From the Investors
Duncan Davidson of Bullpen Capital expands on Mattermark CEO Danielle Morrill’s post that notes a drop in seed financing deals, but overall rise in funding amounts in “The Era of Angels is Closing“
Jerry Colonna of Reboot and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures shares stories about the Flatiron Partnership, what makes a ‘perfect board’ and leadership in “Investing in Trust” (audio)
Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures sees GDP as a flawed KPI for measuring economic growth as consumers move from ‘priced atoms to a world of bits’ in “Secular Stagnation: GDP is the Wrong KPI“
Rob Hayes of First Round Capital advises founders on raising funding, cash management, hiring and the ‘North Star’ in “Here’s the Advice I Give All of Our First Time Founders“
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures says, ‘knowing when it is the right time to start handing things off and hiring is an art not a science’ in “DIY vs Delegate“
Jason Lemkin of Storm Ventures recommends that founders plan for their SaaS app to take two or more years to have ‘viral customers’ in “The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine”
Kim Pham of Frontline Ventures details Frontline Ventures’ commitment to being a ‘community/ platform’ driven venture firm in “Leveraging the Collective: The Origins and Future of VC Communities“
Angel Investor Jason Calacanis guides founders in understanding the tactics of building a personal brand and community perception in “How to Go From a Nobody to a Somebody”
Skip Fleshman of Asset Management Ventures explains why he believes consumers and providers are poised to adopt telemedicine in “Why Telemedicine’s Time Has Finally Come”
From the Operators
Serial Entrepreneur Elad Gil identifies ‘rapidly growing markets’ based on varying success levels and key players in “Hot Markets for 2015”
Ruben Harris of AltSchool lays out the steps he took to transition from Finance to the startup industry in “Breaking Into Startups”
Jason Cohen of WP Engine offers a method for entrepreneurs to ‘see whether one [customer acquisition] strategy might be 10x more effective than another’ in “Fermi Estimation for Startup Business Models“
Scott Rosenberg of Wordyard Project dives into how he believes Bitcoin’s blockchain could power an ‘alternate Internet’ in “There’s a Blockchain for That!”
Hernan Jaramillo of Tareasplus reveals the ways he connected with investors and built his professional network for his second round of fundraising in “11 Hacks to Get Meetings With Investors in Silicon Valley“