BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 10, 2005

I was in a board meeting yesterday reviewing the sales pipeline for a portfolio company walking through the wins and losses. As I wrote in an earlier post , it is extremely important (to the extent you can), to get good data on your losses. Many times you learn more from your losses than from your wins. We like to know who we lost to and why. We keep a running tab of these losses so we can figure out some key trends, how our competitors are selling against us, and determine what sales tactics we

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Sales Technical Review Software Review Portfolio 60

abovethecrowd.com

JULY 19, 2005

Technology 40

Technology Web 40

BeyondVC

APRIL 12, 2005

After having returned from vacation last week, I had the chance to reflect on the current venture and investing market. Yes, one of the big challenges is that there is still way too much money sloshing around in alternative assets. As I think about how to make money in this competitive environment and where to make new investments, I keep coming back to the thought that there is still opportunity very early or very late in a company’s life cycle.

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LBO Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Software Review 60

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 7, 2005

As you know, I am enamored by frictionless sales. Frictionless sales means reducing the pain for customers to adopt and use a service/product and consequently reducing the cost of sales and marketing to get a customer and generate revenue. As I mention in an earlier post, " The less friction you have in your sales and delivery model, the easier it is to scale.

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Sales Java Open Source Software Review 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

NOVEMBER 9, 2005

I admire entrepreneurs for the risk they take and the unerring confidence they have in their product and market opportunity. However, what separates some of the great entrepreneurs from the average ones is an ability to acknowledge your weaknesses. As we all know, being an entrepreneur is a difficult job that is 24/7. Creating a new product or service can be draining but also quite rewarding emotionally and financially.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Web Entrepreneur Customer 60

BeyondVC

MAY 5, 2005

I had lunch with a friend of mine yesterday who is an officer with a public technology company. As we started discussing his business, one of the topics of conversation was Sarbanes Oxley. His company just went through an expensive Sarbox audit to get into compliance and while his company passed with flying colors on most of the important issues, his company failed the audit.

Liquidity Event 60

Liquidity Event Technical Review New York Hosting 60

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.

Balance Sheet 87

Balance Sheet Acquisition Valuation Conversion 87

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 29, 2005

I had a meeting last week where an entrepreneur insisted on showing me a demo first. He was scrambling around asking for wireless keys and looking for ethernet jacks, while I sat there and tried to engage him in conversation. He lost my interest right then and there. As I started to think more about it, I thought it would be helpful to share some of my thoughts on how to make the first VC pitch a better experience for all participants. 1.

Elevator Pitch 68

Elevator Pitch NDA Caching Agile 68

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.

Web 68

Web Java Bandwidth Business Model 68

BeyondVC

MARCH 24, 2005

I was talking to a portfolio company CEO today about his sales pipeline and one of the key items of interest for me was understanding competitive dynamics. Besides looking at the raw numbers, I like to understand whether or not we are seeing more or less competition, why we are winning, and why we are losing. As I started to dig into this area over the last two quarters I have noticed that the big boys or incumbents have started to show up in more deals.

Sales Cycle 68

Sales Cycle Portfolio Agile Differentiation 68

BeyondVC

JANUARY 21, 2005

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend time with the CTO of a major financial services company with a $1 billion IT budget. In these meetings I like to learn about the major priorities and where the open opportunities for early stage companies exist. The good news was that the company was very open to working with entrepeneurial ventures. Priority number 1 for the organization was to standardize on a common architecture and infrastructure.

Architecture 68

Architecture Security Early Stage Sales 68

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 21, 2005

As I have written before, most of the talk about this next generation web has focused around consumer applications. I, however, have always believed that we should not forget the enterprise. This resurgence of web-based and loosely coupled applications has been driven by consumer-based innovation but there are many pockets of opportunities for the enterprise to take the best of the open web.

Web 60

Web RSS Wiki Architecture 60

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 15, 2005

One of our advisors for our fund hosted a New York CIO dinner last night. It was a gathering of 30-40 of some of New York’s leading technology buyers, mostly from the financial services industry. As a VC, it was quite interesting to hear about the state of technology spending and what is top of mind for many of these players. Repeatedly I heard about grid computing, security, and service oriented architectures.

