Venture Capital - The 411 On Startups (tm)

Introduction To A Venture Capitalist? There’s An App For That

Jun

2015

Warm introductions are still the best way to meet an investor, however, scrappy venture capitalists know that ideas can come from anywhere – including from outside of their network. The venture capital industry exists because of entrepreneurs but it you’re an entrepreneur you’d hardly think you existed in the eyes of VCs. And you’d be ...

Fred Wilson: what crowdfunding means for the VC business

May

2012

For the past couple of decades, venture capitalists have had the upper hand. They’ve had the funding and, traditionally, they’ve held most of the power in the startup ecosystem. But, Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures (and beloved blogger), believes that balance of power is shifting (As noted in Stacey’s take on a similar notion ...

Kauffman Foundation Bashes VCs For Poor Performance, Urges LPs To Take Charge

May

2012

The Kauffman Foundation, which has ties to the venture industry, has issued a damning study of the business that addresses long-running concerns about poor performance and concludes that the limited partners who invest in funds have no one but themselves to blame. The report, “We Have Met The Enemy…And He Is Us,” draws on lessons ...

The Top Ten VC Blogs To Follow

Apr

2012

Every so often, venture capitalist Larry Cheng puts out a list of the top VC blogs. Previously, he ranked the blogs by how many subscribers they have on Google Reader. But now he’s changed his methodology and is ranking them by average monthly unique visitors, based on Compete data. He just came out with his ...

IBM Banks On Small Start-Ups For Big Growth

Aug

2011

Streetline Inc. has been selling its parking-sensor technology for only a year and it has just 30 employees, but International Business Machines Corp. is depending on it and hundreds of young start-ups like it to reach ambitious financial targets. By 2015, IBM expects to add about $30 billion to its 2010 revenue of $99.9 billion, ...

VC Crash Course – Feb 24 2009

Nov

2009

If you want to get a quick understanding of how VCs work, what make them tick, and what they look for, take a look at this short set of slides.

Check Your VC’s Pulse: Three Questions about Fund Status – Entrepreneur.com

Feb

2009

As an entrepreneur, you probably don’t care as much about the overall VC industry as you care about your VC investors. So while the noise might be intellectually interesting, you’re asking, “How does it affect me?” To find out, ask your venture capitalists these important questions:* What year (vintage) is your fund? * Have you ...

VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS – Why, What, and How

Sep

2008

Excellent article on VC workings from the inside — stages of a fund (raising money themselves, investing, nurturing, and harvesting returns for their investors through an exit), their management fees (based on the amount they raise), and their “carry”, or the % of the profits they take, on harvested investments.

National Venture Capital Association

Sep

2008

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is the premier trade association that represents the U.S. venture capital industry. The site contains considerable data on the performance of the VC industry and its investments. NVCA is a member-based organization, consisting of venture capital firms that manage pools of risk equity capital dedicated to be invested in ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers: Global: Insights & Solutions: MoneyTree — Survey Report

Sep

2008

The MoneyTree Report is a quarterly study of venture capital investment activity in the United States. As a collaboration between PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based upon data from Thomson Financial, it is the only industry-endorsed research of its kind. The MoneyTree Report is the definitive source of information on emerging companies that ...