Resources Financing
| Venture Capital Was Tight for Tech Start-Ups in ’09
Venture capitalists, whose money provides fuel to technology start-ups, last year invested the lowest amount in such companies since 1997, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association released on Friday. |
| Jim Collins: How great companies turn crisis into opportunity
In troubled times a business needs enduring values, the best talent and an ability to 'zoom out' and see past the chaos in front of it. |
| Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists’ Confidence Declines to Lowest Level in Five Years
Confidence among consumers, executives, and other constituents of our market economy has been closely monitored for years, as confidence is thought to be a necessary element for the proper functioning of our capitalist system. Over the last 18 months as the credit crisis has taken hold, confidence in our financial institutions clearly has been tested and continues to be questioned. While the sentiment of consumers and managers does play a significant role in our prosperity, confidence among the professional investors who advise and finance the high-potential new ventures that propel entrepreneurial growth is also critical to the long-run health and competitive advantage of the U.S. economy, as it is their investment decisions that determine, in large part, the pace of innovation in our nation. However... |
| The Equity Equation
An investor wants to give you money for a certain percentage of your startup. Should you take it? You're about to hire your first employee. How much stock should you give him? These are some of the hardest questions founders face. And yet both have the same answer........ |
| The Unified Theory of VC Suckage
A couple months ago I got an email from a recruiter asking if I was interested in being a "technologist in residence" at a new venture capital fund. I think the idea was to play Karl Rove to the VCs' George Bush. I considered it for about four seconds. Work for a VC fund? Ick.......... |
| Translating Private Equity-Speak
The business world is full of silly sounding or near-meaningless corporatespeak clichés. Even worse, everyone repeats ‘em until they become official. Like most industries, private equity has its own ridiculous language. |
| The Term Sheet glossary
I work as an attorney to a lot of company founders, and I know from experience that when the time comes to negotiate a round of funding, entrepreneurs often find themselves at a disadvantage. Much of it has to do with language. There is an array of terms and issues that investors and lawyers work with regularly and understand, but that entrepreneurs deal with only once in a while. It would take many posts to cover all of them, but here is a Crib Sheet of 10 Key Terms that clients most often ask me to explain when they receive term sheets from prospective investors. |
| What Is Really Happening to the Venture Capital Industry
Many are speculating that the year two thousand and nine represents a fundamental turning point for the venture capital industry. Some are arguing that the industry is in dire straits after years of poor performance. Others have argued that... |
| What Venture Capital can learn from Private Equity: The Venture Capital game has changed, yet many VCs are still using an old, outdated playbook
Baseball and venture capital always seem to make an effective pairing for analogies. As in baseball, much of the cachet of venture capital is inspired by the romance of the metaphoric grand slam. The recipe has been the same since venture capital began: Find a team, give it money, sit back, and wait for the bloom. Most investments fail. But a few could be big winners and make it all turn out just fine. It used to be said in this business... |
| Perfecting your pitch
As a venture capitalist, I’m constantly on the receiving end of pitches from entrepreneurs looking for capital. Over time, I’ve found that these pitches fall into three categories: (1) The Introduction, (2) The First Shot, and (3) The Full Pitch. The same mistakes regularly appear in each category—following are some of the common ones and what you can do about them. |