In January, Jerry Neumann wrote a long and detailed analysis of his view of the VC industry in the 1980’s titled Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980’s. The key reason for the explosion in capital flowing into the industry, and therefore the large increase in practitioners, had nothing to do with 1970’s performance, early stage investing, or technology. Continental Capital*. $ 250,000. KPC&B II. $ 775,000. MORE
One of the hardest concepts to internalize for those new to venture capital is what is known as the “Babe Ruth effect. Venture Capital MORE
I’m spending the new two days filming the content for a MOOC on raising venture capital. The content is based on my book with Jason titled Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist. The post NovoED MOOC on Raising Venture Capital appeared first on Feld Thoughts. Education education mooc novoed stanford venture deals MORE
If you’re even remotely connected to the “industry” of Venture Capital, you need to read Howard Marks’ It’s Not Easy memo. Pattern matching in venture capital may work for figuring out how to build companies, but it is less likely to work for ideas. MORE
It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. While this it total FDI as opposed to just venture, it should give you an indication of the international trend. MORE
The post Love and Venture Capital appeared first on Feld Thoughts. Venture Capital fred wilson Jerry Colonna podcast rebootIf you’ve missed me, it’s because I spent a week in Australia. Ten days ago, after being there for a few days, I came down with salmonella poisoning. I’m finally starting to feel normal again although I’m still exhausted. This has easily been the sickest I’ve ever been. MORE
This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. SBIR and STTR programs, the Torch Program’s funding for new ventures was limited to seed funding the front end. MORE
At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. LPs Still Believe Strongly in Venture Capital as a Diverse Source of Returns. MORE
As an entrepreneur, though, you should look no further than Fab.com as a cautionary tale of venture capital. The Drawbacks of Venture Capital. Some companies and business models need venture capital to succeed, but the numbers prove that most don’t. MORE
Recently Upfront Ventures published its outlook for the technology startup world and venture capital overall titled it “ WTF Happened to Winter ?” venture-capital startup MORE
million in venture capital. Million in Venture Capital appeared first on SiliconHills. ePatientFinder, a matchmaking platform for physicians, patients and clinical trials, announced this week it has received $8.2 The Austin-based startup has raised a total of $11 million since its founding in 2013. Tom Dorsett, Tushar Jain, Greg Sweatt and Dillon Krug co-founded the company. Silicon Hills News did this profile on […] The post ePatientFinder Lands $8.3 MORE
My partner Jason and our dear friend Professor Brad Bernthal are attempting to teach everything there is to know about the venture ecosystem in 90 minutes on January 28th. The post Learn Everything You Need To Know About Venture Capital in 90 Minutes appeared first on Feld Thoughts. MORE
Silverton Partners, a venture capital firm founded in 2005, is raising a $100 million Silverton Partners V fund, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Austin-based venture capital firm lists Adam Chibib, Michael Dodd, Morgan Flagler and Kip McClanahan as its general partners. MORE
To date, Austin-based uShip has raised $50 million with previous rounds led by Benchmark […] The post uShip Lands $25 Million in Venture Capital Funding appeared first on SiliconHills. uShip, the online shipping marketplace and freight automation software provider, Wednesday announced it has closed on a $25 million round of funding. DB Schenker, one of the world’s largest logistics companies owned by Deutsche Bahn AG, led the Series D round. MORE
This post is for everyone who thinks venture capital is an easy business. Here are short term and long term returns for the venture capital business over the past ten years compared to the public equity markets in the US. Venture Capital and Technology MORE
Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. The most successful of these businesses will still need venture capital to scale their businesses. MORE
In March of last year, our GV engineering team analyzed market data to assess whether or not the tech industry was experiencing a bubble… Continue reading on GV Library MORE
Good VCs need to be good forecasters. We need to predict which companies are going to succeed and second guess future trends so we can develop our firms to stay ahead of the curve. Deloitte have just published an interesting synopsis of Tetlock’s Superforecasting which gives us some insights into the types of people we need to recruit and the habits we need to cultivate to be good at the forecasting game. MORE
One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. The beauty of venture capital is that on any given deal I can only lose one times my money. MORE
