I caught up today with a friend who has been a VC for a long time in NYC. He has been in the business since the 1990s and is now doing angel investing. He has a great track record. Now, I don’t know NYC. We look at things based there and are open to investing
Category: Technology and VC
Saying “No” as a VC
An entrepreneur last week called me: he met many times with a VC, who kept saying over and over he really wanted to invest. Then, suddenly, nothing. The VC wouldn’t return his calls or emails. In another recent situation, a different entrepreneur had many meetings with another VC. After many weeks, the VC passed on
Inaugural “Coffee Connect with a VC”
Yesterday, the New England VC Association (NEVCA) sponsored the first “Coffee Connect with a VC.” I’ve written before here about my hopes to make the VC community more accessible during my two-year term on the NEVCA Board. We led with one of our strongest folks, North Bridge’s Jamie Goldstein, who has started two companies and has
Internet Consumer: The Cycle Has Turned
There’s a silent but intense winnowing happening right now in venture capital. As the WSJ reported here, many start-ups are having a hard time raising follow-on financing: Just under half of the 165 companies in the consumer information services sector that raised first rounds in 2010 have raised a subsequent equity round and fewer than
“Making Partner” at a VC Firm
I read recently about another venture capital investor switching firms. I don’t know the specifics behind that move. But, I do think more career moves like this will be commonplace. It’s a stark change from what VC used to be. When I joined the business in the late-1990s, VC firms promoted partners from within. In other
Key Trait of Founders: Loving Ambiguity
Zynga. Internet fortunes won and lost. IPOs. VCs. Victories and colossal failures. That was my morning meal. I caught up today over breakfast with Rich Levandov of Avalon Ventures (one of the Zynga investors). He and I have so many overlapping friends and contacts, and so, it was good to meet up finally with him. We