A few quick market observations from dicussions I’ve had with portfolio companies over the past few weeks. All relate to just how a white hot economy has some downside effects on certain types of businesses. Certainly some early warning signs – curious if others out there are seeing the same. My take-away is that in many sectors of the economy companies quite literally don’t need more customers. They can’t handle the additional load because they can’t hire fast enough and their supply chains are stretched thin. We’ve seen this in digital advertising for sure (and not just in travel and other segments that might be reacting to the Delta variant). Interestingly we’ve also seen a couple of companies – especially…
Posts By / seth levine
Pledge 1% – Boardroom Allies
One thing I’m particularly proud of in my career is founding Pledge 1%, an organization that encourages companies to give back to their communities by donating a portion of equity, profit, time, or product to nonprofits in its community. It was bold idea from the beginning and I’m happy to see that more and more companies are taking the pledge (we’re around 20,000 strong now and growing quickly). Recently, Pledge launched a new initiative, Boardroom Allies, to broaden their network and reach. The Allies program is comprised of an alliance of VCs who have committed to unlocking $5 billion in new philanthropy over the next five years by helping their portfolio companies set aside equity for social impact prior to liquidity…
Calling Financial Innovators
The Kauffman Foundation published an article last week that my New Builders co-author, Elizabeth MacBride, and I wrote about the inspiration for writing the book and – related – about how our systems of finance and support need to evolve to meet the needs of today’s entrepreneurs. One of our biggest inspirations and favorite New Builders is Danaris Mazara of Sweet Grace Heavenly Cakes. Sweet Grace was born in 2008, as the Great Recession ripped through the United States, particularly affecting working-class communities like Lawrence, Massachusetts where Danaris lives. She can identify the exact minute the bakery was born. She had $37 in food stamps to her name. “What are you going to do with $37 in food stamps?” Danaris…
The Power of Giving Away Power
I don’t often write book reviews here on VC Adventure, but occasionally I read a book that I feel so strongly about that I feel compelled to write about it. The Power of Giving Away Power is exactly that kind of book – it’s exceptional. I’m fortunate enough to be friends with the author, Matthew Barzun, who has a fascinating and varied background. He was an internet entrepreneur, the US Ambassador to the U.K. and Sweden under President Obama, and was the National Finance Chair for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. More importantly, he is an incredibly thoughtful and compelling person. He puts all of these qualities and more into his new book, The Power of Giving Away Power, where he…
You Need More Nietzsche in Your Life
Nietzsche has so many famous quotes it’s sometimes hard to choose just one (most have heard that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger although I suppose few realize that it was the German philosopher who first penned it). My favorite, perhaps, is: there are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth. I like it in particular because in many ways it describes Nietzsche himself. His writing is often beautiful, but with a depth that sometimes takes time to fully recognize. In their new book, The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors, Brad Feld and David Jilk pick out some of their favorite Nietzsche quotes and form chapters around business lessons from them. It’s a brilliant construction and one…
Supporting Small Businesses – A Political Perspective
I’m really excited about an upcoming event that my partners at Foundry have put together that will build upon the discussion we’ve been having around New Builders in some critically important ways. Senator John Hickenlooper and Congressman Joe Neguse will join Denver entrepreneurs Makisha Boothe, Founder of Sistahbiz Global Network and Lorena Cantarovici, Founder and CEO of Maria Empanada Restuarant. We plan to dig deeper into why politicians like to talk about small businesses but rarely enact meaningful policies to help them (and increasingly seem to be favoring policies that support larger businesses at the expense of smaller enterprises). The event is free and will be held on Tuesday, May 18 at 1pm MTN / 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT. You…
Older Entrepreneurs Leading the Way
We had the opportunity to talk with many great entrepreneurs doing research for our book, The New Builders. I was struck by how thoughtful, determined, and gritty they were. As most readers know, the book focuses on entrepreneurs from a diverse set of backgrounds – people that truly represent the next generation of founders in the United States. One of the trends that we observe in the book is that the rate of entrepreneurship among older Americans is actually quite high. In fact, across all age groups, the fastest-growing group are entrepreneurs 55 and older. There are a number of interesting reasons for this that we talk about in the book. And we tell the stories of handful of older American…
Some Great New Builder Events This Week
It’s Boulder Startup Week and there is a great lineup of events happening all week. I was really grateful when Dave Mayer from Technical Integrity suggested I consider an event during BSW to highlight some of the trends around diversity that we write about in The New Builders. Makisha Boothe from Sistahbiz (who is featured in the book) is going to join me for a wide ranging discussion about who is actually starting businesses these days and how we can and need to better support them. I hope you can join us for it, Tuesday May 11 at 1pm MTN. You can register here. And, of course, check out the other great Boulder Startup Week events taking place all week….
Making a Better World – Uncharted’s Economic Equality Initiative
Uncharted is about to launch applications for their new Economic Inequality Initiative to support teams working on radical ideas to address economic inequality. I have a long history with the Unreasonable Institute (renamed Uncharted in 2017) and the work they’ve been doing around empowering entrepreneurs from many different backgrounds who are working across the globe on some of our world’s most important problems. Since 2010, they have helped an amazing set of entrepreneurs raise over $250 million, created impact in 96 countries, and benefited 37 million lives around the world. Amazing! Seeing extreme economic inequality as one of the biggest threats to America in the next 30 years, they’re launching their most ambitious program ever. I hope you can help…
Fortune: Tech entrepreneurs grab the headlines, but COVID relief should target grass-roots small businesses
With the fate of many small businesses remaining up in the air, after over a year of Covid related restrictions and challenges, my New Builders co-author, Elizabeth MacBride and I just authored a piece for Fortune that talks about the importance of saving America’s more Main Street businesses. We titled it Tech entrepreneurs grab the headlines, but COVID relief should target grass-roots small businesses – I hope you’ll check it out. The article talks about the importance of small business and tells the story of one New Builder – Carmen Portillo – who is the first certified chocolatier in the state of Arkansas. We tell Carmen’s story in more depth in the book, but the highlights are important to add texture and color to…