Disqus - Latest Comments for robchogo

Re: Investor Mojo - Dealing With the Risk of Looking Dumb

robchogo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:32:40 -0000

Why not double down on Andala then?

Thanks for the comment. What goes without saying is that the conviction of an entrepreneur is much greater than an investor since they don't have a portfolio and usually invest a meaningful % of their life savings into a venture.

Re: Where to find angel funding in Boston

robchogo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:58:44 -0000

Thanks! Glad to be considered in the same comment as Don Dodge. I think we'll be hearing a lot more from him now that he is no longer at MSFT.

Re: Where to find angel funding in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:51:13 -0000

True, but I want to keep them in the "professional" group because my impression is that they spend a lot of time trying to make angel investments. Maybe I'm wrong. I think it's less a distinction of where the $ comes from and more about how much time and effort they are putting into seed stage investing.

Re: Where to find angel funding in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:23:25 -0000

Who knows if they will be happy about it or not :)

Re: A "To-Do" List for New Entrepreneurs Arriving in Boston

robchogo — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:10:39 -0000

Desmond, thanks for the comment. I think most of the people I added do post on their blog or twitter regularly. Maybe not as active on one or the other though. As for the female entrepreneurs comment - that's definitely true. This is a skewed list. I'd love more suggestions on that end. I know Jean Hammond if quite visible in the local community, but I don't know if she has an active blog or Twitter presence.

Re: The #2 Reason Why VC's Say "No"

robchogo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:04:06 -0000

Thanks Lee. One of the frustrating thigns for entrepreneurs is how to convince a VC that venture scale is attainable when the product is obviously going to be at its very early stages. I really liked Charlie O Donnel's post on this morning - especially the section on having a good product strategy: http://bit.ly/uxH9j

Re: The #2 Reason Why VC's Say "No"

robchogo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:54:21 -0000

Totally agree - that's the spirit behind my second point. You need to match the financing with the business.

Re: A "To-Do" List for New Entrepreneurs Arriving in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:55:36 -0000

Thanks. On #4, there was a MHT article that came out today on a similar topic: http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2009/10/19/...

Re: A "To-Do" List for New Entrepreneurs Arriving in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:52:10 -0000

How could I forget StayInMa? Thanks Jeff.

Re: A "To-Do" List for New Entrepreneurs Arriving in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:26:48 -0000

Thanks! I hadn't heard of DartBoston. Sounds like a great community.

Re: A "To-Do" List for New Entrepreneurs Arriving in Boston

robchogo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:47:19 -0000

Most are, but the goal wasn't so much to include everyone as to have a somewhat curated list that's also manageable. Thanks!

Re: 10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

robchogo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:49:35 -0000

4 Steps to the Epiphany is a favorite of mine on product marketing and customer discovery.

Re: The Difference Between Big Markets and Great Markets

robchogo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:45:34 -0000

Great comment David. Yes, it's almost more important for entrepreneurs because you have to live with your market on a day to day basis and try to figure out ways to deal with the good and bad. Best of luck!

Re: The Difference Between Big Markets and Great Markets

robchogo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:56:49 -0000

Yes, adjacent markets is key. Actually, one point I wanted to make was that thinking of markets is sometimes misleading altogether (especially when you are creating a new market). A better way to think about it is "jobs to be done". Usually, even in a new market, there ss an alternate way to get jobs done, so understanding those trends are important. For example, although Twitter has created a "new market", many of the "jobs" that Twitter performs aren't new. Discovering content is a job performed by search engines, newpapers, RSS feeds, etc. And all of those players are relevant in the ecosystem of Twitter's new market. Stealing from Clay Christensen on this one :)

Re: Getting a job in venture capital

robchogo — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:30:48 -0000

Nice post Chris. Let me add my 2 cents to expand on your "getting a job in the first place" section.

1. Approach the process like a sales guy. Most MBA's have never had a sales role, and are a little uncomfortable about doing this. But keep in mind that there is a finite universe of firms that you could join. Make your list, prioritize your leads, network like crazy to get good contacts at these firms, then work the pipeline. You don't want to be disingenuous about this, but you need to be aggressive and focused.

