Posts Tagged ‘venture capital’

Coffee Talk

April 30th, 2010
Brown cup of coffee
Image via Wikipedia

I’m a big fan of meeting entrepreneurs for coffee. Now that I’m doing a lot more financial consulting, I find that it’s harder and harder to stay involved in the “scene”. People in this industry are mortally afraid of new technologies like twitter, blogging or web technologies, so sometimes I find myself straying from my startup roots.  Thats why I’m thankful for being able to work with AccelGolf, and that’s why I love to meet up with other startup guys.

Today, I had back to back meetings with some interesting guys at the Andala Cafe in central. First I met with Waldron Faulkner of GraphEdge who is working on his pivot and needed some marketing help and introductions. Waldron is a passionate guy who’s got a lot of work ahead of him, but isn’t afraid of it. Waldron inspires me because making those pivots is hard, and sometimes barreling ahead is the easiest thing to do, when in reality, it’s the worst thing you can do.

Next, I met with Dustin Dolginow of Atlas Ventures. Dustin’s a newbie to both Boston and the VC world, so he’s trying to get his feet under him. As coincidence might have it, he’s also a fellow Kansan – from my same town too! Startup guys please welcome him to Boston, and if you are interested in meeting a junior VC with the ear of some pretty powerful guys, let me know and I’ll put you in touch. Dustin inspires me because he’s in a whole new world and he’s attacking it with a vibrance and energy that we should all aspire to – and he’s a genuinely nice guy.

Ah coffee talk…

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Venture Capital Consulting

November 23rd, 2009

About a week ago, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with the charming Liz Knopf of OpenView Partners. We met for a drink and she was kind enough to enlighten me on how OpenView was revolutionizing the venture scene.

OpenView, founded in 2006 and on it’s 2nd fund, typically only invests in “expansion stage” software companies that are making about 500k per quarter and growing…and growing fast. Obviously these companies have achieved product/market fit and are no longer floundering to find their place in the business world – they just need to aggressively expand, something which takes a significant amount of dinero. Because these companies have found their market, and have found a repeatable sales cycle, the amount of inherent risk is incredibly limited compared to other startups. The risk that remains is operational, and it is a risk that OpenView seriously attempts to mitigate by providing strategic consulting to their investments. In fact, Liz goes so far as to say that OpenView isn’t a venture capital firm but rather a consulting firm that makes it’s money through capital gains.

It’s nice to see a firm that has this kind of culture.

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Getting drunk with Venture Capitalists

October 27th, 2009
Wine and cheese tasting @ Strewn Winery
Image by Vincent Ma via Flickr

Last Thursday, I had the immense pleasure of doing a little drinky drinky with some of the financial titans of industry at the 4th annual New England VC Wine Tasting. Dana Samuels of TUGG was kind enough to provide me with a complimentary ticket (they normally range about $150), so I was much obliged.

Luckily, I happened to know quite a few people who showed up. There were about 6 people from fama PR whom it was awesome to see (Keri, Keith, Marta, Whitney, Zach, and Liz). If you don’t know fama and you’re in the tech inudstry, you should.  I also ran into Healy Jones of Startable fame, and the new VP Marketing at Pixily, who’s one of my more recent acquaintances.

From there I met an absolute hodge podge of characters ranging from VC’s who were bidding on $5000 dollar cases of wine, to a clean tech entrepreneur who had just sold his $200 million dollar business and miraculously had the chutzpah and energy of an 18 year old. In all, everyone was rather convivial and jolly, no doubt lubricated by the libations, and making random introductions was hardly a problem.

By the end of the night, I had probably consumed about 8 to 10 glasses of wine with nary a bite of food, so my memory gets a bit hazy,and as such, my desire to network diminished accordingly. All in all, it was a phenomenal time and a rather enjoyable experience…I hope to be at the next event. Good luck to Dana Samuels, Jeff Fagnan, et al. and of their aspirations with TUGG.

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