Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadnt experienced since the late 90s we all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasnt always like this and frankly it took a lot of joy out of the industry for me personally.What happened? How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with mo...

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. The market was down considerably with public valuations down 5379% across the four sectors we were reviewing (it is since down even further).==> Aside, we also have a NEW LA-based partner Im thrille...

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on abox)Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VCgrowth.The industry has obviously changed enormously in 2022 but in many ways it feels lik...

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 office buildings, rentals and other publicspaces.And today, as the company announces their latest funding round of $125M at a $1B+ valuation, Im still thrilled to back Density as they are gr...

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 itself has been fully tamed. And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosy...

Photo by Vanna Phon onUnsplashCustomer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lions share of their marketing budget in todays social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because no surprise thats where the custome...

On Funding The Denominator EffectI 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 before investing in an early-stage startup it is close to impossible to know which of the deals you did will break out to the upside. Its therefore important to have en...

On Funding Shots onGoalBeing 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 are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustainedYou need be perfect with your market timing. Being too early is the same as being wrong. Being ...

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 about everyday, including:How to build a generational firm retaining partner talent and finding the complimentary networks and skillsets firms need to succeed overtimeThe state of venture to...

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 mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenu...

Just 21 months ago I couldnt have jogged 2 miles in under 20 minutes and now I can run 3 miles in 21 minutes or more to the point I can pretty easily run 7.5 miles in anhour.Im not super human and while Im a decent athlete I wasnt born with super genetics, extra doses of motivation or an unusual ability to tolerate suffering. I was in pretty good a...

Its March 1st as I write this*. The year is two months in. Seems like just a moment ago it was New Years Day and we were all committing to our better selves for 2021 as so many of us do. Its been a tough year for people around the world with the pandemic, work stress, crazy elections and uncertainty. Anybody would forgive you if your planslipped.St...

How I Shifted from Just Counting Calories to Supercharging My FitnessWorkoutsThis is part of a weight loss and fitness improvement series that Im writing to share how I went from 222 pounds and unable to bike more than 20 minutes on a Peloton to 153 pounds and running 812 miles / day in just 18months.Im no superhero and Im not going to give you som...

Socially distant hiking in Sedona (we drovethere)I recently wrote about my weight-loss journey over the past 18 months where I lost 65 pounds without a fad diet and returned to my college weight. If you want to get in better shape and havent read that you might start there. I separately wrote about some food plans Iuse.I started advice with the pre...

Im sorry to write so much about losing weight. I promised people I would write a few posts about this and I wanted to cover eating, mental game, measurement, what gear Ive used, sleep, water consumption / tracking, etc. So I have a few more posts to go and then I promise to stop filling up your screen with posts about me or about weight loss / heal...

Yesterday I wrote about my weight loss journey of the past 18 months where I lost 65 pounds in 18 months with no gimmicks or fads. No paleo, keto, intermittent fasting just sensible eating. If you didnt read the post it might be worth clicking on the abovelink.Some simple advice Ihave:Eating matters 10x more than working out. Both are important bu...

Today were announcing that my partner Kara Nortman is becoming Co-Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and I cant tell you how thrilled I am to welcome her to her newrole.As with all promotions, the reality is that Kara was already acting as a senior leader at our firm and also in the industry at large. She had all of the skills and traits we sough...

I gotta say it was a goodday.Im so fricking pumped today. Really, truly. Yeah, Valence announced > $5 million in funding led by GGV and Upfront. That IS a big deal, but Ill get to that. But Kamala Harris was picked to be the Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. That means shell be the first female Vice President of the United St...

Photo by Viktor Forgacs onUnsplashI was listening to Dan Primacks podcast on Pro Rata and he was interviewing Senator Klobucher who is now publicly and vocally speaking out against Uber purchasing Grubhub and has tried to mobilize againstthis.Her argument is that if Uber buys Grubhub (which itself once merged with Seamless) it would mean that Uber ...

Bevy is Emerging as a Leader in Software for Building Virtual Communities with $15 million to ProveItThe venture capital world has started firing up a few cylinders again and looking for businesses that it believes will help us all succeed in ways that resonate with new ways of working as we begin to return to work. Its clear things have changed f...

Several years ago I made an appearance in a burgeoning new podcast called 20 Minute VC, which by now needs no introduction. Harry was gracious enough to invite me back so this past week we recorded an episode discussing the current market environment.Please download the episode here, if for no other reason than to make Harry happy:) but Ive also in...

There is so much confusion and misinformation out there about the government sponsored payroll protection plan loans to companies that the heads of every small business CEO in the country must be spinning. We have been advising a lot of entrepreneurs so I thought Id open source some of the advice I have beensharing.I am not claiming to be the world...

In the past two weeks we have entered perhaps to most surreal experience in any of our lives. I think intuitively many of us believe it may be a more lasting impact than just 60 days at home, which is why we almost have a nervous laughter when we call (Zoom!) somebody we havent spoken to since before the crisis and acknowledge how bizarre we all fe...

I am due to speak at the SaaStr conference next week: Wednesday, March 11th at 10:45 AM. I had originally signed up to talk about the VC Market Trends overall but it seemed inauthentic to speak about VC funding without addressing the virus in the room. So I wrote a brand new deck outlining some Upfront views on what we may see in the funding market...

