Letting Go of Identity. Such a tricky and painful process during change. We hold onto the past, onto our old identity & reality and it drags us under the water like holding onto a log floating down the stream. The log has passed and no amount of clinging or wishing will change the reality of […]
Managing Life’s 8-10 Year Cycle (part 2)
TLDR: “Roughly, every eight to ten years, life seems to cycle through like a brush fire to clean up the excesses of the past decade.” The current cycle never ended as planned. As the cycle moves to the next cycle, people feel ungrounded and seek even deeper for purpose and meaning. There are proven tools to navigate […]
The Importance of Getting Small
I was asked to write a guest piece for Spark this week and reposted here. As we all work to manage through the changing cycle, I keep hearing from friends, entrepreneurs, and clients that they are struggling with their identities, their purpose/focus, and feeling like they are enough and doing enough. The answer is learning […]
The Simple Path to Purpose Has Not Changed in 2,500 Years
I had a great talk with a friend on a topic that keeps coming up post-COVID: What is my purpose? How do I have more meaning in my day to day? It is like trying to grab a wet bar of soap. The simple answer hasn’t changed in 2,500 years… The Universe has an interesting […]
My Journey to Launch FORGE
Today is the public reveal of FORGE Capital on the main stage at Denver Start-up Week. I have been developing a different approach and strategy for venture investing (and life in general) for almost a decade. In addition to investing at Pritzker and Crown, I have been evolving this new venture model with personal capital. […]
The Lesson from Beau’s Final Walk
A year ago today, we put our beloved Bernese border collie rescue dog, Beau, down after 18 years with us. He was there to raise all three kids & see them through good and tough days. He was there to see all of use through career moves, market crashes, a divorce and junior high. On […]
Remembering When Elon Almost Went Under
To all the aspiring entrepreneurs battling through COVID: With the hopeful Crew Dragon launch on Saturday, Elon will show us yet again what the human spirit is capable of and usher in manned space flight’s next chapter. However, I remember & experienced when not one but all three of his companies were on the brink […]
The Two Arrows: Productive Pain vs Unnecessary Suffering
A lot of things seem upside down in the world right now. Many plans or dreams are deferred, if not upended and we feel anxiety in the face of uncertainty. However, this is a core part of flourishing. In entrepreneurship and in life, disappointment (AKA pain) is inevitable. However, suffering, which drives most of our […]
Embracing Life’s 8-10 Year Cycle
Roughly, every eight to ten years, life seems to cycle through like a brush fire to clean up the excesses of the past decade. I’ve experienced this both on a personal and business level four times now (in addition to the 1987 one day 23% market drop). The Great Financial Crisis cycle has abruptly ended […]
If I Lose My Fear, Do I Lose My Drive?
I hear this a lot from entrepreneurs and students. “If I lose my fear, do I lose my drive?”. Two things are implicit in this question…1) fear/anxiety is an essential motivator for success and 2) being driven by anxiety & fear (often a default) has an unsustainable & unacceptable cost. This is a false trade-off…success […]
Hypothesis: Do You Know the Bet You’re Making?
Since the future is unknowable, by definition, we are all making bets in our life, testing hypotheses and probabilities. However, often, we aren’t aware we are making a bet or what that bet is. As a result, we don’t prioritize nor focus on the key things. This applies to careers, relationships, schools or starting companies […]
Enough: Your Savior or Your Demon
My partner, Carter, has hypothesized “…that behind every driven CEO is a 6 year old child seeking its parents’ approval”. In these formative years, we start the dance with being enough (and feeling we aren’t enough). We create coping mechanism to deal with this discomfort whether it be over-achieving, addictions, Instagram posts, compulsive behavior, etc. […]
The Dawn of a New Era in VC & Tech
Tech and VC are entering the Dawn of a New Era. Our industry goes through thematic cycles roughly every 10 years (in addition to the “15 year tech” cycle). The 2020’s will be known for the rise of Stakeholder Capitalism. We will significantly change how we build companies and what their greater roles are. There […]
Choice Is All You Can Control in Life
I was talking with a distraught, young entrepreneur whose week had been rough. He had a much needed prospect go with a competitor and an existing investor reneg on a promise to fund the second tranche of his commitment. He was making himself miserable, thinking about a) the potential failure of his business, b) the […]
NKC’s: How I Focus My Year to Create Impact
We all come into the New Year with a fresh start from the holidays and the hope to check off a host of resolutions that will make the coming year a success in some small or large way. While these goals are well intentioned, we often set ourselves up for disappointment in the way we […]
The Three Drivers of Contentment & Motivation at Work
What motivates us to perform and drives contentment at work? Most entrepreneurs struggle with this question. You want success, want to have drive and yet rely too heavily on fear-based or external motivators which often leave a negative residue. The research shows that the most effective motivators are intrinsic and positive. A champion needs a motivation […]
Which Wolf Do You Feed?
Question: If you lose your fear, do you lose your drive? It’s a question many entrepreneurs ask themselves. They seem to have bought into the idea that you can either be content or you can be driven, but those two states cannot coexist. But that idea is flawed. In reality, we are the stories we tell […]
VC Confidential Is Now Something Ventured
Something Ventured is pretty fully operational! Back in 2005 when I was on the FeedBurner board (Twitter 1.0), I started VC Confidential with two goals: 1) to help entrepreneurs see behind the VC curtain on how we thought/made decisions and 2) to see how the FeedBurner RSS service worked in practice. Dick Costolo (CEO), Brad […]
My Venture Covenant With Entrepreneurs
There is a false dogma around the VC/Entrepreneurship relationship…supported by bad behaviors on both sides. You feel a need to manage your investors & board, to not show weakness and present to us. We fail to fully listen, dictate desires or fears and financially optimize our investments. Trust and open communication are our most precious […]
Multiples vs IRR
One of my most popular posts from VC Confidential… “You Can’t Eat IRR.” — anonymous I was at a business school today helping judge several business plans. As group after group presented, I saw each make the same mistake as the previous. When they tried to justify the investment from the perspective of the VC, […]
Real Is Mandatory
Real Is Mandatory “Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’.” — Bob Dylan The venture markets are a-changin’ with investors and public markets demanding rational business models, visibility to profitable growth and inherently sound economics. Companies like Homejoy and Sidecar have gone under while stars like […]
The 15 Year Tech Cycle: Reloading for Another Tour
“If you can see it, it isn’t the revolution.” — Steve Jurvetson I wrote the following post in Nov, 2008. It demonstrated two things. 1) Tech and the stock market have a little dance they do…tech has roughly a 15 year cycle and the stock market has roughly a 7-8 year one and 2) tech […]
The Key Israeli Story: StartUp Nation
Larger Post coming…without appreciating the context (yesterday’s post), it is hard to fully grasp the origin nor significance of the tech renaissance that is taking place in Israel. One has to see it to fully appreciate it. Much like Boston and Silicon Valley had its origins in military R&D and culture, Israel’s tech ecosystem also […]
Up Close & Personal with Middle East Conflict
Today was one of the most memorable days of my life. Things in the Middle East got very real today. We spent the entire day on copters flying South to Gaza with the Israeli Defense Force and then North to Golan/Syria and Lebanon with Israel's "Wolf Blitzer". We were 10 seconds away from Gaza's Hamas mortar […]
Stunning Day in Jerusalem…Day 1
Quite the first day…cultural day in Jerusalem (minus our guide saying “all schools have cancelled trips to Jerusalem given events this week…”). Landed at 8:30am and off to the races. We visited the Old City where we walked through the four quarters, touched the marble Jesus was supposedly laid on (post Cross) and the […]
To Change the World, Start by Making Your Bed
As many of you may know, I am a commencement speach junkie. One of the stars of this year’s batch is Admiral McRaven’s talk at UoT. He is a navy seal, Commander of the United States Special Operations Command & oversaw the final raid on Osama bin Laden. This has been going viral (approaching 2M views in 1 […]
From the Seeds of Despair Come Greatness
"I'm sorry, there's nothing more we can do." I was always envious and impressed with one of my former entrepreneurs, David Linn. After HBS, he managed to arrange to play professional soccer during the summer (Chicago Fire) and work at McKinsey the rest of the year. He was our top deal guy at Centerpost and […]
Millennials: Rightly Up-ending the Apple Cart
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore While the Boomer's bemoan (wrongly) Millennial's lack of work ethic, narcissism and lack of respect for seniority, there is a sea of change coming that corporations and start-ups alike […]
How Many People Have You Impacted This Year?
