Over time, I’ve developed a certain approach to negotiating term sheets with entrepreneurs. The whole “email a term sheet document” back and forth method seemed inefficient to me. And, it put too much focus on redline edits rather than listening to each other. So, I don’t trade paper as a starting point. Here’s what I
A Day at the Farmington River
Today, Sunday, was filled with a lot of fun work. I awoke before dawn and drove to the Farmington River. It was challenging. The water is cold and the trout are savvy this time of year. But, it all worked out: a 19″ brute of a brown trout. Photos up top. And, an even bigger
Your VC Isn’t Enthusiastic. What to Do?
Sometimes, VCs behave in puzzling ways. Say you’re an entrepreneur, and you’ve made good progress with your company. But, you sense your VC isn’t jumping up and down. My advice? Take that VC out for a coffee or a meal and ask him/her this question: How are we doing relative to other companies in that
Confronting the Past
Everyone has a dark secret, I’m convinced. It’s likely something that happened to us in the past, and a memory which we no longer want to retrieve. But, when a whisper of that moment resurrects, it can bring on sudden and seemingly unexplainable feelings of fear, shame, anger, and self-loathing. One of my favorite parts
An Armenian Grandmother and Persistence
I recently meet with Ara Kouchakdjian. His family’s story is incredible. it’s about grit and courage. So, I asked Ara to write a guest post. Here it is: All of us who work in early stage companies have learned the importance of persistence. For some, we learned it from a sports coach, for others it was a
Time Flies & British Ska Music
What ever happened to British ska music? It’s Saturday morning, too cold for fishing, and so, I’m home tying some fly fishing flies (photo at bottom). For some reason this week, I’ve had 1980s music on the brain. From Joy Division to New Order to Echo and the Bunnymen, it’s what I’m thinking about at