The Seed, The Early And The Ugly

First, the good news... but then...

According to a WSJ 2/24/09 article:

Entrepreneurs Can Lead Us Out of the Crisis

"Only entrepreneurs have the flexibility, the freedom and the risk-everything ambition to find the path back to prosperity in a rapidly changing, technology-driven global economy."...

"- The marquee venture capitalists have little time nor inclination anymore to invest seed capital in early stage companies. The real heroes these days are the nonprofessional investors -- the "Angels." These folks aren't always the high net worth people we imagine, and often they aren't as sophisticated as we think."

Ouch! Of course, not being a "marquee venture capitalist", I am not really the target of those comments, and will happily continue to invest in seed and early stage companies. So rest assured, you can continue to throw at me inane ideas without markets!

Does the universe need yet another VC blog?

I have to admit it, yes I am one of those dreaded VCs who will decide on your life's dream without pretty much any idea of what you are talking about. All right, most of the time I try hard to understand your project, and sometimes I DO get it!

Because of my entrepreneur past (I started 4 companies with a variety of exits: IPO, M&A, and good old crash), I have always felt an attraction towards the graffiti on the University Cafe paper table cover early dreams of budding or experienced entrepreneurs. So I have spent my last 8 years as VC trying to coax some life out of half-hatched projects. 

So many early stage entrepreneurs need some simple feedback that I thought this blog might be useful to them. I will share my experiences with seed and early stage startups, while obfuscating them enough that only some entrepreneurs will recognize themselves, but I hope that the general public will get something useful out of these experiences.

So hang on for my next entry....