As another year draws to a close, I increasingly ask myself the core question: How many people's lives have I helped to make better? Not enough. As I begin to draft my New Year's Resolutions and Goals, I'm going to push myself to get outside of my comfort zone and stretch in helping others in […]
Lead By Example…Happy Thanksgiving!
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17 Fundraising Ideas
Our portfolio company, GiveForward, is one of the standout "double bottom line" companies around. They help people with medical needs (and other) raise money to pay the bills. To date, they have raised $62 million for people. Given that 60% of personal bankruptcies are driven by mounting medical expenses, they have helped a large number […]
The Quest to Get Better
My friend, Brian Johnson, just posted on an awesome topic…Getting Better vs Being Good. Entrepreneurship is not only tough — it is non-linear and success often opaque. Also, short video link below of Carol Dweck's Mindset work…definitely worth everyone learning more about this. The key to managing this reality is: 1) to know your Northern […]
Success on Your Terms
I increasingly have conversations with both rising and established entrepreneurs around “what is success and why does it not feel fulfilling?” Peter Drucker, the uber-management sage, said that as more people acquired wealth, they would shift to focusing more intently on making a purposeful impact on the world. The Millennials are focused on parallel tracking […]
Costolo’s Awesome Commencement Speech
“We must be willing to let go of the life that we’ve planned so as to embrace the life that is awaiting us.” — Joseph Campbell I am a commencement speech junkie. Dick Costolo’s most recent one is in the top 5…funny, inspirational and spot on about life. I first met Dick 16 years ago […]
Curiosity, Obsession & Dogged Endurance
“I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent. Curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas” — Albert Einstein As I look back over my life, the most successful or content people I know were not the most brilliant but the most determined and disciplined. Excellence […]
Success vs Struggle: The Art of Compartmentalizing
Ryan Blair posted an interesting piece The Five Steps of Compartimentalization in Forbes last year. I did an exercise I try every couple of weeks where I lay out all of the commitments I had made ranging from board meeting follow-ups (intros, offsites, etc) to family matters (coaching, attending, traveling) to new deals (diligence, meetings, […]
Byron Wien’s 14 Lessons after 80 Years
Some of you might know Byron as the Vice Chair of Blackstone Advisory or as the Chief Investment Strategy Officer at Morgan Stanley for over 20 years. Each year he publishes two of the most read pieces on Wall Street "10 Surprises for the Coming Year" and "Lunch with the Smartest Investor in Europe". I […]
What Entrepreneurs Don’t Tell You about the Fight
A little perspective from up North. Our Canadian portfolio CEO, Guy Gal, forwarded over a great piece from StartupNorth titled The Things an Entrepreneur Will Never Tell You. It is definitely worth a quick read as entrepreneurs often feel they are unique in what they are going through in terms of high's & lows, feeling […]
Some MoreTeddy for the Weekend
A little something for you all laboring to improve the world through your entrepreneurial efforts (from my friend, Brian Johnson at Entheos.com). Have a great weekend:) “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much […]
Inverse Paranoia
Love this concept which my friend, Brian Johnson, posted recently. Great entrepreneurs have a sense of "inevitability" in the belief in their idea and mission. Jim Clark refers to it as "willing a company into existence". “My earliest mentor, W. Clement Stone, was once described as an inverse paranoid. Instead of believing the world was […]
Entrepreneurs’ Manifesto: Shame In the Arena
Great TED talk by Brene Brown on Shame and its role in innovation and society. YouTube Link to Brown Shame Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN1DORYYV0 Terrific Roosevelt quote from it for all you entrepreneurs in the arena…I'll call it the Entrepreneur's Manifesto: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong […]
Heroes in Our Failures
Below is the overview from my talk this year at the Credit Suisse Entrepreneurs' Summit at Sundance. Maria at BuiltInChicago (click to join) encouraged me to post on this, so here goes… The Hero’s Journey Matthew McCall Partner at New World Ventures and Co-Founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Venture Partners As one of the […]
Mission That Doesn’t Suck
Great piece from Aaron Levie, the founder and CEO of Box.net titled Be On A Mission That Doesn't Suck. In essence, he talks about the important of the purpose/reason of what you are doing. Without a sense of purpose beyond making money, flipping your company or being involved with a hip company, you will eventually […]
