Disqus - Latest Comments for bfeld

Re: Entrepreneur Corner Roundup: Surefire ways to get rejected by an angel investor and clearing up lean startup myths

bfeld — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:57:07 -0000

Minor correction - the post above refers to me as an "angel investor." I'm actually a VC at Foundry Group (www.foundrygroup.com) - I wrote this as a "peer" to my VC colleagues (vs. as an angel investor being critical of VCs.)

Re: Thematic vs Thesis Driven Investing

bfeld — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:30:03 -0000

I think you are using the word "theme" where you really mean "trend" or "sector". When I first started talking about "themes" in 2006, I don't think I heard the word very much - I remember specifically searching for a word that was different than "sector" since I'd lived through the "big firm sector approach" at Mobius. Now that theme is "trendy", I hear it all the time, which is kind of a meta-trend (to be a "theme-oriented VC").

Another differentiator - which you point out - is whether each partner (or groups of partners) work on different "themes" (sectors/trends) or if everyone works on the same stuff. The power of a small firm is that everyone can work on the same stuff - I'm always amazed when I run into small VC firms (five people or less) that have partners working on different things and subsequently don't get the leverage of a small team.

At the end of the day I know it's just semantics since it's all about the underlying strategy the VC firm has. And - as you know - I like yours a lot!

Re: My 3 Favorite VC Bloggers

bfeld — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:43:30 -0000

Hey Tac - thanks for the call out. My mom will be proud! Holler if you are even in Boulder - the beers are on me.

Re: State Of The Blogosphere Interview

bfeld — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:11:46 -0000

Thanks Bijan. I hope we (all three of us) help each other out on many things for a long time to come.

Re: The 'We Need To Own' Baloney

bfeld — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:26:31 -0000

I just caught up on a week of blogs and completely agree with this. The right word is "want", not "need". When a VC says "I need" at the starting point of a discussion, they are lying. Or, they have created what in my mind is an illogical construct, especially if they are an early stage investor.

Re: Blog Stars

bfeld — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:58:02 -0000

That's just secret code between us.

Re: Blog Stars

bfeld — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:55:04 -0000

I find Howard to be very self-referential.

Re: Startup Visas

bfeld — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:57:19 -0000

Edward - thanks for the info on E2. I've explored this some and my understanding is that the E2 is a classic case of a "bought" visa - the visa is for the investor that controls the company they are establishing. If my understanding of this is wrong, please tell me.

The idea of modifying the E2 instead of the EB5 is a good one - I'll add that to the list to consider.

I'd be happy to have you involved in the StartupVisa effort along with any links to national experts on policy you think we should be talking to. We do have strong immigration attorney's involved in the effort at this point but are open to more.

Re: Founder Liquidity

bfeld — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:53:43 -0000

What Fred and Mark said.

Re: The Foursquare "Crush"

bfeld — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:57:03 -0000

Yeah, I suppose. But my experience is that there is a natural set point to the price (e.g. maybe I was too low) and give my belief that if the entrepreneur is ONLY focused on price in the early round I'm probably not the right investor for them I'd rather have to deal with this while letting them know me better. And - if it's something amazing, I'll meet whatever the clearing price is anyway without regret.

Re: The Foursquare "Crush"

bfeld — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:49:03 -0000

I so completely agree with this philosophy. It's so hard to see the actual downside of this approach to investing / life in the private company / startup domain.

Re: Is Speculating On What Private Companies Are Worth A Good Idea?

bfeld — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:30:52 -0000

A wise man one told me "it's not real money until you can buy beer with it."

Re: Clouded Email Deliverability: Startups Pay Attention!

bfeld — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:45:18 -0000

Another solution is one of the TechStars Boulder 2009 companies - SendGrid. www.sendgrid.com They are doing "transactional email delivery" for over 150 companies at this point and growing like crazy. Our friends at Return Path (Matt Blumberg and George Bilbrey) have also been awesome mentors for them this summer as part of the TechStars program.

Re: Stocktwits…Working The Social Leverage…Ringing The Closing Bell

bfeld — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:01:57 -0000

Dude - you is the shizzle!

Re: Patently Absurd: Proposing a Change to Litigation

bfeld — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:31:55 -0000

Assuming that the notion of a software patent is valid (I don't believe it is), these are both good suggestions. The plaintiffs will argue that this gives unfair advantage to large companies (e.g. Microsoft will build up a nice defensive system in Seattle) but I think this is a spurious argument against this.

Re: NYC Marathon

bfeld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:16:24 -0000

Super proud of you Andrew! If you are willing to run slow, I'll go for some long runs with you. And - I'm good for $100 - just tell me what to do.

Re: Some Birthday Wishes

bfeld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:49:06 -0000

Happy birthday my friend.

Re: The Ideal First Round Term Sheet

bfeld — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:50:22 -0000

TechStars put together a very similar version with Cooley in February and open sourced them. http://www.techstars.org/2009/02/07/techstars-m...

YC also open sourced theirs (don't remember the date - around the same time) - these were docs developed with Wilson Sonsini.

Now all we need to do it get Gunderson, Cooley, and WSGR to agree!

I think first round investments should be able to be done on a napkin. Or in twitter. Chris is completely right - there are only two terms that should have to be negotiated - price and amount.

Re: Getting Out From Behind Your Desk

bfeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:06:04 -0000

I prefer to hang out with them in the mountains around Boulder. There are plenty of them there.

Re: Getting Out From Behind Your Desk

bfeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:53:03 -0000

I prefer to hang out with them in the mountains around Boulder. There are plenty of them there.

Re: Getting Out From Behind Your Desk

bfeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:00:10 -0000

I'm not laughing. Just fantasizing.

Re: Getting Out From Behind Your Desk

bfeld — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:49:59 -0000

I'll let you try my portable teleportation machine once it arrives. The company that makes it (TimeTravel, Inc.) is having a little difficulty with the recursive portion - the part that lets me take the machine with me to wherever I teleport so that I can teleport back home with it when I'm done. I expect that part to be ironed out around 2025.

Re: Alinea

bfeld — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:00:24 -0000

Definitely.

Re: Alinea

bfeld — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:24:58 -0000

Insanely jealous. We've tried to go but just couldn't get in.

Re: TechStars Demo Day rocks the house

bfeld — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:54:31 -0000

Chris - thanks for both (a) coming and for (b) the very kind words. See you again soon.