Lessons for Startups from the Craft Beer Industry
One of the great things about the west coast of the US is the incredible variety of beer available locally for beer enthusiasts. This is rooted in some legitimate local beer history — San Francisco is home to the Anchor Brewing company, which became one of the first modern US microbreweries after it was purch
The Map and the Territory
A number of years ago, I read a book by French author Michel Houellebecq titled La Carte et le Territoire (EN: The Map and the Territory). The expression was first coined by Polish American scholar Alfred Korzybski encapsulating the view that an abstraction derived from something is not the thing itself.
Moving on to Build Promus Ventures in Europe
I am delighted to join the team at Promus Ventures and help establish our presence in the European market. I have been active in the European Venture Capital market for the best part of the last 15 years, initially at Atlas Ventures, where I learned the trade from some of the best VCs in the business.
Bad News is Good News, No News is Bad News
How can you tell if a founding team will be honest with investors? Every day someone is trying to sell us. Our job at Promus Ventures is to cut through the chatter and figure out if the team in front of us is all that and a bag of chips or just another team with hope as its strategy.
Measurement as a Differentiator
Promus Ventures has been investing in companies that are building amazing products at the intersection of data and tools like AI and Machine Learning since our first fund in 2013. With our team’s background in data and quantitative analysis this investment focus fits well with our natural inclination towards
How to Respond to a “No”
Surprisingly, many startup teams as well as VCs don’t respond well to hearing someone tell them “No.” Which is interesting in that founders and VCs should be hearing the word “No” all the time.
New Space Investing Taking Off
One sector where Promus Ventures has long believed has tremendous opportunity to change the global landscape is the emerging New Space economy.
Moving at startup speed
Since joining the Orbital Ventures team just over a month ago, there have been lots of new experiences that I have been getting used to — the transition from a corporate venture investment role at Qualcomm Ventures to a more traditional institutional venture capital gig has definitely been fun!
Top Ten Worst Email Inbound Lines
Tenacity is a good thing — we don’t receive because we don’t ask, so being a squeaky wheel is a good thing…to a point. “Squeaky” soon turns into “Annoying” which quickly turns into “Desperation” (and brings much hilarity in the process).
The Number One Rule for Startups
There are many traits needed for a startup team to grow and scale, but the NUMBER ONE rule for any startup cannot be stressed enough: Never, ever run out of money! It is as basic as the human need for oxygen.