This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice . remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0 Many of these businesses were what First Round Capital called FNACs (features, not companies – this acronym has always stuck with me). I craze. 

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs.  I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005.  In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill.  After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company.  My blog was wiped out. 

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start Up Advice ” but I’d really like to call this post, “VC Advice.” We exchanged ideas when I was an entrepreneur along side him in NorCal in 05-07 and my point-of-view on founder / VC relationships hasn’t shifted even 1% since I went to the dark side. We could do more in 2010 with more VC investment; the doubling assumes only ratable increase in marketing spend to 8221; If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009.  There There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.  This There’s no doubt (at least anecdotally) that This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. The real irony of the market thaw is that the biggest symbol of the freeze as I mentioned in my last

When venture capitalists scale back investing activities it can be very swift and leave many companies that are in the process of fund raising hung out to dry.  I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary.  Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000.  They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly

It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital.  Anybody Many deals – VC or otherwise – didn’t close. When Salesforce.com decided to buy my company in December 2006 I dropped everything and focused religiously on closure.  I It isn’t even a story about raising venture capital or M&A.  It A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.”  I I think the perfect saying to have as a reminder is “time is the enemy of all deals,” or as my wife is all too tired of hearing me say, “Don’t pop the

There have been many accounts recently about the implosion and explosion of the private equity, venture capital and hedge fund markets. Given that there are few high-profile hedge funds and private equity funds that have imploded in a big way -including a few of those which were playing in mortgage backed securities. By and large the amount of capital in the market is growing, but the distribution of the money is the big open question . Many are viewing this as a necessary correction, and just desserts for funds that are not playing by the rules (wasn’t the whole idea behind hedge funds to be "hedged" in down markets?).

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “. If you’ve read any of my blog posts before you’ll probably recognize that I’m from this school of thought where founders & investors need to be more aligned and I’ve been very cynical of historic VC practices. 2006 was the last time I went out to raise venture capital.  I There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to

My professional background is in online ads, social media, and venture capital. December 2006 (17) November 2006 (19) October 2006 (31) Futuristic Play by @Andrew_Chen Analysis on viral marketing, user experience, game design, and online ads As As

I was reading the daily Venture Wire blurb last Friday. It was CardioNet , which is a great company Jim Sweeney started/runs down in San Diego (and participated in OCTANe's CA Medical Device Forum in 2006) at the intersection of health care and wireless data. (Congrats, There have been hundreds of venture-backed investments since March 19 th , but none of the existing investments have gone IPO ? Usually these are "quick reads" and sort of a mix between a story in the LA Times and Food and Wine, but the content in this one was particularly fascinating and alarming at the same time.