From the Investors
First Round Capital adds the ability for any startup team to submit a fundraising application on their site to be reviewed by a General Partner in “Introducing the First Round Open App”
Brad Feld of Foundry Group responds to Scott Maxwell of OpenView Partners’ post by explaining his two biases and calls value-added VC ‘a different approach’ in “The Paradox of VC Value-Add”
David Cummings of Atlanta Ventures itemizes where he imagines Uber is spending around $62.5 million a month to fuel their expansion plans in “Uber Burning $750 Million in a Year”
Claire Houry of Ventech Capital provides an inside look at her recommended skills and characteristics needed for a Junior Analyst to rise to the Partner level in “How Could a Junior Analyst Become a Partner in a VC Firm?”
Angel Investor Beth Ellyn McClendon encourages women to support STEM education for girls, with the goal of making a ‘long term change in tech for women’ in “The Woman Question”
Stephan von Perger of Wellington Partners surfaces a list of the most common mistakes he’s seen founders make in the fundraising process in “29 Early Stage Fundraising Pitfalls”
Jay Acunzo of NextView Ventures requires a distribution strategy in pitch decks and offers six examples of how entrepreneurs have presented their plan in “The Most Dangerous Question for Founders to Overlook in Pitches”
Bradley Harrison of Scout Ventures gives his guidelines for founders to consider when engaging someone as an advisor in “Advisors Are Valuable, But They Need to Be Engaged in the Right Way”
From the Operators
Joyce Akiko of Presidio reveals the path she took from an HR job to self-learning web and product development skills and the challenges she overcame along the way in “How to Transition Into Tech with Self-Taught Skills”
Camille Ricketts of First Round Review features Twilio’s CTO Evan Cooke who says, ‘As you build a company, you’re essentially generating predictability where it didn’t exist.’ in “This is How Effective CTOs Embrace Change”
Andrew Leonard of Medium’s Backchannel shares the backstory of Othermill CEO Danielle Applestone and why gender diversity is at the ‘core of her company’s DNA’ in “How One Hardware Startup Solved Silicon Valley’s ‘Woman Problem’”
Jason Culbertson of Bento details the his interview process to ‘help non-designers effectively interview and determine if a designer is right for the job’ in “How to Interview and Hire a Designer”
Ganesh Swami of Silota lays out the steps he believes should be followed right after a SaaS company closes a new customer in “The Required Post-Sales Process Checklist”