This is part 1 of a 2-part series on domain names and startups; part 2 will be “Build Your Startup on a Vacant Domain Name”. It is no coincidence that companies with the best domain names often tend to rise to the top of their space. Foursquare won vs. Gowalla, Loopt, and others. Wesabe lost...
[Continue Reading]Parkour and Entrepreneurs
Parkour is to entrepreneurs as golf is to (some) corporate executives. (Previously posted at Forbes.) In the past few years, I’ve taught myself some of the basics of parkour, which is effectively skateboarding without the skateboard. The goal is to navigate your environment as quickly and efficiently as possible. The New York Times describes it outdoor...
[Continue Reading]Helping Startups Hit a Home Run, VC Style
Lots of venture capitalists claim to add value to the companies in which they invest. But how do they do it? And does it really produce better returns for their investors? My coauthors and I just published in the Journal of Private Equity the first-ever research study on best practices of venture capitalists...
[Continue Reading]Should Your Startup Pivot, Persevere, or Plank?
(I originally published this in Forbes.) It’s a cliché of the startup world that successful entrepreneurs persevere even when everyone else thinks their idea is doomed (see: Pandora). It’s a cliché of the startup world that successful entrepreneurs pivot when appropriate (see: Paypal, Apple opening an app store, etc.) Unfortunately, these two clichés are both...
[Continue Reading]High Returns On A Small Fund Challenge Low Returns On A Big Fund
I previously posted this on Techcrunch. Let’s say you decide to invest in a VC fund. Congratulations: you’re now supporting the least unpopular part of the investing industry. That said, how do you avoid suffering the poor median returns the industry is known for? Assuming you have a large amount of capital to invest, the...
[Continue Reading]A Closer Look At The Quality Of Angel Returns Data
I previously published this at Techcrunch. The good news for Techcrunch readers: Every major study conducted to date has placed angel investors’ IRR between 18 and 54 percent, as summarized by my Partner John Frankel and Professor Robert Wiltbank in prior Techcrunch articles. The bad news: the data on angel returns has historically been...
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