Blog

What Do You Suck At?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Jon Auerbach - General Partner, Charles River Ventures
One of the truisms of entrepreneurial startups is the importance of focus. Starting a company to compete against huge, well-capitalized companies is daunting enough. So focus...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Lessons Learned
3 out of 4 Venture Backed Startups Fail….. Well, Not Really
Friday, September 28, 2012 Sean Marsh - Co-Founder and General Partner, Point Judith Capital
This recent article from the Wall Street Journal suggests that there is a “Venture Capital Secret: 3 out of 4 start-ups fail”.  Failure, however, is defined as not returning...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Opinions, Success Stories, Voices
True tales from our 2012 tour of duty
Thursday, September 27, 2012 Jules Pieri - Founder and CEO, Daily Grommet
On the Friday that our Rakuten investment closed, It was formally concluded with a simple “the Eagle has landed” email from Yai-yan Sun, the Rakuten USA CFO.  She wrote...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Voices
Spend More Time on Your Mission - The Money Will Follow
Friday, September 21, 2012 Andy Palmer - Serial Entrepreneur, Advisor, & Investor
Time – and how you use it – is the most important consideration for a Founder.  This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my 20 years as an early...
Read more >
Best Practices, Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Lessons Learned, Voices
Zero to Sixty in 6.1 Weeks
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Aaron O'Hearn - Co-Founder, Boston Startup School
Now that we’ve wrapped up the inaugural session of the Boston Startup School and prepare for our next class, I thought I’d take a minute to reflect and share some...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Lessons Learned, Voices
Dealing with Preferences
Thursday, September 13, 2012 Dave Broadwin - Partner, Emerging Enterprise Center at Foley Hoag
The outcomes of negotiations around preferences never seem to have a compelling logic.  Under a particular set of circumstances is there a compelling reason...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Funding, Voices
Post-Seed Funding Checklist for Founder/CEOs
Friday, September 7, 2012 David Beisel - Co-Founder and Partner, NextView Ventures
You’ve just closed your seed round.  Other than starting to build, hire, and take over the world, there are a bunch of mundane things to do right away.  The following is a...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Lessons Learned, Voices
Scaling is Hard, Case Study: athenahealth
Thursday, September 6, 2012 Jeff Bussgang - General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
There are many companies that are competing to be the “operating system” for small businesses. The theory is that with the advent of the cloud in the digital age, small businesses...
Read more >
Best Practices, Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Lessons Learned, Voices
Leaders: Ask Your Team This One Simple Question
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 Todd Garland - Founder, BuySellAds.com
Recently, on my way to work, I wrote our team at BuySellAds the following email: Tomorrow, I want each person to email me, privately, 1 thing that I can do to make their...
Read more >
Best Practices, Entrepreneurship, Expert Advice, Lessons Learned, Voices
Funky Times...
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 Michael Greeley - General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
I spent some time this weekend looking at the recent VC funding data for this past quarter to see if any trends jumped off the page. While much of what I could discern in the data...
Read more >
Entrepreneurship, Funding, Voices