Month: February 2009
Ever since David Cohen started TechStars, I’ve encouraged him to “open source” everything. We regularly get approached by people all over the world to talk about the program. We do – we tell them everything about what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. We share our documents with them. We try to help and support them.
We regularly get asked for the documents we use for doing early stage financings. I personally believe these documents should be able to be done on a single piece of paper and sealed with a handshake (or more preferably, a fist bump), but I’m generally alone in that view. So, we’ve worked closely with Cooley Godward Kronish, LLP (and specifically Mike Platt, who has been my go to lawyer and a close friend since I moved to Boulder in 1995) to put together a set of “Model Seed Funding Documents” that anyone can use.
There are five primary documents in the set:
- Term Sheet
- Articles of Incorporation
- Bylaws
- Subscription Agreement
- Election Consent
Of course, these are just example documents so all legal disclaimers about usage apply (e.g. “do with them what you want, but we take no responsibility for your actions.”) That said, I think these are a great starting point for anyone doing an early stage financing.
I’ve been spending more talking in public recently. I always try to be accessible to entrepreneurs and spend time in interesting venues where I learn something, but I hate conferences. So it’s always a balancing act for me to participate, be “content”, but not use up 100% of my extrovert energy and end up hiding under a table somewhere trying to recover.
Last week, I did the first of my podcast series with Phil Weiser. If you don’t know Phil, he’s a one of the most significant assets that CU Boulder has and has become a very close friend. He runs the Silicon Flatirons program, is a professor at the CU Law School, is driving a lot of entrepreneurial activity at CU, and is co-chairman with me of the Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council. Phil asked if I’d endure a long series of questions over a handful of interviews with him and I said yes, so he is publicly interviewing me on a variety of topics of his choosing, with questions he makes up and doesn’t tell me in advance. The first interview was titled “Feld on Finance” (I’m sure someone will enjoy the alliteration) – you can read the summary or listen to the podcast if you are interested.
Immediately after the interview I attended and participated in last week’s Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup. This has turned into an incredible phenomenon – over 400 people attended. Hats off to Robert Reich for starting this up and stewarding it through its growth into something remarkable that should be on the must participate list for anyone in the Boulder / Denver area interested in software / Internet entrepreneurship. At the end of the night, I took questions from the crowd for about thirty minutes.
I then headed to Los Angeles to spend a few days supporting Amy in some of her activities at Wellesley, including some very exciting stuff we are involved in with Wellesley and Madeleine Albright (Wellesley ‘59). We’ll talk more about that soon.
I decided it was pointless to have a weekend so I spent Sunday causing trouble at the Silicon Flatirons’ Conference: Imagine the Internet’s Future. Rocky Radar has an excellent summary of Day 1 (Sunday) and Day 2 (Monday – which I didn’t attend). I just saw a draft of Phil Weiser’s post conference summary – it’s very provocative and captures the issues extremely well so I’ll link to it separately when it’s up.
Monday morning I went to a top secret meeting in downtown Denver that I can’t talk about because I was told a bunch of times that it was confidential. I do think I can say that it involved a cross section of the business community, but titled strongly toward “big companies” / “traditional businesses” vs. tech / entrepreneurship. I found it fascinating in direct contrast to the events of the previous week, especially the entrepreneurial ones that I had been at. While the room was filled with very smart and experienced people, I was amazed at the negative, oppressed, and almost helpless tone. It stood out in stark contrast to the entrepreneurs I hang out with, who recognize the challenges of the macro environment, but are optimistic and determined to make stuff happen, regardless of what’s going on.
To cap it off, on Monday afternoon I heard some remarkably great news out of NewsGator. The company just continues to land huge customers at a crazy fast pace.
The sun is starting to come up – I am so pleased to be alive.
On the eve of the passing of the massive “economic stimulus package” (I was really hoping it was going to be more than 1 trillion so Dr. Evil could start saying “1 trillion dollars”) we are hearing “broadband broadband broadband.”
I’m going to be spending the day tomorrow at the Silicon Flatirons Conference titled The Digital Broadband Migration: Imagining the Internet’s Future and I’m speaking at 9:45 on the panel titled Overview Panel: The Internet’s Challenge to Policymakers. It’s clear that I’ve been set up as my co-panelists are:
- Kathryn C. Brown, SVP of Policy, Verizon, Former Chief of Staff FCC
- Kathleen O’Brien Ham, Vice President of Federal Regulatory Affairs, T-Mobile
- Dale Hatfield, Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado, Former Chief Engineer Federal Communications Commission
- William Kovacic, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
- Bryan Tramont, Silicon Flatirons Senior Adjunct Fellow, University of Colorado, Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
I guess I’m the dude that gets to say “telcos – please get out of the way.” Coincidentally, as I was catching up on my email this morning, I ran into a note from Bob Frankston (of Visicalc fame) pointing in response to this conference pointing me to his post titled The Broadband Internet? It’s a brilliant post that is right on the money. The punch line:
“Today people know that they want more “Internet” so they ask for more of the same by saying “broadband”. Our future lies in universal connectivity and simplicity. We can do better than living in the past glory of telecommunication.”