There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. Be thoughtful about from whom you raise capital. MORE
To raise capital as a very early-stage business, you have to convince investors that your current size isn’t indicative of where you will be in the future. A woman you don’t know tells you that she’s going to run a marathon of 7-minute miles. She’s never run a long distance race before. MORE
Richard Florida published some stats on the distribution of global venture capital investment last week. SF proper and the broader bay area make up 25% of the global venture capital investment activity (~$10bn out of $42bn). MORE
The Venture Capital Method (VC Method) was first described by Professor Bill Sahlman at Harvard Business School in 1987 in a case study and has been revised since. It is one of the useful methods for establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup ventures. Most angels understand that half of new ventures fail and the best an investor can expect from nine of ten investments is return of capital for a portfolio of ten. MORE
What are venture capitalists looking for? What do venture capitalists want in an investment? I introduce this topic with that reworked joke because so many people say “venture capital” when they really mean “angel investors” or “outside investors.” MORE
Two of his latest articles talk about entrepreneurial density and venture capital. The Connection Between Venture Capital and Diverse, Dense Communities. In it, he looked at Venture Capital financing (total dollars and number of deals) on a per-capital basis. And Richard acknowledges this: “I’ll continue to track the evolving geography of start-ups and venture capital in future posts. MORE
Owlchemy Labs, an independent virtual reality game developer, announced this week the company has closed on $5 million in venture capital. The Austin-based startup moved here from Boston, where Alex Schwartz founded the company in 2010. MORE
Kathryn has been the founding VP of Marketing of Oracle , a successful recruiter, a world class Venture Capitalist, a co-founder of a Venture Capital firm, a great board member, one of my mentors and most importantly a wonderful friend. So I started Foundation Capital in 1995. MORE
A: While self serving, we recommend you start with our book – Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer And Venture Capitalist. Jason also did an excellent Crash Course on Venture Capital – the 90 minute video is below. Venture Capital Crash Course with Jason Mendelson from Andrew on Vimeo. Berkeley has an excellent Venture Capital Executive Program as do Harvard and Stanford. MORE
It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I presented the deck below – which was prepared with the great help of Upfront Venture’s Principal Jordan Hudson – at Dave McClure’s must attend event called PreMoney with much more data and narrative than I had in my blog post. MORE
Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Fundamentally venture capital is about human capital. Venture Capital is a people business. MORE
This quarter they interviewed me as part of it on Quarterly VC Update: Brad Feld on the State of Venture Capital Investing. At the same time, if you are a clearly successful growth company, there is a huge amount of capital available once you’ve reached a point of clear success (often after $20m – $40m has been raised). There is a huge capital supply gap for companies that are in between early startups and companies that are successful growth companies. MORE
Getting venture capital funding to launch your business is incredibly difficult. In fact, fewer than 1 percent of businesses that start every year get venture funding. Is venture capital right for you? 12 of the Hottest Venture Capital Firms in 2016. MORE
And, in the other two, I don’t expect to ever see any of my capital back because of the SBIC leverage. The SBIC was instrumental in the creation of the venture capital business. If you want to see a fun quote on it, read A History of Silicon Valley which quotes: “ …many venture capital pioneers think the SBIC program did little to advance the art and practice of venture investing. Peter Adams, head of Rockies Venture Club, is quoted a few times. MORE
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: Venture capitalists are looking to replace founders with “their guys.” Even the most elementary venture capitalist has the privilege of serving on boards of a number of startups. MORE
Last night Amy and I watched the movie Something Ventured: Risk, Reward, and the Original Venture Capitalists. I figured Amy would veto Something Ventured after 15 minutes. If you are a VC, or aspire to be a VC, do yourself a favor and watch Something Ventured right now. MORE
And if you do happen to be lucky and find the right mountain to climb, if you find that you’ve started ascending the peak before others have found the right trail — then venture capital is for you. But you need to understand venture economics. MORE
