Corporate Innovation, Startup Formation and Institutional Venture Capital
I have been trying to reconcile two trends I’m seeing. First, large companies are acquiring venture-backed startups to accelerate their innovation efforts. Even as the R&D budgets and associated efforts of large corporations are increasing, they have not been keeping up with the accelerating pace of technology and business model innovation. These acquisitions fall in two categories. First, acquisitions as a means of jump-starting corporate innovation efforts and getting corporations into the “innovation flow.” Good examples of such venture-backed company acquisitions include Avis’ acquisition of Zipcar, Walmart’s acquisition of Kosmix and of Small Society, Wellpoint’s acquisition of Resolution Health, and…
The only model that matters: Founders First
There are a lot of models that people throw around for how to build a strong startup community. There are a handful of types of players in each community, so there are many permutations of “who gets what” and how resources are moved around. It gets complicated, fast. So there is a model that I [...]
I Was Wrong. Associates at VC Firms Are a Great Way to Get Funded.
I’ll admit to a blatant bias. I thought associates at VC firms, no matter how well intentioned, did nothing but waste founders’ time. At EchoSign, I’d get dozens of “Big Fan of Your Product” emails from VC associates, at a time when I really didn’t need any capital, and they’d each burn an hour of [...]
Reviewing 2012 and Preparing for a Successful 2013
Happy New Year! After a longer than normal holiday break, I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on 2012 and provide my early thoughts regarding investment activities in 2013. During 2012 50 companies went public, the most of any year since 2007, but only 8 venture-backed companies during 4Q12, the lowest number in any quarter since [...]
The Series A Crunch: One More Reason to Bootstrap and Skip Venture Capital
I’ve talked a lot about bootstrapping on this blog–I am a total convert, and I’m enjoying every minute of bootstrapping my own company. There are many reasons for my enthusiasm. Investors these days are going to make you take most of the bootstrap journey before giving you a dime being one of the biggest. You’ve [...]
How to Position a VC Startup for Acquisition: You Can’t
How do you position and maneuver your VC-funded startup for acquisition? The short answer is, “You can’t.” The VC’s didn’t sign up for an acquisition. They are seeking a billion dollar revenue opportunity because that’s what it takes to move the needle on their portfolio. If they are willing to talk about an acquisition at all, [...]
Canadian VCs are being cut loose, and that’s a good thing
Mark MacLeod just wrote a post about Canadian VC that cuts to the chase If there are any clouds on the horizon, they relate to the disappearance of the US / Canadian border when it comes to VC. When I first entered the startup World, you had no choice but to raise seed and series [...]
When 100% Growth Is Not Enough for Startups
A couple of weeks ago I passed on the opportunity to invest in a SaaS application company that has been growing around 100% YoY for the past couple of years and can now be considered a solid expansion story. While the company’s overall story was good, it was not great. As I have been talking [...]
Lithium’s Eye-Popping $53.4 Million
Last week Lithium Technologies announced completion of its D round of financing valued at $53.4 million. You can read the press release to get the details but the big question I have is what’s going on in the industry? Lithium is not the only company in the last six months to pull in sizable sums [...]
Areas of Investment Interest for 2012
Happy New Year! After a nice break, as I head back to the office I thought I’d provide you with my views regarding the overall environment we expect to face in 2012, as well as the areas we will be looking to invest within a two of our focus sectors: adtech/Internet and SaaS. Data (big [...]
