Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. Businesses which should and do attract venture capital are ones which have the potential to be both high-growth and extremely large.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Genuine VC

JANUARY 22, 2014

Active contributor to the Boston entrepreneurial community with extensive network across technology startups. This two-year role is a unique opportunity to work full-time within a venture capital firm, setting and executing on a outward-facing strategy to interface with both its portfolio and the broader entrepreneurial community.

Community 113

Community Boston Seed Stage Venture Capital 113

Genuine VC

JUNE 27, 2012

One of the things that surprised me most about venture capital when I got into the business is how much VCs seem to like to meet for breakfast. But breakfast for venture capitalists is an open free-for-all for all sorts of networking meetings and conversations.

Portfolio 248

Portfolio Venture Capital Networking Conversion 248

Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

There are essentially two distinct basic strategies for startup entrepreneurs to raise a seed round of capital: Subscription approach – An entrepreneur sets a structure (usually a convertible note) and recruits individual angel investors who subscribe to the round, all without a term-driving lead investor.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. The art of venture capital also means that for entrepreneurs raising it, there isn’t one definitive playbook which can be used as a guide. MYTH: The venture capital model is broken.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2014

In his Boston-based career, he’s also worked for Google and local startup Dailybreak, in addition to co-founding the community group Boston Content which has grown to hundreds of members. At the core of this shift is the need for firms to add real value to portfolio companies beyond just capital and boardroom advice. Why should I care?

Boston 123

Boston Early Stage Portfolio Cofounder 123

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Like a lot of students, I went into business school a decade ago with a set plan to start a company coming straight after graduation in co-founding an internet startup (… again ). MBAs are notorious for sheep-herding towards a particular category of startups (recently, daily deals and online new e-retailing).

Cofounder 256

Cofounder Portfolio Venture Capital Reputation 256

Genuine VC

JANUARY 13, 2014

Venture capital firms are comprised of people, which natural means that their idiosyncrasies seep into the process. With it, the startups’ fundraising has the best chance of being optimized, thus hopefully starting a virtuous loop around other aspects of the business. It’s rarely a straight line from point A to point B.

Term Sheet 206

Term Sheet Venture Capital Valuation Portfolio 206

Genuine VC

MARCH 26, 2012

Over the past decade, VCs have been lamenting about the poor state of the IPO markets and that the number of real potential acquirers for consumer internet startups has dwindled down to a handful, if that. Over the past three years, the number of startups which have been acquired by these four companies is trending upwards.

Acquisition 128

Acquisition Internet IPO Venture Capital 128

Genuine VC

DECEMBER 17, 2012

The idea is that if a venture firm is towards the end of its capital availability that they’re much less likely to invest in a new startup, and that there are even cases of “walking dead” firms taking entrepreneur meetings to maintain the appearances of being “in market” with very little intentions (or ability) to invest at all.

Venture Capital 196

Venture Capital Conversion Search Entrepreneur 196

Genuine VC

MARCH 26, 2012

Over the past decade, VCs have been lamenting about the poor state of the IPO markets and that the number of real potential acquirers for consumer internet startups has dwindled down to a handful, if that. Over the past three years, the number of startups which have been acquired by these four companies is trending upwards.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition Internet IPO Venture Capital 100

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

But the other archetype is a thirty-something entrepreneur who, taking his experience seeing the playbook of success at larger growing startups or even “established” companies, utilizes that domain and functional expertise as unique insight into founding a company.

Boston 206

Boston Internet Entrepreneur .Net 206

Genuine VC

JULY 23, 2007

Being in the venture capital industry, I find that sometimes it is worthwhile to take a step back from the day-to-day to take a look at the large impending trends which are just beginning to affect us. To most readers, they likely may seem obvious, but perhaps serve as a reminder what’s likely in store.

Green 100

Green Bandwidth Startup Venture Capital 100

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

Recently Chris Dixon wrote that in developing new startup ideas that founders should be the “opposite of secretive” and talk about startups ideas with “every smart person you can get a meeting with”… including VCs. VCs spend a good portion of their time networking and interacting with a variety of people within the startup ecosystem.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 123

Genuine VC

JANUARY 17, 2011

Last summer, I along with my partners announced that we were forming a new micro venture capital firm. ” First and foremost, we are dedicated seed-stage investors focused on investments in internet-enabled startups. The three of us are looking to work with entrepreneurs to build industry-changing transformative businesses.

Seed Stage 125

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage New York 125

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

Recently Chris Dixon wrote that in developing new startup ideas that founders should be the “opposite of secretive” and talk about startups ideas with “every smart person you can get a meeting with”… including VCs. VCs spend a good portion of their time networking and interacting with a variety of people within the startup ecosystem.

Early Stage 121

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 121

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. In a business where the entrepreneur is the customer of a venture capital firm, good customer-service (so to speak) is paramount.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 167

Genuine VC

JANUARY 5, 2010

Some are former operators and entrepreneurs, so they’ve experienced both sides of the table; some are career VCs who benefit from the pattern recognition of having been involved in so many startups. At the end of the day, all venture capitalists will tell you that they’re above average. Go ahead – ask one.

Boston 150

Boston Early Stage Venture Capital Operations 150

Genuine VC

JUNE 22, 2011

In the past couple years, I’ve written a couple blog posts explaining how startup offices are like faces , which can basically be summed up in an excerpt paragraph – “they [startup offices] communicate what is going on in the inside. Just as all startups are different, their offices should be different as well.

Seed Stage 123

Seed Stage Boston Incubator Portfolio 123

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

All venture capital partnerships fall along a spectrum where on one pole are individual contributors hunting on a shared platform, to the other end where the partners act in unison a real team. There is no second-guessing or I-told-you-so’s whenever any of these startups face (inevitable) challenges.

Portfolio 114

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 114

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

All venture capital partnerships fall along a spectrum where on one pole are individual contributors hunting on a shared platform, to the other end where the partners act in unison a real team. There is no second-guessing or I-told-you-so’s whenever any of these startups face (inevitable) challenges.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 100

Genuine VC

JANUARY 5, 2010

Some are former operators and entrepreneurs, so they’ve experienced both sides of the table; some are career VCs who benefit from the pattern recognition of having been involved in so many startups. At the end of the day, all venture capitalists will tell you that they’re above average. Go ahead – ask one.

Boston 101

Boston Early Stage Venture Capital Operations 101

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. In a business where the entrepreneur is the customer of a venture capital firm, good customer-service (so to speak) is paramount.

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 103