Whether or not you’re raising money for your business, getting advice from venture capitalists can be invaluable. Inside the Minds of Top Venture Capitalists: Blogs You Need to Read to Understand How VCs Think. Andrew Parker is a VC with Spark Capital in Boston. MORE
On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? I have never come across a sophisticated A, B or C round venture capitalist who thinks convertible notes are a smart move for entrepreneur or investor. ’ But do you want to start a relationship with your most important supplier – that of capital to fuel your business – by avoiding talking about his or her expectations in terms of rights or privileges? This week. MORE
by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld, co-authors of “ Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist “ So, you’ve got a brilliant idea and you’re ready to launch a company. MORE
Forbes released the 2013 Midas List for Venture Capital today, proving that to be successful in VC, all you need is one big hit. Five of the top ten names on the list invested in Facebook, the largest tech IPO of 2012. [[ This is a content summary only. MORE
In the fall of 2010 Mahendra Ramsinghani reached out to me by email about a new book he was working on called The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies. I was deep into writing Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC with one of my other partners – Jason Mendelson – and it was neat to see how Mahendra’s book complimented ours. MORE
The post From Accelerators to Venture Capital: What is best for your startup? How To Fundraise Starting Your Company accelerators angel funding incubators venture capital MORE
Most folks reading this will know that many startups were built in part with the help of venture capital. So I wanted to dive a little deeper into what I call the startup capital supply chain. Google, Intel Capital). MORE
Venture Capital Related Topics A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
JANUARY 31, 2016
Richard Florida published some stats on the distribution of global venture capital investment last week. SF proper and the broader bay area make up 25% of the global venture capital investment activity (~$10bn out of $42bn).
A VC : Venture Capital and Technology
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
This post is for everyone who thinks venture capital is an easy business. Here are short term and long term returns for the venture capital business over the past ten years compared to the public equity markets in the US. Venture Capital and Technology
Feld Thoughts
JULY 15, 2013
Two of his latest articles talk about entrepreneurial density and venture capital. The Connection Between Venture Capital and Diverse, Dense Communities. In it, he looked at Venture Capital financing (total dollars and number of deals) on a per-capital basis. And Richard acknowledges this: “I’ll continue to track the evolving geography of start-ups and venture capital in future posts.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Fundamentally venture capital is about human capital. Venture Capital is a people business.
Steve Blank
AUGUST 5, 2014
Kathryn has been the founding VP of Marketing of Oracle , a successful recruiter, a world class Venture Capitalist, a co-founder of a Venture Capital firm, a great board member, one of my mentors and most importantly a wonderful friend. So I started Foundation Capital in 1995.
Feld Thoughts
AUGUST 25, 2015
In January, Jerry Neumann wrote a long and detailed analysis of his view of the VC industry in the 1980’s titled Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980’s. The key reason for the explosion in capital flowing into the industry, and therefore the large increase in practitioners, had nothing to do with 1970’s performance, early stage investing, or technology. Continental Capital*. $ 250,000. KPC&B II. $ 775,000.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? I have never come across a sophisticated A, B or C round venture capitalist who thinks convertible notes are a smart move for entrepreneur or investor. ’ But do you want to start a relationship with your most important supplier – that of capital to fuel your business – by avoiding talking about his or her expectations in terms of rights or privileges? This week.
Feld Thoughts
NOVEMBER 2, 2016
This quarter they interviewed me as part of it on Quarterly VC Update: Brad Feld on the State of Venture Capital Investing. At the same time, if you are a clearly successful growth company, there is a huge amount of capital available once you’ve reached a point of clear success (often after $20m – $40m has been raised). There is a huge capital supply gap for companies that are in between early startups and companies that are successful growth companies.
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 6, 2013
Last night Amy and I watched the movie Something Ventured: Risk, Reward, and the Original Venture Capitalists. I figured Amy would veto Something Ventured after 15 minutes. If you are a VC, or aspire to be a VC, do yourself a favor and watch Something Ventured right now.
