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Kinnernet 2006 – geek camp

Apr 3, 2006
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I just got back from a week in Israel having spent some time in Jerusalem for an Answers board meeting and then making my way to the Ohalo Resort on the Sea of Galilee for Kinnernet 2006.  Kinnernet is a techie geek camp organized and run by Yossi Vardi (cofounder of ICQ).  At Kinnernet, I [...]

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Eat when dinner is served

Mar 20, 2006
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

There is an article in the Wall Street Journal (sorry-requires subscription) today on pre-emptive financings or financings that happen when a company is not actually looking for capital.  It is common wisdom amongst the investment community for entrepreneurs to "eat when dinner is being served."  In other words, companies should take cash even if they [...]

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Having too much money can be a curse, not a blessing

Mar 1, 2006
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Trust me, I love having well capitalized companies.  However, having too much money can be a curse, not a blessing.  More often than not, I see management lose financial discipline and avoid making hard decisions when capital is abundant and not scarce.  To many executives, money does solve all problems.  And yes, having money allows [...]

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Why we invested in Sipphone, developers of Gizmo Project

Feb 15, 2006
in Venture Capital, VOIP

Dawntreader Ventures has just led a $6mm round of financing in Sipphone, its first outside round of capital.  We look forward to working with Michael Robertson and Jason Droege to fuel continued growth in the Sipphone and Gizmo Project service and to roll out new features and functionality.  As you can see from Michael Robertson’s [...]

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Tips for the first VC Meeting

Nov 29, 2005
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I had a meeting last week where an entrepreneur insisted on showing me a demo first.  He was scrambling around asking for wireless keys and looking for ethernet jacks, while I sat there and tried to engage him in conversation.  He lost my interest right then and there.  As I started to think more about [...]

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Beware of fishing expeditions

Oct 31, 2005
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

A number of our portfolio companies have been fielding calls from strategic buyers expressing an interest in acquisition.  This is great news since many of the better acquisitions come when companies are bought and not sold.  For a startup, it can be quite flattering to have a large competitor or suitor express an interest in buying [...]

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VC Blogs – the old and new

Oct 28, 2005
in Venture Capital, Web/Tech

I was in California 3 weeks ago when Jeff Nolan told me he was leaving SAP Ventures and moving to a new group within SAP desgined to "Kill Oracle."  We talked about all of the great innovation happening on the web, much of which is consumer-focused, and why it was a good time to make [...]

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Web 2.0 Bubble

Oct 19, 2005
in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

I had an enjoyable lunch with Jeff Jarvis today catching up on a number of things and brainstorming about value in the next generation web.  During the conversation I vented a little frustration at the use of buzz words and bubble-like mentality with terms like Web 2.0.  I am starting to get extremely tired and [...]

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Venture Capital and Hedge Funds

Sep 28, 2005
in Venture Capital

Well, there is clearly lots of money sloshing around in alternative assets like hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital.  That being said, I still believe there are plenty of great investment opportunities.  In an earlier post titled, "Go Early, Go Late, or Go Home," I shared some of my thoughts on what company stages [...]

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.Net and VC Loyalty

Jul 19, 2005
in Venture Capital

Robert Scoble has asked the VCs to respond to an eWeek article titled Is .Net Failing to Draw Venture Capital Loyalty?.  There is not much for me to add to this article as we all know that the only loyalty VCs have is to their Limited Partners to generate long-term capital gains.  This means we [...]

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