DealHorizon - the faster, easier way to create and share business plans

The sentiment towards founder liquidity among investors seems to swing back and forth like a pendulum.  Founder liquidity refers to instances when an investor invests capital to buy shares directly from a founder rather than or in conjunction with investing capital that goes into the company for traditional working capital purposes.  When capital goes to [...]

There used to be a single playbook in the NFL built around a simple philosophy - running and defense wins championships.  The entire operating approach of teams was centered on this singular belief.  The prototypical example of this was the 1986 Chicago Bears - think Buddy Ryan-coached defense with Mike Singletary and William "The Refrigerator" [...]

One of my partners led an impromptu game in our team meeting today which illustrates the emotional tension of cutting your losses.  For any investor or operator who takes risk with capital, the concept of cutting your losses comes into play at some point. The simulated game started had these ground rules: Everyone would have the chance [...]

I was reminded today of the commonly held belief that since the advent of mass media - good looks is a critical advantage in winning the Presidency of the United States.  So out of sheer curiosity (a common refrain in this blog), I pulled together the images of all 42 Presidents courtesy of the White [...]

There have been a number of great venture-backed acquisitions recently, and WSJ.com does a great job outlining the Top 10 acquisitions that have closed this year.  Here they are: Zappos ($847M) CoreValve ($700M) Pure Digital ($590M) Visiogen ($400M) SpringSource ($362M) BBN Technologies ($350M) Evalve ($320M) Ablation Frontiers ($225M) Mint Software ($170M) PayCycle ($170M) Let me revise the list to add in a few more things.  The list below includes deals that [...]

When the market crashed over a year ago, I got pretty motivated to stay on top of global macroeconomic research.  So, I started reading about 7 different sources of economic forecasts and analysis.  As the year has progressed, I have narrowed in on a couple that I think are keepers.  My two favorites are The High Tech [...]

Are you a cool parent?  It all depends on whether or not and under what circumstances your teen has "friended" you on Facebook.  The following ranking is principally based on real experiences of parents I know.  Here we go from the most cool (1) to the clearly not cool (10):  Your teen sought you out [...]

True to the name of this blog, I had the random thought of how many unique and legitimate answers there are to the simple question: 1+1= ?  Here are a few that I came up with: arithmetic:  1+1 = 2 visual: 1+1 = 11 logical: 1+1 = 1+1 Answers from the blogosphere: artistic/comical: 1+1 = window (video) binary: 1+1 = 10 If [...]

Here is the first quarterly update of the Global VC Blog Directory - originally published in May 2009.  These are the blogs of venture capitalists and VC firms from around the world - ranked by their number of Google Reader subscribers.  Please note, there are many great blogs with fewer subscribers as the number of [...]

I have always believed that a great education is invaluable.  The ability to learn new things, grasp new concepts and retain information are all important ingredients of success.  But, how valuable is a college education - which is only one form of education?  In the business world, I think a college education is extraordinarily nice [...]

One of the best lessons I learned early in my career about negotiation is simple: always leave something on the table for the other party.  To many, being a skilled negotiator means expertly and ruthlessly optimizing your self-interest.  Negotiating is about winning, or even better, beating the other party.  Satisfaction is knowing that you have left [...]

I went to a Red Cross CPR training class last night and it brought up some more thoughts on educational philosophies.  The methodology of teaching for the class was very much based on memorization.  The entire class was taught in the following pattern: If X happens, then do Y.  After you do Y, then do Z.  [...]

I have always had an affinity for a particular "type" of CEO. I never really bothered to try and define this "type" - I just knew it when I saw it. Until last year, in an MFG.com board meeting, Jeff Bezos articulated the framework that captured my...

Every day I meet for-profit companies that are trying to change the world by solving really big problems with groundbreaking innovations.  Today I asked my twitter friends which non-profits or charities are following suit.  Just like my day job, I...

I have been thinking a bit lately about the tension between copyright law and the proliferation of self-publishing online.  How do you protect your copyright when any work can be copied or transcribed within a second of its unveiling and published...

Today, I ran in the New England Masters Track and Field Championships in Cranston, RI.  It was really fulfilling to get back out and compete in a track meet.  Despite doing pretty well myself, the clear highlight of the event for me was watching Bob...

I have found that there's a simple test for whether you are learning in your career.  Look back 3-5 years from today and ask yourself if you could have been substantially more effective at your past job in your present form.  If you look back a...

It is with great pride that I congratulate Prosper Marketplace on successfully completing their SEC registration process pioneering the first true auction marketplace for person-to-person lending (Prosper's blog post).  At the highest level, I...

Once again, my favorite VC blog posts of the last couple weeks.  It seemed to be a lighter couple weeks of blogging - clearly the summer is upon us.   In no particular order: The Heart of the Matter.  Mark Solon, Highway 12 Ventures (med device VCs...

I have been reading a book called Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely which has raised some thoughts I've had for awhile about why human nature tends to define value on a relative basis rather than on an absolute basis.  The first time I started...