Meaning, Balance & Productivity
An awesome quote about perspective for entrepreneurs out in the battle field from Jung (thanks to Carter Cast for sending over). Mike Cassidy of Google, Microsoft, Xfire, Direct Hit fame ($1B), spoke at the DFJ CEO summit. When asked how hard does he burn his teams, he said home by 6:30 for balance (works email […]
Pursuit of Success (How Not To…)
My friends Eric Langsur and Brian Johnson forwarded this Frankl quote to me. I think it embodies the heart of success in entrepreneurship (the anti-build and flip approach): “Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a […]
Kiva, GiveForward & Kids
Given the rarified air that my children live in, their mother & I are doing everything we can to help them realize a) with good fortune comes a responsibility to help others and b) their world is not the norm. Two awesome ways is by opening up a family account at Kiva (we focus on […]
Dalai Lama…Learn to Live Now
This is one of the most powerfully simple observations I have seen, summarizing how many of us live our lives. Thanks, Kirsten, for finding this! So simple and yet so difficult to live in the present — being grateful versus being fearful/anxious. More to come on my blog's new direction in the coming month. ShareTweetShare
A Proud Father
Every once in a while, as a father, your children do something that amazes you and makes you incredibly proud to be a parent. My daughter was selected as one of fourteen United Nations GirlUp Ambassadors from over 400 applicants. She had been inspired, after reading Half the Sky, to travel around the US, raising […]
1871: Make No Small Plans
The year 1871 holds a special place in Chicago history…it was the year of the great fire that leveled the city. It was also the year that some of the greatest designers, architects and minds came to Chicago to rebuild the city as a beacon for the future. Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the build, […]
Pura Vida — Life and Entrepreneurship
"[Pura Vida] embodies a philosophy in which communal ties are strong and close; difficulties are overcome with a resilient and happy spirit, where life is enjoyed leisurely and to the full, and where fortune of whatever size is heartily celebrated." – Tony Cousins I have spent the past week in Costa Rica surfing, doing yoga, eating, […]
Ask the VC
Erik Severinghaus sent over this hilarious xtra normal video on Stupid Questions VC’s Ask that has been floating around the internet. Erik is an awesome, serial entrepreneur and I’m certain has had more than his share of these fine interogations. Since I focus on showing entrepreneurs behind the VC curtain, here you go: Stupid Questions […]
Karma Kitchen: Most Intriguing Restaurant
Rishi Roongta works with me at New World and is omnipresent. He is curious and tests just about everything under the sun. He came across a new restaurant that redefines both Paying Forward and restaurants in general. As he writes: “Karma Kitchen was pretty awesome. I was a “waiter” and served tables for 4 hours.. […]
Follow Your Bliss — Finding Joe
Joseph Campbell is the most influential person to have impacted my life. He was the world's leading mythologist and had an amazing capacity to show the common threads that cut across all religions, movies, books and stories. An awesome movie just came out about him and The Heroe's Journey that I have mentioned to everyone […]
Matthew’s Day Off
I think I need to take a day off to get going on my blog posts again. I apologize for my absence and will work on getting some pearls of wisdom out soon. Lot of travel and deals make Jack a dull (& postless) boy… In the interim, here is my day off…parody of the […]
Tim Draper’s 8 Rules for Start Up Success
I am out at the annual DFJ CEO Summit. Tim kicked off the event with his eight rules for company success based on 26 years in the business. They are: Eight rules for success: 1) Test your product and get it out into market…see if the dogs will eat the dog food 2) Don't run […]
Favor to Get Out the Vote
I'm looking to withdraw a little from my Karma bank here. My son just led his high school team to the Illinois State golf championship. This is big deal for his small school (60 kids per class). It is the first state title in any sport in the school's 60 year history. He also finished […]
Enough With the Gloom & Doom on Groupon
In 2000-2001, I remember reading negative article after negative article on Amazon. It was burning money quickly, e-tailers were going under left and right and brick & mortar stores were re-asserting themselves. People kept a diligent death watch for it after the demise of Webvans ($1b) and others. In reality, what was going on was […]
Touched by Something Greater
Even in death, Steve Jobs connects us and reminds us of something greater. It is amazing the impact that Steve's death has had. Nearly everyone I know seems saddened almost at a personal level. It's as if we all realized this special, creative presence has now moved on…communal loss. Very interesting. I think some of us […]
