Archive: Venture Capital

I have a paranoia that I will miss something. So, I consistently start the day with a question for myself (and my team) — “what don’t we know now?”

There are a ton of variables that go into the perfect formula between venture capitalists and CEOs. Fortunately, venture capitalist Chip Hazard offers a detailed and actionable playbook for welding the best CEO/VC relationships.

The personal and professional growth experiences of entrepreneurs. Promise Phelon, a serial entrepreneur and author, shares her learnings acquired over the course of her journey as an underdog CEO.

Trust me, sometimes, getting a NO from a VC — no matter how peculiarly it is delivered — could be the best thing that ever happens to you.

Twenty years ago, on 11/19/99, I sold my first startup. It was a technology company selling something called “Java Beans.” My four co-founders and I had a life-changing experience when a company called BEA Systems acquired our company for over $100M. We were excited not just for our own lives, but the way it would

Human beings are tribal by nature. Our need to belong far outweighs many things in life. So, we naturally split into tribes.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch,” was the sound my gait made as I marched along a distant barren landscape. Here, there were no demanding customers, no competition putting pressure on me. There were no employees anxiously seeking consensus and no investors asking endless questions about our sales forecast. Absent were the industry publications offering views of the

“Four votes for John,” said one of my four co-founders. It was 1997, and we were deciding who among us would be the titular head of our first venture. It was a simple ceremony, no cryptic puffs of smoke through an old chimney. While I was happy to have won the election — I wanted to win — I

  What’s in a name? Well, a lot. Choosing the right name for your new company can go a long way in putting it on the map. I recently became CEO of a new blockchain computing company. One of my first tasks was to rename the company. Here is a brief story about how we

Coney Island Subway Train — istockphoto.com A few years ago, I wrote the following (internal) blog entitled, “See something? Do something!” It was meant to empower my employees to take charge of some of our company’s challenges. I wanted them to help me and my executive team solve them. To my surprise, it set the stage for

I recently attended the Future of FinTech Conference in New York. Among the plethora of panels and presentations delivered, the insurance technology content was most enlightening. According to CBInsights, the conference host, more than $7 Billion (620+ deals) has been invested in insurance technology (aka insurtech) since 2012. Let that sink in for a moment…