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

leehower — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:58:40 -0000

Fair distinction then. In addition to both the time commitment you note, both Joe and John are very hands-on as "mentors" or "accelerators" or however you want to describe.

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

a32b — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:33:24 -0000

That's the kind of info good entrepreneurs would track down anyway, so
I can't imagine you're harming anyone.

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: 10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

monicadickey — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:09:18 -0000

Thanks. I just checked it out on amazon and I'm going to buy that, it sounds good!

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

jasonevanish — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:28:52 -0000

You should come check it out. They have events every Thursday night. Everyone is welcome.

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

cdixon — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:01:38 -0000

Totally agree, especially with the idea of finding real early stage
companies and proposing them to the VCs.

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

twitter-2529971 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:46:28 -0000

Good question. You'd have to ask my VCs (who I think you know)... :)

But I think the important distinction here is: VC's want to invest in companies that have a chance of being billion dollar exits. That doesn't mean they won't sell a company for (far) less than that if the offer is attractive enough.

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

KevinVogelsang — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:57:32 -0000

There should definitely be higher standards for the outcome of K12 education (I've got some ideas for that).
When it comes to fundamental capabilities, I believe timing is important. The sooner they can be learned the better. But, at the very least, they should be accomplished upon graduating college (although some should be accomplished earlier). There are some basics such as learning to do research, effective communication, analytical skills, etc.

But there are some fundamentals, that can't be accomplished before "college." These boil down to a certain level of self-awareness and life skills. I'd say the main thing most people learn in college is just learning to take care of themselves, as college is often the first time an individual is away from home for a prolonged period. Most students learn a lot of lessons about dealing with simple stuff like finances and cooking. Hopefully college students learn to deal with alcohol, relationships, and other life skills.

As you've pointed out, using college as an avenue to learn these life skills is not the most cost effective. It's also distracting from the academic learning process.

And then there's self-awareness. A basic goal of college is to train a productive member of society. This is a good objective. But this is difficult when a student has no concept of what motivates them, what they really enjoy, and what types of work they want to do. Most people end up working in a field unrelated to their major. This is fine and inevitable. But, what education can do better at is helping students get to an understanding of what types of work they want to do. There are distinct attributes and propensities that people possess that make them very fit or unfit for certain work environments.

Better self-awareness helps a student understand what they want to get out of their time in school. Better motivation in and understanding of education vastly increases the value of education.

Re: A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

pegobry — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:30:04 -0000

Thanks.