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
September 17th, 2012 | 1 Comment
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This is on the heels of an analysis over at RWW on the success and failure of technology startup accelerators and the subsequent post on Forbes about job creation being the success story in startups even if we can’t easily quantify their success. The key takeaway for accelerators is that they are becoming the university system for tech entrepreneurs. There are a few tiers of accelerators, the top ones have better odds at setting the participants up for immediate success with more exits and successful startups being built from these top tier startups. There are a larger majority of lower tier accelerators that don’t show this same immediate success for the participants. I would bet that just like community college, the participants learn what they need to be successful they just … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investing, Startups, Technology
September 15th, 2012 | Add a Comment
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I’m still grinning about my free Windows Surface RT & Windows Phone 8!! Here are some other great things from twitter this week. If you are in Seattle, I hope to see you at the TechCafe Launch Event on Monday!!
Pick a side and stand behind it – http://www.rajeshsetty.com/2012/09/09/the-curious-case-of-missing-option-three/
It may not be in the @bfeld book – http://awe.sm/g57Ml – but this is a great post on the @Seattle startup community http://startupseattle.com/2012/09/12/techcafe-free-lunches-and-startup-launches/
You are the 1% – http://beginnersinvest.about.com/b/2012/08/31/if-your-family-makes-52000-per-year-congratulations-because-you-are-the-global-1.htm
Your imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions. – Albert Einstein
Seattle – the company town – http://www.geekwire.com/2012/5-questions-author-maria-semple-microsoft-tech-seattle/ $MSFT, $AMZN, $STARTUP
… Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging
September 11th, 2012 | Add a Comment
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Do you have a product… even a minimally viable product that you are on the edge of showing to your peers? Do you want direct feedback from other developers, founders, and startup community members on what you have built, what you are launching?
Maybe you are way past that and have an awesome new version or application that you want to launch with some of the communities best and brightest. The next TechCafe will encompass just that and if you want to get in line to be the next great company to launch your product at a TechCafe Launch event you need to attend the first in the series on September 17th.
The idea comes from the demo series we did a year or so ago, but this time we are looking … Read entire article »
Filed under: TechCafe
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
