What is the point of no return in a VC investment process (other than the startup vanishing)? This was my answer to a  Quora question I recently answered. Here's my thoughts. When you lose faith in the founders. VC investing is based on a PPT deck and your faith that these founders can pull it off.…

Fred Wilson posted this excellent advice about Henry Blodgett's company, eShares. It's something every founder should use to replace those excel spreadsheets…pretty please A “cap table” is a schedule of all the shares outstanding for a specific company. Here’s an MBA Mondays post I wrote back in 2011 on the subject of cap tables. If…

I was reminded of this phrase recently when I listened to the founders at one of my portfolio companies 'violently agree' (somewhat an exaggeration) on subjects during a board meeting. It turns out that they were basically correct, but the idea that some harmonious relationship needs to exist between founders is BS. Some of my…

"Necessity taught me the very fine art of bootstrapping," Uber founder Travis Kalanick writes. "Blood, Sweat and RAMEN", is how he described it. I see lots of entrepreneurs who don't understand this mantra. They believe, apparently, in the good 'start up fairy' which comes down and helps them solve all their problems with the wave…

Trust in others often goes against the basic principles of being a founder, especially a single one. You have the idea, you work hard on developing a business model, crafting a basic solution, sell a few customers on the product. And then what…you realize that you can't do it all yourself and you need to…

Mark Mason wrote an interesting piece recently on the disconnected professional. It was an admission that, although he dutifully collected people in his network, he realized that he was really not networking. It's worth a read and I'd like to offer a few more thoughts on why networking is important. Full disclosure–I am not the…

Well, here we are in 2015 and your start up desperately needs new employees, especially engineers, product or user experience people, right?  You and a hundred other companies in your backyard are in the same boat. How do you find good people fast? Here are a few thoughts on the best places to find them:…

Fortunately, or unfortunately, requests for potential investor meetings with founders come in many flavors: Can I just have 15 minutes to tell you about my world-changing idea? My company is doing OK/well/making progress, I just want to update you on our status. I've hit all my stretch targets for profitable customer acquisition and want you…

I see it all the time. One of my portfolio companies raises a decent round and a subtle change comes over the company. 'We have money for 6/9/12/whatever months! Time to go kick ass in the marketplace!'….or not… First off, the money is probably not going to last as long as you think it is.…

I spend a lot of my time pointing out to founders/entrepreneurs how successful they are, in spite of the whining they are doing to me at the moment. My role as a cheerleader is one I try to impress on founders that being a cheerleader is their role as well. When I visit one of…