I really hope “Broadband” and “Internet” don’t get conflated. Our friendly neighborhood policy makers need to make sure they know the difference.
There are so many reasons to love Valentine’s Day. My favorite is that on 2/14/09 the Unix Time will be 1234567890. This happens at exactly 00:31:30 CET. Yeah – it’s a little bit of a cheat since CET = GMT+1 and – correspondingly – it will still be 2/13/09 in the United States. Just another good reason to go to Paris for Valentine’s Day. (Thanks ScottM).
Every now and then I run across someone who is still using software that we wrote at Feld Technologies. Some of this software dates back to 1987 – a fact that never ceases to amaze me. And – no, I can no longer provide tech support at any price.
We didn’t have much swag at Feld Technologies. In fact, I think the only swag we had, other than a few t-shirts which still make their appearance every now and then, is the mug pictured above. A fraternity brother of mine from MIT emailed me this picture recently – apparently this mug sits on his desk and serves a very mug-like purpose.
I remember how agonizing it was to buy these mugs. Should we get 50? 100? There was probably a price break at 200 and we even considered that. Were they too plain? Should we spend an extra $0.17 per mug and get a grey background to match our stationary? Who should we give them to? Should we charge for them? Decisions, decisions.
Anyone recognize that font?
I’m really proud of my Congressman Jared Polis. Jared was one of the first people I met when I moved to Colorado in 1995 (we met in early 1996) and have been good friends ever since. Jared has a great article about his first few weeks in Congress up on the CNN website titled Commentary: Congress is like going back to college. There’s also a fun video.
Jared – you look very serious in that suit and tie.
I watched Rafael Nadal play two incredible matches at the Australian Open over the weekend. In the semifinals, he defeated Fernando Verdasco in a 5 hour and 14 minute match 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(2) 6-7(1) 6-4. He returned to the court a little over 40 hours later and defeated Roger Federer 7-5 3-6 7-6(3) 3-6 6-2 in a match lasting 4 hours and 23 minutes. If you are a tennis player, you know this is an amazing physical and emotional achievement.
Brad Gilbert – a great tennis player (and coach) in his own right – was one of the announcers for the finals. He annoyed me at first with his whispery affect until I realized that he was courtside. He completed redeemed himself when he uttered the line of the tournament: “Nadal is so incredible because he plays the point, not the score.”
Ponder that – Play the point, not the score.
If you watch Nadal’s face during a match, he’s 100% focuses on the point at hand. When he finishes the point, win or lose, you see an intense emotion sweep over his face. Amy – who thinks of Nadal as a lion – refers to this as his “I will now kill you and eat your family” look. He then takes a breath, clears his mind (which is reflected in his face), and gets 100% into the next point, which is now the point at hand.
Watching Nadal come back from 0-40 on his serve, or continue to get back in games when down 40-0 or 40-15 when receiving, is amazing. It’s as if the guy has zero short term memory. He either doesn’t remember the previous point, doesn’t care, or has an incredible ability to focus on the point at hand. I’m betting it’s some combination of all three.
This is such a powerful metaphor for business (and life). Play the point, not the score. Down 4-1? Doesn’t matter – play the point. Just had someone quit on you. Doesn’t matter, play the point. Fell short of plan for the month of January – doesn’t matter – play the point. Just had a big deal go off the rails? Doesn’t matter – play the point.
When you are in the game, play the point. Play every point. Regardless of the score.
Slice of Lime is looking to for Flash/Flex/PHP designer who is also a programmer at heart. If this is you, apply now!
Rocky Radar has a great schedule of a bunch of entrepreneurial events happening from 2/2 – 2/9 in and around Boulder. I’ve been getting lots of questions lately from people recently asking “how do I get involved in the Boulder entrepreneurial scene” – the short answer is “show up!”
I’m participating in a couple of the events this week.
- Tuesday @ 5pm: Feld on Finance, Wolf Law, Boulder: Phil Weiser, professor at CU Law and the head of the Silicon Flatirons program, will be interviewing me on finance (aka “whatever questions Phil feels like asking me.”)
- Tuesday @ 6:30pm: New Tech Meetup, Wolf Law, CU-Boulder: I’m going to participate in this month’s New Tech Meetup. I’ll be doing Q&A on VC / financing for as long as Robert Reich chooses to keep me on stage.
- Sunday @ 9:45am: The Digital Broadband Migration, Wolf Law, CU Boulder: The Internet’s Challenge to Policymakers – part of the Silicon Flatiron program “The Digital Broadband Migration: Imagining the Internet’s Future”
Also, this month’s Boulder Open Coffee Club is happening on Tuesday 2/3 at 8am at The Cup. I can’t make it because I’ve got a board meeting at StillSecure, but there’s always a good crowd (and some great coffee).