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Advisory Board New York Dividend Sales Cycle 60

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 14, 2005

At the CIO dinner I was at last night (more on that later), I had the opportunity to play with a demo model of the Motorola Q Phone running on a Verizon EVDO network. After a few minutes with this device, there is no doubt in my mind that Motorola will have another hit on its hand. It is as thin as the Razr, a little wider than my Blackberry 7100, has a full QWERTY keyboard, digital camera, full audio and video capabilities, and runs on Windows Mobile over Verizon’s high speed network.

Audio 60

Audio Mobile America Web 60

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 7, 2005

I would even apply this frictionless sales model to the consumer web. We all know that the Internet is turning every media company upside down about worries of cannabalizing their existing business. It is clear that CBS gets it as they just announced that March Madness will be delivered free over the Internet. CBS will monetize it with ads. CBS is going open and understands this could potentially create new and additive revenue models, not less.

Sales 60

Sales Web Internet Revenue 60

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 26, 2005

I decided to go for a nice run today in the 30 degree weather to get a little mental relaxation. I was debating whether or not to bring my ipod mini and checked to see the battery life which showed about 3/4 full. So I was in the middle of my run charging up a hill when my ipod just dies out. I have to tell you that Apple has done a nice job with the iPod making it easy and user-friendly for everyone but the battery and hardware problems just bother me.

Cost 60

Cost Customer Developer Product 60

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 21, 2005

As an early stage VC, I spend a fair amount of time helping entrepreneurs build their management teams. I have written about what we look for (read the A-Player Domino Effect ), the hiring process , and other facets of recruiting talent in previous posts. One area which I cannot overemphasize is the need for companies to do back channel references on candidates.

Channel 60

Channel Due Diligence Early Stage Portfolio 60

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

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.

XML 60

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

BeyondVC

OCTOBER 5, 2005

I am out in the Bay area the next couple of days but unfortunately will not be at Web 2.0. That being said, I suggest staying up-to-date on next-generation web applications and services through Emily Chang’s eHub. It is great to see all of the innovation out there but we must remember while it takes much less to build an application and get it out to the masses, the barriers to entry are much lower.

Web 60

Web Product Marketing 60

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2005

Well, there is clearly lots of money sloshing around in alternative assets like hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. That being said, I still believe there are plenty of great investment opportunities. In an earlier post titled, " Go Early, Go Late, or Go Home ," I shared some of my thoughts on what company stages of development looked attractive for investing.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Subordinated Debt Private Equity Early Stage 60

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2005

There has been lots of discussion about Tim O’Reilly’s Web2MemeMap. This is a nice graphical representation of what is happening in this next wave of the Internet. As an add-on to this, I thought I would compare and contrast some differences, all quite obvious, with the first euphoric Internet wave. I have shared many of these thoughts in earlier posts like " The web-based platform " last October and " Web-based businesses circa 2004." Web 1999/2000.

Web 60

Web API Open Source Business Model 60

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 22, 2005

Much focus has been put on the VOIP service market where you have the likes of Vonage and SunRocket (just announced another big funding round today) who want to replace your landline and the non-traditional players like Skype and now Google, AOL, and Microsoft. However, what is more interesting to watch for me is the battle between the incumbent phone equipment players and the new upstarts.

Open Source 60

Open Source Architecture IP Early Stage 60

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 14, 2005

W hat is clear to me is that companies that get it use the Internet in a big way as a sale s and marketing channel and even a delivery mechanism for their product s. Companies that don’t miss a huge opportunity. Siebel does not get it, Salesforce.com does. Skype gets it while Vonage does not. What I am talking about is reducing friction in your sales and implementation process.

Sales 60

Sales Harvest Web Revenue 60

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

I was in a board meeting last week reviewing a product release schedule for the next year. I was extremely concerned that we missed the last release, and as we dug in deeper what we saw were a few features scattered throughout the schedule tied to deals that were just closed. Now this would not be a big deal if these requirements were market-driven features that were necessary for a number of customers.

