Tuesday, August 8th, 2006
Previously we took a look at the term sheet and its role in the deal making process. This week we’re going to take a look at how the two parties in a deal view the transaction and one another. While I might have been accused of taking poetic license in the past, I plead guilty […]
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
Each year I get together with a group of business people (i.e. friends) that I met in YEO in the late 90’s for a retreat (typically in Vegas). Over the years we have talked about how much is enough. I was reminded of these conversations when I read Fred Wilson’s post on “Calling in Rich.” […]
Wednesday, July 19th, 2006
Rick Segal had a great story about a “shoestring startup” talking to a Valley VC yesterday. He recounts a story where a VC starts up a conversation with two guys running their business from a garage by saying, “Guys, you really need to get a toll-free conference call number so we don’t incur the charges.” […]
Monday, July 10th, 2006
Need a list? Thought I would post (if we missed you just email us):
Adams Capital Management, Inc.
ARCH Venture Partners
Austin Ventures
Capital Southwest Corporation
Centennial Ventures
CenterPoint Ventures
Chisholm Private Capital Partners
Davis, Tuttle Venture Partners
G-51 Capital Management, L.L.C.
Gefinor Ventures Management Inc.
Guidant Corporation
Hunt Ventures, L.P.
InterWest Partners
JatoTech Ventures
Markpoint Venture Partners
Sevin Rosen Funds
Silver Creek Ventures
Techxas Ventures
Texas Instruments
The Crossroads Group
TL Ventures
Trellis Partners
Triton Venture […]
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
In part one through four I have detailed the genesis of an idea. The idea was a result of a conversation with another entrepreneur, two associates, observation of another startup and an immediate business problem. So whose idea was it? Mine? Does it matter?
Well to be sure there are others who […]
Friday, June 9th, 2006
Since my trip to Bangalore earlier this year I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about India and talking to Indian entrepreneurs. The Barcamp we had at Yahoo has helped me foster several valuable relationships. I even seriously discussed moving to India with my wife (who was not interested). There is no dearth […]
Friday, June 9th, 2006
You made the fateful decision to raise outside capital for your startup. Good news you have money to execute your dream and a salary to pay your bills. Bad news you work for someone: your investors. Regardless of whether or not your investors are angels or professional venture capitalists - they want […]
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
David Beisel asked and answered his own question, “Do the best entrepreneurs wear jeans?” His anwer:
In the limited subset of entrepreneurs pitching an early-stage venture firm in the Boston area, it seems that there is an inverse relationship between how formally an entrepreneur is dressed during the pitch and how potentially exciting their endeavor. […]
Monday, June 5th, 2006
You may have noticed that the Texas Venture Capital Blog is now called the Texas Startup Blog. When I started this blog on June 13th, 2005 (one year and 650+ post ago) my first post was titled, “VCs that BLOG? Are there any blogging in Texas?” At the time I wrote:
I read through […]
Tuesday, May 16th, 2006
It all started with a post from Nick Douglas I wrote called, “Got a great idea? Join the Napking Club.” This is the first in a series of posts I plan to post on how an idea can get from a cocktail napkin to reality. “How do you do it?” That is a […]
Monday, April 10th, 2006
Josh Kopelman wrote a great post titled, “Bridge Loans vs. Private Equity” as a response to Brad’s post on pre-VC investment structures. Josh runs a small fund that provides seed-stage investment (first money before a more traditional venture or institutional round) to startups. Josh generally prefers preferred equity because:
Preferred equity better aligns the […]
Saturday, February 18th, 2006
Do you have an idea for a startup? Are you looking for angel or vc dollars? I set up a podcast for you called the "Investment Pitch Podcast". Anyone can insert their pitch by creating a free account and uploading an mp3 of their pitch. 375 people have subscribed to the […]
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
I can recall when Alta Vista won the search engine wars (or was it some other company). The out of no where Google became the 800 pound gorilla. Would you believe that U.S. based venture capital firms have invested in 47 search outfits over the past twelve months? According to Dow Jones VentureOne VC firms […]
Monday, February 6th, 2006
Our Big in Japan team has created a neat new concept called ‘public podcasting’. When podcasts are made public anyone can upload mp3s into the podcast. I created a ‘public podcast’ on PodServe called the "Investment Pitch Podcast". The idea?
If you need investment dollars just record your elevator pitch, upload it to the "Investment Pitch […]
Friday, January 27th, 2006
What next? How do you start the fund raising process? Fred Wilson has an interesting post in which he states, “the best way to raise money is to ask for advice and the best way to get advice is to ask for money.”
The advice is sound and the post is enlightening. His […]