Curated readings for June 2020
I'm regularly reading to improve my learning, and I'm sharing what I find useful with you to grow together.
If you're a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) founder, you should check this out, if you haven't π https://t.co/6JyY4hFtk2
— Paul Lee | ζζη₯ (@paullsc) June 30, 2020
*Note: Sam Richard is Director of Growth at OpenView Venture Partners, an expansion stage venture capital firm that helps grow software companies into market leaders.
Backed by #science and numbers. You #lie (such as, make #false claims, fabricate numbers, manipulate people, create baseless hype, etc.), you're likely to #fail π https://t.co/Ni0f6fUyGm
— Paul Lee | ζζη₯ (@paullsc) June 28, 2020
*Note: Dr. Ethan Mollick (@emollick) is Associate Professor at The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
In order to understand what Limited Partners are thinking today, Samir and his team decided to run a short survey with nearly 100 LPβs to understand their current view on allocating to venture funds. π https://t.co/0CqyQ5QJwr
— Paul Lee | ζζη₯ (@paullsc) June 28, 2020
*Note: Samir Kaji (@Samirkaji) is Senior Managing Director & Innovation Sector Strategy Lead at First Republic Bank and an Angel Investor.
*Note: James Currier is Managing Partner at NfX, an early-stage venture capital firm focused in Seed and series A, investing from $500,000 to $5 million.
We just launched the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 (#GSER2020) today at the #Ecosystems2020 conference in partnership w/ @unleashingideas @thenextweb @fDiIntelligence @crunchbase @TechNation & @hellotmrc. Read it now: https://t.co/TkQ6CmtHYT pic.twitter.com/UIsg7cupzs
— Startup Genome (@startupgenome) June 25, 2020
*Note: Startup Genome is the world-leading innovation policy advisory and research firm, having advised the ecosystem development strategy and action plans for more than 40 governments in the last year.
In this interview, Paul Joyce talks about his multiple failed attempts to start a #SaaS company why the idea for Geckoboard was different from all the other ideas he had. An interesting story that you shouldn't miss.https://t.co/GF7i1T2apq pic.twitter.com/gGgff7MBjS
— SaaS Club (@saasclubio) June 19, 2020
*Note: Paul Joyce is Founder & CEO of Geckoboard, a cloud-based dashboard that display easy-to-understand key business data, metrics and KPIs in real time.
Back in 2018, @lightspeedvp published a simple e-commerce model. We're delighted that so many find it useful. We've even seen it in some of your data rooms! π
— Alex Taussig (@ataussig) June 25, 2020
This week, we updated the post with a new, cleaner version submitted by @reichardn. Enjoy! πhttps://t.co/NT62QDtC8n
*Note: Alex Taussig is Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital firm with a global presence.
#Startups must concentrate their precious cash on product dev and customer testing. So how much should be diverted to protect intellectual property? πΌ. Itβs a tough question and who better to talk about it than @Russ_Wilcox? Read more on @BuiltInBOS https://t.co/Rijpd6AZLl
— Pillar VC (@pillar_vc) June 24, 2020
*Note: Russ Wilcox is Partner at Pillar VC, an early-stage venture capital firm building great companies in Boston.
"Shopify is a Platform, whereas Amazon and Walmart are Aggregators.
— Paul Lee | ζζη₯ (@paullsc) June 22, 2020
Platforms facilitate a relationship between users and third-party developers. Aggregators, on the other hand, intermediate the relationship between users and third-party developers." (@nbt, 2020) https://t.co/SETuA1no2e
*Note: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (@nbt) is a venture capitalist and author of www.nbt.substack.com, who invests in the 'next big thing' companies.
Over the years, there has been plenty of discussion around cold emails/outreaches to VCs. Some VCs have said they welcome it, and some say they will only take warm intros. To each their own on this topic, but some thoughts:
— samir kaji (@Samirkaji) June 22, 2020
Thread/
*Note: Samir Kaji (@Samirkaji) is Senior Managing Director & Innovation Sector Strategy Lead at First Republic Bank and an Angel Investor.
When entrepreneurs talk about startup "strategy" they are usually just talking about a long-term vision, not a strategy. Instead, read this updated guide by @KevinJBoudreau taking research-backed corporate strategy frameworks and applying them to startups. https://t.co/6sfIwknK0i pic.twitter.com/8KU57e7D8g
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) June 18, 2020
*Note: Dr. Ethan Mollick (@emollick) is Associate Professor at The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
Why VC investors pass on startups: a thread.
— Leslie Feinzaig π (@LeslieFeinzaig) June 16, 2020
Alternative title: don't take it personally.
(1/n)
*Note: Leslie Feinzaig (@LeslieFeinzaig) is Founder & CEO of Female Founders Alliance, a 20,000+ strong community of founders, executives, investors and supporters dedicated to accelerating the success of female-founded companies.
Cold emails to VCs can be very simple
— Paul Murphy (@paulbz) June 12, 2020
- We're building __ for __ and why
- Raising β¬/Β£/$__ + funding history + traction
- You / your fund is interesting to us because of ____
- Team/founders based in ___
- Attach or link an overview
- Ask for feedback if they say not a fit
*Note: Paul Murphy is General Partner (London) at Northzone VC, an early-stage venture capital fund investing across Europe and the USA.
This is an excellent graphic about online course marketing. It comes down to 3 things:
— Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani) June 8, 2020
1. Build an audience
2. Deliver amazing value
3. Leverage success stories
Rinse, Repeat. https://t.co/wR8BeOmgvT
*Note: Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani) is Co-founder of Udemy (and formerly, Sprig), and the model is developed by Charlotte Crowther (@CharlotCrowther).
Did you know that "some of the fastest growing public and private companies in the world are both consumer-&-enterprise technology companies"? https://t.co/PVcvGbcr05
— Paul Lee | ζζη₯ (@paullsc) June 8, 2020
*Note: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (@nbt) is a venture capitalist and author of www.nbt.substack.com, who invests in the 'next big thing' companies.
Paul regularly reads about business management, tech innovation, startups, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and financial investment on Twitter.
Last edited on 21 October 2022.