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Reforming venture capitalism

by David Saad, September 21, 2008 | Comments (14)

Predatory practices exposed

With Wall Street melting, public offering disappearing, over-regulation such as Sarbanes Oxley strangling, and bootstrapping igniting, venture capitalism is morphing. Reminiscent of marketers losing control to consumers with the advent of social media, venture capitalists are starting to lose their tight grip over entrepreneurs. Venture capitalism must be reformed. Specifically, the interest of venture capitalists and the interest of entrepreneurs ...

Introducing social ads

by David Saad, August 31, 2008 | Comments (4)

	In search of a cleaner greener online world Three weeks ago, I was moderating a session at the Digital Hollywood Building Blocks conference in San Jose. I took the time to check out the exhibitors and I attended few sessions. From a consumer's viewpoint, my assessment was that the online advertising industry seems to look good from far, but far from good. On one hand, a lot of ...
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What’s luck got to do with it?!!

by David Saad, August 25, 2008 | Comments (5)

	Don’t leave it to beaver As the web grows with more content, more contributors, and more entrepreneurs with more inventions, visibility and traction will become increasingly more difficult to achieve. Whether it is a new product that you are launching, a new article that you are publishing, or a new pitch that you are posting, things rarely take off on their own, and if they ...
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OOPS!! The Proof is not in the Pudding!

by David Saad, July 21, 2008 | Comments (3)

	But who Cares, Eat It Have you noticed how quickly high-tech industry insiders, including opportunistic entrepreneurs such as myself admittedly, rush to adopt the next "next thing" without truly analyzing its merit?!!! This behavior is caused by the desire to exploit the new "thing", to be the first to market even though it is often more of a disadvantage, and to claim notoriety. ...
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The anatomy of angel networks

by David Saad, July 20, 2008 | Comments (1)

Herding is critical to angel funding

(Note: This was republished to highlight due to its popularity)There are four main sources of funding including: Angels like relatives, friends, colleagues, customers, partners, or vendors. Angel networks like North Bay Angels, Sand Hill Angels, Pasadena Angels, etc. The focus of this article is on angel networks. Funds like venture capital firms and pension funds. Markets like NYSE, NASDAQ, TSE, ...

The art of rejection

by David Saad, July 19, 2008 | Comments (1)

	Just say "No" quickly and nicely In response to John Shinal's article entitled A VC on saying "no" and the "courtesy-proof" firm, I thought it might be helpful to, not expose, but re-expose some VCs to the art of rejection - assuming of course that any VC would have mastered it upon initiation, but could have forgotten it due to all the commotion caused by entrepreneurs. ...
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The Opinions of the few

by David Saad, July 18, 2008 | Comments (6)

How participation inequality blinds the wisdom of crowds and creates the opinions of the few

(Editor's note: This post is being re-published and highlighted due to its popularity.) The wisdom of crowds theory as advanced by the New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki contends that the collective opinions of a group of people is often smarter than the opinion of a single member of the group, or for that matter, the opinion of an expert. ...

Reality Check On Fund Raising Event Organizer

by David Saad, July 15, 2008 | Comments

Pay for Results not for Efforts or Services

There are companies who organize exclusive fund raising events by putting together entrepreneurs and VCs together for few hours for the purpose of raising funding, obviously. The organizer selects about 10 startups and coaches them on their presentation and their presentation skills. While the majority of those organizers are just brokers peddling their mediocre services, the good ones do ...

Keiretsu Forum revisited

by David Saad, July 14, 2008 | Comments (3)

	Fee, if any, must be contingent on funding A couple of months ago, I wrote a story entitled "From Skeptic to Evangelist on Keiretsu Forum". As promised, I am now reporting back to you the result of my experience with Keiretsu. Unfortunately, I am back to being skeptic. After having been screened (no fee at this stage), the officials at Keiretsu gave me the good news that ...
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From skeptic to evangelist on Keiretsu Forum

by David Saad, May 28, 2008 | Comments

Unlike the majority of angel networks, Keiretsu Forum charges entrepreneurs to pitch once they are screened. On December 7th, 2007, Randy Williams - founder & CEO of Keiretsu was interviewed by John Shinal (Keiretsu Forum's Randy Williams is expanding the market for angel investing). The very next day I posted a comment on his interview. In my comment, I made the argument that Keiretsu should change its model by charging angels not entrepreneurs. I drew an analogy from the ...

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