Roger Ehrenberg
@infoarbitrage
Followers
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Following
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partner @ebergcapital @AlpineF1Team @marlins @realsaltlake . founding partner @iaventures . @thetradedeskinc @Wise . @UMich @Columbia_Biz . family man. @umich 〽️
ÜT: 40.76136,-73.980129
Joined February 2008
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Congratulations to all of those who had the vision and fortitude to start a company this decade. Win or lose, you have my deepest respect. Whether your quest is over, in mid-flight or just beginning, stay positive, stay focused and know that all experiences are valuable. 👍💪❤️
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@twentyminutevc
@sasmith4
@BainCapVC
@limebike
@lpolovets
@dafrankel
Capital can be a powerful moat in capital-intensive businesses where unit economics are attractive and well-established. Capital can be fuel for destruction in capital-light businesses when excess dollars go to marketing and illusory “growth” with poor payback periods.
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The next chapter at IA Ventures It has been an amazing 12 years. I'm so grateful to
@bradgillespie
@beyroutey
for their partnership and friendship, our LPs for their support and our founders for letting me be a part of their journeys. 🙏❤️
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I just published Building a seed stage venture firm Inspired by
@micahjay1
and
@semil
. Thanks for the impetus!
#vc
#firmbuilding
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This is
@UMich
. We cheer. We study. We laugh. We persevere. It is and has always been a special place, but after a generational victory there is a vibration that is hard to describe. It’s about process. It’s about community. It’s about belief.
#theteam
#goblue
@UMichAthletics
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Important insight from
@fredwilson
. Being truly founder friendly in early stage venture means empowering founders to stop when it’s just not working, and to not feel guilt around investor losses. We expect many experiments to fail and to lose money. It’s the business.
#vc
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It strikes me that today's market environment is pretty unusual for a wide swath of the Twitterati, having not been investing, earning or company-building in the 1980/90s. So probably the best way I can help isn't market prognostication but mind-set /1
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The most successful VC firms, like the best startups, emerge from a few key factors: a high-performance team with alignment of vision, chemistry and culture; ruthless focus on process improvements and rapid experimentation; and the ability to take the long view and accept ST pain
actually what I meant is that whomever successfully pulls it off (by pulls it off I mean 3x+ net to LPs) is extraordinary — was not an indictment of new funds or structures!
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Hey
@bgurley
you literally ARE the benchmark. Enjoy your next phase, whatever that may be. You’ve earned it and are among the few who have set the standard for people like me. Thanks. 👍🔥🧠
#vc
Report: Bill Gurley is stepping away from an active role at Benchmark, 21 years after joining the firm by
@cookie
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I wanted to share some reflections on perhaps the hardest and most nuanced part of the seed stage VC's job - the founder relationship. It's so hard because it encompasses both observable (tasks, goals, performance) and unobservable (ego, mental state, personal history) issues...
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One of the least scientific topics with the most degrees of freedom as a venture investor. But I’d rephrase the question: it’s not about stock distribution strategies, it’s about distribution strategies writ large. Because cash vs. stock has a decision-tree unto itself.
Doing a deep dive on stock distribution strategies among top VC firms.
Despite being such a potential force multiplier for returns, there is near zero consensus or set of best practices.
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While Democrats might be celebrating Trump's fading in the polls and seeming self-undermining behavior, there are an array of signs that he and his Republican co-conspirators have unconventional plans in store. Remember, respecting norms mean nothing to today's Republican Party.
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Some thoughts on team size, burn and runway at the seed stage by
@bradgillespie
A gem from my
@iaventures
partner Brad that pulls together threads that he,
@beyroutey
and I talk about every day. Earn your burn. If you don't die, you can win.
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👍💯
A former colleague showed me this 40 yr old memo from
@Nike
’s 1st head of marketing, the late Rob Strasser. Still holds up today.
