I’ve been thinking about something that will seem completely backward to some. That is that old fashioned business planning has fallen too far out of favor and needs to be brought back to the forefront. I’m not talking about written […]

Very simple thought and advice for today. Always discount a VC’s enthusiasm. This is from personal experience within a VC firm. When I was an associate in VC, I practiced “reading the room” to try to get the sense for […]

I had the pleasure of interviewing Len Schlesinger, the current President of Babson College and former COO of Limited Brands and Au Bon Pain. It was honestly the most fun I’ve ever had interviewing someone – the man is incredibly […]

Something kind of funny is happening right now. Many of the early stage investors that used to do a lot of raw consumer deals are saying “man, consumer is hard! It’s hard to pick winners. I’m going to focus on […]

My friend Jordan Cooper wrote an interesting post a few days ago about some of his predictions of the venture market in 2012.  Really smart people end up writing thoughtful posts on the future of the venture market pretty much […]

I saw this post from Albert Wenger this morning. I generally agree, but I’ve had a thought that’s been brewing that is a bit contrary to his (and the conventional belief) of the winner-take all dynamics of internet network businesses. […]

I’ve been using this phrase quite a bit in meetings.  I’m quickly realizing that I find myself able to get the most conviction around an investment when I feel like I have a strong sense for what the “path to […]

One area of fundraising that is not that straightforward is how to put together a syndicate of investors for your seed round.  Although there have been an increase in the number of seed stage investors, seed rounds are still typically […]

I have the benefit of seeing lots of startups pitch their teams and watching many seed-funded companies establish their early org structures.  I’ve found that there are certain types of orgs and titles that I have a naturally visceral reaction […]

My Three Most Important Lessons Learned at Harvard Business School Business school sometimes get a bad rap in the startup world.  Some of it is deserved – it’s big opportunity cost, and until fairly recently, the approach to most business […]