There has been over the past 18 months a Cambrian explosion of startup life, many incubated by angels and seed funds. And now the process of natural selection is beginning again. I got back from the Valley Thursday and what I gathered from the people there is the same as what I’ve heard here: that… Read More
I was talking to a friend in Silicon Valley last night who told me about a consumer Internet startup that is generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue, with eye-popping year-over-year growth. What was striking about the conversation wasn’t the revenue itself, but that I’d never heard of the company it came from. This has… Read More
Two of the most influential thinkers in venture capital, Fred Wilson and Bill Gurley, today published brilliant essays encouraging venture-backed companies to consider an initial public offering. The climate hasn’t always been so sunny for IPOs. Two years ago, Fred Wilson noticed that companies weren’t going public because of the regulatory environment, noting that “every… Read More
It all started at 9 a.m. on July 30, when Dave McClure launched his blog post declaring that venture capitalists are dinosaurs. Since then, TechCrunch has posted four televised smack-downs between venture capitalists and angel investors, wondered aloud if Silicon Valley’s disruptors are themselves about to get disrupted, and will undoubtedly cover a live debate… Read More
Innovation and entrepreneurship are becoming my two least-favorite words, mostly because they are being appropriated in ways that are neither innovative nor entrepreneurial. Like in today’s New York Times essay by Tom Friedman. Friedman used to be one of my favorite writers. In Beirut to Jerusalem, when he talked about two sheiks on a flight… Read More
Redfin just published an essay on TechCrunch about what we learned from venture capitalists while raising money. Some of the small-is-beautiful thinkers here in Seattle may say it’s just another how-to guide for kissing investors’ fannies rather than boot-strapping a business. Not true! Our point wasn’t to tell people how to raise money; the entrepreneurs who are… Read More
Big news! We just announced a $10-million round of financing led by Greylock Partners’ James Slavet and his colleague David Thacker. Redfin’s group of existing investors — Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, DFJ, The Hillman Company — also pitched in on the round. We couldn’t be happier about the team behind us. Like all the… Read More
A few comments about Dave McClure’s Sunday post encouraging entrepreneurs under 30 to sell at the earliest opportunity, from someone who was a founder under 30. I won’t go into the full rant, since I already wrote that last year, but can’t help but comment on a few of Dave’s claims. (Dave already knows I… Read More
I was just about to go to bed when I saw Sarah Lacy on TechCrunch predicting that a 50% drop in venture capital investing last quarter signals the beginning of the end of the industry’s golden age. True to TechCrunch form, it was an eye-opener. And we share some of her concerns. A few weeks… Read More
Fred Wilson talked the other day about the importance of choosing a group of venture capitalists who like working together. It reminded me of how much I like our investors: Paul Goodrich from Madrona Capital, Marc Singer from BEV, Emily Melton from DFJ and Steve Hall from Vulcan. When I first got involved in raising… Read More