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Yesterday we lost Ed Ehrenberg, my father and one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known. From immigrant parents who gave him Yiddish as his native tongue, his beginnings on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx couldn’t have predicted his incredible and varied journey. /1
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If you had told me in 2009 that people would think of me as a “venture capitalist” a decade later I’d have laughed my a** off. I’m a Wall Streeter, right? That was my identity. It’s crazy how you can refashion, retool and re-energize if you have the vision and will to do it. 🙏
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Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO Boy is this a good read chock full of important insights
@bhorowitz
#management
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Wise valued at almost £8bn after record London direct listing
@Wise
has been ground-breaking at every turn. Congrats to
@kaarmann
@taavet
and all the Wisers who have made today possible. And kudos to
@LSEplc
for supporting our Direct Listing
@iaventures
🙏
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With the raft of new managers starting up, I thought I'd point new and aspiring GPs to perhaps one of my more broadly useful posts: Building a seed stage venture firm
#vc
#gp
#VentureCapital
#StartUp
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IA Ventures — OG seed, Fund IV and more of the same Stability, partnership and community
#ftw
. All thanks to
@bradgillespie
and
@beyroutey
for being my partners and making me better every day
@iaventures
#vc
#culture
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It has been 10 years since
@iaventures
was born. I can’t imagine life without
@bradgillespie
and
@beyroutey
, two of the nicest, smartest, most thoughtful people I know. They have made me better over the past decade both for myself and our companies. I’m truly grateful 🙏
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After reflecting on the past few days and the overwhelming responses to my career change, I wanted to shine a light on the importance of very special class of individuals: MENTORS. /1
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Estonia is running its country like a tech company I <3 Estonia. What a terrific place to do business - and to hang with awesome, outdoorsy, fun, tech-savvy locals (most of whom tower over me for some reason)
#estonia
#entrepreneurship
@transferwise
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I weep every time I see this. It so clearly exemplifies the deep love of being a parent, wanting your children to be happy, to achieve their dreams and to protect them from pain and sadness. But when this isn’t possible, being there with love and support is what parenting is ❤️
In the 1992 Olympics, Derek Redmond tore his hamstring in the 400m semifinal.
His father, Jim, ran onto the track to help him finish the race ❤️
(via
@Olympics
)
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What?? As a sports fan for more than 45 years I’m trying to think of a more statistically improbable performance. HOLY. FREAKING. COW!!!!! 🥎
💪
@RazorbackSB
's Danielle Gibson hit the HOME RUN CYCLE on Saturday. 💪
(No one in MLB history has ever done that.)
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Ian is literally in my head 😳 Seed stage venture investing is moments of satisfaction and jubilation amidst a vast desert of fear and self-doubt. How solo investors handle this is beyond me. My partners pick me up when I’m feeling low, make mistakes and feel dumb. 😘
@iaventures
The longer I invest the more I realize you get 1-2 really great opportunities every few years. The rest of the time is spent wondering if you will ever get another great opportunity again and convincing yourself to own mediocre opportunities while you wait.
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No truer words said
@fredwilson
. You’ve perfectly captured the essence of the concentrated, early stage investor
#vc
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This is a really important discussion
@dunkhippo33
but I think the framing isn't correct. The comments about ownership obfuscate the really important point, whether for seed managers or Series A/B VCs - naive follow-on decisions are simply a mistake. /1
VCs and fund-of-funds are going to throw tomatoes at me with today's tweet storm:
Ownership *doesn't matter* for early stage investing.
And yet almost every VC and fund-of-fund cares about it. 😮
Here's why >>
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I noticed that our friends at
@fcollective
@K9Ventures
just celebrated their 10 year anniversaries. In December it will be
@iaventures
turn to mark the decade since our birth. From post-financial crisis to today one thing is for sure: blocking out noise is essential for survival.
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Investors and entrepreneurs need to address the mental health crisis in startups. An important reminder: founders are humans operating under extreme stress with high expectations. Taking care of founders’ mental and physical health is critical.
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We are now seeing the costs of a splintered government: when what we need is massive coordinated fiscal stimulus, the only answer is pushing short rates towards zero and providing additional liquidity to banks. It’s not gonna work and we’ve squandered future monetary firepower.
