What should VCs do with zombie companies?

Inevitably, some of a VC’s portfolio companies will become “zombies”: not dead, but not growing. They have some technology and revenues, but morale is low. The CEO is hinting he’d like to get into VC or otherwise find a soft landing. Finding a buyer is difficult, because the company is not exciting to anyone, including...

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How to Win Consulting, Scout, Board, Operating, and Investment Roles with Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds

This is part of a series on building your career in venture capital: Reading list for working in private equity/venture capital, including all of the major online communities, programs, and educational options for people studying VC How to win consulting, board, operating, and investment roles with private equity and venture capital funds (video) How to find...

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Your startup is running out of cash — now what? Should you pivot or perish?

“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” (“Man Plans, and God Laughs.”) We hope for the best, but are forced to plan for the worst.  Almost all VCs will have companies that fail. The CEO comes to us.  She has 3 months of cash left. Existing investors have said they’d be glad to invest…if she gets a...

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How to scale support of portfolio companies

As I’ve worked to build out our portfolio acceleration platform, the #1 question I think about is: how do we scalably support our companies?  Large private equity funds like KKR can afford to pursue a consulting model (Capstone), typically with associated fees, but that doesn’t normally make economic sense for a VC.  We have lower AUM,...

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How to run your company based on metrics: what, why, how, who, and when

I review a lot of board decks with a beautifully hand-crafted page with metrics for the company.  That makes me nervous.   I prefer to see a screenshot of an internal dashboard, not something created for the board, and I prefer to see that same dashboard in the same format at every meeting.  The reason...

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How to prepare for and run a board meeting

After spending quite a bit of time in board meetings, I worked with a NYU student team  to prepare a template for board presentations to investors. In the deck below, I include our best practices on preparing for, running, and closing up on a board meeting, including what to include in your materials. I would...

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