Sincerely

Oct 28, 2011

Venture is a long term business.  Relationships are made and built over time.  Some of those relationships turn into investments and some never will.  And once I get to work with a founder I (almost spacer ) always look forward to the chance to work them again.  So when Matt Brezina dropped by the office almost a year ago to talk about Sincerely I was psyched.

Matt hung out a ton at our offices as he was incubating the idea and then once he raised money and started building the team he commandeered the office next to mine through the first product cycle.  We have a relatively small team in San Francisco but a big office because we like companies to not have to worry about space when they first start up (we’ve also had ModCloth, Uber, and Foodzie, among others, share our space as they are starting up).  It was great to watch him, Brian, and the rest of team iterate through ideas and execute against deliverables day after day.

Now Sincerely has their own office and the team is growing the products are being released at a nice clip.  We’re thrilled to be investors in Sincerely and working with Matt again.  Expect good things from them.

First Round Capital Is Hiring!

Apr 25, 2011

“How did you get into venture capital?”

I kind of hate that question.  Not because I have any particular point of view on how I became a venture capitalist.  No, I just don’t like it because like so many other people in the business I arrived here following a fairly unique path.  Inevitably the person asking is trying to find a pattern that they can use to get into the business and my story isn’t helpful for them.

As I gear up to hire a new associate for the San Francisco office of First Round Capital I know there is no standard way to find the next person to join our team.  Our current experience mix includes entrepreneurship, academia, banking, government, crime fighting, and some very poor scooter riding.  No one here burst from the womb wanting to do venture capital yet here we all are having the time of our lives while we strive to make our portfolio companies successful.

Given that, how do we find the next person?  I’m always game for trying a new model and so I am borrowing a bit from Angus Davis, the brilliant CEO of our portfolio company Swipely who builds his team in a very unique way.

If you are interested in working with us as an Associate, I’d love to hear from you.  But instead of telling you what I am looking for, let’s start with you telling me a little bit about yourself.  To structure the conversation I built this little website.  Head over there, answer a few questions, and let’s start this conversation.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Farewell, @christine!

Oct 27, 2010

I often get asked what I enjoy most about being in venture capital.  The answer is easy – every day I get to meet and work with the smartest and most creative people in the world.

One of those people is Christine Herron.  I had known Christine for years and was thrilled when she decided to join First Round Capital a few years ago.  Her calm demeanor, wit, and keen eye for very interesting companies made her a great fit for us.  She worked hard for many portfolio companies and was an integral part of our deal flow and decision-making process.

It was therefore a bittersweet moment when she told me she would be starting the next phase of her career by joining Intel Capital to work on their consumer investments.  I know that this is a great step for her in what has been and will continue to be a great investing career.  She will be working with a stellar team and awesome companies and will now be a wonderful syndicate partner for us.  On the other hand, I will miss bouncing ideas around with her and having her help on the companies we worked on together.

On behalf of the First Round Capital team, I give Christine a hearty congratulations and best wishes.  And I remain thankful that I am in a profession where every day I get to work with the smartest and most creative people in the world, like Christine.

Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs

Mar 7, 2010

We had a great event this week co-hosted by First Round Capital and Mayfield Fund called "Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs."  There were well over 150 seasoned and new entrepreneurs in attendance networking with each other for a few hours.  Additionally, a few lucky entrepreneurs won a mentoring session with some very successful entrepreneurs including Jay Adelson, Caterina Fake, Aaron Patzer, Gina Bianchini, Max Levchin, and Mark Pincus.

Founders face a unique set of issues when growing their companies from 2 to 20 people.  At this stage there is no better help than someone that has been there before you.  As a partnership we are always trying to find new ways to create support structures for the entrepreneurs both in our portfolio as well as the community at large.  We had this in mind when co-developing the structure of the event and it turned out quite well.  

Many thanks to Raj Kapoor and Emily Melton of Mayfield fund and the support teams in both of our organizations for putting on a great event.  Also, big thanks to the entrepreneurs mentioned above who donated mentoring time to help out fellow founders.  I look forward to the next one!

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Patzer?

Feb 28, 2010

spacer It was with bemusement that I read how Mint.com founder Aaron
Patzer has just been “verbed.”

The story goes that when Mint.com sold to Intuit for $170 million, they left way too much money on table because the company clearly had the opportunity to go for the billion dollar plus win.  This leads to what is now called the Patzer Problem, namely:

When companies sell for ~$100 million, and a much bigger outcome is possible, it is very bad for investors.

I understand that. For many venture funds, that size exit certainly doesn’t get close to making the fund successful.

But let me propose a corollary to the Patzer Problem:

For a normal homo sapiens, a ~$100 million exit is a life changing event.

There are certainly some founders who want to go big.  Those that have already had a smaller win are often not interested in another smaller win.  Other folks are just predisposed to continue building their company instead of selling it and being beholden to a different set of shareholders.  There are a whole group of founders who truly believe that they want to build a huge company right up to the point that they get that ~$100 million offer and begin thinking through the math.  But many are perfectly happy with a life changing event.  And I love them all.

I see the world rather simply.  Venture capital is like any other business.  We have customers (founders) and we have shareholders (limited partners).   Our job is to increase shareholder value, i.e. create an outsized return to our limited partners.  The way that we do this is by delighting our customers.  Our products include ourselves and our experience, our connections, and the structured value we can build around the portfolio, among other things.

For the record, the Mint.com exit was profoundly successful for us.  If we are doing things right and our company founders are successful, then over the long run we should be successful.   If we get to the point where our founders are successful but we can’t be, we should be rethinking our business.

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