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Slow down to speed up

by Brad Feld, June 26, 2011 | Comments

	If I do this right, I believe I'll be able to cover even more ground It’s Sunday morning. Take a deep breath. It’s summer time. Go for a walk. Or a run. Play with your family. Take a nap this afternoon. Read a book. Go to a movie. Chill. Last week, I had two close friends tell me some version of “I’m too busy.” One insightfully said “I have no time these days. I’m doing ...
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Inquiry as a replacement for self-doubt

by Brad Feld, May 30, 2011 | Comments

Double down on the notion of figuring it out and use an inquiry to get you there

I had several conversations with entrepreneurs this week who were struggling with a specific issue that had plagued them for a while. In each case these are strong, capable entrepreneurs who I’ve known for a long time. As with all entrepreneurs (and humans), they have strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots. In each case, I felt like self-doubt had crept into ...

Revisiting the term sheet

by Brad Feld, May 26, 2011 | Comments

	Quick references to a number of articles used in college courses In 2005, my partner Jason Mendelson and I wrote a long series of posts describing all of the parts of a typical venture capital Term Sheet. We started on 1/3/05 with a post on Price and finished up on 8/23/05 with a post on Indemnification and Assignment. Of all of the stuff I’ve written over the past four years, my ...
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The VC seed investor signaling problem

by Brad Feld, September 12, 2010 | Comments

Addressing this problem from the venture capitalist standpoint

One of the most common criticisms of VC investors making seed investments is something that has become known as “the signaling problem.” The explanation of this problem is that VCs create a “negative perception” about a company if they make a seed investment but then don’t follow through and make a next round investment. Another way to say this is ...

Should you charge more for your product?

by Brad Feld, August 17, 2010 | Comments

Consider a relatively low price-point 'guess' and then move it up until you find a ceiling

My partner Seth Levine has an outstanding post up today about the freemium model. It’s titled Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product and is worth going and reading right now. He covers a bunch of stuff, nicely divided into the following topics: Beware of too many pricing tiers. Have a clear ...

VC seed funding example: Trada

by Brad Feld, August 12, 2010 | Comments

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This is a case of where a venture capitalist can be an excellent seed investor

My partner Seth Levine has a detailed post up today titled Trada – from the beginning that describes the creation and financing of Trada. Foundry Group is the seed investor in Trada and Seth’s post describes one example of what I think is effective VC seed investing. The meat of the funding story follows: “Of course coming up with the ...

The 'lack of women in tech' discussion

by Brad Feld, July 16, 2010 | Comments

	We are five years into a 20-year shift The meme of the lack of women in tech (or software, or entrepreneurship) appeared in several places today. Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been the chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology for a number of years and deeply involved in this issue. It’s very satisfying for me to see a meme like this ...
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Does more money motivate higher performance?

by Brad Feld, May 28, 2010 | Comments

	Get past the ideology of using carrots and sticks to motivate people One of my blog readers – Boaz Fletcher – sent me an awesome video this morning from RSA Animate. It’s 11 minutes long and is a fascinating lecture by Dan Pink about The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I love the RSA Animate format – an artist animates the talk on a giant whiteboard in real time. In this ...
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The power of why

by Brad Feld, May 17, 2010 | Comments

Many organizations know what they do, but very few know why

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk from TedxPuget Sound (Sept 2009) has been posted and is just awesome. He starts out with the question “Why is Apple so innovative,“ Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement,” and “Why is it that the Wright Brothers were able to figure out controlled power manned flight?” He answers this by ...

Give your VCs assignments

by Brad Feld, May 12, 2010 | Comments

At the end of your first meeting, spend time talking about your expectations of them

Earlier this month, Mark Suster wrote a great post titled How To Communicate with your Investors between Board Meetings. Mark continues to just tear it up with great advice for entrepreneurs. However, he left out one thing from the post – which is one of my favorite pieces of advice for entrepreneurs. Give your venture capitalists (and board members) assignments ...

24 hours with Android and Chrome

by Brad Feld, December 11, 2009 | Comments

	Reactions to a couple of the new toys Google has put out As 2009 heads into the home stretch, I’m feeling techno-restless. I’ve got two big end of year projects that I’m working on that will keep me in front of my computer a lot, along with a pile of new toys that have shown up in the past few weeks that I’m playing with. So – yesterday I decided to start ...
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The 800-pound gorilla problem

by Brad Feld, November 23, 2009 | Comments

Make sure you determine whether it’s 800 pounds or 12 pounds

I was at a board meeting recently where the board and management was discussing the company’s market position. This is a strong company that leads its market and, as a result, one of the board members stated that we were “the 800 -pound gorilla in the market.” In my worldview, the market was still relatively small so I suggested that ...

Some complexities of VC seed investing

by Brad Feld, October 20, 2009 | Comments

Should there be a difference between seed investment and "Series A investment?"

Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners, has an outstanding post up this morning titled VC Seed Funding is Dead, Long Live VC Seed Funding. Mark started blogging recently and has quickly turned into my second favorite VC blogger (after Fred Wilson) – if you don’t subscribe to his feed, you should. Mark just did his first seed deal, a ...

The best board meetings

by Brad Feld, August 12, 2009 | Comments

	Have a dinner the night before the actual meeting Over the past 15 years I’ve been to thousands of board meetings. Last week I had four; this week I have two. I’ve spent a lot of time – often during board meetings – thinking about how to make them better and more effective. Yesterday, Fred Wilson (who was at the Return Path board meeting in Boulder with me) wrote ...
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Holes in the mainstream media wall

by Brad Feld, July 28, 2009 | Comments

	The NYT was being obtuse by making this hard to figure out I’ve always hated walled gardens. Before I started blogging in 2004, I had a point of view that was driven from my desire to share interesting information with my friends and colleagues. Since I’m a big reader, I run across a lot of stuff and have always enjoyed sharing, going back to the late 1980’s when I used to cut ...
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