Playing the Long Game in Venture Capital
Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath”…
What Mistakes Do VCs Make When Fundraising?
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think…
On Funding — Shots on Goal
On Funding — Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets…
On Funding — The Denominator Effect
On Funding — The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio, which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that…
Introducing Trust, and the Importance of Product-Founder Fit
Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share…
The Changing Venture Landscape
The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm — even before the pandemic…
Density & the Future of Real Estate
Nearly six years ago, I was thrilled to invest in Andrew Farah and the team at Density when they had a vision for building anonymous tracking of how people use…
Upfront Ventures Raises > $650 Million for Startups and Returns > $600 Million to LPs
Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021…
What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. From 2019 to May 2022, the market…
Praying to the God of Valuation
Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation.…