Seek First to Understand then to be Understood
When you've been in the venture business as long as I have, you have seen your share of dysfunctional, poisonious board/management situations. None of these needed to occur. They all fall into the "life's too short" category. Understanding, alignment and unification (leave your ego at the door) are the key elements of avoiding this. For […]
This Too Shall Pass
With all of the activity at work over the past 18 months as well as a host of mid-life course corrections, I have been negligent in feeding the blog gods. With Maria Katris's kind encouragement at Built in Chicago, I thought I would start posting more often. One topic that comes up with increasing frequency […]
Carter Cast on the “Drama of Comparative Living”
My friend, Carter Cast, gave a wonderful talk to a large group of Fortune 500 executives and non-profit leaders. I highly recommend everyone reading this to take this to heart given where Carter comes from. Carter has had a career unmatched by most I know. Starting as one of the star swimmers on Stanford's national […]
Synchronicity in Everyday Life
"A connecting principleLinked to the invisibleAlmost imperceptibleSomething inexpressibleScience insusceptibleLogic so inflexibleCausally connectableYet nothing is invincible" — the Police, Synchronicity People, places and events come into our lives for a reason. We rarely fully appreciate or even notice them. Often we'll observe a confluence of them and comment on what a "coincidence" we've experienced. Well, after […]
The Torch is Passed to Android
Everyone watching the mobile OS wars has been expecting Android to become the dominant OS by powering a lot of the non-Apple hardware. The most recent Comscore numbers indicate that the torch (no BB pun) has been passed to Android in Q4, 2010. Below are the share numbers of mobile handsets and OS share. Android […]
Buckle Up for the Next Chapter
I don't want to pile onto or repeat some of the great posts of the current market conditions. Fred Wilson's post, Storm Clouds, was one of the better initial snippets on what is going on. One of the advantages of being in Chicago is that we are the first to lose liquidity and the last […]
The Entrepreneur’s Greatest Enemy
Anxiety and fear are the greatest enemies of the entrepreneur. You attract what you focus on and anxiety and fear not only focus on negativity, but eat up energy that can be applied more productively. Even worse anxiety and fear trigger the fight or flight portion of your brain which literally shuts down your ability […]
My Chicago Innovation Awards Talk
On September 20th, I gave a talk about the Chicago entrepreneurial ecosystem at the nominees dinner of the Chicago Innovation Awards. To see the presentation click here on Download 2010 09Chi Innovation Dinner ShareTweetShare
What Could Do with $1/Year
I’m at the Kellogg Innovation Network Global Summit which is the creation of of Rob and Stephanie Wolcott. It is a global group of CEO’s and heads of R&D from Fortune 500’s. Kimmie Weeks from Liberia, founder of Youth Action International, which focuses on raising global philanthropy in youths, kicked off the event with a […]
Why You Should Start a Company in Chicago
The folks at Fast Company have a series on articles on starting up companies in different regions of the US. I had a chance to talk with them about Chicago, my home town. Below is the beginning and link to the article Why You Should Start a Company in…Chicago. Why You Should Start a Company […]
AO Top 100 VC List
Well, I got a very pleasant surprise last night in my email. Tony Perkins notified me that I had made the Top 100 VC list in their inaugural year of the list. I don’t usually like to self-promote but this was a particular recognition for me. PE Hub just did a piece on this list […]
The Significance Of The Karma Bracelet
I have an old, wooden beaded Karma bracelet that I wear most days on my left wrist in the place of a watch. It’s worn down a bit and is held together with three loops of silver coated elastic line. It’s dirty light brown with faded chinese symbols on it. It is definitely not the most […]
Appreciating Your Immediate World
Don Wood sent this over today. It says a lot about how we all go about our daily lives and what we miss or overlook, especially as we have our heads down in the New Normal. ..something to think about… Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a […]
Need Help Finding Mobile/iPhone Apps?
My long-time Kellogg/BCG friend, Al Warms, has gone public with his latest effort, Appolicious. Al sold his previous company, Buzztracker, to Yahoo and went on to successfully run & grow Yahoo News. Appolicious is a community for application discovery. You can upload your current applications (names only) and the site will begin to profile your interests […]
Do You Need to Be in the Valley?
