I get asked this question a lot and while the real answer is โI have absolutely no idea,โ I thought Iโd 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 โgetting a job at a venture capital firmโ). 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 aโฆ
Posts By / seth levine
Make original mistakes
โMake original mistakes.โ Someone (Brad? Wendy? I canโt 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 CEOโs and executives at the companies I work with; etc.. These are great resources for me to tap when Iโm faced with challenges. Whether you workโฆ
Time and place
Iโm annoyed at the sate of the user interface for computing these days. Itโs too hard to sync or share data across applications (the โsuiteโ concept for office seems to be missing completely โ little app buttons in various programs or not) and itโs both annoying and difficult to get my computer to present information to me in the way I want it. I think the root of the problem is that there is no concept of relationship in (or god forbid, between) applications. Iโm constantly typing information and then retyping or cutting and pasting it somewhere else. I canโt easily clip something from one work area and put it into another. Other than folders (which are painfully annoying andโฆ
The state of the feed world
Iโve had Feedburner on the mind recently (my last post was on the company as well). Iโm on my way back from our first post investment board meeting in Chicago as I type this and I had a chance to spend yesterday afternoon playing around with their system (read: see how many hits and how many subscribers are being served to various sites that have burned their feed). Lots of interesting data there. Feedburner is preparing a post on this, so I wonโt steal their thunder, but I will share three data points that struck me: First, the number of subscribers to the largest feeds is pretty amazing โ the top sites have literally hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Second,โฆ
Feedburner clarified
David Jackson, who is the author of The Internet Stock Blog (as well as a series of other blogs on investing and technology), was kind enough to add me to his recommended VC blog list. As part of our exchange about this I noticed that he hadnโt โburnedโ his feeds through Feedburner (which is a Mobius backed company). I asked him why he hadnโt done this and he replied with some really good questions about their service. I thought I would reprint them here, along with my responses with the idea that if David, as a sophisticated blogger, had these questions other people probably do as well. David writes: Iโve resisted using Feedburner, because: 1. Itโs not clear to meโฆ
Why blog?
Paul Kedrosky writes on his blog: Here is a puzzler: Why are there so many venture capital blogs? It is hard not to notice that there a host of such things out there, from Brad Feldโs to Fred Wilsonโs, and everyone in between. Here are five possible hypotheses: 1. Professional service firms are highly branded by individual, so it makes sense to get out there and present yourself as a way of attracting deal flow. 2. There are just as many legal/financial/other blogs, but those people arenโt as good at getting media attention. 3. Venture capitalists donโt have enough to do. 4. Having a blog as a technology VC is a way of demonstrating your technical competencies. 5. Having aโฆ
M&A Part II โ A few thoughts on negotiating skills
This is the second in a series of posts on the art of mergers and acquisitions. See the first post in the series here. I think the most important part of being an effective negotiator is not being a persuasive talker (although that is a skill that is helpful) โ but rather being a very good listener. Its tempting to spend your time in a negotiation thinking about all the great points you can make and concocting elaborate strategies for getting your views across to the other party, but one canโt really do that and effectively hear what someone else is saying at the same time. The best negotiators spend the time when someone else is talking to listen intentlyโฆ
Factiva says โyesโ to RSS
Yesterday Factiva and Newsgator announced a deal that will allow Factiva customers to access their Factiva content via RSS (specifically through Newsgatorโs Outlook reader and on-line system). This is a great milestone in the development and adoption of RSS โ hereโs my take on the deal: First, for those of you who are not familiar with Factiva, itโs a joint venture between Reuters and Dow Jones that provides their users with customizable content (from news articles to D&B reports to other types of company profiles). The idea is to allow their customers to stay up to date on news that is relevant to their business (customers, competitors, etc.). The deal with Newsgator marries specialized and proprietary content (Factiva) with aโฆ
The days of yore
Credit to Brad for this one โ I had completely forgotten about it when he sent it to me (I waited for him to blog it, but heโs been out of town so I thought Iโd put it up). Remember the wayback machine? www.waybackmachine.org. It lets you search for old versions of web sites. Want to know what Yahooโs site looked like in October of 1996 โ here you go . How about Netscape that same month (makes you wax nostalgic, doesnโt it?) . Google beta anyone? Miss the Nasdaq at 4,800? Here it is. Enjoy!
Taking 100% responsibility one step further
Sandy Hamilton (one of the key execs at Newsgator) did a nice follow-up post to the note I wrote about taking 100% responsibility. In it he talks about what that actually means โ how we present ourselves and the importance of taking responsibility not just for what you are saying, but also for what other people are hearing. What a powerful concept. Thanks Sandy for taking this to the next level. In case the link above isnโt working, hereโs the full URL of his post: http://sandyhamilton.blogs.com/sandy_hamilton/2005/04/did_i_say_that.html