One of our investors recently mentioned to me the difference between “orthogonal” and “linear” thinking. By the former, I think of it as: multi-dimensional, creative, having disruptive potential. By the latter, I think of: logical, incremental, thoughtful (but almost obvious). I think entrepreneurs are predominantly orthogonal thinkers. My partners and I often mention how entrepreneurs
Category: Entrepreneurship
The NEVYs
We had our first annual New England VC Association (NEVCA) awards ceremony (called The NEVYs, about which I wrote previously). It was insanely joyous. I have a hangover but am still smiling. I love working with people on ideas that matter. It’s awesome to see teamwork originate and execute such a fantastic event. I remember
Entrepreneurship, Failure, and the 20-year Game
I often tell our portfolio company founders the following: at Kepha, we’re playing a 20-year game. I think having a long time horizon affects what we do, why we do it, and how we behave. It sets a very high bar to which we aspire. It’s not always easy, and we don’t often hit those
An Uplifting Morning with Sheryl Sandberg
What a great talk today by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg! The New England VC Association hosted the event, and as I’ve written before, C.A. made it happen. 500+ folks were packed in the room (unfortunately, another 540 folks were on the wait list–this event sold out in 8 hours!). There was a ton of
The Meaning of ‘Grit’
Jeff Bussgang wrote a great post about grit. It’s a word that I’ve been thinking about since reading it. It’s an important topic, as I’ve seen that the teams that persevere the most tend to do better. Having grit does not guarantee success, but it certainly ups the odds. I’ve also seen many examples of
Venture Capital and Its 33% Success Rate
Fred Wilson has another awesome post today about how hard it is to create real companies. He wrote: I have said many times that early stage VC is a lot like baseball, if you get a hit one out of every three times, you are headed to the hall of fame. And if I look