From the Investors
Steve Jurvetson of DFJ shares a recap of the Nervana story, from his perspective, and explains why machine learning will be of fundamental importance to every business over time in “Intelligence Inside”
Megan O’Connell of MergeLane highlights data and opinions on the financial outcomes of gender diversity and female leadership in business in “Are Women Really Producing a Better Bottom Line?”
Kim Pham of Frontline Ventures dives into three main considerations to think about when building a VC platform in “What to Consider Before Building Your VC Platform Strategy?”
Edith Yeung of 500 Startups walks through how to improve fundraising with investor segmentation, storytelling and specific follow-up in “The 7 (Pitching) Habits of Highly Effective Founders”
Phin Barnes of First Round Capital tells a story of a startup executive keeping her priorities straight in the presence of stress in “Elegant Management”
Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures identifies different types of costs SaaS buyers consider when contemplating a switch in “Fighting And Leveraging Inertia In Sales”
From the Operators
Kenneth Svenningsen of ShipBeat reflects on the main reasons his startup did not work and had to be shut down in “Shipbeat Post-Mortem”
Trevor McLeod of Mic advises people to focus on rules that won’t ever change to reason your way forward in “Long-Term Thinking ..”
Chelsea Larson of Zendesk and Sarah Nagel of Sprout Social discuss how engaging with natural promoters can be a fruitful partnership for both the brand and the customer in “How to Build Community Partnerships”
Ryan Law of Cobloom expands on how to measure your startup’s revenue health in “SaaS Quick Ratio”
Blanche Reese of SalesLoft outlines a day in the life of an Inbound Sales Development Representative in “Sales Activities”
Max Skibinsky of Vault12 describes why efficient recruiting is one of the most important lessons for first time founders to learn in “Early Stage Recruiting”
A Beginner’s Dictionary of Venture Capital
tl;dr: Here’s a primer on the language of venture capital.
