Boston Millennia’s Callow on the state of the VC industry
(Editor’s note: This is a truncated version of an interview that originally ran on VCExperts.com)
Dana Callow is the Managing Partner of Boston Millennia Partners. Prior to founding Boston Millennia Partners, Dana co-founded Boston Capital Ventures. In addition to working with Fortune 100 companies in strategic planning and implementing M&A strategies, Dana is, or has served as, a director of a number of other public and private companies.
Some have recently argued that the venture capital industry is… Continue Reading
After VC cash? Show ‘em what you’ve learned
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)
I joined the board of Cafepress.com when it was a startup. It was amazing to see the two founders, Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, build a $100 million company from coffee cups and T-shirts.
But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and… Continue Reading
4 MORE ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor
(Editor’s note: Jason Cohen is an angel investor and the founder of Smart Bear Software. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
As someone who has both sought venture capital and distributed it, I’m lucky to have a pretty unique perspective on what works and doesn’t work.
As I mentioned in the first part of this list, the mistakes don’t seem to change over time. And people who make them often walk away not only empty handed, but… Continue Reading
Hey VCs, it’s not your company!
(Editor’s note: Brad Feld is an early stage investor and co-founder of Foundry Group. This post originally appeared on his blog.)
VCs say a lot of stupid things. I’m guilty of it plenty and whenever someone calls me on it I try to acknowledge and change. One that I try really hard not to do is say “my company” when referring to companies I’ve invested in – I think it’s one of the most annoying… Continue Reading
4 ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor
I’ve started three companies, and now I’m an angel investor. So I’ve been on both sides of the table.
There are lots of good articles out there about pitching, and surely everyone who pitches me has read some of them. Still though, a few problems appear over and over again. If you’ve ever had to sort through resumes and cover letters, you’ve seen this effect: People tend to have the same misconceptions and therefore make… Continue Reading
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
10 lessons in bootstrapping a business
(Editor’s note: Clate Mask is co-founder and CEO of Infusionsoft. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
There are two ways to build a business: Raise a bunch of money or bootstrap. When I was in business school, there wasn’t much attention given to the bootstrapping notion. The “MBA way” of growing a business is to write a business plan, raise money and then execute the business plan. But I think that’s almost always the wrong approach.
We bootstrapped Infusionsoft… 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
High investment return expectations may limit VC spending
(Editor’s note: Dr. John K. Paglia is Associate Professor of Finance, Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. He contributed this story to VentureBeat.)
Private capital lenders and investors may not engage in a meaningful volume of lending for another 2-3 years, according to new research from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management.
The Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Study, which sought to learn how private capital providers view return on investment in the midst of… Continue Reading
Can you trust any VCs under 40?
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)
Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies.
You have to wonder: does… Continue Reading
7 ways I’ve almost killed FreshBooks
I’ve often said, “were it not for my co-founder and VP of operations, I would have run this company into the ground long ago”. Sadly, that’s not hyperbole. Good partners can help reel you in when your thinking begins to wander off the path of righteousness and ensure that you don’t get too close to the ledge when you hit a bump in the road.
Here’s a list of ways that I’ve almost killed FreshBooks over… Continue Reading
Too much funding can be toxic for start-ups
The dream is a common one for entrepreneurs – find start-up capital and find as much of it as you can. But being cash rich isn’t always the best move for your company. Mike Maples of Maples Investments, in this talk at the Stanford Technology Venture Program, says there’s an inverse correlation between the amount of money a start-up receives and their success.
5 milestones to reach before raising venture capital
I meet lots of web entrepreneurs who tell me they want to raise venture capital. Most of these people are first time entrepreneurs and they just assume that once they’ve got an idea, the next thing to do is raise venture capital. That’s naive.
I always ask myself is, “is this person/company ready to raise money?” and 99 times out of 100 the answer is “no”.
Now, as a disclaimer, I have never raised venture capital… Continue Reading
Solicit feedback, not funding
There’s an old saying: Ask for advice, you get money. Ask for money, you get advice. The team at Cooliris actually found this to be true. Rather than relying on a single pitch meeting, the founding team met regularly with a variety of companies to determine how their tech could enhance the Internet landscape. Product manager Josh Schwarzapel and CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tell their story in a talk given at Stanford University’s Technology Venture Program… Continue Reading
Touching the hot stove
I’m a slow learner. It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.)
In 1978 when I joined my first company, information about how to start companies simply didn’t exist. No internet, no blogs, no books on startups, no entrepreneurship departments in universities, etc. It took lots of trial and error, learning by experience and resilience through multiple failures.
The… Continue Reading
VC investing rebounds in Q2, still at mid-1990s levels
Venture capital investment activity rebounded to $3.7 billion in the second quarter, but the gains are only enough to put the sector on track to match annual levels from more than 12 years ago.
While the change in direction is reassuring, it may be a dead-cat bounce after the first-quarter’s precipitous 40 percent drop in venture capital activity. We argued then that the goldrush era of technology prospecting may be over, as Silicon Valley has to… Continue Reading
Dig in to the Q12009 MoneyTree Report
It may come as no surprise, but attracting the eye of a venture capital firm is a lot tougher during a recession. VC investments hit a 12-year low during the first quarter of 2009 with only 549 deals struck, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report.
That’s roughly half the number of deals done during the same period in 2008.
VC’s invested only $3.08 billion during the first quarter, with double digit declines in virtually… Continue Reading
China venture capital investments rise to highest level in five years
Venture investments into mainland China boomed during the second quarter — hitting their highest level in five years.
The trend is likely to continue because of better tax treatment lately for foreign investors there.
Investors into private companies pumped nearly $1.37 billion into 71 deals, more than double the $662 million they invested in 69 deals during the same period last year, according to data released by Dow Jones VentureSource. One deal — the $430 million investment… Continue Reading
Life-science briefing: Thursday, March 20, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Vantia Thera spins out of Ferring, raises £19M (PDF release)
Third Eye gets $150K for intracranial-pressure monitor (release)
Diabetes tester Oculir closes doors, returns capital (VentureWire)
Catalyst Health Ventures raising $60M fund (VentureWire)
Vantia Thera spins out of Ferring, raises £19M – Vantia Therapeutics, a U.K. spinout of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, has launched and raised £19 million ($37.7 million) in a first funding round (PDF link). Investors included MVM Life Science Partners, SV Life Sciences and Novo A/S.
Vantia inherits a… Continue Reading