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May 9th, 2012 For the past couple of decades, venture capitalists have had the upper hand. They’ve had the funding and, traditionally, they’ve held most of the power in the startup ecosystem. But, Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and beloved blogger), believes that balance of power is shifting (As noted in Stacey’s take on a similar notion advanced by the Kauffman Foundationearlier Tuesday.) And as it does, venture capitalists themselves must rethink their role.
Speaking to a crowd of entrepreneurs at the Grind work space in New York this morning, Wilson said that since the mid-1990s institutional investors have poured $30 billion
. . . → Read More: Fred Wilson: what crowdfunding means for the VC business
May 9th, 2012 The Kauffman Foundation, which has ties to the venture industry, has issued a damning study of the business that addresses long-running concerns about poor performance and concludes that the limited partners who invest in funds have no one but themselves to blame.
The report, “We Have Met The Enemy…And He Is Us,” draws on lessons from 20 years of investing in venture capital by the foundation, which currently has about $249 million of its $1.83 billion portfolio allocated to venture. The Kansas City, Mo.-based organization promotes entrepreneurship and education, and is known in the venture world for creating the Kauffman
. . . → Read More: Kauffman Foundation Bashes VCs For Poor Performance, Urges LPs To Take Charge
May 2nd, 2012 Getting financing for your startup is rarely easy, but if you approach the wrong investor, you can make it even harder than it has to be. “How can there be a ‘wrong investor’?” you might be thinking. “Don’t I just go with whoever is willing to give me the money?”
It’s not quite that simple. Approaching the wrong investor is kind of like asking someone who’s married out on a date. Not only will they turn you down, but they’ll probably think you’re an idiot.
Many first-time entrepreneurs mistakenly lump angel investors and venture capitalists together. While these two types
. . . → Read More: Angel vs. VC: Which Investor Is Best for Your Startup?
April 24th, 2012 The short answer is “as much as you need”. The more tactical answer is “as much as you can raise cheaply”. The latter is a pragmatic view. Raise more than you need when times are good. Just because you raise it does not mean you need to spend it – capital efficiency is always good!
In this post I look at what VC are saying SaaS ventures need to raise to get to scale and profitability. But I’ll also look at what VC are doing – what SaaS deals they are funding currently. I look at the capital efficiency drivers,
. . . → Read More: How Much Venture Capital Should You Raise For Your SaaS Venture?
April 24th, 2012 Every so often, venture capitalist Larry Cheng puts out a list of the top VC blogs. Previously, he ranked the blogs by how many subscribers they have on Google Reader. But now he’s changed his methodology and is ranking them by average monthly unique visitors, based on Compete data. He just came out with his new global ranking for the fourth quarter of 2009. Below are the top ten blogs from that list.
If you compare this list to the last one, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures is now the top VC blogger, followed by Guy Kawasaki of Garage
. . . → Read More: The Top Ten VC Blogs To Follow
August 31st, 2011 Streetline Inc. has been selling its parking-sensor technology for only a year and it has just 30 employees, but International Business Machines Corp. is depending on it and hundreds of young start-ups like it to reach ambitious financial targets. A parking-guide application from Streetline, one of several young start-ups leveraging relationships with IBM. By 2015, IBM expects to add about $30 billion to its 2010 revenue of $99.9 billion, a challenging goal considering it grew its annual sales by around $10 billion over the past decade. To get there it is relying on relationships with ventu
. . . → Read More: IBM Banks On Small Start-Ups For Big Growth
November 30th, 2009 Not all VC firms are the same. Fund size, fund tenure (how far into the current fund is the firm?), firm’s track record, partner’s areas of interest
. . . → Read More: What VCs Look For and How to Pitch
November 3rd, 2009 If you want to get a quick understanding of how VCs work, what make them tick, and what they look for, take a look at this short set of slides.
. . . → Read More: VC Crash Course – Feb 24 2009
February 23rd, 2009 As an entrepreneur, you probably don’t care as much about the overall VC industry as you care about your VC investors. So while the noise might be i
. . . → Read More: Check Your VC’s Pulse: Three Questions about Fund Status – Entrepreneur.com
November 7th, 2008 …. When I actually read the study (after the interview, of course), the lead result was that 94% of VC respondents answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘
. . . → Read More: Do 58% of VCs Think Angel Involvement Is Unattractive – Nope!
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