Tag Archives: VentureTips

VentureTips…Make Your Business About Your Customers, Not About Your Technology

A founder came to see me yesterday to give me an update on how 2011 went and to bounce some ideas off of me for where to take the company next.  The company is a small business that is approaching … Continue reading

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Every Top 10 List Deserves a Few Cautions

Martin Zwilling’s recent post discussing “10 Clues That It May Be Time To Start Your Own Business”  is only partly useful.  It provides a checklist of feelings or observations that, if you experience them, may help you recognize that you … Continue reading

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Should VC’s Be More Like Lumberjacks?

According to this Small Business Trends post, only 10% of all VC investment goes into seed and early stage companies.  That is up from only about 5% in the mid-2000′s, but well below the 15-25% range that existed between 1980 … Continue reading

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VentureTips…Wise Beyond Their Years

Ah, youth.  Early signs of future success sometimes appear to be obvious, but so many do not live up to their potential.  Like the highly recruited college athlete who appears to be the “next one”, early promise can fizzle or … Continue reading

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VentureTips…What Jim Riggleman Can Teach Us About Negotiating

Last week’s post at VentureHacks on negotiating terms in a capital raising effort provided an excellent context for evaluating the decision later in the week by Washington Nationals manager, Jim Riggleman, to retire. The post by VentureHacks talks about utlizing leverage … Continue reading

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VentureTips…Did You Plan Your Next Venture Over the Holiday Weekend?

Let me guess…You spent some time over the long Memorial Day weekend with family who encouraged you to “go for it” in launching your new business?  No?  Ok, then you spent some time over the long weekend at a backyard barbecue … Continue reading

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Angels Invest in People

I caught up on some reading over the weekend.  Not as much as I would have liked because I had to help my wife around the house on Mother’s Day.  Mostly I was taking notes on all the help that … Continue reading

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Flexibility or Focus…The Founders Dilemma

Yesterday afternoon I had yet another opportunity to participate in a Tiger Session for one of my clients.   Well, I didn’t so much participate as much as spectate and facilitate as our 4 carefully selected tigers went to work tearing … Continue reading

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Getting Seed Investors Moving…Don’t Exit at the Start

An April 11 post at VentureBeat provided some good guidance on generating a term sheet for a seed-stage investment from an angel investment.  While reviewing it, I was reminded of recent stories I’ve been reading about founders demanding, and getting, part of … Continue reading

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VentureTips…Advice for those who Venture (3)

A couple of weeks ago LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman, posted his Top 10 Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies.  Most of them were pretty good rules, even for building moderately massive companies.  Often “Ten Rules” lists are difficult to assemble … Continue reading

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