From the Investors
Josh Guttman of SoftBank Capital welcomes the next few years in tech innovation, believing they will represent the most attractive early-stage investing opportunity in recent memory in “American Mania and Startups”
Rob Go of NextView Ventures outlines his pre-product framework and how he thinks about early-stage companies in “How I Think About Pre-Product Seed Investments”
Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures emphasizes the importance of confidence and visualizing success for entrepreneurs during the startup journey in “Getting Your Series A Mojo Back”
Alida Miranda-Wolff of Hyde Park Angels provides a framework for evaluating the costs associated with capital in “Three Key Steps to Assessing Your Capital Raise”
Om Malik of True Ventures summarizes his partner John Callaghan’s NVCA keynote speech, highlighting why VC is a power to be used purposefully in “Capital With A Purpose”
M.G. Siegler of GV gives his take on Wall Street’s obsession with investment and growth, concluding that the only thing left for Apple to do may be to buy back all of their shares and go private in “The Falling Apple”
From the Operators
David Sacks of Zenefits reflects on his first three months as CEO, describing how their compliance issues came to light, their remediation efforts, and how they are looking forward as a company in “The New Zenefits – Becoming the Compliance Company”
Wade Foster of Zapier walks through his company’s journey and shares examples of users and the diverse ways in which they use his company’s product in “Zapier Passes 1 Million Users, Thanks to You!”
Kathryn Minshew of The Muse offers four key pieces of advice she’s learned as a founder so far, including being painfully honest about the state of your startup in “Creating Good Company Culture (and Sticking to It)”
Klein Aleardi of Namely explains why piling up perks in the early stages of a company without careful planning can lead to a hefty budgeting item as your workforce scales in “The Unexpected Risk of Your Employee Perks”
Tyler Hayes of Blab argues that growth comes from the market, and therefore a founder’s job is to let growth happen and get out of the way in “Startups = Growth, Growth = Friction, Removed”
Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media discusses why entrepreneurs need to be practical with their money, realize the time commitment involved, and hold themselves to their word in “My Advice for First-Time Entrepreneurs”
U.S. VC Investment Down 11% Year-to-Date, Late Stage Rounds Hit Hardest (read more)
We have enough time series data to call a slowdown in VC funding.
In this analysis, Mattermark CEO Danielle Morrill reviews trends in this year’s venture capital funding for U.S. startups in terms of numbers of deals, capital deployed, and average round sizes.
