Josh Maher's Blog » Entries tagged with "Investing Lessons From Venture Capitalists"
April 8th, 2013 | Add a Comment
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I was pleasantly surprised to see Jonathan Sposato channeling my investing lesson series in his new member-only series Startup Jedi. Great to see that people like to convey information this way and especially exciting that topics such as what the hell are startup investors looking for is interesting to more people than just me!
I haven’t profiled Dave McClure yet, I have profiled some other interesting investors such as Howard Lindzon, Chris Sacca, Fred Wilson, Chris Devore, Jeff Clavier, and others on the way. I had previously avoided McClure as he comes across as such a loose cannon. At least the things that he appears to be investing in and the reasons he appears to be investing appear much more on par with a day trader than they do an investor. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing, Startups, stocks, Technology
March 4th, 2013 | Add a Comment
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I came across this post by Dharmesh Shah titled Avoiding Undue Diligence: My Strange Approach To Angel Investing. I was of course intrigued by the title having spent a lot of time building this library of investing insights from venture capitalists and angel investors.
I was surprised to find a nice neat list of investing nuggets laid out on the page like the ones that I extract from the many interviews and blog posts that I find from investors. The surprise of course was what I found after digging into Dharmesh’s advice. He had laid out a very nice spray and pray approach to angel investing.
No follow-on investments I have heard a lot of people advise, but no due diligence? Seriously? Two guys walk into a bar, they make a good first impression … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing, Startups, stocks
February 25th, 2013 | Add a Comment
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If you haven’t been following the series on investing lessons from venture capitalists, now is a good time to start. The latest in the series comes from some great insight that was provided at the World Financial Symposium here in Seattle. The question of course that everyone has next is what the hell is the world financial symposium and why is it in Seattle?
Amazingly of course the angel investors on hand at the symposium generally had the same thought in response to the always outstanding question of why isn’t Seattle a bigger startup community? Regardless of the amount of angel and venture capitalist investment that happens in the region, there is an amazing amount of talent on the entrepreneur and investor sides of the table. Some of the lessons from … Read entire article »
Filed under: Economics, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investing, Seattle, Startups, stocks, Technology
February 11th, 2013 | Add a Comment
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I came across this infographic and thought it good to share in the series of Investing Lessons From Venture Capitalists series. It is interesting because it initially highlights what a tech VC looks at when evaluating an investment so of course if you are starting a new tech company and are planning to raise money for that new tech company you need to understand all aspects of the infographic.
For the rest of us who aren’t creating new tech companies and just happen to work at them or are friends and family of them… this is interesting as well for a number of reasons. If you are giving any feedback to a tech startup and don’t have expertise or a strong opinion in one of the areas here – don’t fake … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, ESPP, Investing, Startups, stocks, Technology
July 9th, 2012 | Add a Comment
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Chris Devore graces us with his wisdom in the fourth post in our ongoing Investing Lessons From Venture Capitalist series. Chris is a local Seattle investor (our first local investor) and is heavily involved in a lot of areas building the Seattle startup scene. His investing lessons are shared from the perspective of his move from being an entrepreneur to turning into an investor and prove to offer some interesting insights into early and not so early stage investors.
Lesson #1 – Understand Who Else Is Investing
It may not be obvious why it is important to understand who the other investors are, but it is very important. The reasons are different for an early stage company than they are for a publicly traded company; however, the need is equally important. Looking at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, ESPP, Investing, Startups, stocks, Technology
July 2nd, 2012 | Add a Comment
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The series Investing Lessons from Venture Capitalists has gotten off to a great start. I have looked at a few great investors and found some great insights. Chris Sacca, Fred Wilson, & Howard Lindzon have all provided some brilliant insights by publicly talking about their investment thesis and strategies. Let’s briefly recap them here with a short tweet-able description…
5 Investing Lessons from Chris Sacca
Lesson #1 – The Team Matters
“Invest in teams you would spend a secluded weekend with.” – http://wp.me/pS3iU-kP (CC: @Sacca)
Lesson #2 – Support Systems Are Important
“Pay attention to who is supporting, advising, & guiding the business” – http://wp.me/pS3iU-kP (CC: @Sacca)
Lesson #3 – What Product
“No product – no business, poor product – poor business” – http://wp.me/pS3iU-kP (CC: @Sacca)
Lesson #4 – Customers Make The Difference
“Will someone actually pay real money … Read entire article »
Filed under: Accounting, Banking, Entrepreneurship, ESPP, Investing, Profit, RealEstate, Startups, stocks, Technology
April 2nd, 2012 | 1 Comment
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Howard spews investing advice every Monday (usually), he talks about the individual companies he invests in all the time on StockTwits and isn’t shy to discuss his reasoning behind each of those picks. As you may have picked up on, the Investing Lessons series that has looked at Fred Wilson and Chris Sacca focuses on lessons that we can take back and incorporate into our own investment strategies. While it may be great to follow Howard into some of his picks (like Pabrai, I’m a fan of cloning great ideas), I think it is more valuable to learn from his examples and discussions about how he invests. Howard recently popped up in a foundville interview and provided some insights into himself and his thought process.
Thinking through the lessons we can learn from … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Profit, stocks
March 19th, 2012 | 3 Comments
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Following up from my last post in the series 5 Investing Lessons From Chris Sacca, I came across this article that Jeff Bussgang wrote on lessons for startup entrepreneurs. Reading the article, there were a few key points that Jeff points out as important for startup entrepreneurs. These are great for the MBAs Fred was speaking to and entrepreneurs, but it is interesting the insight that Fred is providing into his thoughts on investing and how relevant they are to investors in public companies.
Let’s look at each of the key points and how they are relevant to retail investment decisions.
Lesson #1 – Embrace Failure
Fred observed that failure is typically a valuable and powerful experience—forcing introspection, humility, and an extra drive to prove something to others. He observed that the entrepreneurs he … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, ESPP, Investing, Startups, stocks