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We lost our sweetest boy Chip today after 13 years. His love and constant presence spanned the bulk of our children’s lives, and his mark on our family will persist across time. There is no relationship quite like one with a childhood pet: unqualified friendship and love ftw. ❤️
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Happy 90th birthday to my mom Lenore. I'm so sorry not to be with her today (social distancing) but in a sign of the times, we'll be holding a family zoom celebration with the 24 people who were to have been at her party today. She's cool with it.
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I'm not "happy" that the public markets in general and tech in particular are getting smashed and experiencing gut-wrenching volatility (just look at the VIX today), but it's necessary education for a generation of young folks who know of nothing other than "up-and-to-the-right"
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Assertion: Nirvana’s Nevermind is the best constructed and produced album of all time. Close
#2
: Led Zeppelin II. The songs. Their arrangement. The connections between adjacent songs. Happy ears ftw
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How Roger Ehrenberg Nets 10x Fund Returns I just watched this. It's actually quite good and accurately reflects my views on venture investing strategy, the macroeconomic environment and firm culture. The only issue is DAMN, I'M GETTING OLD! 😂
#VC
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Complete and utter gaslighting by
@mlb
owners. The owners want the benefits of ownership with the risks of doing so. The players are convenient stooges - let’s pin the blame and risks on them. Can I get me some of this business model? What a joke.
Statement from Major League Baseball: “We are disappointed that the MLBPA has chosen not to negotiate in good faith over resumption of play … “
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IT IS VERY HARD TO DO NOTHING WHEN THE RIGHT THING TO DO IS TO DO NOTHING. It's just like when you're sitting across from someone and silence is uncomfortable. Sometimes it's best to just STFU and it's also best to not make moves just because it feels good just to do something /7
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Interested to see if the day will come when being seeded by
@iaventures
rates as highly as firms having participated in the Series C, D or E by the press. 🧐
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* contrarian view of how seed funds should operate - concentrated portfolio, follow on checks with conviction, high degree of recycling
* founders with non-negotiable visions that were bold and exciting with highly-negotiable missions as they collided with the market
IA Ventures lead rounds (high ownership only) and do very few deals. The best pickers in seed. 🔥 👇
IA Ventures Fund I ($41M) with
@infoarbitrage
@bradgillespie
invested in the seed rounds of:
The Trade Desk ($42.4BN Market Cap)
Datadog ($33.1BN Market Cap)
Yipit Data
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Antiportfolio, thou antiportfolio... Congrats to
@zachperret
@williamhockey
and the entire
@Plaid
team. Great people. Great business. Amazing outcome. Who envisioned the explosion of the fintech app economy? They did. Who didn’t? This guy. 😬
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Has VC Become So Big It Must Be Disrupted? Wrong question. Right question: Have VC cash flows become sufficiently predictable that they can be efficiently monetized and traded in a public format? There are several conditions to this being true 1/
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Mobile Is Eating the World
http://t.co/t3ybdWn59A
An excellent presentation from
@BenedictEvans
. Great perspective & useful stats +1
#mobile
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Default Alive or Default Dead? A seminal post from
@paulg
back in 2015 that is perhaps more applicable today than it was back then. Unless you're profitable, you don't control your own destiny. /1
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I have a little thought experiment. If you find yourself chirping at others, ask yourself these questions: (1) have I actually done the work to have an informed view or am I merely spewing; and (2) am I actually engaged in the position I’m advocating through work, activism, etc.?
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I have another set of thoughts on a different but related and equally challenging topic: how to manage venture firm-building and partnership dynamics. Since I started
@iaventures
out of whole cloth back in 2009, I certainly have an informed and opinionated view on the subject. /1
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Today's
@dealbook
has an important discussion about the culture of overwork and how, for example, students at the beginning of college or grad school say they don't want to go into banking/consulting but get sucked in. Why? Having been programmed to compete and win - and fear. /1
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This is a picture of my mom and me at the National Gallery three years ago today. She was 87. It was part of a magical day which involved lots of laughing, storytelling and eating good food. I think about it often. She died a month ago today. 1 /
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$2.2 Billion Startup TransferWise Began Due To A Simple Mistake. Proud to be that “New York venture firm called IA Ventures” that took a risk European VCs were unwilling to take.
@TransferWise
@iaventures
#moneywithoutborders
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Thanks
@ethanehrenberg
for finding me the perfect PFP!
