vc

Like this article? PLEASE +1 it!

vc Tagged Articles

Investor Options
Raising capital is never easy. Conventional financing options are running thin and banks close their doors to a lot of lending right now. However, within conventional financing methods exists an arena of creative financing.

Right of First Refusal
Following is a question I got the other day.

Silicon Valley is Like High School
The quote of the week (at least in my world) was from one of the CEO’s I work with regarding Silicon Valley.

How Many Angels is the Right Number

I got the following question via email today: All things being equal and all things being perfect, is it better to have more or less 'angels' in the mix? I can come up with reasons for both more and less. Also, it seems to me that more and less are very relative - but, in this case, Ohio has a limit of 25 investors before exemptions no longer apply (we're still investigating that one), so that is the absolute upper limit. I'm thinking "more" is in the range of 4 - 10 and "less" is in the range of 3 or fewer -- allowing more growth later, if needed.

Don't Be Casual
Coming out of the Venture Capital in the Rockies conference, I was pleasantly surprised with how solid most of the presentations were. There was plenty of pre-conference preparation, practice, and iteration from the companies presenting – and it showed.

Entrepreneurship and the Money Myth
There are many myths in the venture business -- I alluded previously to the myth of U.S. VC value add -- but I was reminded of another one today. The myth? That access to money matters.

The Temporal Dependence of a VC's "No"
If Marc doesn't stop writing such great posts I'm going to personally hunt him down and unplug his Macbook. It's making the rest of us look like unthinking layabouts.

Phrase du Jour: Venture Tourist
Here is my venture capital phrase of the day, complete with definition:

Not Everything Works
You hear a lot about successful companies on most VC blogs. It’s a lot easier to talk about success than it is to talk about failure.

Venture Capital & Recessions
Lots of talk in the venture business, as everywhere else, about the impact of recessions on the business. In general, recession vintage venture funds have been among the better-performing funds. Here are some related points:

Give Your VCs Assignments

Over the weekend, Mark Suster wrote a great post titled How To Communicate with your Investors between Board Meetings. Mark continues to just tear it up with great advice for entrepreneurs. However, he left out one thing from the post – which is one of my favorite pieces of advice for entrepreneurs. Give your venture capitalists (and board members) assignments Mark alludes to this in many of his suggestions but he never comes out and says it. And, amazingly to me, many entrepreneurs either don’t ever think of this or don’t feel comfortable doing it. They should.

Lesson #1: “What differentiates us is that we are not repeating tradition”
“In 1980, the whole Swiss watch industry was oriented to develop and present its collection of Quartz watches,” says Biver. “Even prestige brands like PP, AP, VC had in those days a proportion of 70% more or less quartz movements in their collection. The Swiss watch industry had its biggest crisis and many watchmakers couldn’t find a decent job and as a consequence left the industry.”

A Message To Graduating MBA’s

I gave a talk yesterday to a class of soon-to-graduate MBA students at CU Boulder yesterday. It was their last class in the course that had been filled with a bunch of interesting VC and entrepreneurial guest lecturers. We did Q&A for several hours, covered a lot of ground, and had plenty of fun (or at least I did.) At the end, the professor asked if I had any final words of advice to the room full of MBA’s who were about to graduate. I thought for a moment and then said an abbreviated version of the following.

5 Reasons Why You Need To Build A Financial Model For Your Startup
To be successful, entrepreneurs and startup founders need to have a good handle on their business. The best way to do this is to build a financial model, which will give greater insight into your company. It will also make your startup more attractive to venture capital investors, lenders, or angel investors.

Financing Options for Start-ups
One of the biggest challenges for many start-ups is to find money to keep the company running. This article outlines some ways in which start-ups can acquire financing for their business.

The business plan and why you need it

As a business owner, you have to be aware of and work with so many variables – like creating a compelling product, building a great team, generating sales and keeping your customers loyal. Writing a business plan helps you as it will guide you in understanding how your company operates. The process of writing a business plan, will help you learn how to forecast any challenges, understand what resources you would need and even manage your own company more effectively.


Name:
Email:

vc Tagged Articles

Other vc Related Articles