Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes. The role of VC is sparring partner. That’s why I often say The role of VC is “chief psychologist.”

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. They want to see that you have some unique advantage that differentiates your company from others in your industry, and they’d prefer that you have some experience in that industry, which gives you legitimate insight into the problem you’re attempting to solve.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. One narrative is that too many funds have been created, and without a strong sense of differentiation, there will be too many mediocre seed funds.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 20, 2023

Provide exceptional customer service Exceptional customer service is a key differentiator in the real estate industry. If you’re an investor, you could diversify your portfolio by exploring different property types or locations. Focus on providing a seamless and memorable experience for your clients from start to finish.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Social Media Networking Differentiation 158

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2012

Sulaiman Sanni and his partner Ben Lamson were both working for Meltwater Group, a large, well known Software as a Service company, Su as a social media consultant and Ben as a sales manager. “The way we differentiate ourselves is that we’re much more than a platform. Ben Lamson and Sulaiman Sanni, WeDidIt cofounders.

Small Business 142

Small Business Advisory Board Employee Entrepreneur 142

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

David Teten

JUNE 1, 2011

High Road Capital Partners Deal Sourcing Keynote. Fitzsimmons, High Road Capital Partners. Prestegaard, High Road Capital Partners. Glickman, Resilience Capital Partners LLC Luke Johnson, Platinum Equity LLC Robert B. Fitzsimmons, High Road Capital Partners. Tye, Edgeview Partners LLC Harold J. Social media.

Private Equity 122

Private Equity Deal Flow Equity Developer 122

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. a “Bitcoin Fund”, a “Social Media Fund”, a “Nanotech Fund”), you’re going to raise capital from Limited Partners who are very focused on Theme X.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

He looked at his resume, and asked just one question: “ What’s your edge? ” My friend got the job because his answer was differentiated, credible, and backed up by a history of investing success. a “Bitcoin Fund”, a “Social Media Fund”, a “Nanotech Fund”), you’re going to raise capital from Limited Partners who are very focused on Theme X.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative. These sectors generally leverage the Internet or software in a fundamental way.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Key Characteristics of Non-Consensus Investments Radical Differentiation : Solving problems in ways no one else perceives Technological Leap : Introducing paradigm-shifting innovations Counterintuitive Approach : Challenging existing market assumptions At Remagine Ventures , we’re two GPs and a venture partner in the investment committee.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Due Diligence ChatGPT Generative AI 78

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Tom Tunguz offers a framework that uses a scale from 1 to 10 to assess demand generation portfolios: 1. How many campaigns, how many creatives, how many partners, how many referrers? Eventually, expansion is necessary for every growing business; it also protects companies from the aforementioned risks of an undiversified portfolio.

Demand 132

Demand Vertical Campaign Channel 132

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

For those of you who are time poor here’s the tltr: Forward Partners operates a focused investment strategy because it helps us make better investment decisions and provide better support to our companies. For the three and a half years that we’ve been going, Forward Partners has operated a focused investment strategy.

Artificial Inteligence 78

Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) play a vital role in the financial ecosystem, offering services beyond portfolio management. This principle is foundational in differentiating RIAs from other financial advisors who may not adhere to strict ethical guidelines.

Securities and Exchange Commission 138

Securities and Exchange Commission Portfolio Finance Due Diligence 138

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

However, the reality is that I am building a portfolio of investments and, like Brad, I believe in being an active and helpful investor. If there is an opportunity to bring in a syndicate partner that will add exponential value, it would be foolish to not include them. This takes a lot of time.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

If you choose your name well and it represents what your customers value in you then it will be memorable, differentiated and meaningful. We have a few portfolio companies going through brand changes. We are trying hard to live up to the guidelines we laid out for our investors, our portfolio companies and our community.

Ireland 324

Ireland Jordan Portfolio Flash 324

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

A huge thank you to all of the Limited Partners who have entrusted us with your capital, time and reputations. Upfront’s Base As you probably know we are based in Santa Monica and as my partner Greg Bettinelli coined, we’re #LongLA. We’ll invest in about 15 new companies every year or just over 2 per partner.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Las Vegas Venture Capital San Francisco 287

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

But they are also a tax on your time with portfolio companies, looking for new investments, running your shop and honestly they are a tax on your family life. I guess if you’re in high-volume, low-differentiation mode perhaps this is efficient for you. Inbound is seldom differentiated dealflow. Pay attention.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndication Syndicate Early Stage 374

Hunter Walker

MARCH 25, 2015

A key benefit of working closely with trusted partners who have experienced business and investing cycles ebb and flow is that you can leverage their perspectives to hone your own thinking and move up the curve faster than doing it on your own. Second to that is – why are you uniquely qualified to solve THIS problem.

Naming 48

Naming Technical Review Early Stage Green 48

Pascal's View

MARCH 12, 2010

Susan Mangiero , CEO of Investment Governance’s Fiduciary X , asked me the following: Question: Please differentiate between the governance of a VC fund versus the governance of companies in a VC fund’s portfolio? An important question to ask is, do the partners evaluate themselves and each other on an annual basis or at all?