Every year, a personal Upfront Summit highlight is getting to sit down with experts in a field I care about. Sometimes thats venture capital generally (like last years conversation with Reid Hoffman) and sometimes its in a space where Ive invested (like mobility and city innovation with Birds Travis VanderZanden, one of our portfolio founders.)Ive ...

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problem...

Some Seriously Great News. No, SeriouslyExactly six years ago today I received an email from my friend Ynon Kreiz introducing me to Andrew Stalbow and Petri Jrvilehto. Ynon had been the CEO of Maker Studios and I trust his opinion a great deal so of course I took themeeting.Andrew and Petri had left game developer Rovio (of Angry Birds fame) and we...

Announcing Projector A Startup Ive Been Excited to Tell You About forYearsA few years ago I spent time in prison with Trevor OBrien, the founder of Projector. Yes, I always imagined announcing the company that way. We were of course there to work with incarcerated men on developing entrepreneurial skills on behalf of Defy Ventures. We had met prev...

Managing Your Startup Board A Short PresentationI was invited to do a keynote presentation at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit this week in Sausalito. It was an amazing gathering of some of the most ambitious early-stage CEOs looking to make a dent in fields related to healthcare, biology, AI and other transformative fields. Its encouraging to know ...

My Commencement Speech Life at Your CrossroadsPhoto by Justin Luebke onUnsplashCrossroadsCal Poly Pomona! Whats up!?! Im so grateful to be up here addressing you today. Today youre either here to graduate or support somebody graduating. A graduate is at his or her first major crossroad in life. You are faced with decisions about which road to take...

The Truth About the Scooter Economy An Insiders PerspectiveBird Zero that are custom designed by thecompanyThere is a story arc of the electric scooter market that took the world by storm in 2018, was second-guessed late in the year and has quietly re-emerged as a powerful force of growth where few really appreciate the speed and scale of what has...

I fund startups for a living and before that I ran two software startups that I founded. Ive spent countless hours looking at historical finances, budgets, forecasts and future projections. With a standard tech startup I can tell you in my sleep that your two biggest cost items by a long shot are people (between 6075% of total costs) and space (102...

Photo by ROBIN WORRALL onUnsplashSeveral members of your executive taken hours to prepare board materials so that you can inform your board of how things have gone since you last met 3 months ago and you have 3 hours together to make sure they have an accurate picture and to make sure you have their input into how to proceed in the months ahead. Gi...

Photo by Juliette F onUnsplashNetworking is a critical part of relationship building and there is no event more valuable to building relationships than the proverbial breaking of bread with people. I personally run many group lunches & dinners and I attend even more so Ive developed a set of tips I often pass along in how to make these the most...

Photo by Filipe Delgado fromPexelsWeve all been in meetings that get off track sinking ever down the proverbial rat hole, from which rescue feels impossible. How does it happen? And how can you avoidit?This is part of a series on ManagingBoards.In my last post I wrote about board preparation before the meeting and frankly this can be applied to an...

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last boardmeeting.Thats certainly one function of every board but if your board is your brain trust and the people you can most use as a sounding board to help you make the toughest decisions in y...

Ive sat on many boards over the past 2 decades and seen my share of high-functioning boards and low-functioning boards. Here are some observations I have from this exposure:If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board proba...

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. It can start 21 founders to investors and then sometimes moves to 32 but sometime around the A, B or C round the idea of independent directors comesup.This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board mem...

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I will also delve into how to prepare for them, how to make the meeting effective and how to best follow up to make sure people takeaction.Photo by rawpixel onUnsplashIn response to one of my posts I saw this great Tweet by Bilal Zuberi and it reson...

Should All of Your Management Team Attend Board Meetings?The age old question for every startup is whom to involve in the board meeting. The reality is that there are some board meetings in which having a broad set of management present is a great idea and there are some meetings where in can be a hindrance.Photo by rawpixel onUnsplashThe goal of t...

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members). Bad board members can make business very unple...

Startups that are backed by professional financial investors almost always have a Board of Directors that consists of some set of founders, investors and sometimes independent directors.While the management of a startup company deals with the day-to-day decision-making within the company (strategy, budgets, goals, tasks, compensation) ultimately th...

I was scanning Twitter this past week and I came across these great Tweets by Michael Seibel at Y Combinator.body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}When I was young I thought management was about distribution/delegation of responsibilities. I now realize it is truly about the mainte...

Over the past month a colleague (Chang Xu) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. We published our initial findings in our deep dive on the VC industry in which we showedthat:Venture Financings for traditional VC is relatively flat over the ...

As you may know we run an annual conference called The Upfront Summit in which we try to bring together the world of investors, entrepreneurs and interesting people from the world of sports, politics, music & film. We do this to showcase what is uniquely LA and to create a more cohesive network in our community.We have sought ways to make it mo...

Ive heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. Were in a new tech bubble! some have pronounced. Valuations are out of control is the mantra of others. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together.Every year I try to answer the...

Stacey Abrams Interviewed by Lisa Borders, CEO ofTimesUpThis past week Stacey Abrams spoke at The Upfront Summit in a 25-minute talk followed by a breakout town hall discussion. You may know that later today she will deliver the response to The State of the Union speech by the president.She was interviewed by Lisa Borders, CEO of TimesUp (who spoke...