A few years ago I wrote a post on how to get a job in venture capital. It was lucky enough to get broad distribution and remains my most viewed and linked to post. I’ve had a number of questions about it over the years and have tried to respond to people who wrote in to ask my opinion about their VC job search. One of the most common questions I’ve received runs something like: “I get it – finding a venture job is hard. I still really want to try and I have a 5+ year outlook on this. What should I do during that time to work towards my goal of landing a venture job?” Of course the…
Posts By / seth levine
Is Facebook replacing email?
If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I love platforms in general and Facebook in particular. And since I’ve been thinking about messaging recently (see my post yesterday on Twitter as my new instant messenger) I’ve been noticing the increasingly varied methods I use to communicate. I’m curious if others have also experienced a trend away from old school email. In particular I’m seeing an increase in the volume of messaging on Facebook – from Jeff suggesting on my wall that I try out Twhirl (in response to a tweet about a Snitter problem I was having) to old high school buddies re-connecting through direct message. And I’m not even a heavy Facebook user. A…
at my desk in boulder yesterday
Twitter is my instant messenger
I’ve been off instant messaging for years. There was nothing about it that I found appealing or that added to my productivity. I realized this morning that Twitter has become my new IM. I publish what I’m doing (and as a result people know if they can reach me or not, whether to try me at my office or on my cell, etc.). I stay in touch with my friends and colleagues by following what they are up to (and therefore know how to get in touch with them if I need to). Through following and being followed I keep up with more people and don’t have to "check in" as much because I know what they are doing, where…
Big Company. Little Company
I was out at the Microsoft Mountain View campus a few weeks ago for an event hosted by their venture relations group. I had the chance to meet Chris Liddell, MSFT’s CFO, along with 3 of their divisional CFO’s. It was a pretty wide ranging discussion from how they are thinking about M&A to several strategic area of focus to how the divisions are working together on projects that cross divisional boundaries. The thing that struck me the most was not the WHAT of their thinking, but the HOW. I participated in a break-out session with Tami Reller, CFO of Platforms and Services division (which includes their search and online advertising properties). There were about 15 of us in the…
My first music post
Excuse the shameless pitch but I feel compelled to tell you about the new Soul Patch album, Sooner or Later. Soul Patch is a band that includes my partners Ryan and Jason. Sooner or Later is the band’s aptly named second album (aptly named because it was 6 years in the making). The band’s music is a mix of classic rock, a bit of funk and soul spiced with great rhythm and outstanding musicality. I really like their style and this new album is fantastic. Here are a few links to check out to meet the band, sample the music and buy the album: Soul Patch Web Page, Facebook page and schwag Sooner or Later Album Page Buy the album…
Know your audience
I don’t know what it is about the last few weeks – maybe the change of season; maybe something in the water – but I’ve been absolutely amazed at how often people have showed a complete lack of comprehension for who was in the room with them. This may sound more calculating than I intend it to, but I think its a good practice to always consider who you’re talking to before you start in on a conversation. This is especially true when you’re negotiating for something, making a request or otherwise trying to drive to a specific outcome. I’ve witnessed several pretty amazing examples of a complete lack of thoughtfulness around this notion of late. From making idle (and…
Know what you don’t know
[see the bottom of this post for an invite code to a new service that helps solve the problem I’m describing here] It’s probably passe to say that we live in an information economy. It’s also probably not correct anymore because really we live in an information NOW economy. Staying on top of the topics that are important to you and your company has never been more important. And with the explosion of media sources (particularly on-line) this has never been more of a challenge. Back in the day, large companies would outsource the function of knowing what was said of them and their competitors to various "clipping services", so named because they would line up the major new outlets…
How I don’t travel
We have a great partner dynamic at Foundry. We’ve all worked together for at least 7 years (in some cases over 10 years) and are close friends as well as colleagues. We also have pretty varied styles and opinions. Case in point – Brad’s recent post on his travel habits. I couldn’t be more different in how I approach travel. Heading to the west coast, Brad likes to get up insanely early and take the 6am flight to SFO so he can start his meetings at 8:30. I’ve done that about a dozen times and finally realized that I just can’t deal with the 22 hour day that results from it. I was doing it a lot on Mondays and…
Have funds, will travel
My partner Chris just put up a post on the Foundry blog about our geographic (actually non-geographic) approach to investing. We’ve talked in past posts about how we organize our thinking about potential investments into "themes" that we use to guide our focus. One of the important precepts of taking a thematic approach to investing is that we don’t create artificial boundaries that limit where we’ll follow an investment theme – we let the theme guide us to the best companies that we can find, regardless of where they are located. In the past this has taken us to Chicago, New York, the Bay Area, Orange County and many points in between. It does mean that there’s more time spent…