Posts tagged ‘start-ups’

Just published on ReadWriteWeb: 10 principles for not killing your startup

March 8th, 2010 by Greg Boutin
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ReadWriteStart, the entrepreneur’s channel of ReadWriteWeb, nicely published an article I wrote for them called 10 Principles For Not Killing Your Startup.

With the new wave of entrepreneurs brought about by the financial crisis, I suspect the mortality rate of startups is at an all-time high. I didn’t find robust data to back my observation yet, but I did come across a page that points out that, before the financial crisis:

  • the chances were six in a million that an idea for a high-tech business eventually would become a successful company that goes public;
  • a venture capitalist financed only six out of every 1,000 business plans received each year;
  • and bankruptcies occured for 60% of the high-tech startup companies that succeeded in getting venture capital.

Wow. Persistence is paramount. (more…)

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Venture capital: from the moon back to the mean

October 16th, 2009 by Greg Boutin
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Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital, wrote a great post today building on Fred Wilson‘s VC math problem, and call Why VC Performance Has Fallen Off A Cliff.

I argued in a recent post that in parallel to the “moonshot” approach Josh rightly describes as the norm for VCs,  there must be a model that focuses on extracting revenues from a portfolio of tech companies with lesser risk.

Overall, it’s pretty clear to me that what we call VC companies should cover the entire risk-return frontier for any early-stage tech company, because that would allow large investors to place their bet as they like in this category. I’m not suggesting VCs turn into bankers or private equity investors, but there is a clear case for filling the early-stage funding gap towards tech ventures that hold less risk and more proven revenue models than moonshots. (more…)

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Talking on Techie-Biz Divide at Communitech Guelph on Sept. 3

August 31st, 2009 by Greg Boutin

I will soon have another opportunity to test my beta talk on the Divide between Technologists and Business folks, and why that is the number one root cause of tech venture failures (see my slides – torn apart by Slideshare, here!). Communitech has kindly invited me again to speak, this time at their entrepreneur group in Guelph, where I currently reside. It will take place from 6-8pm at SYNNEX Canada Ltd, 107 Woodlawn Rd W.

As a preamble to this talk, I just came across a very interesting blog post, recommended by Guelph’s very own Brydon of start-up Brainpark, arguing for the need to shift from a product development mindset to a customer development approach. I added some comments there too.

I look forward to seeing many Guelphites and having a good chat about this topic. Bring your war stories!

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