Tag: Entrepreneur
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What does it take to raise money right now? Here’s what I’m seeing in the market for pre-seed, seed, and Series A: Pre-Seed: $100k ARR or less Pre-seed deals usually have a trickle of revenue, but not much more. I did a pre-seed deal recently at $75k ARR — on…
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“I love this team and your product is amazing! I just couldn’t get my partners there. We’ll be cheering from the sidelines!” How many times have you heard that? Well, you won’t hear it from me. “They Never Give a Reason” I recently spoke with Mike*, the founder of a…
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Travis Kalanick’s first company got him sued for $250 billion. Time to quit the startup game, right? Wrong. Third Time’s a Charm Travis is known as the brilliant founder of Uber and CloudKitchens. But his first company, a file sharing service called Scour, was a disaster. Angry about music being…
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“A whole new world is opening up to you.” That was what my grandmother told me when I learned how to read. This year, I explored worlds including Weimar Germany, Sand Hill Road, and small town Japan. Here are my favorite books of the year, along with summaries of the…
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“As the situation got more desperate in the fall of 2008, Musk pleaded for money from friends and family to meet Tesla’s payroll.” Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson In 2008, Tesla was in the depths of production hell. And with the world on the verge of another Great Depression, a…
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Major VC firm OpenView Venture Partners has abruptly laid off most of its staff and stopped making new investments. The departure of two top leaders under murky circumstances appear to have led to the firm’s sudden downfall. The Collapse of OpenView OpenView’s leaders departed suddenly after a recent fundraise, leaving…
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Venture capital investment in the middle of the country tripled in the last decade, according to a new report from Heartland Forward. Investment reached $55 billion by the end of 2021. We’re used to thinking of startupland as reaching a few dozen miles from San Francisco to San Jose. Maybe…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, MIdwest, Money, Rural, Silicon Valley, South, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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Every now and then when I ask a founder for a demo, he can’t give me one. That’s because the product doesn’t exist. Let’s take the example of a restaurant reservation platform. Rather than building out the tech, some founders just start advertising to restaurants and diners and taking reservations.…
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I sat down to coffee and dessert with one of my founders recently. At the end, he tried to pay the tab. I had to explain to him what might be the most important rule of investing… Never Let a Founder Pay If you’re taking a founder out to coffee,…
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+ Angel Investing, Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Tech, Venture Capital+
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WeWork filed for bankruptcy on Monday. Allbirds is a penny stock. Companies like these are why I invest in pure software — only. The Penny Stock Parade WeWork peaked at a valuation of $47 billion. It was once the most valuable startup in America. Now, it’s a penny stock. The…
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+ Entrepreneur, Finance, Investing, Money, Silicon Valley, Startups, Stock Market, Stocks, Tech, Venture Capital+
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Tremendous 