Last month I did an on-stage interview with Peter Crysdale of Startup Grind. You can read a summary at AlleyWatch. For fun, I did an on-stage vertical pushup at the end of the interview (skip to 44:00)....
[Continue Reading]Helping women and minorities raise angel capital
In early 2012, my HBS Alumni Angels colleagues and I launched the Venture Capital Access Program (VCAP), an initiative to help women and minority-led businesses to raise capital from the Harvard alumni angel community. This is a partnership between HBS Alumni Angels of Greater NY (HBSAANY) and the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), the...
[Continue Reading]Why some investors are happy with lousy returns
My recent post on “Asset Management is a Peculiar Industry Ripe for Disruption” got one of the most interesting reactions I’ve received. Among the more thoughtful respondents was Terri Chernick, Chief Investment Officer, The Koffler Group. We had an email conversation about the rationality, or lack of rationality, of professional investors. Anyone who calls me a...
[Continue Reading]Where are the deals? How VCs source winning companies
You’ve probably read dozens of articles about how to raise capital from venture capitalists. However, as a VC, we have the opposite problem: how do we originate companies in which to invest? It might appear that origination is becoming much easier because of new tools like AngelList and the SEC moving toward adoption of rules that will...
[Continue Reading]How to Judge an Investment Proposal (especially at Pitch Contests)
I periodically serve as a judge at pitch events for companies raising funding. In every case, I’m assessing each company against our standard criteria for investing. For some of the new employees at our firm, I put together a guide on how to serve as a judge at investment pitch events, evaluate investment ideas, and...
[Continue Reading]ff Venture Capital Is First VC Fund To Raise Capital Under The JOBS Act
ff Venture Capital has consistently generated a gross IRR on invested capital in excess of 30%, in a world where the average ten-year returns for venture capital firms are in the single digits. But, historically we couldn’t say that it in a public setting. Now we can. Software is eating every industry, including the entrepreneurial ecosystem itself. Funding...
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