Feld Thoughts
AUGUST 11, 2016
The post Love and Venture Capital appeared first on Feld Thoughts. Venture Capital fred wilson Jerry Colonna podcast rebootIf you’ve missed me, it’s because I spent a week in Australia. Ten days ago, after being there for a few days, I came down with salmonella poisoning. I’m finally starting to feel normal again although I’m still exhausted. This has easily been the sickest I’ve ever been.
Up and Running
NOVEMBER 2, 2016
Getting venture capital funding to launch your business is incredibly difficult. In fact, fewer than 1 percent of businesses that start every year get venture funding. Is venture capital right for you? 12 of the Hottest Venture Capital Firms in 2016.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 12, 2017
Recently Upfront Ventures published its outlook for the technology startup world and venture capital overall titled it “ WTF Happened to Winter ?” venture-capital startup
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 5, 2016
There was an explosion in number of startups both because it was cheap and there was tons of available capital. Be thoughtful about from whom you raise capital.
Up and Running
MARCH 11, 2015
Whether or not you’re raising money for your business, getting advice from venture capitalists can be invaluable. Inside the Minds of Top Venture Capitalists: Blogs You Need to Read to Understand How VCs Think. Andrew Parker is a VC with Spark Capital in Boston.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 23, 2012
Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. The most successful of these businesses will still need venture capital to scale their businesses.
Agile VC
OCTOBER 29, 2014
Most folks reading this will know that many startups were built in part with the help of venture capital. So I wanted to dive a little deeper into what I call the startup capital supply chain. Google, Intel Capital).
The Equity Kicker
MAY 6, 2016
Good VCs need to be good forecasters. We need to predict which companies are going to succeed and second guess future trends so we can develop our firms to stay ahead of the curve. Deloitte have just published an interesting synopsis of Tetlock’s Superforecasting which gives us some insights into the types of people we need to recruit and the habits we need to cultivate to be good at the forecasting game.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 6, 2017
It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. While this it total FDI as opposed to just venture, it should give you an indication of the international trend.
VC Cafe
AUGUST 5, 2013
Forbes released the 2013 Midas List for Venture Capital today, proving that to be successful in VC, all you need is one big hit. Five of the top ten names on the list invested in Facebook, the largest tech IPO of 2012. [[ This is a content summary only.
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 6, 2017
by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld, co-authors of “ Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist “ So, you’ve got a brilliant idea and you’re ready to launch a company.
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 20, 2014
My partner Jason and our dear friend Professor Brad Bernthal are attempting to teach everything there is to know about the venture ecosystem in 90 minutes on January 28th. The post Learn Everything You Need To Know About Venture Capital in 90 Minutes appeared first on Feld Thoughts.
K9 Ventures
OCTOBER 19, 2015
If you’re even remotely connected to the “industry” of Venture Capital, you need to read Howard Marks’ It’s Not Easy memo. Pattern matching in venture capital may work for figuring out how to build companies, but it is less likely to work for ideas.
Gust
OCTOBER 8, 2014
To raise capital as a very early-stage business, you have to convince investors that your current size isn’t indicative of where you will be in the future. A woman you don’t know tells you that she’s going to run a marathon of 7-minute miles. She’s never run a long distance race before.
Ask The VC
DECEMBER 26, 2012
A: While self serving, we recommend you start with our book – Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer And Venture Capitalist. Jason also did an excellent Crash Course on Venture Capital – the 90 minute video is below. Venture Capital Crash Course with Jason Mendelson from Andrew on Vimeo. Berkeley has an excellent Venture Capital Executive Program as do Harvard and Stanford.
Design Staff
JUNE 20, 2016
In March of last year, our GV engineering team analyzed market data to assess whether or not the tech industry was experiencing a bubble… Continue reading on GV Library
Steve Blank
APRIL 12, 2013
This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. SBIR and STTR programs, the Torch Program’s funding for new ventures was limited to seed funding the front end.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 1, 2016
At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. LPs Still Believe Strongly in Venture Capital as a Diverse Source of Returns.