2. Working the pipeline means showing that you can deliver value as soon as possible. Have a point of view on one or two markets that you know well and think the target VC should care about. Try to find some early stage deals that are interesting, or entrepreneurs or executives that the VC should get to know to help them learn more about these markets.

Re: Pitch VC’s the right tail of the distribution, not the mean

robchogo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:01:40 -0000

Great post! I'm curious though about your own experience at SiteAdvisor. How was that exit perceived by your investors - given that it was a great IRR but not a right-tail outcome? Was there a conflict between your incentives when it came to the decision to sell the company vs. swing for a bigger outcome?

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

robchogo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:57:19 -0000

Great comments and excellent final question. I would like to see way more outcome data for students that pursue different sorts of higher education. There may also be studies on studies coming from different countries where time off between school is more prevalent or the time it takes to get a professional degree is shorter (both of these characteristics are true for Australia). Has anyone seen anything along these lines?

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

robchogo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:38:39 -0000

Interesting perspective. I think it comes down to the quality of the product. I think you can deliver a better education and more rich life experience at a much lower cost by completely changing the product. The demand side can be satisfied because they would have higher utility. In the housing example, it's tougher to get folks into smaller homes that are cheaper with greater utility.

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

robchogo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:34:59 -0000

Thanks Pascal. Actually, I completely agree with you. Learning is a lifelong thing, and there isn't necessarily a strict schedule that should be prescribed to everyone. In the model I'm describing, I think it should be totally fine to switch between concentrations, take time off between the community service component, work and study simultaneously using online instruction, etc. The key is to make it modular enough to do this. My emphasis in timing above isn't to say that everyone should speed through as fast as possible, but that we should have a cost and time effective path for those who are sensitive to this. Great points though!

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

robchogo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:31:33 -0000

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I actually have a hard time thinking about what fundamental capabilities a college grad should have. It really depends on the area of study and the goals of the person. I would say that the general idea is that the college graduate is better prepared to enter into a profession with a set of specialized skills that they don't get in a general K-12 education.

The list of fundamental capabilities I think is what we should expect of from our K12 education. Stuff like analytical problem solving, the ability to write and research effectively, decent math and verbal standards, etc. It's shocking to me when I see the stats of how ill-equipped many high school graduates are. I think the bar should be much higher there, and it's totally doable.

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

robchogo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:26:51 -0000

Thanks Tammy! Great to hear from you. Would love to hear about your experience sometime. Email me at robert dot go at sparkcapital dot com

Re: 2 Thoughts on Competition

robchogo — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:46:57 -0000

Thanks Kimbal. That's an excellent point. Focusing on competition is probably a second order priority after choosing the right market and getting the right people in the right roles.

And yes, that's what makes Tiger to good actually. He doesn't focus so much on competitors. His game is so good, he makes competitors focus on him!

Re: Rob Go's Tumblelog - RIP eBay Live

robchogo — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:17:51 -0000

Hey Preston, good to hear from you. It's always hard to know what's going on from the outside, so I'm glad to hear that the company is becoming more customer-centric. But it begs the question: which customers? The biggest buyers and sellers? Small business or consumer? Churned customers? It's an interesting problem I think. Solutions for one set of customers always hurt others, so I wonder how the company is thinking about this these days.

Re: Rob Go's Tumblelog - Meet the Real Most Interesting Man in the World - TV News : People.com

robchogo — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:28:49 -0000

It certainly made me try one!

Re: Spotting a Liar: Cliff Notes from CIA Training

robchogo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:15:33 -0000

Sounds like you've had some bad experiences. Sorry to hear that. I think we have a number of entrepreneur relationships at Spark that we are very proud of. And I think most of the people I know in this business do it because they love collaborating with entrepreneurs. I know it doesn't always work out that way though. I hope good entrepreneur/vc relationships become the commonplace.