From the Investors
Roger Lee and Deepak Ravichandran of Battery Ventures takeaways, and clearly shows the late stage market is overvalued and returns are decreasing in “A Bubble Late-Stage Market? The Data Tells the Story”
Om Malik of True Ventures reframes Paul Graham’s post, Default Dead or Default Alive, by posing (and answering) a question of his own in “Value, Not Valuations, Is Good Business”
Sam Altman of Y Combinator says, ‘maybe instead of a tech bubble, we’re in a tech bust’, and explains why in “The Tech Bust of 2015”
Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital shares his perspective of working with Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, becoming a guest on Shark Tank, how he evaluates founders and more in “Chris Sacca Doesn’t Hold Back”
Josh Maher of Seattle Angel discusses where Title III funding may be problematic for companies raising capital in “Title III Funding is Not Like Venture Capital”
Jason Shuman of Corigin Ventures describes how his personal experiences with the healthcare industry have influenced his investment thesis in “When Passion Meets Profession: My Future in Healthcare Investing”
From the Operators
Hunter Davis of Intercom offers his perspective as a former employee of Homejoy shutting down in “Pondering Homejoy’s Failure”
Tristan Zier of Zen99 outlines philosophical and tactical tips for preparing for a Y Combinator (and any other accelerator) interview in “How to Prepare for the Y Combinator Interview”
Karen Roter Davis of Urban Engines draws parallels between sales and dating, and some things startups can think about to figure out if and when a potential customer is really interested in “We’re Just Not That Into You – Surviving This and Other Letdowns from Potential Customers”
Jon Gillon of Roost talks about the struggle of scaling a company and the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship in “The Struggle Is Real”
Jason Shen of Etsy thinks products are like redwood forests: they sometimes need a fire to keep growing, and describes the product lifecycle in “The Rise and Fall of Product Lines”
Sean Byrnes of Outlier advises you to think about where you need to be in 12 to 18 months vs. what you can do now in “Backwards, Thinking”
San Francisco Real Estate Survey
There’s been a lot of hype about commercial real estate and startups in San Francisco lately with companies opening alternative and overflow offices outside the city, as Uber is doing in Oakland.
If you’re a startup founder, we’d love to hear whether you’re considering doing the same. At the end of the week, we’ll publish the results. Take a quick minute and fill out our survey. It’s only three questions and will take you less than ten seconds to fill out – thanks!