VV Show #52 - Sam Wyly of Maverick Capital, Green Mountain Energy, Michaels Stores and Sterling...
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Not to be called a one trick pony, Sam Wyly`s turned himself into a billionaire by starting and growing companies in technology, oil, retail and even in the restaurant industry. Coming from a modest upbringing, Sam worked in sales...
VV Show #51 - Jeff Stewart of Mimeo, Monitor110 and Urgent Career
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Jeff Stewart needed that done yesterday. Jeff became an entrepreneur when he founded the web consultancy Square Earth in 1995. Only three years later he became a serial entrepreneur by starting Mimeo, a service that lets you send a...
VV Show #50 - Derek Sivers of CD Baby and Muckwork
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Last time Derek Sivers was on Venture Voice three years ago he told us he had to "whack `em [investors] off with a stick". Now we know why. Derek announces on our show for the first time the amount he sold his company for this past...
Angel Financing Without Hellish Legal Fees
It`s great to hear stories like the one where Andy Bechtolsheim handed the Google founders a $100,000 check before they even set up their bank account. Convince an angel to invest and you`re off to the races! However, what many aspiring entrepreneurs...
VV Show #49 - Rafat Ali of paidContent and contentNext
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Attention entrepreneurs dealing with the current economic downturn: This interview is for you. After working as a journalist for Jason Calacanis at Silicon Alley Reporter, Rafat Ali ended up broke in a market with a dearth of...
Uncensored Interview
The folks at Uncensored Interview were nice enough to turn the tables on me by interviewing me on their show. You can watch all the clips here. Here`s me talking about what makes a good interview:
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New York Venture Summit
When: June 24-25, 2008
Where: The New Yorker in New York City
What: Venture Voice is a media sponsor of the 8th Annual New York Venture Summit that will feature over 25 Venture Capital Speakers, 3 Venture Capital Panels with open discussions and 40 of...
Next Question?
In our last round of questions on this blog, we asked each former guest about his or her first time (raising money). What should our next question be?
Give us your ideas in the comments or via our contact page.
We`ve got a number of new audio...
David Sacks` First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
David Sacks: I asked Peter, Max and Elon to finance "Thank You For...
Kelly Perdew`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Kelly Perdew: I raised my first round of financing ($500K in equity) from...
Evan Williams`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Ev Williams: I asked my mom for $10,000. She gave it to me.
Jay Adelson`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a new series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Jay Adelson: The first round of financing I ever raised was from...
Joel Spolsky`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a new series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Joel Spolsky: I put in a very small amount of money (I think it was...
Fabrice Grinda`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is part of a new series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Fabrice Grinda: The first time I had to raise money was for Aucland, a...
Scott Rafer`s First Time (Raising Money)
This is the first of a new series on Venture Voice where we ask a bunch of past show guests a simple question and post their answers.
How`d you raise your very first round of financing?
Scott Rafer: The first money I raised was for Fotonation in 1996....
VV Show #48 - Frank Addante of The Rubicon Project
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Whether working with market trends or against them, Frank Addante has found entrepreneurial success. Before he was 29 years old, one of Frank`s companies went public and two were acquired. At his worse, he returned capital to...
Google is Making the Web Free. Will DoubleClick be its Next Free Service?
Over at Silicon Alley Insider, Hank Williams is arguing that VCs are supporting free services that ought to be paid for on the hope advertisers will foot the bill down the road -- thereby eliminating the opportunity for noble paid services to make a...
VV Show #47 - Tom Perkins of Kleiner Perkins
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The name Tom Perkins is now almost synonymous with venture capital, but it`s clear that he cut his teeth as an entrepreneur. Educated at MIT and Harvard, Perkins first made his mark by managing the initial growth of...
Entrepreneurship in South Africa
We just received this e-mail from Sydney Mfuniselwa who gave us permission to post it:
My name is Sydney from South Africa, I am really moved by the interviews on show. I wish we had something like this here in South Africa because I think my country...
Silicon Valley Postcard
Silicon Alley Insider asked me to write about my trip to the West Coast (DEMO in San Diego, Podcast Expo in LA, meetings in Silicon Valley). Enjoy!
Venture Voice Rebooted
We took off for the summer from Venture Voice. E-mails like these from loyal fans made it a painful experence:
Great show, have you taken the summer of? I hope to hear you back on the pods soon.
Cheers!
pb
Penticton, BC
----
I talked with Joel...
Facebook: Crossing the Chasm in Reverse
I had the pleasure of being in the very first Facebook generation. My college was one of the first 13 to be added to Facebook, and we were all jazzed just to see photos of each other and occasionally get a "poke" -- the implications of which are not...
Teaser for Next Episode: iContact
I usually don`t like to give hints about who`s coming up on Venture Voice, but I can`t resist breaking news: Ryan Allis -- who left college early to start his business iContact -- just raised a $5.35 million for his already profitable company. Stay tuned...
Immigration
I was reminded of how immigration policy affects all parts of the economy while reading Fare is Fair, one of my favorite columns in The L Magazine that`s a collection of quotes from those most in the know in NYC: the cabbies.
A number of our past...
VV Show #46 - Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp
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Jeremy Stoppelman is the co-founder and CEO of Yelp, a site where users can write and share reviews of local businesses. Everyone`s now a restaurant critic. However, local reviews were not the original focus, but just one of...
Bad Influence
Bill Gates gave a very provocative Harvard Commencement speech. I was struck by this passage:
But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I`m a bad influence.
While he said it jokingly, it`s a great...
(Un)fair Advantage
Anyone who`s worked with venture capitalists knows that they have a language of their own -- and for the most part it`s quite fun. Terms like "burn rate", "first-mover advantage", "monetization" and "defensibility" never get old. But I`ve noticed that...
Good Angry Customers and The Death of Sucks Sites
The social news site Digg (whose CEO is a past Venture Voice guest) recently had a user revolt after it gave in to the demand of a cease and desist letter and blocked a posting. The users voted stories up to the main page of Digg that criticized Digg. It...
Worthwhile Reading
After mistaking me for an expert, people often ask me what I read. Sure, as you can tell from numerous past posts, I read all the sites you must read to keep up with the industry, including paidContent, Techcrunch and Techmeme (the founder of which, who...
VV Show #45 - Kevin Ryan of Panther Express, ShopWiki and Music Nation
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Not many entrepreneurs have a motor like Kevin Ryan`s. Kevin is best known for his work as CEO at the on-line advertising firm DoubleClick, which he grew from a 20 person start-up to the largest Internet company in New York at the...