SiliconHills
MARCH 1, 2017
Silverton Partners, a venture capital firm founded in 2005, is raising a $100 million Silverton Partners V fund, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Austin-based venture capital firm lists Adam Chibib, Michael Dodd, Morgan Flagler and Kip McClanahan as its general partners.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 28, 2014
And, in the other two, I don’t expect to ever see any of my capital back because of the SBIC leverage. The SBIC was instrumental in the creation of the venture capital business. If you want to see a fun quote on it, read A History of Silicon Valley which quotes: “ …many venture capital pioneers think the SBIC program did little to advance the art and practice of venture investing. Peter Adams, head of Rockies Venture Club, is quoted a few times.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 29, 2014
It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” I presented the deck below – which was prepared with the great help of Upfront Venture’s Principal Jordan Hudson – at Dave McClure’s must attend event called PreMoney with much more data and narrative than I had in my blog post.
Feld Thoughts
AUGUST 29, 2013
I’m spending the new two days filming the content for a MOOC on raising venture capital. The content is based on my book with Jason titled Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist. The post NovoED MOOC on Raising Venture Capital appeared first on Feld Thoughts. Education education mooc novoed stanford venture deals
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 2, 2012
In the fall of 2010 Mahendra Ramsinghani reached out to me by email about a new book he was working on called The Business of Venture Capital: Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies. I was deep into writing Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC with one of my other partners – Jason Mendelson – and it was neat to see how Mahendra’s book complimented ours.
SiliconHills
JUNE 10, 2016
million in venture capital. Million in Venture Capital appeared first on SiliconHills. ePatientFinder, a matchmaking platform for physicians, patients and clinical trials, announced this week it has received $8.2 The Austin-based startup has raised a total of $11 million since its founding in 2013. Tom Dorsett, Tushar Jain, Greg Sweatt and Dillon Krug co-founded the company. Silicon Hills News did this profile on […] The post ePatientFinder Lands $8.3
SiliconHills
AUGUST 4, 2016
Owlchemy Labs, an independent virtual reality game developer, announced this week the company has closed on $5 million in venture capital. The Austin-based startup moved here from Boston, where Alex Schwartz founded the company in 2010.
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: Venture capitalists are looking to replace founders with “their guys.” Even the most elementary venture capitalist has the privilege of serving on boards of a number of startups.
Gust
NOVEMBER 1, 2011
The Venture Capital Method (VC Method) was first described by Professor Bill Sahlman at Harvard Business School in 1987 in a case study and has been revised since. It is one of the useful methods for establishing the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue startup ventures. Most angels understand that half of new ventures fail and the best an investor can expect from nine of ten investments is return of capital for a portfolio of ten.
Up and Running
OCTOBER 13, 2014
What are venture capitalists looking for? What do venture capitalists want in an investment? I introduce this topic with that reworked joke because so many people say “venture capital” when they really mean “angel investors” or “outside investors.”
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 26, 2015
One of the least understood parts of the venture capital industry and venture capital firms is how investment decisions actually get made. The beauty of venture capital is that on any given deal I can only lose one times my money.
SiliconHills
FEBRUARY 15, 2017
To date, Austin-based uShip has raised $50 million with previous rounds led by Benchmark […] The post uShip Lands $25 Million in Venture Capital Funding appeared first on SiliconHills. uShip, the online shipping marketplace and freight automation software provider, Wednesday announced it has closed on a $25 million round of funding. DB Schenker, one of the world’s largest logistics companies owned by Deutsche Bahn AG, led the Series D round.
YoungUpstarts
MARCH 14, 2016
As an entrepreneur, though, you should look no further than Fab.com as a cautionary tale of venture capital. The Drawbacks of Venture Capital. Some companies and business models need venture capital to succeed, but the numbers prove that most don’t.
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
87 
Let's personalize your content