I often hear entrepreneurs talking about how they need to leave Chicago or Austin or Denver to be in the Valley in order to succeed. This has puzzled me since results would indicate otherwise. Yes, a lot of the high profile firms (many still not exited) are out there. However, each region has its strong […]
Reducing Stress in the New Normal with Pareto
I remember a period in 2000 when I was stressed beyond belief, I was getting little sleep and I had lost 15 pounds. As my portfolio plummeted downward with all others, I envisioned myself working as an evening janitor in some office building. I wrote a post a couple of years ago, Resilience in the Storm, in […]
The Secret to Success in the New Normal
Meet Joel Bauer. His created character is a riot. I'm going to go one step better. 8×10 cards with music that plays when it opens (Rocky?)…Secrets for the New Normal 🙂 Enjoy ShareTweetShare
VC’s Mathematical Challenge
There is no doubt that the venture industry is going through a major house cleaning right now. Much of the pruning that should have been done post Bubble is finally going on now as LP's start to wake up and pull back a bit from the asset class. One of the main challenges has been […]
Strategic Protectors
In difficult times, strategic partners can be essential to survival. As companies fight for air in these cash strapped times, larger corporations have valuable resources. Our portfolio companies have leveraged partners in several ways. 1) Pre-paying revenue. Some customers will pay in advance of delivered goods. Future takedowns are applied against this. 2) Venture leasing: […]
The Art of Selling Your Firm
Despite the markets’ gyrations, 2008 was the best year for liquidity in our firm’s history. In fact, our largest exit (Lefthand Networks) closed in November in the heart of the downdraft. In looking across these exits, the strong exits all had several common elements: 1) Self-sufficiency: the old saying in venture is that companies are […]
Term Sheet Tool
The gang at Wilson Sonsini have created a very interesting term sheet generator. In addition to its practical value, it is also an interesting educational tool. If you are an entrepreneur or a new VC, it goes through all of the key term sheet elements in very specific details with the most common option highlighted […]
Enough Wall Street, Enough
"Even as I write I am watching the eunuchs now posing as Wall Street CEOs bend over backward before some congressional committee…We at Morgan Stanley are pleased by your investment. Now, if you ever want to see a dime of it back, go away. We’ll call you if we need you." — Michael Lewis It […]
Why Great Companies Get Started in the Downturns
I have always been amazed by how many of our success tech stories, as well as Fortune 500 companies, started during drastic down turns. Innovation does not take a holiday, and in fact, thrives during difficult times when pain & need are greatest. While the current downturn is historic, it pails in comparison to the […]
Why VC Returns Languish
So you see a pattern here? Number of VC-backed IPO's:1995 2051996 2721997 1381998 681999 2502000 2022001 222002 202003 232004 672005 432006 562007 762008 7 (none in Q2 or Q4!) Average Time to IPO1998 3 years2008 9 years Number of Companies Funded:1998 1,896 ($14.0B invested)2008 1,930 ($14.1B invested) When you cut through all of this data, […]
Josh Lerner on Serial Entrepreneurs
"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." — Wayne Gretzky peHUB had a recent post by Connie Lolzos on Josh Lerner's recent research about serial entrepreneurs. There are two general camps. One states that success begets success and serial entrepreneurs […]
Apple Slices
I came across an article from last year from Fortune, Steve Jobs Speaks Out, in which Steve discusses Apple's approach to business and innovation as well as its culture. Entrepreneurship is part passion & execution and part mentoring. The best entrepreneurs continually learn from the examples of those around them. They are curious about what […]
…Or Assuredly We Shall All Hang Separately
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." — Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence Dan Primack set off an interesting dialog around his article Radically Reinventing Venture Capital. There is a growing wave of articles about new or revised models and debate around what went wrong. […]
The Downside of Options
Minus 23 degrees. That was the absolute temperature this morning as I went out to the airport. This probably nets out to minus 30-40 wind chill. This redefines how icy cold the financial markets are. This is also what makes Midwesterners so decent and hearty. Winter puts everything in perspective ! With that said, I […]
Don’t Give Up Too Soon
I heard a recent statistic from a Harvard study on successful sales management. In the study (caveat: which I have not seen), it supposedly concluded that a business sale takes 7 meetings on average to close. It also mentioned that the average salesman stops pursuing the sale after 5.4 meetings. I am not certain what […]
Outliers and the Causes of Success
"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop […]