@AJEhrenberg_
@ebergcapital
@knightsofdegen
@DrewAustin
#KoD
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@mattcharris
Human psychology plus trend following algorithms on top of quant trading gamma hedging algos. Full stop. Short term pain aversion of retail intersected with quant trading. No mention of value here. You are right. Buy long term value on the dips.
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As a parent of two pretty happy and connected young adults, I get questions about parenting quite often. And this piece neatly incorporates my main points: be emotionally present; have fun; give love; and keep them safe. And chill out - do these things and you’ll be 👍❤️
Perspective | "The Power of Showing Up": How to be a better, not perfect, parent
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It's not about feeling smart, being their friend or exerting authority or dominance. It's about helping founders to be their best selves, which generally involves you being your best self as well. In my opinion it's the hardest thing about my job, and I work on it all the time.
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@Samirkaji
@bznotes
NB: venture investing is HARD to do well, especially over extended periods of time. One is fighting against team chemistry, economic cycles, technology cycles, competition and luck. Read: It takes a “cascade of miracles” and great process to win. Durably.
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We just went live with
@ebergcapital
. Learn about what we're up to here Give the boys
@AJEhrenberg_
and
@ethanehrenberg
a follow. Because it's happening...
#family
#web3
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How to Ruin Your Company with One Bad Process
http://t.co/4xq9x8eRA2
This is a magical and counterintuitive post by
@bhorowitz
ht
@pmarca
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From personal business to family business — my story Some reflections on the process of working with my children - and my wife - and starting a "family business" while preserving family culture and intimacy
@ebergcapital
#familybusiness
#sports
#vc
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I just published My approach to investing — updated
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I am excited to share the launch of our new site
@ebergcapital
. It really captures our approach to investing, working with founders and pursuing our thesis around the convergence of sports and entertainment. LFG boys!
#Eberg
@AJEhrenberg_
@ethanehrenberg
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19 years later, in a country being torn apart by partisan strife, 9/11 simply doesn't occupy the same place in people's minds and hearts as it does those in the Tri-state area who lived through that day and its aftermath, as well as those who lost loved ones in the attack. /1
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@Samirkaji
...if you perceive a company to have spectacular potential at seed but you can’t get to your target ownership at the outset, INVEST. This is not something I believed in my younger days but certainly believe now. This isn’t a change in strategy; it’s a tactic for max optionality
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Ways to think about the future of cars. Insanely insightful and mind-expanding from
@BenedictEvans
/ ht
@pmarca
http://t.co/jSbcV8mXjm
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Marc Andreessen On How To Turn Impossible Ideas Into Successful Businesses
http://t.co/80GHImu3NR
+1
@pmarca
. Legit longitudinal perspective
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Confused - are VCs open for business? We're not confused:
@iaventures
is unequivocally making new seed investments. Founders with (1) deep knowledge of customer pain points, (2) solved with software, (3) which can unlock big and exciting markets
@fdestin
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Rule 3: if you have excess liquidity for such an environment, don't rush to deploy it until either (a) momentum has turned or (b) you have an educated & deeply held view for where targeted assets are "cheap", because in environments like today what seems cheap can get cheaper /6
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Don’t talk about my people. You don’t know my people.
@GovWhitmer
has done and continues to do an amazing job that puts her constituents health and safety first. She’s not a zealot, she’s a caring pragmatist. Stop wasting our time and do your job.
#MichiganStrong
#MaskUp
🇺🇸
Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job. She locked down her state for everyone, except her husband’s boating activities. The Federal Government provided tremendous help to the Great People of Michigan. My Justice Department and Federal Law Enforcement announced...
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This concept is easily summed up as follows: with a SAFE or convertible note, a founder has sold a call. With a priced round, they’ve sold a call AND bought a put. When markets go down what do you want? To own a put. Converting SAFEs in a down market sucks
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The Empty Promise of Data Moats As someone who has spent lots of time in and around this area, this is a powerful framework for thinking about the impact and importance of data on your business
@martin_casado
@a16z
#data
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We Are All Confident Idiots. An absolutely brilliant article with critical insights on others as well as ourselves.
http://t.co/wxCLIcsDHy
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The big take away: VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. Do not be deterred, do not be bullied and make it count. Have a plan. If Biden wins either of FL or TX, and wins the states he should win, the likely success of the gambit I've outlined goes way, way down.
