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Month: November 2018

Investor Stories 100: Why I Passed (Wallace, Zuberi, Medved)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Brendan Wallace Bilal Zuberi Joe Medved

Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

 

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Investor Stories 100: Why I Passed (Wallace, Zuberi, Medved)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Brendan Wallace Bilal Zuberi Joe Medved

Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

 

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

175. From Operator to Accelerator MD to Fund Manager (John Fein)

by Nick Moran

John Fein of Firebrand Ventures joins Nick to discuss From Operator to Accelerator MD to Fund Manager. In this episode, we cover:

 

  • So you participated in 5 startups, after which you scaled an organization from zero to 1,500 employees and $2B/year in revenue. Talk about your background and experience at United Health.
  • Tell us a bit about your decision to raise a fund.
  • When I started raising fund I, I had calls w/ 30+ GPs and my target was $5M but I told him, under no circumstances would I raise more than $10M, even if things went really well. He responded that the difference between a $5M and a $10M is significant and that the story and strategy would be very different for the two. So I know that you started with a $7M target and ended at $18M... how did your strategy change and did you get any pushback from early LPs as the fund got larger?
  • How did the process play out... in what ways was it different than what you expected?
  • How early do you go?
  • How did you create urgency w/ prospective LPs to make a decision. From personal experience, I found a number of large LPs that preferred to wait until final close
  • You've gone on the record stating that you'll avoid investing in arrogant founders, where many VCs specifically look for this character trait in entrepreneurs. Do you think it's the best economic decision to avoid working w/ arrogant founders?
  • Everyone says they're (Read more...)

175. From Operator to Accelerator MD to Fund Manager (John Fein)

by Nick Moran

John Fein of Firebrand Ventures joins Nick to discuss From Operator to Accelerator MD to Fund Manager. In this episode, we cover:

 

  • So you participated in 5 startups, after which you scaled an organization from zero to 1,500 employees and $2B/year in revenue. Talk about your background and experience at United Health.
  • Tell us a bit about your decision to raise a fund.
  • When I started raising fund I, I had calls w/ 30+ GPs and my target was $5M but I told him, under no circumstances would I raise more than $10M, even if things went really well. He responded that the difference between a $5M and a $10M is significant and that the story and strategy would be very different for the two. So I know that you started with a $7M target and ended at $18M... how did your strategy change and did you get any pushback from early LPs as the fund got larger?
  • How did the process play out... in what ways was it different than what you expected?
  • How early do you go?
  • How did you create urgency w/ prospective LPs to make a decision. From personal experience, I found a number of large LPs that preferred to wait until final close
  • You've gone on the record stating that you'll avoid investing in arrogant founders, where many VCs specifically look for this character trait in entrepreneurs. Do you think it's the best economic decision to avoid working w/ arrogant founders?
  • Everyone says they're (Read more...)

How Backcountry’s Support Reps Go the Extra Mile — And Get Invited to Their Customers’ Weddings

by First Round Review

This online outdoor gear and clothing company blends service and sales to craft a customer experiences that wows. VP of Sales and Customer Service Chris Purkey walks us through how startups can learn from Backcountry's approach to beat the scale of more established competitors with authentic, white glove customer service.

How to have important blog posts read to you aloud on your phone

by Marshall Kirkpatrick

Information overload is a defining challenge of our time. It’s tempting to just shut down, ignore all the incredible things on the internet, or rely on serendipity and social feeds to bring you what you need. You don’t have to do that, though.

There are strategies and tools that you can use to tap thoughtfully into the abundance of knowledge being published online without being overwhelmed. One tactic I have added to my practice lately has been the following method of having every new post on a few important blogs read to me aloud. This is something I’ve mentioned to several people, casually, and they’ve told me I should write a blog post about how to do it.

I do this for the blog of the company I work for (Sprinklr). And for other companies and organizations I find so inspiring I want to try to read everything they post too. I just subscribed to Stefaan Verhulst’s excellent new Living Library this way. There are a variety of sources I want to keep good track of.

The newest way I’ve been doing it is by using the mobile app Pocket and its wonderful text-to-speech continuous play audio feature. Bookmark an article to Pocket and it will read the article aloud while you clean your kitchen or walk your dog. The voice is a touch robotic but I’ve gotten used to it.

I put things into Pocket in many different ways, but using the tool If This, Then That (Read more...)

2018 Private SAAS Company Survey- Part 2

by Myya Daigle
This post is by Myya Daigle from For Entrepreneurs Blog

We recently released Part 1 results of our private SaaS company survey in partnership with KBCM Technology Group (formerly Pacific Crest Securities). This is the sixth annual survey we’ve produced together, which provides data to help SaaS companies benchmark their performance against their competition. In Part 1, we covered growth rates, go-to-market trends, and CAC Rations and CAC Payback. We’re excited to share Part...

Investor Stories 99: Post Mortems (Martino, Simoudis, Narasin)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Paul Martino Evangelos Simoudis Ben Narasin   Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

 

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/  for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Investor Stories 99: Post Mortems (Martino, Simoudis, Narasin)

by Nick Moran

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Paul Martino Evangelos Simoudis Ben Narasin   Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

 

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/  for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.