From the Investors
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures shares metrics from Cooley LLP’s Venture Financing Report, noting Series A prices have nearly doubled in six months in “The Meteoric Acceleration in Series A Valuations“
Sam Altman of Y Combinator outlines ‘inherent advantages’ Silicon Valley has over other startup ecosystems in “Why Silicon Valley Works“
Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital compares VCs, summing up his thoughts with, ‘A good VC delivers sustainable superior performance. A bad VC doesn’t.’ in “Good VCs, Bad VCs“
Steven Sinofsky and Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz discuss generational shifts in technological advances, both agreeing ‘mobile is everything’ in “Selling Tech to Everyone – Changes Everything” (audio)
Semil Shah of Haystack Fund believes ‘competition forces and ruthless copying’ are the root of a resurgence of ‘stealth startups’ in “Stealth Mode is En Vogue Again“
Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures tells his story of having Attention Deficit Disorder and explains ‘many successful CEOs have ADD’ in “Why ADD Might Actually Benefit Startup Entrepreneurs“
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures sees a future where tickets are bought, sold and kept secure on the blockchain in “Ticketing“
David Cummings of Atlanta Ventures lists four reasons why solo entrepreneurs shouldn’t ‘go it alone’ in “Value of a Co-Founder“
Charlie O’Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures thinks there is a lack of ‘legitimate debate and discourse’ around individual investment ideas in “The Think Skin of the Venture Capital Market“
Aaref Hilaly of Sequoia Capital cites vertically integrated manufacturing and proprietary data as Tesla’s advantages over Google in “Why Tesla Will Beat Google to the Self-Driving Car“
From the Operators
Danny Rogers of Terbium Labs highlights uBeam’s recent news and proclaims, ‘(uBeam) is an impossible idea!’ in “How Putting $10M Into uBeam Illustrates Everything That is Wrong With Tech Investing Today“
Richard Howard of Shortcut reviews three investor pitch scenarios and suggests how VCs should respond in “Dear VCs, Please Don’t Be A-holes“
Zach Shapiro of Build in Public questions the concept of ideas and why we hesitate to explore them in “Fear and Creativity“
James Sinclair of EnterpriseJungle breaks down his pros and cons of Enterprise vs. Consumer businesses in “The Myths of Enterprise Start-Ups“
Best of the Press
Danny Chrichton of TechCrunch defines ‘fundraising acceleration’ as VCs buying the future value of a company 24 to 36 months in advance in “Fundraising Acceleration is the New VC Investment Thesis“
Armando Biondi of AdEspresso on Fast Company says angel investors are buying ‘access to privileged information’, not your company in “What Angel Investors Are Actually Buying From Your Startup“
Zavain Dar of Lux Capital writes on VentureBeat that recent Bitcoin innovations are ‘trends that are impossible to ignore’ in “The 2 Biggest Emerging Opportunities in Cryptocurrency“
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