A bit ago, an old family friend sent me this photo. There I am, with my mother and my sister. I forwarded the photo to my father. He thinks the photo was taken just a few months after we had emigrated to Brooklyn from Indonesia. Since the photo was taken, a lot has happened. We
Author: Jo Tango
The Death of a Dream
It’s a busy week. In addition to portfolio company work, such as board meetings and CEO interactions, I’m meeting with 11 entrepreneurs, all of whom are raising money or are about to. So, I only have a few minutes right now to write about this: the death of a dream. Here’s what I mean. I
Thank You Andrew Dennen, Tom Austin, and the Red Sox
I want to thank Andrew Dennen, Tom Austin and the Red Sox organization. They recently made a boy’s day. I wrote about him in the past here and here. His father is ill and cannot work. They live in public housing. The mother is trying to keep it all together. The boy’s mother recently wrote
Challenge for Entrepreneurs: Resilience vs. Stubbornness
A few hours ago, I met another awesome entrepreneur: driven, smart, self-aware, and someone who projected a positive vibe. He is on his second start-up. He co-founded a company in college and stayed with it for 8 years. In retrospect, he said, he probably stayed too long. His comment reminded me of something Jerry Colonna
‘Don’t Take Failure Personally’
I met this morning with an awesome start-up CEO. Unfortunately, his company is out of cash next month. The company had raised money from some individuals (who are now tapped out), progress has taken longer than expected, and he has 30 days to raise new money or to unwind the company. “Don’t take failure personally,”
Venture Capital Doesn’t Scale
I’m catching up on some reading this morning before our weekly partners’ meeting. In the mail was a report from Preqin, a highly respected firm that tracks the alternative assets industry. One graph in particular caught my eye: The graph charts various returns for a number of asset classes, indexed since 2000. It shows that