Positive trending
I was thinking earlier today about one of the more subtle litmus tests that I use when considering an investment opportunity – my excitement trend line. My partner Ryan really helped me think through this a few months ago (I had been doing it but hadn’t been explicit about it). For every investment opportunity we dig into there are always multiple meetings, due diligence calls, research reviews, partner debates and other chances to interact about a company or idea. It’s obvious when I write it out here – although I think more subtle when you’re actually in the middle of evaluating an opportunity – but the trend line around a potential deal should be pretty clearly rising as you spend more time on it. I’m not saying that every meeting has to be better than the last or that you can’t dig up issues that require further work or clarification. I am saying that overall your enthusiasm for a deal should be increasing (and clearly so) over time rather than going down or even staying the same. It’s not a reason in and of itself to make an investment, but is a pretty good barometer of when you’re on to something or not.
May 5, 2008· 1 min read
How to get a job in venture capital (revisited)
A few years ago I wrote a post on how to get a job in venture capital. It was lucky enough to get broad distribution and remains my most viewed and linked to post. I’ve had a number of questions about it over the years and have tried to respond to people who wrote in to ask my opinion about their VC job search. One of the most common questions I’ve received runs something like: “I get it – finding a venture job is hard. I still really want to try and I have a 5+ year outlook on this. What should I do during that time to work towards my goal of landing a venture job?” …
April 29, 2008· 5 min read
Is Facebook replacing email?
If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I love platforms in general and Facebook in particular. And since I’ve been thinking about messaging recently (see my post yesterday on Twitter as my new instant messenger) I’ve been noticing the increasingly varied methods I use to communicate. I’m curious if others have also experienced a trend away from old school email. In particular I’m seeing an increase in the volume of messaging on Facebook – from Jeff suggesting on my wall that I try out Twhirl (in response to a tweet about a Snitter problem I was having) to old high school buddies re-connecting through direct message. And I’m not even a heavy Facebook user. …
April 23, 2008· 1 min read
at my desk in boulder yesterday
April 23, 2008· 0 min read
Twitter is my instant messenger
I’ve been off instant messaging for years. There was nothing about it that I found appealing or that added to my productivity. I realized this morning that Twitter has become my new IM. I publish what I’m doing (and as a result people know if they can reach me or not, whether to try me at my office or on my cell, etc.). I stay in touch with my friends and colleagues by following what they are up to (and therefore know how to get in touch with them if I need to). Through following and being followed I keep up with more people and don’t have to “check in” as much because I know what they are doing, where they are traveling and who they are spending time with. And of course through Twitter’s direct message feature, I’ve literally replaced IM by enabling people to get in touch with me directly and quickly (and I pay way more attention to a Twitter DM than I ever did to IMs; they also show up on all of my computing devices so they are more likely to find me that IM, which seemed to route messages randomly among my various IM clients and whatever machines I had that happened to be “online” at the time). …
April 22, 2008· 2 min read
Big Company. Little Company
I was out at the Microsoft Mountain View campus a few weeks ago for an event hosted by their venture relations group. I had the chance to meet Chris Liddell, MSFT’s CFO, along with 3 of their divisional CFO’s. It was a pretty wide ranging discussion from how they are thinking about M&A to several strategic area of focus to how the divisions are working together on projects that cross divisional boundaries. …
April 22, 2008· 2 min read
My first music post
Excuse the shameless pitch but I feel compelled to tell you about the new Soul Patch album, Sooner or Later. Soul Patch is a band that includes my partners Ryan and Jason. Sooner or Later is the band’s aptly named second album (aptly named because it was 6 years in the making). The band’s music is a mix of classic rock, a bit of funk and soul spiced with great rhythm and outstanding musicality. I really like their style and this new album is fantastic. …
April 16, 2008· 1 min read
Know your audience
I don’t know what it is about the last few weeks – maybe the change of season; maybe something in the water – but I’ve been absolutely amazed at how often people have showed a complete lack of comprehension for who was in the room with them. This may sound more calculating than I intend it to, but I think its a good practice to always consider who you’re talking to before you start in on a conversation. This is especially true when you’re negotiating for something, making a request or otherwise trying to drive to a specific outcome. I’ve witnessed several pretty amazing examples of a complete lack of thoughtfulness around this notion of late. From making idle (and counter-productive) threats, to inappropriate requests, to outright lying (which was sure to be uncovered). …
April 15, 2008· 1 min read
Know what you don’t know
[see the bottom of this post for an invite code to a new service that helps solve the problem I’m describing here] It’s probably passe to say that we live in an information economy. It’s also probably not correct anymore because really we live in an information NOW economy. Staying on top of the topics that are important to you and your company has never been more important. And with the explosion of media sources (particularly on-line) this has never been more of a challenge. …
April 11, 2008· 4 min read
How I don’t travel
We have a great partner dynamic at Foundry. We’ve all worked together for at least 7 years (in some cases over 10 years) and are close friends as well as colleagues. We also have pretty varied styles and opinions. Case in point – Brad’s recent post on his travel habits. I couldn’t be more different in how I approach travel. Heading to the west coast, Brad likes to get up insanely early and take the 6am flight to SFO so he can start his meetings at 8:30. I’ve done that about a dozen times and finally realized that I just can’t deal with the 22 hour day that results from it. I was doing it a lot on Mondays and it pretty much assured that I was a few steps off for the rest of the week. Instead, I prefer to either fly in the night before (there’s a late Frontier flight that still lets me have dinner at home with my family before heading out) or on the 8:30am flight in the morning (from that flight I can make a 10:30 meeting pretty much anywhere on the peninsula or in the city). …
April 9, 2008· 3 min read