At DrJays, I remember feeling surprised when mainstream publications printed material that demonstrated blatant misunderstanding of the industry. More seasoned folks in the room shrugged. We were relatively “under the radar” anyway, and quietly benefiting from some decent market trends. (Lesson: misunderstanding breeds opportunity.)
So when, in the unfortunately named pop […]

In recent weeks, I’ve been chatting a bunch with peers that are looking to raise money for their businesses. It’s been an instructive experience in many ways, but first and foremost it’s driven home the need for talking points. We’d all like to think that we can walk into a […]

Understandably, my entrepreneur friends have been abuzz over the rumored founders buyout at Automattic, the company which runs the popular open source blogging platform Wordpress.com. After supposedly turning down a $200 million acquisition, the company is rumored to have accepted a large new follow-on investment led by existing investor Polaris […]

The first time I heard the phrase “conversational currency” I was suitably located at the bar in the Harvard Club of New York City.  A good friend and I were catching up and enjoying each other’s stories. It was what I call “life talk,” sweeping conversation in which you get at […]

I’m happy to announce a startup-focused group that launched last night under the name Forge Louisville.
It’s my hope that this effort becomes a unifying body that brings the best entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers from the area under one roof on a regular basis. But I’ll be disappointed if that’s all […]

You’ll sometimes hear venture investing described as an apprenticeship business. Five to ten years of playing in the thick of it qualify one as capable.  Occasionally, someone will put the point in monetary terms: “You’ll lose $X million before you really get the hang of things.”
These notions get at (1) […]

Cell phone touch typists have arrived and I’m happy for it.
The observational moment was an odd one to begin with.  Crammed into the last row of a propeller plane which operates school bus-style with a full aisle-eliminating back seat load (i.e. 5 seats and nothing behind us), I was already […]

Quick follow up to an earlier post on the electric car movement: it turns out that the battery lease model has a second (intended) entrant.  As reminder of the first:
“Interestingly, …upstart Think, out of Norway, aims to manufacture electric cars with a sales model geared to sell the car itself, […]

Today’s VentureWire includes an important piece by Russell Garland summarizing insights from the Dow Jones Venture Capital Deal Terms Report, a survey of startup financing terms from the July 2006 through June 2007 year.  Interestingly, I noted in a September post that a certain number of bootstrapping entrepreneurs receive liquidity […]

New media investor Alan Patricof on the late-stage component of private equity:
It’s a different kind of business now…These are spreadsheet people. [source]
I’m drawn to the notion that late stage private equity personality types and modes of operation have shifted significantly in recent years. Are there implications for the early-stage side […]