In entrepreneurial culture, success dominates the airwaves. A brand new company can succeed in many ways: attracting press, landing influential seed investors, winning contests, and through stories of individual users. This culture is so strong, that the second act of an entrepreneur…
Read MoreIn this month’s five best blogs we are going all Venture Capital: start with some great startups whose ideas seemed absurd at the time, then check out six myths about venture capital — which might help, since some people believe there are now fewer than 100 tech VCs still investing,…
Read MoreOne of the minor signs of professional accomplishment is that dreaded moment where some enterprising young person asks career advice. Often one has to balance between the practical (pursue a typical corporate gig to pay off student debt?) and the promise…
Read MoreOne of the axioms of raising capital is simple: all money is green, so what is the value an entrepreneur should expect from an investor? For many early-stage companies that are growing quickly, with money safely in the bank, the primary need is talent. And one of the resources…
Read MoreThe roughly $2 billion deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs is so chock-rich of material it will surely spawn a series of longer pieces once it has settled into historical view. To begin,..
Read MoreFunding options and pathways for early-stage companies are changing – more rapidly now than at any time in the past quarter century. We’ve detailed many of the changes individually…
Read MoreFor the vast majority of its history (as captured in this 2007 article), music service Pandora was on the brink of shutting its doors. Sheer perseverance, a tapdance in business models, the easing of regulatory and litigation risk…
Read MoreThere were two companion pieces recently published by venture capitalists: why VC returns are going up (WSJ) and investing at the bottom of the VC cycle (NYT). Both of these pieces look at the amount of money committed to venture firms in 2010…
Read Moret has long been a repeated truism that one can’t raise venture capital over the summer. Last year a VC actually looked at the data and finds both that an equal proportion of deals close in the summer months, and that his own firm’s busiest closing month…
Read MoreGiven the limited access to equity capital — and lower valuations if you can find investors — a variety of other possibilities are emerging as options for smaller and early-stage companies. Among these are mezzanine loans, royalty financing, and…
Read MoreLast month we looked at the external factors partly responsible for the consolidation of the venture industry. What also bears consideration is the internal economics of the industry itself. As the industry grew and…
Read MoreWith the traditional venture model under assault, there is an increased focus on seed-stage funding. Back in September we noted the attempt to create a standardized Series A term sheet. Now there is similar stakeholder interest…
Read MoreThree young guns – and not a detained Nigerian prince among them – are currently offering investors a chance to invest cash now in return for a percent of future income. One, a 26-year-old Stanford grad, has even priced it out: 6% of future income for…
Read MoreWith many small businesses losing their lines of credit, coupled with the demise in small business lending from commercial banks, alternate sources of capital such as purchase-order financing are on the rise,…
Read MoreAn online brouhaha broke out over angel groups that charge startups to pitch potential investors. Led by media entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, and with an echo from Fred Wilson, soon a full chorus…
Read MoreThe demise of the IPO market has left many venture-backed companies in their own version of existential purgatory. The scarcity of realized exits is particularly hard on company founders…
Read MoreAnd further on the topic of increased liquidity, the always-observant Mark Suster has a terrific piece on why company founders should be able to take some equity off the table once their firm has reached reasonable milestones. His point is simple, but often overlooked:…
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