From the Investors
Om Malik of True Ventures reflects on Gigaom’s announcement of shutting down in “A Statement About Gigaom”
Sam Altman of Y Combinator announces that Peter Thiel, serial entrepreneur and VC, will be joining Y Combinator as a part-time partner in “Welcome Peter”
Richard Kerby of Venrock highlights his research on the diversity of the venture capital industry and finds that African Americans comprise only 1.5% of investment team members in “Why Are There So Few Black Investors?”
Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital advises founders to ‘take time choosing seed investors’, to stay lean after the seed round, and how to avoid the ‘crunch’ in “What the Seed Funding Boom Means for Raising a Series A”
Chip Hazard of Flybridge Capital Partners helps founders understand the process of selling their business, knowing when to sell, and how to get the best value in “A Founder’s Guide to M&A”
Brittany Laughlin of Union Square Ventures encourages startup teams to ‘start the conversation about diversity with a small group in a safe space’, sooner rather than later in “How to Start Talking to Your Team About Diversity”
Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures guides founders in how to qualify potential customers, identifying a customer’s budget and why ‘fundraising is selling’ in “Most Startups Have Limited Sales Skills. Here are Some Tips to Improve”
Hunter Walk of Homebrew nudges investors to find the values they want to embody and to ‘model them in real life’, in order to avoid the uncanny valley in “Branding, VCs and the “Uncanny Valley’”
Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures outlines how a marketplace startup can increase demand with branding, educational content, and outbound sales in “How to Spark Demand When Creating a New Market Space”
From the Operators
Parker Harris of Salesforce urges business leaders be transparent, facilitate an open dialogue, address unconscious bias, and develop diverse tech talent early in “Leadership Sets the Tone for Diversity in Tech”
Eric Jorgenson of Evergreen Business Weekly provides – in detail – a playbook of how a business can initiate and nurture word-of-mouth growth in “The Psychology Behind Word-of-Mouth Growth”
Author Mike Belsito features fundraising insights from Danielle Morrill, David Cohen, and more founders and VCs in his new book (free on Kindle!) in “Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us: How to Raise $1 Million for Your Startup – Even Outside of Silicon Valley”
Julie Zhuo of Facebook pokes at the idea of an ‘idea person’ and praises the characteristics of a ‘follow-through-person’ in “The Idea Person”
Ammar Mian of SocialRank walks through building the SocialRank Index, how data helped with product decisions, and ‘building for customers, not yourself’ in “Lessons from Launching a Data Product”
Tamiz Ahmed of Nani and Jay Acunzo of NextView Ventures discuss Bleacher Report’s Team Stream app strategy, understanding ‘what’s working’ with users, and in “Building for Massive Mobile Success: An Ex-Bleacher Report PM on Creating Their Hit App”