My #1 piece of advice...

 

"Persistence, persistence, persistence. That's my #1 piece of advice for entrepreneurs. I’m surprised at how few entrepreneurs follow up.  I’ll see them a year later and they’ll say, 'You weren’t interested,’ and I’ll say, 'How do you know? I'm not trying to excuse myself, but it’s really hard to have portfolio companies, respond to so many emails in a day, and still have two kids and a wife..... If you try once and give up, you don't have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. You'll never succeed in sales or business development." - VC Mark Suster

Something Ventured *Trailer* Venture Capital...

"Everything comes from the entrepreneurs. I tend to look for scrappy people who were not born with a silver spoon. They're also people who aren't motivated by an unhealthy desire to stick their finger up at establishments. "- VC Mark Suster

Something Ventured is a documentary film about the original venture capitalists and the companies they helped to start and grow--like Apple, Intel, Genentech, Cisco, Tandem and Atari.

Venture Capital for Dummies...

An excerpt from VentureTactics.com (Source)

When an investor buys a part of a company this is known as venture capital. Someone who invests money into a company that has high risk and a high growth rate is known as a venture capitalist. The investment time period usually ranges from 5 to 7 years. In order for the venture capitalists to receive a cash profit from the company he or she will publicly sell shares of the company or will receive a return on his or money when the company is sold.

Some venture capitalists ask to be seated on the director’s board rf may ask to be given a certain percentage of the equity that the company has. All venture capitalists expect to make a hefty return on any money he or she invests. A venture capitalist can demand a payment of owed money by demanding the company be sold, or by asking that his or her venture be returned, or by changing the terms of the original deal.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT

A type of capital venture investment that includes seed financing, start up financing and first stage financing is known as early stage financing. An inventor who wants to start up a new business is given a minute quantity of venture capital, which is known as seed financing. A venture capitalist will use this financing to develop a business plan, to construct a management team, and/or to implement market research strategies.

When a business is operated for less than a year and receives venture capital they are known to be receiving start up financing. This usually entails that their product has not been sold commercially, but with this type of venture capital they will become prepared to do so. When a business wants to carry on and enter into the public business area they receive first stage financing; they also receive this type of financing when they are wishing to increase their capital.

Expansion financing is also another type of venture capital investment. Within this type of venture capital investment are second and third stage financing. When a company is already up and going they receive the investment called second stage financing. Third stage financing is used when a business is planning to break even or become profitable in the near future. Bridge financing is also included in expansion financing. This type of financing is short term and an interest only investment.

Are you a "A" player?...

An excerpt from Anythings Possible: Thoughts on Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital by Eric Paley...


“The large company corporate world is filled with C players.  The term “Peter Principle” was coined to describe this phenomenon in which people in large companies are promoted exactly one pay grade beyond what they can competently do and then stay in that role for the rest of their careers.  Large companies thrive on inertia and the core job description of a large company employee is to keep that inertia going and do nothing to screw it up.  If last year’s top line grew 8%, the job is to grow it 8% again, not to figure out how to make a step function change and grow it 20%. In attempting to achieve that 20% step function change, there is high risk of a misstep that could lead to a decline in sales.  That’s simply unacceptable.

Large companies fire those who get F grades, because they are not at all productive.  They accept C players, because they are somewhat productive with guidance and B players are hard to find. It is very easy for a C player to seem moderately successful when progress is largely based on inertia.   Large corporations celebrate B players who can competently complete their job with minimum coaching and maintain inertia.  These are the heroes of large corporations. Innovation within a function is risky and can threaten inertia.

Large companies have very few A players.  A players don’t want to be at large companies because, more often than not, corporate bureaucracy and process not only fail to reward, but actually punish A players.  By putting the objectives ahead of process and politics, A players step on bureaucratic toes and don’t retreat based on false territorial claims.  Though there are exceptions, few large corporations create cultures that give A players room to win.  It’s not fun trying to innovate at a large company when co-workers feel that you’re threatening the core inertia on which the business is based.  They’ll say things like “that’s just not the way things work around here.”