Most private equity funds (and the equipment finance industry) are well behind the VC industry with regard to their use of social media. Jeff Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners, calculates that of the approximately 1,000 venture capitalists in the US actively seeking deals, 10-15% blog. Sarah Tavel, Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Partners, calls this...
[Continue Reading]Buying private companies on marketplaces of primary and secondary interests
Congratulations to the team at AxialMarket on raising $2m from First Round Capital and Windcrest Investments. I take this as a sign that they’re starting to gain traction among corporations and private equity funds, despite the fact they’re threatening the lunch of lower-tier business brokers and others who benefit from the currently highly inefficient, fragmented...
[Continue Reading]Institutional Investor publishes summary of our deal sourcing research
Chris Farmer and I have an article in today’s Institutional Investor, summarizing the key findings from our research on deal sourcing: Would you invest in a company that only sold to 1 out of 80 leads? Or a company that typically took one year and 3 professionals just to close a single client? In fact,...
[Continue Reading]Goodbye Expert Networks, Hello Private Equity: Coverage from Integrity Research
Integrity Research wrote a nice blog post about the new startup I’m working on: "As more research providers emerge to analyze the public markets (there are now over 3,500 research providers in our database), one gap in the market are research providers for the private markets. David Teten, founder of the expert network Evalueserve Circle...
[Continue Reading]Visiting Singapore April 23-29: Presenting to Founder Institute, Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, CFA Singapore, and others
I’m very excited to be visiting Singapore for the first time April 23-29; I may stay longer in Asia depending on business exigencies. I’m visiting as part of the faculty for the local launch of Founder Institute, with sponsorship from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and others. I will also be meeting with some...
[Continue Reading]Peter Drucker on the Seven Sources of Systematic Innovation
When Peter Drucker died, his obituaries were so laudatory I thought that I really should become familiar with his work. So I’ve been reading through some of his major books. It’s striking how well-written and timeless they are. I just finished his classic “Innovation and Entrepreneurship“. For my purposes in working with funds to identify...
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