I recently wrote a post about the negative impact of the Casper IPO on investor sentiment in the Direct-To-Consumer (“DTC”) space. Anytime a company in a sector goes public at a valuation that is less than half the valuation of its last round, it’s going to ripple through the rest of the ecosystem. But there […]
Learning From the Casper IPO – Investor Sentiment Shifts Fast
In the world of startups and venture capital, industries move in and out of favor very fast. It doesn’t take much for an industry that’s been attracting huge amounts of investor attention and capital to suddenly lose its shine. We are seeing this happen right now in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space. Casper recently filed for […]
Pulling Back The Curtain on the Softbank Vision Fund
If you’re interested in the inner workings of the venture capital industry, paying attention to the proposed WeWork IPO is a great place to start. Last week I wrote about the IPO in terms of some of the problems on the company side. But Softbank Capital, WeWork’s largest investor by far, deserves scrutiny here as […]
Go Big or Go Home – Bad Advice Or The Worst Advice
This is the advice the board gave to the CEO of a company in the middle of a critical pivot. Take the biggest swing they can. Lean in as hard as they can to the big idea. Singles and doubles won’t grow valuation and the brand. Fortune favors the bold. And so on. The main […]
Making The Best Decisions You Can With The Best Data You Have
One of the hardest parts of leadership is getting comfortable with making difficult decisions with imperfect data. But it’s a critical skill to be able to move your company forward, particularly in an early-stage company. Let’s think about the possible sources of data that could help inform your decision-making process. You have an overworked accounting […]
Blitzscaling Is A Seed Stage Problem Too
Wired Magazine published a story yesterday entitled ‘Blitzscaling’ Is Choking Innovation – And Wasting Money that speaks to significant shifts in fundraising over the last decade. The article’s main focus is on the massive amount of money that is being thrown at companies in later rounds to try to fund an accelerated growth effort to […]