BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
Posts Tagged ‘Fundraising’
April 24 2012
by Scott Johnson
Yes, You Really Need That Revenue Ramp Slide
I advise entrepreneurs all the time about their pitch decks, and one of the more common complaints I hear is “if we all know that it is complete BS, why do investors insist we show a revenue ramp slide with a $50 million top line in four years?” And I admit, on the surface, it ...
March 1 2012
by Scott Johnson
Why I Invested in YieldBot
YieldBot takes the largest advertising demand pool on the internet (search), and plugs it into publisher inventory, the largest source of supply. Advertisers add YieldBot to their keyword buys, and YieldBot delivers high performing, intent driven clicks, just like a search engine. They do this with exceedingly clever analytics that reveal intent, the currency of ...
October 14 2011
by Todd Hixon
How Entrepreneurs Can Survive and Prosper In The Political Crisis
We’re in the midst of a political crisis that has been a century in the making: in the U.S. and Europe the bill has come due for a welfare state that demographic trends and escalating health costs make unaffordable, which has been financed with debt and future promises. The political system is mostly seeking ways to ...
September 14 2011
by Todd Hixon
What the Downgrade Means for Entrepreneurs: Part 1, What’s Happening
A downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating has never happened before, so it’s worth examining what it means for entrepreneurs. This is the first of three posts, focused on what’s happening. Part 2 will look at the impact on entrepreneurs and the venture market, and Part 3 will suggest how entrepreneurs can survive and ...
May 31 2011
by Scott Johnson
Way Too Early – On Market Timing
Market timing is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for venture success. Obvious, right? The problem is that timing is obvious only in retrospect. Predicting how markets will evolve is an art, and probably is the single most important job of a venture firm. Boiled down to its essence, our role is to help companies ...
May 20 2011
by Todd Hixon
The More Things Stay The Same
… the more they will soon change. This inversion of the famous saying applies very well to venture capital. The VC business has long, strong cycles. Everything goes in one direction for a few years, and the momentum seems inevitable, until it sharply reverses. 2011 is a time of extremes in VC. The industry has ...
April 27 2011
by Scott Johnson
Color, Valuations, and the Winner’s Curse
My friend Kevin Lewis is a professor at Duke Business school and he sends out a feed of interesting abstracts describing recent research that I sift through every day or so. Today I found this one: The Bidder’s Curse Ulrike Malmendier & Young Han Lee, American Economic Review, April 2011, Pages 749-787 Abstract: We employ ...
January 21 2011
by John Backus
There’s a Slide For That!
The purpose of this blog post is to help entrepreneurs avoid looking “canned” when they pitch VCs. Every entrepreneur is passionate about their business, and a pitch to a VC is an important moment in the life of most startups. I hope that this post helps entrepreneurs see their pitches through our eyes – and ...
October 12 2010
by Scott Johnson
Why I Invested in Fashion Playtes (Again)
Fashion Playtes recently announced an oversubscribed up round led by our friends at Fairhaven Capital. The company has a platform enabling custom clothing design by tween girls (ages 6-12). It is a simple concept really. Girls can go on the web and choose different embellishments to be sewn onto dresses, shirts, pants, bags, etc. ...
July 14 2010
by Scott Johnson
The Six Step Venture Capital Investment Process
Every venture firm has pretty much the same six step process. It is not hard to understand, and every firm puts their own spin on it. But you can pretty much count on these six steps occurring in sequence before you will see any cash in your bank account.
