I’m super excited to be moderating a Q&A session with Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital at a New England VC Association coffee event on Dec. 13. Click here to register; we expect the event to sell out quickly. I met Josh a few years ago, and we had the opportunity for a few days to
Category: Technology and VC
‘Unpitch’ VCs (and, Thank You Scott Kirsner)
Many good things happened at the MassTLC unConference. One was that Scott Kirsner asked people in the crowd whether they would support a meet-the-VCs event that was free to entrepreneurs. You see, there are some conferences put up where VCs are invited to speak and entrepreneurs get to pitch them. The former aren’t charged while the
Microsoft, Nokia and ‘Pivoting the Elephant’
Well, Microsoft is spending $7 billion to buy Nokia. As I tweeted when it was announced: I’m so old that I remember when Nokia phones were HOT. — Jo Tango (@jtangoVC) September 3, 2013 But, seriously, I’ve been reading some articles and blog posts about why or why not this was a good idea. Stockholders
‘Free Agent’ Venture Capitalists
I’m increasingly seeing some very good VCs invest on their own. Perhaps they’re tired of the challenges of fundraising, or the politics that can happen when a VC firm becomes large and has multiple partners in multiple cities across multiple generations investing in multiple sectors across multiple stages. Or, perhaps they just want to retire
Todd Brennan: Dropbox Angel Investor & Entrepreneur
Well, I just said a temporary goodbye to Todd Brennan. Newly married, he is about to move to Portland. I first met Todd when I co-led the first institutional round in his company, Bit9, (edit: now called Carbon Black, the company has gone public). He and the founders had seeded the companies themselves and were
Important Survey of Entrepreneurs & VCs
There’s an awesome survey that just came out. Sponsored by the National Venture Capital Association, it asked both VCs and entrepreneurs what they think is valuable about venture capital. For me, what struck me were the following charts. First, what entrepreneurs perceive as “value” from a VC firm can be very different from VCs’s opinions: