Category Archives: venture capital

Own the Exit Strategy

By gary | Published: May 26, 2010
At one point earlier in my startup career when I was VP of Marketing at a 3D graphics startup, I was advised by a well-known Silicon Valley VC that I wasn’t to worry about the exit strategy. Our job was to build value and the exit would come. Basically, go away and let the smart [...]
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Angels vs. VCs

By gary | Published: May 24, 2010
An angel investor in Knowledge Reef Systems sent me a copy of Basil Peters presentation (no link at this time) to the Angel Capital Association Summit in San Francisco this month. Absolutely spot on with one minor complaint (see a couple paragraphs below). Basil’s key points: Target an early M&A exit (get out in 2-3 years) Build [...]
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Oracle “Mini-Me” vs. “Cool-Tech” Startups

By gary | Published: May 10, 2010
Why is it that so many enterprise software startups continue to be structured as “mini-me” clones of Oracle (or pick your favorite large, established software vendor)? In a world of agile development processes, alternative distribution channels and customers accustomed to employing open source software that demands “self-help” evaluations, you would think that new business models [...]
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Biz Model vs. Biz Plan

By gary | Published: April 30, 2010
Steve Blank defines a startup as an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. He and Eric Ries have done yeoman’s duty in trying to move budding entreprenueurs away from the linear thinking used by most VCs to evaluate investment opportunities and startup processes that consume investor resources. Unfortunately, it takes wise VCs and smart entrepreneurs to accept [...]
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Agile {Development | Selling | Funding}

By gary | Published: April 28, 2010
In my last post, I was bemoaning the challenges of undertaking  an enterprise software startup, especially when you look at the distribution (go-to-market) difficulties and the heavy lifting usually required on the development side. Many VCs look at these investment opportunities and see a double digit (millions) investment over 3-5 rounds. The exemplar that triggered me to [...]
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Is Enterprise Software Really Back?

By gary | Published: April 17, 2010
I need to confess up front—I’m a sucker for enterprise software startups (launching and running them, that is). Why else would I be in the middle of the bootstrap phase for yet another enterprise software startup—veloGraf Systems—in a most unlikely location, Santa Fe, New Mexico? You can imagine my surprise when Trevor Loy (@trevorloy) retweeted Kevin [...]
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