Press and Media
A VC, an Entrepreneur and a Serial Killer Dial Into a Virtual Sports Bar
How entrepreneurs and investors can use their respective insanity to work together and drive better alignment and results Fund-raising is always tough. I originally wrote this post a month ago to help entrepreneurs navigate the always trepid waters of fund-raising. In...
Thoughts on the Current Startup and Venture Landscape
Hall is joined by Michael Smerklo, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures. Hall and Michael kickoff this episode learning about Michael's background before investing in early-stage companies. Michaels background includes being a CPA and investment...
Startups Aren’t Cool Anymore – And That’s Okay
This week, The Atlantic ran an article by an MBA student who was noticing how startups aren’t ‘cool’ anymore. Between the threat of an economic downturn and looming student-loan payments, the author discusses how coffee-break conversations about business ideas with...
What The Economist Got Wrong About the Decline of Silicon Valley
I never thought I would start a blog post with such an audacious claim about the journalistic acumen of The Economist. However, having just finished reading The Economist’s September 1st cover story on Silicon Valley titled: “a victim of its own success,” I felt...
Gut Check For Entrepreneurs: Are You A Glass Eater?
As a venture capitalist, I often get asked what an ideal investment looks like for my firm. What metrics do we look at to assess a business model? What’s our sweet spot? What makes us write the check? I joke that we have a highly proprietary secret formula, unique to...
Competitive Analysis: The Greatest Competitor Entrepreneurs Always Forget
'"People are busy. There are six billion people on the planet yet none of them wake up in the morning and think: ‘Geez, I wonder if there is a new product out there I should know about.'" -Marc Andreessen interview on Brian Koppelman’s podcast As a venture capitalist,...