Archive | April, 2005

Venture capital in China

Apr 29, 2005
in Globalization, Venture Capital

I recently caught up with my friend Derek Sulger, founder of Linktone (Nasdaq: LTON) and current founder and CFO of Smartpay, a Paypal-like play in China (I really like what Derek is doing with this one-no credit in China, use the mobile phones for debiting from bank accounts).  Derek and I are college friends and [...]

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Welcome GreenPlum and Bizgres

Apr 18, 2005
in Open Source

I have looked at a number of open source projects over the last year and mostly agree with Bill Burnham’s comments that many of these open source plays are "marketing gimmics for startup companies."  Many of these companies are trying to start a new project from scratch, hoping to build a community brick by brick.  [...]

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Working with partners

Apr 14, 2005
in Entrepreneurship

I can’t tell you how many early stage companies I talk to tout their great list of partners.  I always step back in amazement at how a small company can support more than one, really large partner in the beginning.  In fact, I remember being in a meeting with a strategic partner once and having [...]

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Go early, go late, or go home

Apr 12, 2005
in Venture Capital

After having returned from vacation last week, I had the chance to reflect on the current venture and investing market.  Yes, one of the big challenges is that there is still way too much money sloshing around in alternative assets.  As I think about how to make money in this competitive environment and where to [...]

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