As a VC, I meet with many people who are starting their own companies. I often ask them why they’ve decided to leave a safe job and become a risk-taking entrepreneur. Underlying nearly all of the stories is this common theme, which I paraphrase as this: “I want to be happy.” I want to be
Adding an Independent to Your Board
I always encourage our entrepreneurs to add to the Board a potential mentor. Most do so and are usually glad later that they did. This topic has been coming up with two companies we just seeded, and so, I thought I’d write about it. As I’ve written before, the CEO job is the loneliest. A
Fly-Fishing As a Rite of Passage
Our children are out of school for summer. I’ve taken a few days off this past week to take two of them fly-fishing. Once a year, I drive five hours to a fishing lodge in northern NH, near Canada. It’s an area with little road traffic, no cell phone coverage, and spotty Wi-Fi (but enough
Liberty or Safety: the IRS and Eavesdropping
Like many of you, I have been reading about the various government efforts that just don’t feel right: IRS audits, collections of phone logs (of everyone, all the time, when there is no probable cause), eavesdropping in on phone calls, and the like. Increasingly, the government is expanding its powers of surveillance, many of which
Being a VC vs. a CEO
I had lunch with a VC friend of mine, who previously was a CEO. His firm this year has returned a billion dollars to their investors. We were talking about the VC job, and he made a very humble comment after I congratulated him on all the success: As a CEO, the harder I worked,
Finding a Co-Founder for Your Start-Up
I recently had breakfast with a former classmate, who is a serial entrepreneur. She has worked on quite a few start-ups and is now looking for a new one to start. She’s in a difficult situation because she has so many great options. Many VCs are showing her new teams and ideas, and she’s looking