Tips for Networking
With the markets (job & product) becoming tougher, people are spending increasing amounts of time trying to advance the ball. If you are wishing that you had a larger network to work off of (don't we all…), I came across an interesting post on "4 Rules". Jimmy Gardner, in a TECH cocktail piece, expanded on […]
The Riskmaster
Tim Draper has recently launched his blog, titled "The Riskmaster" (http://theriskmaster.blogspot.com/). He will post on the venture capital business, spreading entrepreneurship, interesting videos and inspirations on the economy. This blog is guaranteed to be entertaining, informative and challenging. For those of you not familiar with him, Tim is the founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and […]
Art of the Start: Recession Style
Guy Kawasaki has a great post on the things to focus on in tight financial markets when launching your business in his post "The Art of Bootstrapping". It has a number of common sense suggestions for entrepreneurs: "Too much money is worse than too little for most organizations—not that I wouldn’t like to run a […]
Fifteen Year Cycle
As the bad news keeps pouring in, a lot of people are wondering what we can expect in the coming years. Additionally, everyone is trying to figure out what hope exists. Well, I’ll give two thoughts on this (briefly). First, the world of technology is driven by two factors: the laws of exponentials and the […]
Leadership Under Pressure (Sort of…)
This is an hilarious Peyton Manning/United Way parody (pardon the ads but this is the only version now available). Many fine examples of leadership and teamwork! Watch more Saturday Night Live videos on AOL Video ShareTweetShare
Ignorance and Humility
"I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing." — Socrates I was very pleased with myself. Through early October, on my person investing outside of venture, I was actually up nearly 3% for […]
If Larry and Sergey Asked for a Loan …
"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." — Warren Buffett Well, there is no doubt that fear is running rampant through the streets. This will provide a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to take advantage of market inefficiencies not seen for decades. Those that intelligently manage the downside, will be […]
Be Careful Who You Deal With
As these markets continue their chaotic path downward, people's true colors come out. Some people show increasing amounts of fairness and consideration. Others will self-optimize and use every bit of leverage that they can get their hands on. Two entrepreneur friends of mine recently had a very negative experience with an investor who has a […]
What Compensation Should You Give Your Team?
One of the most popular search topics on my blog has always been compensation. I thought I would lay out historically the average benchmarks with some caveats. The first caveat is that these numbers will be skewed more towards an early/expansion stage company versus a start-up or late stage companies. The second is that with […]
Hate to Say I Told You So…
Back in June of this year, I did a post called Rough Ride Ahead: Buckle Up & Get Your Money Now (if you can). My words of advice were: "If you are close on terms with an investor, do what you need to get it closed now. If you have access to capital, draw it […]
What Are Some of the Hedge Guys Doing Now?
After the downdrafts, you would assume that people would be jumping into market to bottom feed. However, a number of the smartest guys have massive cash positions. Clearly, they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. From a recent Whitney Tilson piece:"These are smart guys, but I think they're wrong here — and think […]
…Like An Oversexed Guy in a Brothel (Buffett)
"Wall Street," reads the sinister old gag, "is a street with a river at one end and a graveyard at the other." This is striking, but incomplete. It omits the kindergarten in the middle. Frederick Schwed, Jr., Where Are the Customer's Yachts? Some of you may fear that I have jumped feet first into the […]
How Long Will This Downdraft Last?
"Nobody told me there'd be days like theseStrange days indeed, strange days indeed" — John Lennon I have written on several occasions about the likelihood of a correction and pull back in the venture market. I've also said that it will be triggered by a correction in the stock market which […]
If You Are A Woman, Head to the Midwest
In reading through the recent Fortune article, The 50 Most Powerful Women, I noticed that half of them were in the Midwest. This included: #2 Irene Rosenfield CEO, Kraft#3 Pat Woertz CEO, Archer Daniels Midland#7 Susan Arnold President, Proctor & Gamble#8 Oprah Winfrey Chairman, Harpo#9 Brenda Barnes CEO, Sara Lee This […]
The Pixar Magic
I love stories about entrepreneurs and inventors who overcome adversity, flirt with disaster & bankruptcy, only to end up hitting the long ball. The Economist published a great article in May describing the Pixar story. As usual, things did not start off in a very promising manner. "Ed Catmull's ambition at school had been to […]
“Why aren’t VCs freaking out as Wall Street burns?”
