I’ve been on the board of the Bard Center at CU Denver for several years now. One of the things I enjoy the most about my work with the organization is our annual business plan competition (in fact it was through judging this competition that I first connected with the Bard Center). Each year six finalists are selected to present to a panel of judges and $25k is awarded among the 6 finalists (in addition to prizes for 1st-6th place there are also cash awards for the top plans in specific categories (bio-science, non-profit, etc.). The event will take place on June 11th at the Hyatt in downtown Denver (finalist presentations from 8:30 – 12:00 and the awards lunch from…
Archives / May, 2008
Jason Mendelson Blogs!
I know what you’ve been saying to your self: “Self – I’ve been looking to read a blog written by a reformed drummer, software guy and lawyer who is now a venture capitalist. Where can I find one of those?!?” All joking aside, I’d encourage you to check out the blog that my partner Jason Mendelson (who is all of those things and many more) has just started. Jason is actually a long time blogger – writing regularly on Brad’s blog and as one of the founders of and main contributors to AskTheVC. Mendelson’s Musings will have a more personal flair (although will continue to cover investing and venture capital topics as well). Along those lines be sure to check…
Grandpa
My grandfather passed away 5 years ago today (I can’t believe it’s bee that long…). I think about him a lot, but especially today on his Yahrzeit. I wrote a post a few years ago on one of my favorite sayings of his here. Today I’ve been thinking about the approach he took to his career. I recently wrote a post offering some suggestions about getting a job in venture capital. While I think its great to have career goals and an eye toward the future, my grandfather is a great reminder that sometimes the right path involves following the path that lays out in front of you. He left school to help raise money for his family during the…
Guest Post: The role of company advisors (Part I)
One of the things I enjoy the most about writing this blog is the discussion I engage in with readers – both through blog comments and in direct emails. Over the past month I’ve had a particularly enjoyable exchange with Gerald Joseph. One of the topics we’ve discussed is the role of advisors in the life of a start-up. I generally think of advisors as non-paid "friends of the company" and as you’d probably guess, advocate a pretty deliberate organization and use of advisors. Gerald’s view is a little more expansive as he thinks of "advisors" as the larger ecosystem that surrounds (or should surround) a start up company – one that includes people you pay (attorneys, CPAs, etc) and…
Your company should have a blog
I participated in a panel presentation last week on corporate blogging. While each of the panelists brought a slightly different perspective, the overall message to the group of a few hundred local small business execs that were in attendance was that blogging can help their company. Specifically blogging can allow them to participate (or lead) conversations in their industry; increase significantly the meaningful content on their site; provide a way for them and their key customers to evangelize their products; help their search rankings across their site; allow a platform for talking about corporate culture (to both an internal and external audience) and in many cases save hard dollars spent on press releases and certain marketing activities. Here are a…
Saying "no" can be hard to do
At the risk of opening myself up to a landslide of snide comments expressing sympathy for the "difficult" job a VC has saying no to so many potential investments, but in the interest of being open about the experience of venture capital from the inside I offer up the following thoughts: Sometimes it’s very easy to decide to decline a company’s request for financing (and we see literally thousands of plans a year, so we’re pretty well practiced at it). Many times the company simply isn’t a fit for our investment focus (we get a few "invest in our [pick one] manufacturing/car wash/custom painting/etc business" requests ever year). Or the business plan is clearly off base (my personal favorite from…
Your chance to play designer
If you’re like me, you spend most of your days pining away for the life that would have been had you followed your true passion into product management and design. Ok – I’m being flip, but we all have opinions on the way the sites we visit look, feel and work. So here’s your chance to weigh in on an important design decision and help out a Foundry investment in the process. Lijit is coming out with a new thumbnail feature in their search results (very cool) and can’t decide how to best lay out those results with the picture. So they’ve tossed it out to their user base (and other interested – or at least opinionated – parties). So…
Working at the Caribou in downtown Denver before a board dinner tonight
I remember loving Caribou when I lived in MN (and they were a "local" coffee shop). Haven’t been in years, but just had a very tasty latte. Should keep me awake through the board dinner and my drive home later tonight…
Looking for embarrassing blogging stories
I’ve got some great corporate blogging use-case stories for my panel presentation on blogging next week. Now I’m looking for some embarrassing ones. They can be personal or corporate related. Feel free to leave them in comments (if you’re ok with the world seeing them) or just email me directly.
I think blogging is cool…
I also think it’s a fantastic business tool. I’m speaking on a panel to that effect next week in Denver along with Tim Higgins from Indigio, Jon Nordmark from eBags, Ken Klispie of Disaboom and David Gibbons of Zillow. If you’re around and interested (or just want to come heckle) please come!