#VOTE
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Super important tweetstream and article. I have many thoughts, the most important of which is that what makes a great lending tech business is a great lending business first. Otherwise it’s just the equivalent of pump and dump. 1/
This is a super important investigative piece from
@AntoineGara
. Some fin-tech startups, particularly those in lending, are very tricky to execute & analyze. Any time you time-shift cash flows, it makes unit economics very difficult to analyze. I am sure
@trengriffin
can opine.
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I am truly impressed with the range and quality of writing on
@Medium
. I read interesting pieces on diverse topics every day and learn a lot
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“One lesson I’ve learned is that if the job I do were easy, I wouldn’t derive so much satisfaction from it." Putting in the hard work yields both greater satisfaction and higher likelihood of success when not at your best. Sage words from
@RafaelNadal
ht
@ShaneAParrish
#workhard
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The Blockchain Application Stack
http://t.co/DT0I7S6tV7
@jmonegro
this is excellent. Thanks for putting this out there for all to see.
#btc
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Congrats to the
@EniacVC
team. Good investors and better people.
@nihalmehta
keep doing what you do my friend.
#vc
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Two observations after what has been a crazy day: (1) the
@Wise
team built an incredible company and ran an amazing investor education process; and (2) direct listings, well-constructed, are simply the amazing tools for launching a company into the public domain. More, please.
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Make no mistake; I am a capitalist. But I am NOT a libertarian. I believe an essential element of society is shared sacrifice for the greater good, and this has not been the ethos for quite some time in this country. And this fact has never been more costly then it is right now.
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NB: when everything is going up FOMO makes people feel like the riskiest thing is not to be shooting for the stars... until things turn, asset bubbles pop and people who took on leverage are not only liquidity constrained but on the edge. This is no way to live life. Please don't
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I first met
@HarryStebbings
eight years ago. Since then, he and I have had many conversations about investing: "see, pick, win"; working with founders; managing LP relationships; portfolio construction; and managing a seed fund in a highly liquid world /1
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A few more thoughts in the wake of
@bgurley
’s change in status. Ever since
@iaventures
was founded more than 10 years ago,
@benchmark
’s approach to firm building and culture has been a North Star for us. /1
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One Mistake Led This Entrepreneur To Build A $3.5 Billion Business A fair telling of the
@TransferWise
journey
@forbes
@iaventures
#moneywithoutborders
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I'd add more nuance. 1/ Fund 1: Do what you said you'd do in fund-raising (which often means getting out a little hot to be in-market, build reputation and to begin to prove thesis) to unlock Fund 2. LPs generally have bought a "2-ride ticket" unless you really screw it up.
Fund 1 = invest quickly to get to Fund 2 = invest slowly to get the returns and Fund 3 = 🤷
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You know things are going well when a global institution with Eur1.5tn in assets, Eur50bn in revenue and 200k employees is coming after you. Well-done Team
@TransferWise
- it's working!
#transparency
#moneywithoutborders
Santander launches PagoFX in the UK, a money transfer app to take on TransferWise and other fintechs by
@sohear
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Thoughts of the day — my conversation with Harry Stebbings
@HarryStebbings
@twentyminutevc
. We covered some very interesting topics including startup valuation, fund deployment cycles and M&A/IPO trends
#vc
#markets
#mindset
/1
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One of the truly undervalued arts in the field of venture investing. In the same way that there are many good at buying stocks and few who are good at selling them, there are many more good startup-pickers than there are those who are able to best grow and monetize the position.
fund investing versus fund management:
(concept of "fund management" has taken me 4+ yrs to begin to understand, and imo is a step-function change in mindset from just investing small checks in startups)
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I am 56 years old, have been in the markets for 35 years & I go through this self-talk with myself every day. Literally every day. There is no reason why I should have trouble sleeping at this point but I do because it is very, very hard to make a plan and let go. Even for me /8
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