Engineer 60

Engineer Sales Management Customer 60

BeyondVC

JULY 19, 2005

Robert Scoble has asked the VCs to respond to an eWeek article titled Is.Net Failing to Draw Venture Capital Loyalty? There is not much for me to add to this article as we all know that the only loyalty VCs have is to their Limited Partners to generate long-term capital gains. This means we do not fund a company because of what technology platform it chooses to develop on but rather what problem the company and product is solving and how big that opportunity is.

.Net 60

.Net Java Limited Partner Venture Capital 60

BeyondVC

JULY 13, 2005

I have received many an interesting resume through this blog. Given that, I thought I would let you know of some job opportunities at Gurunet, creators of Answers.com. The company recently opened a New York City office and is looking to hire 2 in Business Development (one to help manage traffic partnerships and the other to manage content relationships), 1 in Marketing, 1 Online Advertising Sales Rep, 1 Linux Sytems Engineer, and 1 Office Manager.

New York City 60

New York City New York Advertising Engineer 60

BeyondVC

JUNE 29, 2005

I am not sure how many entrepreneurs understand the structure of venture capital funds but the bottom line is that while VCs manage funds, we ultimately report to our investors or Limited Partners (LPs). It is not our money, and we have a fiduciary responsibility to manage it properly and generate the returns our LPs expect of us. And like you, we have to go out and raise capital every 3-5 years for a new fund and similar to entrepreneurs we need to network with the right people, have the right

LP 60

LP Private Equity Due Diligence Venture Capital 60

BeyondVC

JUNE 8, 2005

There is a supply and demand equation for every startup’s product or service. In early stage companies, I sometimes see too much from the supply side and not enough from the demand part of the equation. In other words, inventing great products that no one wants to buy is a waste of time, money and effort. While there are not nearly the amount of startups on the East Coast as in Silicon Valley, being in New York I do have tremendous access to Fortune 500 companies.

Demand 60

Demand Early Stage Venture Capital Silicon Valley 60

BeyondVC

MAY 24, 2005

I recently helped negotiate an employment contract for a new hire at a portfolio company. It was clear from the very beginning that this new VP of Marketing was the right fit for the company and that the chemistry was there. Both sides were excited about moving forward until we got to the employment contract. In theory, we were in general agreement on salary range, bonus, etc. but what ended up scaring us was the fact that every issue, big or small, was negotiated to the nth degree.

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Salary Portfolio Hiring Marketing 60

BeyondVC

MAY 13, 2005

I was speaking with a friend yesterday who recently signed a term sheet to raise a Series B round. While he did not hit it out of the park with the valuation, it was a nice step-up none-the-less and would provide his company with the capital to move forward and stay ahead of its competition. He and I both fully acknowledged that he could have pushed the valuation higher if he spent time with more than two venture firms, but we both agreed that the right thing to do was take the money and build t

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Term Sheet Valuation Lean Management 60

BeyondVC

APRIL 28, 2005

I recently caught up with my friend Derek Sulger, founder of Linktone (Nasdaq: LTON) and current founder and CFO of Smartpay , a Paypal-like play in China (I really like what Derek is doing with this one-no credit in China, use the mobile phones for debiting from bank accounts). Derek and I are college friends and we certainly have come a long way from college when he finds my email on Google under a heading " Geeking out with Ed Sim " (thanks to Jeff Clavier for this one!

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Venture Capital China Intellectual Property IP 60

BeyondVC

APRIL 18, 2005

I have looked at a number of open source projects over the last year and mostly agree with Bill Burnham’s comments that many of these open source plays are "marketing gimmics for startup companies." Many of these companies are trying to start a new project from scratch, hoping to build a community brick by brick. In addition, without the ability to create a community, it is hard to build a real sustainable revenue model.

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Open Source Architecture Database Portfolio 60

BeyondVC

APRIL 14, 2005

I can’t tell you how many early stage companies I talk to tout their great list of partners. I always step back in amazement at how a small company can support more than one, really large partner in the beginning. In fact, I remember being in a meeting with a strategic partner once and having them tell me that we would break if they put their resources behind our product.

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