Management
The conventional Silicon Valley / venture capital (VC) wisdom is that startups should not bet on first-time managers in just about any position, but particularly at the executive team level. It's best captured by the statement: a high-growth startup is not the place to learn how to do your
IPO
I just finished reading Right-Sizing the US Venture Capital Industry by Paul Kedrosky, author of the Infectious Greed blog and wanted to share some thoughts on it here. He starts with an interesting swipe at two of the more popular claims of venture industry marketing: (1) the citation of great
VC
I picked up this pretty funny and, shall I say, quite cynical deck on the A VC blog by NYC-based venture capitalist Fred Wilson. Enjoy! [slideshare id=1549490&doc=vcnonadmissions-090608115036-phpapp02]
IPO
One of my favorite kids' movie scenes has always been the inside the claw game sequence in Toy Story. The heroes (Buzz and Woody) are trapped inside one of those games where you drop a claw and try to win a novelty gift, in this case a mutant alien
IPO
See this post by venture capitalist Fred Wilson, guest bloggging on Business Insider (nee Silicon Alley Insider) and re-posted on his own well regarded A VC blog, entitled The End of the IPO Drought is Coming. The five key points of the argument are: * VCs have been in the penalty
Entrepreneurship
I found this great post on VentureBeat, 10 Lessons from a Failed Startup, where entrepreneur Mark Goldenson tells you the ten things he learned from his failed internet TV network for games, PlayCafe. Here's a summary of the ten things Mark learned: * Find quick money first * Content businesses
VC
What if you went to the doctor's office with a sore wrist and she proposed bandaging your ankle? That's how I feel about the government's proposal that venture capital be regulated along with other private capital pools including hedge and private equity funds. See
VC
Thanks to this story in today's Mercury News, I noticed that Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index showed a welcome and rather surprising uptick in 1Q09. The index, produced by the University of San Francisco Entrepreneurship program, has tracked venture capitalist confidence since 1Q04 and hit its all-time
Silicon Valley
I just heard about this index today, the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index, which measures the confidence of Silicon Valley venture capitalists on a scale from 1-5. In 4Q08, the index hit its fifth consecutive quarterly new low at 2.77 out of 5. The index was started in
Silicon Valley
In keeping with my predictions series, here are the results of a recently released survey by the National Venture Capital Association featuring predictions about venture capital in 2009. The survey includes responses from more than 400 venture capitalists and was taken between 11/24 and 12/12/08. Some takeaways:
VC
I was reading Worth Magazine the other day and stumbled into a one-page interview with Gordon Getty, son of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty. Perhaps I'm the last guy on the planet to hear this quote, but I thought it was too good not to share. Increasingly, if
Private Equity
[slideshare id=746674&doc=thefundedsick-1226521688868759-8]
