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Understanding the Risks of VC Signaling
This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising...
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Can VC’s Invest Across Two Funds?
This is part of a series that I’ve been working on called Understanding Venture Capital. In one of the posts I spoke about how the size and vintage of funds might affect you when you’re raising money....
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Want to Raise Venture Capital More Easily? Clean Up Your Own Shite First
Clean up your own shite. Ok. I know that the tone of the title and post will seem a bit aggressive for a post from a venture capitalist on fund raising. It’s meant to be a bit provocative but the...
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Startups and VCs Should Avoid “Pier” Funding
Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. This happens when the...
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A Guide to Using Authority & Social Proof in Fund Raising
I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive” by Robert B. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received...
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Is Convertible Debt Preferable to Equity?
Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “Has Convertible Debt Won?”Seth was basing this on a Tweet by Paul Graham that said” “Convertible notes...
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Revisiting Paul Graham’s “High Resolution” Financing
When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution” Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’...
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The Four Main Things that Investors Look for in a Startup
I obviously don’t speak for all investors. But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology...
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How to Connect with High Volume People
I’m a high-volume person. That doesn’t make me important. It doesn’t mean I’m not accessible. It means simply what I’m stating – high volume. What that means is that in a typical week I might see...
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Why it’s Critical That you Reference Check Your VC
I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. I personally had three...
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Going to Raise VC? Here’s a Primer on Process, People, Deck
If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where Mark Jeffrey & I break it down on This Week in VC. A summary of what...
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How to Handle a VC Presentation with No Deck
I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring...
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How You May be Signaling Price without Knowing It
I was having a chat with an entrepreneur who I really like and who I try to mentor from time-to-time. He has an interesting business and one that has a viable shot at being an innovative &...
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How Many Investors are Too Many?
This post originally ran on TechCrunch. Lately I have seen a number of deals announced on TechCrunch in which 5 or more different VCs were participating in the deal. This always makes me chuckle...
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Why Startups Should Raise Money at the Top End of Normal
2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and...
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Angel / VC Funding in A Frothy Market
I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. If...
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On Bubbles … And Why We’ll Be Just Fine
This post originally ran on TechCrunch. I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I asked what the audience most needed to hear. He said, “They need an unbiased view of...
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How to Develop Your Fund Raising Strategy
Raising money is hard. And when you’re relatively new to the process it’s easy to be confused by the process. There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. Of course much of...
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How to Better Manage Relationships with Your VC
Just back from 2 solid weeks on the road in Boston, New York & Philly. I spent countless hours with VC firms, startups & LPs (the people who invest in VC firms). I find these trips invaluable...
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What Would it Look Like if Elon Musk Pitched a VC Today?
This week I attended the All Things D Conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes. It is always a stellar event. The good and great of the tech industry were there: Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, Dick Costolo, Max...
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