BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
May 14 2009
by Thanasis Delistathis
Tip No 3: Send the deck, not the business plan or the one-pager
We get dozens of proposals for investment every month. The time to screen those is limited so entrepreneurs need to make that easy.The first screen for VCs is: Is this a business that is a good fit for our fund and that I should pay attention to? Sending the business plan requires a larger investment ...
May 13 2009
by Scott Johnson
The downturn feels different this time
Tonight is the MIT 100K finals. So I thought I would muse on why I feel so much better today than I did in the aftermath of the last downturn.
The 2001-2004 VC nuclear winter was brutal. Valuations fell so far so fast – it was like being on a bullet train that suddenly stopped. The ...
May 13 2009
by Scott Johnson
EU Competition Committee – Time for another tea party
I suspect that, at the heart of Intel’s terrible offense of paying for buying decisions in their favor, are a bunch of folks they hired on the ground in Europe who know that the best way to get something decided in your favor in a timely way in the EU is to pay an expediting ...
May 11 2009
by Thanasis Delistathis
Tip No 2: Financial models and projections : keep it simple
I had a discussion last week with a very successful entrepreneur which reminded me of some of the follies I have seen over the years with startups and financial models. Here is the basic idea: keep it simple! No one can predict the future. Adding pages and pages of assumptions and complicated calculations doesn’t provide ...
May 10 2009
by Todd Hixon
Mapping the Cleantech Opportunity: TLH notes from the Nantucket conference
Panelists:Nick d’Arbeloff, moderator (Pres of NE Clean Energy Council)Bill Davis, Ze-genMike Clary, CEO GMZ energyJim Matheson, FlagshipDavid Prend, RockportHemant Taneja, Catalyst – 3 teams at GC: clean energy, IT, and consumer/mediaPrend:
5 sectors of clean tech: generation, resource efficiency, green buildings, advanced materials, transportation (admittedly, this covers a lot of ground including things that have no ...
May 10 2009
by Todd Hixon
Vistaprint story: notes from the Nantucket conference
Tim Rowe (moderator)Fergal Mullen (Highland GP)Robert Keane, VistaPrint CEOChance meeting between HCP and companyTough deal: Fergal was a new guy, very big check ($50m), took the view that it was worth going for
$30m up front, $20 later, contingent on exiting outsource production contract
HCP decided to invite another firm in for $10m for which HCP was ...
May 9 2009
by Todd Hixon
Rod Brooks interview: TLH notes from the Nantucket conference
MIT professor, star of movie Fast, Cheap, and Out of ControliRobot started without a plan, just some JPL contracts, ran that way for 8 yearsDid not raise money until we saw external market opportunities
At one point had six product divisions
Now two divisions: gov and consumer
If we had it to do again, we would work harder to ...
May 9 2009
by Todd Hixon
Rich Miner interview: TLH notes from the Nantucket conference
Expect Android to overtake iPhone in sales around the end of 2010 (most analysts’ view)
based on OEM and carrier anouncements
more friendly to carriers than iPhone, eg, share app revenue
openness is becoming more accepted in the mobile industry
Google Ventures
There have been 50 or so investments in the past, need to pull them together
Larry, Serge, Eric believe ...
May 9 2009
by Todd Hixon
Scott Derschlag, Skype COO: TLH notes from the Nantucket conference
Skype is a Ferrari that is running on 3 cylinders: [sounds like someone hyping a car company to me]
huge success engaging users (400m)
weak on monetization ($550m, $1.30/user)
customer service is a challenge with a user base the size of the European union
Fremium is a subtle strategy:
different customers have different behaviors
some pay, some do not, but they ...
May 9 2009
by Todd Hixon
Managing through the downturn: TLH notes from the Nantucket conference
First panel: Managing through the downturnAron Ain, CEO, KronosJana Eggers, CEO, SpreadShirt (customized apparel), $10s m run rate, just raised growth capital (offers were shocking)Christia Lampe-Onnerud, Boston-Power, advanced lap-top batteries, H-P is lead customer, growing fastChris Zannetos, CEO, Courion, Info SW co, security business, manage provisioning of systems for employees (eg, 800 new interns at ...
