A cap is not a valuation
(apologies in advance: the content of this blog post is for startup financing geeks) I was having drinks with a dozen founders who should know better. “So YC company valuations are up…
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Continue Reading: A cap is not a valuation
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How to be half as effective
Continue Reading: How to be half as effectiveWhen I founded Ontela with my friends Charles and Brian, we were all sick of big companies. There were a lot of things we wanted to do differently, but one of the…
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Pyramid Pitching
Continue Reading: Pyramid PitchingEveryone knows of the mythical elevator pitch. You find yourself in an elevator, rocketing towards the penthouse suite of a downtown office edifice, when you realize that the person standing next to you…
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Tacocopter Basics
Continue Reading: Tacocopter BasicsThe Tacocopters are coming. Sure, the original pitch was a clever troll aimed at credulous and impatient fast-food junkies. But the numbers don’t lie – a typical taco weighs less than a…
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Livesheeting YCombinator Demo Day
Continue Reading: Livesheeting YCombinator Demo DayI was fortunate enough to be invited to check out the 70+ companies of the current YCombinator batch. With that many companies to keep track of, it helps to take notes! I…
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Why Investors Won’t Talk to Competitors
Continue Reading: Why Investors Won’t Talk to CompetitorsWhenever I’ve been involved in fundraising, I’ve hit a frustrating rejection: “Sorry, but I have an investment that could be competitive.” As an entrepreneur, this drives me nuts. I always marshal the…
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How to Help Startups
Continue Reading: How to Help StartupsIt’s been seven years since I started my first company. My successes over that course have had a great deal to do with the generosity and wisdom of the startup community, particularly…
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Of course this company is for sale
Continue Reading: Of course this company is for saleI had recently left Microsoft after five years of slaving away as a program manager on various facets of Windows. I’d departed to take a job at Wildseed, a company producing an…
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What if you could only speak once a year?
Continue Reading: What if you could only speak once a year?Who’s been a part of a mailing list that’s suffered from poor-quality posts drowning out an otherwise-useful conversation? OK, hands down. It seems like it happens to just about every worthwhile mailing…
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Vesting is a hack
Continue Reading: Vesting is a hackVesting in general (and founder vesting in particular) is an oft-misunderstood tool that has a tendency to really screw up young companies. There are some deep misconceptions at work here that often…