Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
When I heard about Mint’s sale to Intuit for $170 million, I never imagined that it would be controversial. I posted my congratulations to the friends who made money in the deal, and moved on. It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t been keeping up with Twitter and RSS, so imagine my surprise to … Continue reading 21 Million Reasons For Mint To Sell
A hearty congratulations to Rob Hayes and the First Round team, Jeff Clavier, and Mark Goines–three friends, three great investors, who got a great result from their investment in Mint (acquired today by Intuit for $170 million). Lost in the hoopla around the announcement was this very telling quote from Rob about the Mint team, … Continue reading There Is No Right Answer–And Smart VCs Know It
In a recent post on Growthology, Paul Kedrosky asks why so many B-school students that he meets want to be VCs rather than entrepreneurs. This is my response: *** While entrepreneurship as a whole is a very positive ROI endeavor, the odds are stacked against the individual entrepreneur. Even venture-backed companies only succeed about 1/10 … Continue reading Why The Odds Are Stacked Against Entrepreneurship (vs. VC)
Fred Wilson has posted a very thought-provoking piece, arguing that the VC industry is raising too much money. His essential argument is that VCs are raising so much money that the total number and amount of exits cannot possibly deliver a good industry-wide IRR. I agree with Fred’s analysis, but wanted to go a little … Continue reading Why Venture Capital Is Limited In Scale
Lots of entrepreneurs ask me if they need a business plan. I always give the same answer: No. I’ve raised and participated in dozens of angel and venture rounds, and the only time a business plan was ever involved was my very first start-up. I’ll bet the experienced investors who gave me their money saw … Continue reading It’s Official: Business Plans Are a Waste of Time
PEHub has a fascinating story about how you could radically remake the VC industry by replacing the current fund structure with a system of allocating funds to individual VCs: Venture capitalists are a lot like professional athletes. They often work in teams, but are largely judged on their individual statistics. A great VC can be … Continue reading But can you fit that VC under the salary cap?
When I chat with my VC buddies, rather than asking me, “Have you seen any good deals lately,” they ask me, “Can you give some advice to my porfolio company?” Not a good time to raise money if you’re an entrepreneur. But as a very wise saying goes, “This too, shall pass.” Look for a … Continue reading How You Know We’re In A VC Recession
“The Bay Area Council Economic Institute recently found that in 2006, local companies attracted $9.5 billion in venture capital—an astounding $1,370 per resident. In second place was Singapore, at just $180 per capita. The figure for New York: $107.” Hat tip: Ben Casnocha’s del.icio.us feed.
Here’s a couple of quick hits on how I view my charter as an angel investor. Originally posted as a comment on Infectious Greed. 1) My #1 job as an angel investor is to help the company raise money. That means introductions and coaching, but it also means not doing anything to screw up the … Continue reading The Mind of an Angel Investor
This is literally the funniest and most insightful post I’ve read in months. I actually believe that there is a pretty good chance that releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is likely to raise global temperatures, but I am also very skeptical of the catastrophist viewpoint (AKA ManBearPig). That’s why I loved … Continue reading Fake Steve Jobs Makes Global Warming Activism His Bitch