Companies rarely change successfully. I’ve blogged before about some of the cultural reasons this is true for larger companies – but much of the same holds true for smaller ones as well. But, every now and then, you do get a change which does seem to work for the better. Take the rapidly growing flash [...]
Because of the subject matter here, I’ll re-emphasize the disclaimer that you can read on my About page: The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current (or past) employer, their employees, partners, clients, and portfolio companies. If you’ve been following either the [...]
I would lose my status as a tech commentator/blogger if I didn’t add yet another blog post to the volume of posts out there that have already been written about Google Plus, Google’s new social networking service. While a lot of what has been written is either focused on specific complaints about the product (XYZ [...]
I’ve blogged before about how the economics of the venture industry affect how venture capitalists evaluate potential investments, the main conclusion of which is that VCs are really only interested in companies that could potentially IPO or sell for at least several hundred million dollars. One variation on that line of logic which I think [...]
Full disclaimer: While I work for DCM, the views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current (or past) employer, their employees, partners, clients, and portfolio companies. If you follow the tech trades about Android as much as this “fandroid” does , you’ll have [...]
Let’s say you pitch a VC and you’ve managed to avoid the classic VC pitch pitfalls I outlined before and have demonstrated thoughtfulness regarding the scalability illusion. Does that mean you get the venture capital investment that you so desire? Not necessarily. Now, there could be many reasons for a rejection, but one that crops [...]
Even if an entrepreneur avoids all the pitfalls of how not to pitch a venture capitalist, there are still quite a few common mistakes that happen. One of the most common is something I call the scalability illusion. It goes something like this: Entrepreneur: I have got a great idea. I’ve built a [blog/game/social network/eCommerce [...]
Having been in venture capital for only a measly six months, it may be a stretch to say I know how to pitch a VC properly. However, I have seen enough email pitches to tell you how not to pitch a VC. Pay attention, aspiring entrepreneurs, because these happen a lot more often than you’d [...]
I got back from my trip to Asia late last week. Like all my trips abroad (well, except that one trip to Cancun, but lets not go there…), it was very eye-opening, and I am definitely very grateful for my fund’s cross-Pacific approach for giving me a chance to build a more international perspective on [...]
A little over three years ago, I entered the world of management consulting. Yesterday was my last day. In true consultant fashion, I sent the office a slide-as-farewell-email and enjoyed a few glasses of wine and a few bottles of beer with my “war-buddy” colleagues and other well-wishers at a local bar in the early [...]