From the Investors
Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital walks through why “picking” is a critical skill not only for VCs, but for founders as well in “The Best VCs are Great Pickers”
Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures explains why the focus on the LTV/CAC ratio and the laissez-faire attitude towards payback period can be a trap even if your startup has raised a lot of capital in “Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business”
Angela Tran Kingyens of Version One Ventures argues the importance of aligning the learning profiles of employees and their jobs in “Understand Learning Profiles Before Hiring”
Tim Devane of NextView Ventures writes about why it is important to pass early and often to avoid doing a disservice to founders in “Passing in VC: A Great Responsibility”
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures launches a comment thread of suggestions to a friend taking over as the CEO of a new company in “The New Boss”
Jeffrey L. Minch of Littlefield Advisors outlines how CEOs should be changed out in “Changing CEOs — What Is The Process?”
Alex Taussig of Lightspeed Venture Partners offers a few tips for conducting and evaluating on and off-list references in “Why, and How, You Should Bother to Conduct References”
From the Operators
Hiten Shah of Quick Sprout analyzes SaaS marketing sites to show what prospects prefer, what doesn’t work for them, and how you can set up a framework for getting your own site on track in “The Anatomy of a SaaS Marketing Site”
Misha Chellam of Tradecraft publishes insights from growth marketers on emerging growth platforms, showing just how many are viable to accomplishing one’s acquisition goals in “Emerging Growth Channels”
Kristen Habacht of Trello lays out the keys she thinks about when implementing and succeeding in freemium SaaS in “4 Keys to Freemium SaaS Success” (podcast)
Christian Limon, formerly of Glu Mobile, concludes that vanity is the single most powerful driver for building a consumer social network in “Vanity is Good: A Hierarchy of Social Drivers”
Roli Saxena of Clever suggests how startups can institutionalize frameworks for better, happier performance across the board in “Practical Frameworks for Beating Burnout”
Allen Gannett of TrackMaven talks about the three ways that startup CEOs trick themselves into feeling successful and how to stay focused in “How to Not Let Early Success Get The Best of You”
What Correction? Venture Activity Zips Back To Full Speed In India And Southeast Asia (read more)
After a rocky fourth quarter, venture capital investment in Asia is back.
Mattermark’s Cheung Ho Yeung reports.
