I spoke yesterday at the Dow Jones annual VC and PE conference. I’ve never been to the conference and found it helpful. There were many institutional investors and most of the speakers were from the buy-out space. Some snippets: The tech sector is its own world. I was the only person at the conference not
Category: Technology and VC
Venture Capital As a Team Sport
As I’ve written many times, Kepha is an equal partnership for its investing partners. Eric and I are equal in terms of economics and voting (read “How VCs Are Paid” for how firms allocate compensation). We do this because we think VC is best played as a team sport. As equal partners, we have an
Seed “Party Rounds” Not Much Fun
For a bit of time, seed financing rounds involving many investors were the rage. Here’s a recent TechCrunch article that highlights the downside of the “party round” approach (click here). Here is an excerpt: Counter-intuitively, Party Rounds are not much fun for founders. In fact, this type of structural round can be extremely detrimental….The risk
To the New TechStars Cambridge Class, Yo
Congratulations! You are part of a truly elite group. Not only does the program brand you, but Katie and Reed are some of the most thoughtful and connected people in the whole ecosystem. Such high integrity. You’re in great hands. Members of our firm have been Mentors since the program’s inaugural class, and we look
What Does Kepha Do?
Here is a summary: “Venture builders”: 80 percent of our companies start as seeds. “Venture banking” (large checks into already-scaling companies) can be a good strategy, but it isn’t ours We have money: only two of us invest, and we manage nearly $200 million in capital across two funds We have time: each of us is on
Keeping VC Simple (like Foundry)
The older a VC firm gets, the more complicated it can become. Like any business, complexity can arise over time as a company grows. More staff, more investments, bigger funds. “Managerial overhead” grows. It’s why I’ve always been impressed with Foundry Group. They minimize managerial overhead, by plan. They do not want to add to