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The “Come-from-Behind” Lead Investor

Genuine VC

In other words, as much as feasible, to gate all of the VC discussions so that they’re progressing along essentially the same pace – with the goal to receive multiple terms sheets near simultaneously in order to best select the best offer and best partner, with full information. But reality doesn’t always play out as neatly.

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Failure and Redemption

Steve Blank

This was the fault of my cofounder since he was in charge of game development, it was the engineers who bailed on me, it was the sales and marketing people who didn’t tell me how bad the games were, it was the VC’s who refused to put any more money in the company, it was Sega’s fault for making a bad gaming platform…. (I

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How to Launch, Manage, and Invest a VC Fund

David Teten

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. See Where Are the Deals?!:

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How to Launch, Manage, and Invest a VC Fund

David Teten

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See my summary on how lead investors think about building out their syndicate. . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. See Where Are the Deals?!:

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Failure and Redemption

Steve Blank

This was the fault of my cofounder since he was in charge of game development, it was the engineers who bailed on me, it was the sales and marketing people who didn’t tell me how bad the games were, it was the VC’s who refused to put any more money in the company, it was Sega’s fault for making a bad gaming platform…. (I

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Building the Best Seed Syndicates

View from Seed

Aside from the early commitments, the next most important thing to focus on is nailing down your lead investor. I’ve found that the lead investor will end up doing 90% of the work for a startup (or will cause 90% of the pain if you get the decision wrong). Often one of the leads in the mix is a larger, multi-stage fund.

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Congratulations to Upwork

A Crowded Space

Very shortly after I joined, Greg Gretsch (now my partner at Jackson Square Ventures) co-led oDesk’s Series A along with Venky Ganesan (partner at Menlo Ventures and lead investor in Rev.com). Greg Gretsch was and remains on the board and is my partner at Jackson Square Ventures.