funder, including non-consumption).

Valuation 136

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Syndicate 136

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

With extremely few resources, these scrappy founders are able to cobble together product, customers, and partnerships out of merely thin air. . • Spontaneous creation ( Animation ). Some people have the aptitude to literally create something out of nothing.

Founder 100

Founder Early Stage Portfolio Entrepreneur 100

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Don’t tell people you’re a great business guy looking for a technical team with an idea/product which needs business acumen – this general search rarely culminates in anything. Don’t waste too much time looking through VC’s endless portfolio pages. The good are interspersed with the bad and the ugly.

Startup 148

Startup Portfolio Later Stage Hiring 148

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Yet the company hasn’t figured out product-market fit yet, hasn’t figured out its customer proposition, doesn’t have revenue… it doesn’t have traction. And that derisking is only for 12 +/- 6 months.

Startup 241

Startup Later Stage Angel Financing Seed Stage 241