Government 28

Government Portfolio Technical Review Due Diligence 28

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Your brand is how you differentiate, build awareness , and sear your solution into customers’ minds so they think of you when that time comes. It helps them audit existing content portfolios (blog posts, landing pages, etc.) A few successful brands differentiate themselves with a brand moat. Image source.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Non-Compete Audience 109

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

As the Greylock team has learned after decades of partnering with early-stage founders, the best approach is establishing a core set of fundamental questions that can be tailored to each individual company, rather than looking at a rigid set of metrics. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT EARLY-STAGE INVESTING IN THIS MOMENT?

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

That includes every cast member, from executives to custodial staff and part-time attraction operators, as well as partners and vendors. This mission statement also reflects the focus of its latest CEO, Robert Iger, on today’s key principles: “differentiate” and “profitable.”

Differentiation 217

Differentiation Portfolio Matching Operations 217

VC Cafe

APRIL 27, 2011

10 things VCs can do to differentiate themselves and provide more value to potential investments – based on feedback from dozens of entrepreneurs. Despite the VC’s obvious disadvantage in the early stages, marketing and differentiation of venture capital funds is limited today. what about all those portfolio companies?

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Differentiation Incubator Angel Investor 90

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

I have an idea," don't expect me to write much more than, "It's pretty saturated, but if you get some traction on a differentiated business, let me know." What do you think of the group buying space? Would you invest in it.

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence Venture Capital 115

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Richard De Silva is based in Menlo Park with three other partners, there and 5 partners in Boston. An example is Metacafe, a Highland Capital portfolio company. Bing is very open to 3 rd party elements in their index that create a differentiated user experience. The in invest in IT (Software + Internet + Healthcare).

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

View from Seed

MAY 12, 2015

Yet once the right firms are identified, I believe that the tougher challenge is to determine which partner at these firms to approach. Most firms have anywhere from a couple to up to a dozen or more partners listed on their websites. Sometimes it’s as simple as going to the partner who is “easiest” to get to.

Partner 120

Partner Term Sheet Reputation Deal Flow 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2018

We do this not just because it’s the right thing to do but also we believe it will help drive large and differentiated returns. We thought making our values and expectations clear could have a positive impact on driving the conversation and actions inside portfolio companies. We see this as an open source inclusion clause.

Term Sheet 284

Term Sheet Los Angeles Open Source Portfolio 284

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). The strategy of GigaOm and where they differentiate in the market.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Unlike a startup that might raise equity financing across several rounds all combined in a single balance sheet, VC’s do not simply commingle these funds into a single bucket to be allocated across all the companies in that firm’s portfolio. Why is this?

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

And additionally, my partners and I use other, more differentiated, lenses like asking if a startup has an “ unfair distribution advantage.” has become a mantra here at NextView over the past few years after we were introduced to the concept by one of our portfolio CEOs. Asking “Is it JDCC?” Go (re)read that post.

Boston 149

Boston B2B Early Stage Portfolio 149

The Equity Kicker

MAY 7, 2014

Rob Go partner at Boston early stage VC NextView Ventures wrote earlier this week about seed investing in the US: The challenge for those in the market of seed investing is that the barriers to entry in seed are relatively low. He offers three strategies for differentiation: Be prepared to lead investments. Startup general interest'

Differentiation 121

Differentiation Boston Early Stage Portfolio 121

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Your deck should be so good that a VC asks you for permission to show it to his or her portfolio companies. In a perfect world your deck shows you in such a positive light that the person in the VC firm who receives it forwards it to the rest of his or her team. What should be in your deck?

IP 239

IP Differentiation Salary Sales 239

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

I also was fortunate to gain a lot of insight on this topic from Don Charlton, Founder/CEO, TheResumator *, a ffVC portfolio company. That point of differentiation is a plus not a minus, because it means that he has access to networks you don’t. ff Venture Capital portfolio company. Aggressiveness and creativity are the keys.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Greece Advisory Board Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I always try hard to make this blog a place where you can learn lessons rather than an advertisement for portfolio companies. I asked him to present to my partners. might have been a lot less differentiated. The Deal – I instantly loved the idea for the application, the market and Dustin’s vision. They loved his vision, too.

Term Sheet 303

Term Sheet Mobile Cofounder Early Stage 303

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

My partner Greg Bettinelli gave me the idea for the title of this post because he ran a breakout session at the Upfront Summit titled “How to Out Amazon, Amazon.” I will use some examples from Parachute and some other portfolio companies to give you examples from our experiences of watching successful brands grow. Not so much.

Curation 296

Curation Los Angeles Differentiation Channel 296

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

I’ve done this by surrounding myself with great friends and co-investors at other funds – a handful of them have become my best daily sparring partners (outside of Boris and Leah at V1). In fact, a recommendation from a founder we passed on is one of our best performing portfolio companies! as our portfolio shows ).

Cofounder 180

Cofounder Portfolio Capital Gains Vertical 180