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01.19.08

Word Play: "Longevity Escape Velocity" Uncategorized | (0)
I've heard famed inventor Ray Kurzweil give his "Acceleration of Innovation" talk twice now and each time he tickled the audience with a rather fantastic notion: live another 20 years or so, and you'll live forever. Recently, the concept has received some business press: first in Portfolio's "Never Say Die" (December 2007), then again in The Economist's "How to Live Forever" (January 3, 2008). According to Kurzweil, "Our lives will extend exponentially," assisted largely, perhaps, by advances in artificial intelligence. Essentially, he argues that the work of life extension scales. In the context of an individual life, each additional ...
01.06.08

Index Card Startup Humor Entrepreneurship, VC | (2)
In the vein of napkin-drawn business plans, enjoy this index card argument for exercising your inner child, courtesy of Jessica Hagy: An analysis: Heaps of imagination at a startup yields heaps of money. Or is it heaps of imagination and heaps of money yield a startup? Presumably the latter, under the assumption that a dearth of imagination in the hands of a bore rarely equates to heaps of money. A tongue-in-cheek answer: It depends on investor sentiment. Or even bolder: It depends on your fund's vintage year (the bubble's fanciful imagination and heaps of money sometimes yielded a ...
12.08.07

Venture Capital Job Search Toolkit VC | (4)
"So you want to be a venture capitalist?"* A number of my colleagues have posted discussions of how to find such work. It's worth perusing the thoughts of: Charlie O'Donnell, Seth Levine (reprinted at Ask The VC), Vineet Buch, Fred Wilson, and Praveen Sahay. But with friends tackling the search and PE Hub announcing its annual summer internship roundup, I thought I'd pull together a set of relevant resources with the hope that they help match talent with opportunity. This post will focus on finding openings. As you might suspect, there's not a ton of them. A good friend ...
12.02.07

Build Something "Big and Clear" Entrepreneurship, VC | (3)
There's an old college admissions question that goes something like this: "Is it better for my kid to get a B in the advanced math class or an A in the standard track?" Well, it's better to get an A in the advanced math class, the admissions officer will tell you. Entrepreneurs, if they're good, are experts at optimizing the allocation of scarce resources to hit goals. They don't respond well to the above answer because it's in some ways an irrational one. And yet, unfortunately, investors offer an analogous demand. An entrepreneur might ask, "Is it better for ...
11.27.07

The Lighter Side: Venture Capital in the Movies Entrepreneurship, VC | (0)
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 movie A Lot Like Love, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, Ashton heads to New York City to seek venture funding for his e-tail diaper company, I knew we might be in for some misunderstanding. There was no way Hollywood would nail it in a romantic comedy. Here's ...
11.27.07

Talking Points For Entrepreneurs (Beyond the Elevator Pitch) Entrepreneurship, VC | (8)
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 meeting and impress the socks off someone without much forethought but it's rarely an effective strategy. And we're all guilty, but when you see prep work done right, it's transformative. Some of the better venture conferences actually schedule time for pitching entrepreneurs to receive coaching from seasoned peers and ...
11.20.07

Founder Buyout and Venture Fund Expectations Entrepreneurship, VC | (1)
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 Ventures, largely as buyout of founders' positions. Regardless of the authenticity of specific rumors here, it's worth delving into a few industry points in order to frame an appropriate discussion of dealmaking. I'll offer notes that hopefully lend clarity to the above. First, understand the stakeholders' objectives. There's no ...
11.16.07

Word Play: "Conversational Currency" Word Play | (0)
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 core issues. The kind of conversation in which it's okay to ask, "Are you happy?" We both were, certain qualms and disclaimers notwithstanding. When you're talking big, the small stuff melts away. And as we chatted, we landed on the subject of travel and my friend's advice was to ...
11.15.07

Forge Louisville Launches! Entrepreneurship | (4)
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 Iâ€™ll be disappointed if thatâ€™s all it is, and confident given the turnout last night and incredible feedback that it will be something more. It might facilitate smaller working groups focused on new media, healthcare, general tech, etc. It might facilitate working space for entrepreneurs. It might generate educational, focused discussion, ...
11.13.07

The Venture Apprenticeship, Preface VC | (2)
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) the complexity of the business, (2) the propensity of mistakes to engender "high-definition" learning, (3) the time horizon required to see a few investments from cradle to exit, and (4) the value of doing so in the context of both sides of a business cycle. There's truth to ...

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Welcome to Punctuative! Here you'll find occasionally insightful comments on entrepreneurship, venture capital, technology, and the future, as well as a nifty tool meant to help open doors in the financing world. Go ahead and explore.