Larry's VC View

Changing of the Guard

2008-11-14T23:23:59Z

Just to be clear, this was stimulated by all the emails about recent events in Oz, but still relates more to startups than public companies ;-)

When the CEO leaves or is replaced, it?s a big deal and can really alter the company?s DNA. I?ve ...

Venture Challenge

2008-10-27T19:53:41Z

I recently went to the DFJ venture challenge to watch 20 young startups compete for $250k in seed funding. I have been to this before, but to risk sounding like the former IOC guy, this year was the best ever ? the quality of ideas, the enthusiasm of t...

When there?s an EIR in the room?

2008-10-14T01:18:00Z

I am loath to expand on the paranoia of many entrepreneurs in their fear that VCs want to steal their ideas--this is simply not so (see Blog on NDAs). However, you had better do your homework before approaching any VC to ensure they don?t already have ...

Alignment

2008-09-28T15:14:13Z

Never having been one to shy away from a complicated deal structure, I am starting to learn why term sheets and VC deal structures are so vanilla--it?s a little frustrating ;-)

If I put my entrepreneur?s hat on, it seems to me that every ent...

Chip companies and why they are hard

2008-09-14T09:54:25Z

At present its very, very hard to fund a chip company. Firms that would previously have been very bullish on the space have backed off completely, and one very well known firm for chip deals has done only one deal this year in that space. VCs have alwa...

What really happens in an acquisition

2008-08-26T22:02:21Z

Money is almost out, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. A last minute offer has come in to acquire the company and it looks like everyone will survive to fight another day.

Rewind 6 months to the painful realization that the compan...

Marketing Power

2008-08-12T23:58:46Z

As engineers we tend to underestimate marketing--we don?t understand it well, and at a minimum we merge it with sales. Something that always surprises me about venture backed tech startups is how little they emphasise marketing. There is a lot of lip s...

Is it a feature, product, or company?

2008-07-28T13:07:15Z

This is one of the key questions a VC will ask themselves after hearing your pitch. Inside Intel (as opposed to Intel Inside), they talk about the Intel funnel--it?s a nasty piece of business engineering that takes what was a product, and turns it into...

Just be yourself

2008-07-16T18:57:09Z

I listened to a pitch the other day, by a PhD who had invented/designed a new type of chip and was looking for funding to take it to market. As we got about half way through, I noticed he kept saying ?In this business you have to?? and ?You should know...

When to let go

2008-06-30T15:53:24Z

This is a cynical one--be warned. I just completed a really tough shareholder meeting for a company I took public where the CEO recently had to be replaced and the chairman didn?t show up for the meeting, so I had to stand in for them.

So, a...

Nosebleed Valuations

2008-06-17T06:47:22Z

So I never thought I would ever have this conversation with any entrepreneur, but here it is. There?s this exciting new Internet company with a brilliant founder, and a sharp business guy and their business is going to eclipse Facebook, Yahoo, and prob...

Business plan on a napkin?

2008-06-03T13:24:36Z

So I?m sitting around the corner from our office, having breakfast at Il Fornaio, listening to the conversations around me and watching the entrepreneurs pitch the VCs on a Tuesday morning--The entrepreneurs are the ones carrying laptops and waiting im...

Typical Deals ? is there such a thing?

2008-05-19T13:30:50Z

Many entrepreneurs go into VC discussions with an adversarial mindset--i.e., it?s a negotiation primarily about price. I am absolutely convinced that this is wrong--you will be at odds with yourself as much as with them--you are trying to sell them on ...

Valuation, Valuation, it?s a rage across the Nation?..

2008-05-06T16:58:56Z

So I just finished a tour of another country, meeting about 700 entrepreneurs from medical devices to enterprise software, with a couple of chip companies thrown in for balance. During the Q&A session there was a lot of discussion around benchmarki...

When to take a smaller piece of a larger pie and Femtocells ... a new wave?

2008-04-21T17:57:20Z

Femtocells have become a hot topic over the past year with the competing forces of cable companies, Internet companies, and now cellular carriers trying to own the home portal. Google?s recent investment in a femto maker stimulated a lot of questions a...

The deal that died

2008-04-07T13:38:42Z

So the deal was looking good, term sheet issued, and in negotiation, and deep diligence happening. Then there was a long discussion between Chairman and VC and the deal fell apart.

I got a call from one of the entrepreneurs and was suddenly ...

Larry responds ...

2008-03-24T17:43:40Z

I wanted to respond to some of the posts and questions, so I will do that in this BLOG and post ?The deal that died? next time. Please keep the questions coming, or propose new BLOG topics, it really helps me focus o...

Share market crash: timing is everything!

2008-03-10T15:57:31Z

In the midst of a major bear market, with global economies faltering and a worldwide credit crunch, it?s hard to see the future--I just witnessed a record one-day point drop on Asian markets and saw 12 IPOs cancelled indefinitely.

Do you want to be rich or king?

2008-02-25T13:30:22Z

This is a tough one--many VCs say that their entrepreneurs get wrapped around the axle on being the CEO (king). An old friend who ran HP labs for 20 years once told me that when people come to the Valley from elsewhere, they focus on thr...

Welcome to Larry's VC View blog

2008-02-12T04:01:00Z

Hi! Steve [Anderson] is trying to bring me into the new age of digital media, by having me write a blog rather than an article--or put another way, I offered to write another article about funding early stage companies, and Steve t...