Interesting Piece from PEWeek: "Why aren't VCs freaking out as Wall Street burns? It's a question that I've been asking for more than a week now. There is, of course, the usual litany of responses: we're long term investors, we invest in fundamentals, our LPs are going to be good for their commitments because they're […]
What Does This Mess Mean to Start-ups
Having been through two market cycles already, I have been waiting for the credit mess to filter down into the start-up world. To date, this effect has been minimal compared to that impacting Wall Street and the buyout world. I would expect this to change in the coming 8 months. The question is how it […]
The Next Tiger
Entrepreneurship is about attitude and perseverance. Our CFO sent this over to me which I thought I would share for the weekend. It also helps to remind you what is important in life (family) and to keep things in perspective. Stick with the video as it is about a lot more than just another young […]
…Hogs Get Slaughtered
"Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered" — old folk saying What a two weeks it has been. Who knows what firm will be the next victim of Darwin. I told you all to buckle up last June because things were going to be interesting. With the Fed letting Lehman go down, now everyone is starting […]
Worst of Times, Best of Times
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness…" — Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities […]
Rough Ride Ahead: Buckle Up & Get Your Money Now (if you can)
"Thus far in the second quarter of this year, there have been NO venture-backed IPOs. There has never been a quarter where this situation has occurred (since NVCA has been tracking such data). " — NVCA Mailing I am pronouncing this cycle official dead at Q2, 2008. We have a general VC cycle that lasts […]
Money Off the Table
A number of entrepreneurs have asked me recently about how VC’s view founders taking money off the table these days as part of a financing. Until the past 5-10 years, this was a non-starter for most VC’s. VC’s want to have strong alignment of interest and complete commitment to a deal if they are going […]
Hunting for A VC
Yesterday on the the VC fundraising panel at the TECH cocktail conference, Eric asked the VC’s how an entrepreneur can hook up with a VC. (BTW, great job Eric & Frank pulling off a class A event). While there is the standard answer of “networking and finding people who know the VC for a qualified […]
Roosevelt on Effort & Failure
Jerry Mitchell, who is a special guy here in Chicago for his decades of helping entrepreneurs, just had his 70th birthday. He recently told that Teddy Roosevelt said one of his favorite quotes about perserverence and effort which I really liked: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how […]
TechCocktail Conference Chicago
Eric Olson and Frank Gruber are launching their first TechCocktail conference in Chicago this week on Thur, May 29th at Loyola University. You can register by clicking here. They have pulled together a great set of panelist including Dick Costolo from FeedBurner/Google, Jason Fried from 37Signal and a host of other luminaries. They have also […]
So You Want to Be a VC
"…it’s more about people skills and the ability to assess whether there’s a market for something." — Dick Kramlich, co-founder NEA I was cleaning out my files the other day and came across a 2005 NYT article by Gary Rivlin on the venture industry titled "So You Want to Be a Venture Capitalist". It is […]
It’s for the Dogs
The nice thing about doing angel investing on the side is that I can invest in fun, if not wacky, ideas from time to time. I put a little money into a friend’s (John Funk, wonderful serial entrepreneur) IP incubator called Evergreen IP. His partners come out of the CPG world and they have licensed […]
Short & Simple the Research Says
There seem to be two styles of bloggers. Those that drop shorter snippets into posts but do so once or twice a day and those that like to write longer posts but do so once a week/month. While I have always assumed that the former better fits people’s consumption behavior, there have been a variety […]
Video Tsunami Coming
I was looking at the global statistics page at the back of the most recent Economist Magazine and noticed that it had a chart laying out the % of households in each country that use IPTV (internet) as their primary means of getting their television services (vs. cable, satellite, etc). Below are the top 7 […]
The VC World Inflates as Well
Following up on my post on the buyout world, the VC world has also experienced valuation inflation over the past year. As more and more liquidity comes into the sector (mostly acquisitions), VC’s are beginning to feel bullet proof again. We are starting to see VC’s promising entrepreneurs $80m and $90m pre-$ valuations if they […]
How to Manage Your Board
JB Pritzker sent this over to me recently. Shades of reality but tons of humor in this… How to manage your company’s board of directors: 1. Meet by phone whenever possible. Most of them will be doing their email or goosing their admin or something and not paying any attention at all. They’ll just vote […]