I wrote a post about a month a go in my M&A series about drawing lines in the sand (see the original post here). In it I argued that people negotiating m&adeals are too quick to dig in and make statements that they can’t/don’t intend to back up. I was reading Ben’s blog today – his latest post references a HBS article on a similar subject that is worth a read. Here’s the quote that Ben pulled from the article that pretty much sums up its contents. When you look at the article pay attention to their point # 5 – it’s exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post. “In the classic game of Chicken, two drivers…
Posts By / seth levine
Another one bites the dust
By now everyone has heard that Sun has agreed to acquire Colorado based storage company StorageTek. The press release was pretty ubiquitous, but if you haven’t checked out the presentation that accompanied it, it’s wroth skimming through here. Good for Sun . . . good for StorageTek . . . bla bla shareholders . . . bla bla convergence . . . bla bla network and data management. . . bla bla bla. Ok – with that out of the way I wanted to touch on a disturbing trend in the Colorado market, particularly in technology. We’re losing our CO based companies. The truly scary part is that we didn’t start out with many to begin with. This is a…
Networking 101
Networking – To interact or engage in informal communication with other for mutual assistance or support (from Dictionary.com) I talked about networking in my recent post on How to become a venture capitalist. In it I said that I’d put up a separate post with more detailed thoughts on the subject. I don’t pretend to be the final source on the matter, but I do regularly engage in the art of networking – on both the network-ing and network-ed side of the equation. As with all my posts, comments are welcomed (and appreciated). Sorry in advance for the length of this one – I tried cutting it down, but couldn’t get it to work that way . . . Step…
Thinking of grandpa
My grandfather died on this date two years ago. He was a great man and I’ve been thinking about him all day. (As an aside, my wife pointed out that it would probably be a more appropriate to do this on his birthday rather than on the day he died, to which I responded that, as a Jew, it just feels right this way . . . <g>)My grandfather was truly of the ‘greatest generation’ – growing up through the depression; dropping out of high school to help support his family where he was one of 11 children; eloping with my grandmother; serving in WWII; raising children; working a variety of jobs, but always making ends meet; enjoying retirement; taking…
Follow up to “Thinking in groups”
Writing this reminds me that there really should be a function in TypePad that allows you to simply elevate a comment to a post . . . Abhi responded to my post on Thinking in groups with the following comment, which was right on target: tohers), and thus assume that that the correct behavior was inaction). Let me expand on this in the context of venture capital, since I didn’t get into it in my original post. I think the pressur around conformity is significantly exacerbated for a non-partner VC . In a body of equals there’s clearly some pressur to go with the flow. Where the group is not all on equal standing this pressure is intensified. Clearly a…
Thinking in groups
In one of my first posts (The Adventure Reference) I talked about what amounts to pattern recognition – the ability to interpret information and draw conclusions based on experience with similar sets of circumstances. I was thinking about how difficult this can be the other day and, importantly, how easy for groups (i.e., boards) to sometimes lean towards a similar interpretations of events. This reminded me of a classic experiment in psychology that very clearly illustrates this point. In 1962 psychologists Schachter and Singer 1962 performed an experiment that dealt with what they called the two factor theory of emotion. Basically they were trying to show that people’s interpretation of an emotive state can be easily influenced by environmental factors…
Sltashdotted for VCs
I got the VC equivalent of Slashdotted today when Daniel Primack of PE Week Wire referenced my “How to become a venture capitalist” post in his daily e-mail this morning. Traffic on my blog went crazy (it was already running a little high this week from that post – particularly after Brad and Fred each referenced it at my request). I’ve even had some publications ask me if they could reprint the article. Pretty cool stuff. As a result there are a lot of people hitting my site that are first time readers. Allow me to suggest a few posts to check out that I think are representative of my writing. Here’s why I blog (link) Here’s why I call…
Welcome Will Price to Blogging
I’m always encouraged when I see other non-partner VC’s blogging. As regular readers of this blog know, I’m using it in part to explore some of the differences between being a partner and being a non-partner in the venture industry. While there are a number of great VC partner blogs, there are many fewer non-partners writing (when I started VC Adventure there were almost none). We’ve added one more to the ranks recently – my friend Will Price from Pequot Ventures. I first met Will about 10 years ago when we were both analysts for Morgan Stanley. Like me, Will didn’t take well to banking and has traveled a somewhat circuitous path to his role at Pequot. He’s a smart…
How to become a venture capitalist
I get asked this question a lot and while the real answer is “I have absolutely no idea,” I thought I’d make something up here so I at least have a place to send people who ask me this question (as well as anyone else who happens to stumble upon this blog searching for ‘getting a job at a venture capital firm’). This post is for aspiring analysts, associates and principals and has little to do withgetting a job as a partner (which I hope to figure out one day too . . .) Step one: Assume you will not be able to land a job as a venture capitalist. This is the realistic outcome of trying to get a…
Make original mistakes
“Make original mistakes.” Someone (Brad? Wendy? I can’t remember) said this in a board meeting about a month ago. I wrote it down on a piece of paper and have been carrying it around with me ever since. The concept is right on and meaningful no matter what you do. For me it is a reminder of two important things: First, we all have mentors and peer groups. As a venture capitalist, for example, I have the partners and principals at my firm; I have partners at other venture firms with whom I have worked with closely; I have the CEO’s and executives at the companies I work with; etc.. These are great resources for me to tap when I’m faced with challenges. Whether you work…