Jeff Bussgang
Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups. He was recently appointed to serve as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
His popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at www.seeingbothsides.com. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter.
Recent Posts
What rehab taught me about making bad investments
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.)
For as long as I can remember, I have been an enthusiastic participant in sports. To be clear, I’m not a great athlete (in fact, I’m the only one of the five Flybridge General Partners that wasn’t a varsity athlete in college). I’m just good enough to participate passionately and aggressively like the prototypical weekend warrior.
During any… Continue Reading
The VC gender gap – Are VCs sexist?
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.)
I find the preponderance of males in VC an annoying and stubborn phenomenon. When I first entered the start-up game as an entrepreneur in the mid 1990s, I didn’t think much of the “VC gender gap” as there were plenty of women executives around. In fact, between one-third and one-half of the executive teams at my… Continue Reading
Negotiating VC funding? Look beyond ‘the pre’
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.)
VCs have an unfair advantage when it comes to financings. They simply have more experience doing deals.
A typical start-up company will do 2-4 venture capital financings before a successful exit (or, conversely, an ignominious ending). A typical serial entrepreneur may lead 2-3 companies in their career before calling it quits (or checking themselves in… Continue Reading
The idea’s great, but the leadership team stinks…
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.)
One of the things I continue to struggle with as a VC is the unfortunate fact that I am in the business of saying “no” all the time.
Saying “no” in the context of how you invest your time is one thing – fellow VC blogger Brad Feld did a good blog post on this topic… Continue Reading
Should entrepreneurs be more like teenage girls?
Even though I graduated from college (gasp) 18 years ago, I still think about the school season as my annual planning cycle rather than the calendar year. Having three school age kids reinforces this life rhythm.
And so as I was thinking through my personal goals for this coming year, and discussing individual goals with each of my kids (a recently adopted ritual I highly recommend for any parent), this article from The Economist caught my eye. The… Continue Reading
Top five take-aways from CTIA
[Editor's note: This column has been republished from Jeff Bussgang's blog Seeing Both Sides. It also ran on PE Hub.]
The annual wireless industry trade show, CTIA, had some interesting trends this year. Putting aside the fact that Las Vegas feels like a ghost town, cab lines are uncharacteristically short, and my personal frustration that I find myself agreeing with an arch-conservative economist Arthur Laffer’s editorial in today’s WSJ on how Obama’s estate tax policy creates… Continue Reading