Watching Mr. Bernanke’s testimony to the House of Representatives Budget Committee. He just said something very poignant (paraphrasing): In1930s in US and more recently in Japan, the destabilization of the banking sector made it very difficult for entrepreneurs to get credit and very difficult to grow their business. What I see in this statement is… [Read more…]
January 9, 2009
This morning’s sessions at the InmanNews Real Estate Connect Conference in New York City included a panel discussion with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Jordan Levy of Softbank. Some interesting insights and perspectives regarding the state of venture capital and the general economy. From Fred Wilson (who also authors the A VC blog):… [Read more…]
November 8, 2008
Just picked up this link from Guy Kawasaki on Twitter. Good stuff if you have a few minutes… MIT hosted their 2nd Annual Elevator Pitch contest on October 18. Here’s the video of the event.
September 1, 2008
It’s been about a year since I closed up my consulting shop – Economic Information Services. The company provided business consulting services, focusing on Central Asia and Ukraine. Basically, our job was to develop local projects in these regions and find investment capital for them from international sources. I occasionally find myself comparing work with… [Read more…]
May 13, 2008
Attending local Silicon Valley events always seems to provide great fodder for articles and conceptual gymnastics – I attended an SVASE event last week – “Startup Founders – New Kids on the Block” – where Eric Marcoullier, Founder & CEO of Gnip, served as one of the panelist. Eric developed MyBlogLog (I’m a member) which… [Read more…]
April 30, 2008
I read an interesting article on VC Experts today regarding the movement of Angel Capital from the traditional equity stake in early stage firms to debt instruments. This seems to make sense for angel investors if the payback period for their initial investments is 5-7 years or longer. And considering that following the traditional model… [Read more…]
April 25, 2008
I spent the day today at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, serving as a coach to aspiring young entrepreneurs and companies in developing their “elevator pitch” and venture capital presentations during the University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition. Although the competition is a compilation of student-led groups that have been vetted at… [Read more…]
April 10, 2008
Quick update on a great event upcoming – April 24 – 26 – Hotel Kabuki (San Francisco’s Japan Town) The University of San Francisco Contest will feature 20 graduate student entrepreneur teams from around the world (MIT, Hong Kong UST, Cambridge, USF, Stanford, etc.) pitching their new venture proposals to panels of venture capitalists, top… [Read more…]
March 23, 2008
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, the “Ideas” page on the Sequoia Capital website is an outstanding resource. It’s rare (very rare) that a start-up can submit a business plan without any prior contacts and meetings with a venture capital firm and receive financing. But, this page is an outstanding primer of the themes and ideas… [Read more…]
March 20, 2008
Congratulations to Tom Monaghan (University of San Francisco, EMBA 2007) and Tesh Khullar (University of San Francisco, EMBA 2006) for their outstanding achievement in winning 3rd place in the National Seed Business Plan Competition in Santa Barbara last weekend. Tom and Tesh were one of 10 teams invited from among the 72 applications for the… [Read more…]
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February 10, 2009
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