Today’s special guest post is from Sarah Reed of Lowenstein Sandler PC.  Sarah is a good friend and collaborator with my partner Jason on the NVCA Model Legal Document task force.  She also has a wicked sense of humor.  After sitting through ten days of meetings hearing a variety of VC-lingo tossed around as though […]

Creating companies is hard.  Most fail.  Overnight success is rare (my favorite “overnight success stories” are the ones that take 10+ years, like iRobot or Harmonix.)  While strategy plays a key part in the outcome of an entrepreneurial venture, the fundamentals matter a lot.  Take the following parable that I got from a friend recently. […]

One of my portfolio companies recently put together a short video for a recent company meeting.  The video consisted of a series of questions for each board member and a few key advisors and clients.  One of the questions was “what could they improve?”  Following is my answer: The pretzels were tasty.

I got the following note the other day from a friend: After reading your latest post on Board Room Rules, I started thinking about the pressures that entrepreneurs experience starting, growing and managing start-up companies (whether it’s their first company or their fifth.) So I wonder if you as an investor/board member/partner/cheerleader have ever had […]

Several weeks ago, I brokered a meeting between two of my portfolio companies.  One of them is relatively mature, has a good sized customer base, and a great set of products.  The other one is very young, is a recent investment, has some great technology, but is just now bringing it to market. The business […]