BeyondVC

OCTOBER 31, 2005

A number of our portfolio companies have been fielding calls from strategic buyers expressing an interest in acquisition. This is great news since many of the better acquisitions come when companies are bought and not sold. For a startup, it can be quite flattering to have a large competitor or suitor express an interest in buying your company. However, as an entrepreneur you have to be skeptical as many of these calls end up as just another fishing expedition from the strategic buyer.

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Balance Sheet Acquisition Valuation Conversion 87

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 19, 2005

I had an enjoyable lunch with Jeff Jarvis today catching up on a number of things and brainstorming about value in the next generation web. During the conversation I vented a little frustration at the use of buzz words and bubble-like mentality with terms like Web 2.0. I am starting to get extremely tired and frustrated about every pitch that I see now where a company claims they are a Web 2.0 company and lists their principal reasons for being Web 2.0.

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Web Java Bandwidth Business Model 68

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 28, 2005

I was in California 3 weeks ago when Jeff Nolan told me he was leaving SAP Venture s and moving to a new group within SAP desgined to "Kill Oracle." We talked about all of the great innovation happening on the web, much of which is consumer-focused, and why it was a good time to make a switch. Yes, SAP is the dominant player in the enterprise market and even after you account for Oracle’s acquisition binge Oracle still remains the distant number 2 player in enterprise software.

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Early Stage Architecture California Web 60

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 14, 2005

Angus Bankes, CTO of Moreover, recently introduced me to Jeremy Ruston, the creator of TiddlyWiki. I honestly did not really get it at first, but I have been using TiddlyWiki since last weekend and have really grown to like it. According to Jeremy, who I spoke to this week, Tiddlywiki is a reusable, non-linear, personal web notebook. On the TiddlyWiki site, Jeremy goes on to say: It’s written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript to run on any modern browser without needing any ServerSide logic.

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Wiki HTML Web Open Source 60

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 11, 2005

Like Nick Denton and David Galbraith , I can’t comment on the acquisition. What I can say is that Moreover was a pioneer in the early use of weblogs via newsblogger, news search, and content syndication via XML and RSS. That being said, we had to make some choices when the economy cratered in 2000 and sometimes you can be too early to market before people are fully ready for what you have.

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XML Architecture Syndication Syndicate 60

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 6, 2005

I have to admit that hiring excellent sales people is not an easy task. Any sales person worth his weight can pitch with the best of them, articulate a strong value proposition, and demonstrate a nice track record of success. I like to look at past experiences on a sale person’s resume and a history of overachievement. All that being said, I have also had plenty of sales managers come in the door with all of the criteria but just flail.

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IPO Early Stage Portfolio Hiring 60