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  1. Articles from - This is going to be BIG!

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    1. A framework to think about pricing seed, angel, and venture capital rounds

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (May 17 2012) Funding

      How do you price a round? Its one of the most often asked questions and yet I've never seen a great answer given. It seems to me that the most important factor in pricing your round isn't your progress or your idea. It seems to come down to two things: 1) How much do you want to raise? 2) Supply and demand of capital willing to invest in your company. The second is pretty obvious, but what about the first? So the more you want to raise, the more your company is worth? Kind of, actually...but how ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   China   Charlie O'Donnell

    2. The Problem with Startup Advice

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Apr 23 2012)

      The Problem with Startup Advice I'll show up generally anywhere I get invited to speak. I love public speaking, teaching and generally being helpful. I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. It's totally fine--except when I really really have to go (as opposed to when I just said I really had to go, ten minutes ago). But the truth is, you probably shouldn't listen to me. I mean, what do I know? I've only recently started (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Steve Blank   Charlie O'Donnell

    3. When should I raise my seed round?

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Apr 20 2012) Marketing , Productivity

      Answer: After your business model makes boatloads of money.  :) Ok, well, short of that, this is one of the questions I get most and here's what I've noticed about venture raise timing.  There seems to be three windows, each with their own pros, cons and complications. Here are some general tips to keep in mind: Phin tells companies to solve all the problems you can solve without money first.  I think this is great advice. The price of your deal matters less than who you get as an investor.  If you get people who can actually help you ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell

    4. Why being an early stage VC is like being a college football coach

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jan 27 2012) Recruiting

      He tried to generalize and say that's why all the college coaches are the fresh-faced energetic types and why the NFL coaches look like they've been doing nothing but pouring over video at a desk for 90 hours a week with coffee and a donut. I don't have the stats to prove or disprove that particular point, and I try to avoid generalizations, but what is certainly clear to me that the most important thing in college football as a coach is being able to recruit the talent. You have to be able to w (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell   NFL

    5. Ten Tips for Pitching Your Company

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jan 25 2012) Marketing

      1) An investor is taking a meeting with you to confirm or deny a hypothesis they undoubtedly already have about your business. Find out what those are right off the bat by saying something like, "Based on what you know, what interests you about what we're doing so far and what are some of the concerns I can address?" No sense going on and on about the market if being excited about your market is why I asked you to meet me in the first place. 2) Investors will jump around no matter what order you (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell

    6. Learn to code? How about learn to sell!

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Nov 10 2011) Marketing

      Tweet There are a lot of reasons not to like the space that Publicstuff is in.  The company sells to local governments, real estate management companies, educational institutions--anyone responsible for public or private infrastructure.  That alone is enough to make a lot of VCs throw up a little in their mouths.  Slow sales cycles.  Joe and Mary Bureaucrat who don't even use the internet because Smalltown, USA blocks it as the decisionmakers.  Ugh, right?  Except that its working. Business Insider wrote about our investment in the company yesterday.  So what attracted Howard Morgan, the VC with the hottest hand ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   USA   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell

    7. People who don't run your company

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Oct 28 2011)

      I asked a company the other day whether or not they were going to take advantage of a great event here in NYC.  Its an opportunity to pitch Sony on a biz dev deal--a no brainer for nearly any company given the scope of Sony's areas of interest.  (applications are due this Monday the 31st)The company said no because their main angel investor didn't think it was a good idea to let an audience see their pitch.  He was afraid someone would steal the concept.  I asked them how they felt, and they knew that if all ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Sony   Facebook   NYC

    8. People First

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Oct 24 2011)

      Tweet On Friday, Matt Blumberg from Return Path came to talk to a group of First Round portfolio companies on scaling your organization from a management perspective.  Many of our companies are at the stage where they have only one person, if any, in each functional area—and many areas are probably being covered by someone else.  Having spent two years at Return Path, where Matt was generous enough to lend a few desks for my startup, I saw what the end goal was—functional teams of multiple people in each area, employees working together as a cohesive unit, and ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell   Matt Blumberg

    9. 10 Misperceptions About Venture Capital

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Oct 17 2011) Funding , Marketing

      Tweet 1) You need it.  Not every company raises venture capital—most don’t.  Not raising gives you flexibility about the market size you want to go after, speed of growth, and de-risks your plan—because once you start spending someone else’s money, the clock starts ticking on your “out of cash” date.  Slow and steady isn’t a bad thing. 2) Only 22 year old hacker dudes get funding.  Before this remark generates too much controversy, let’s be clear:  It is absolutely true that a huge percentage of startup teams are young, technical white dudes.  That’s ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Fred Wilson   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell

    10. Tracking the Hiring Funnel

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Aug 31 2011) Recruiting

      Tracking the Hiring Funnel At a board meeting yesterday, a management team was talking about their hiring needs and some of the challenges they're having hiring great people.  This conversation seems to take place at nearly every growing company in just about every board meeting... over and over again.  It's clearly one of the most important things a company can do--yet companies don't ever get as organized around it, with dedicated resources, until much later in their lives. Here's a simple tip: track hiring analytics and assign them to someone.  The reason?   If you're not interviewing enough people, you ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   Charlie O'Donnell

    11. 10 Things for Startups to Do in August While Everyone Else is on Vacation

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Aug 25 2011) Marketing

      Tweet When I was running Path 101, I'd laugh when people asked me if I was taking vacation.  First off, I couldn't actually afford to go anywhere on a startup salary.  Second, there was way too much to do.  Third, I'm not sure I could have successfully unplugged anyway.  The issue was that for the last two weeks in August, there were no VCs around to pitch, no distribution partners to meet with for biz dev deals, and seemingly no one else around actually working for me, the non-technical co-founder to push ahead toward milestones.  Even launching ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   StackOverflow   Charlie O'Donnell   GitHub

    12. Love and Startups: What I learned from my best friend's wedding

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jul 25 2011) Recruiting

      Love and Startups: What I learned from my best friend's wedding This past weekend, I attended the wedding of a guy I played t-ball with in the summer of 1985.  That fall, we were seated across from each other in first grade.  A year ago, I went with him to pick up the ring and two days ago, I was in his wedding party. Their relationship and the event made me think a lot about partnership and building something special--topics that are  top of mind in my day to day job as a venture investor.  It's one thing to build something meant to be a quick flip, but if you ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   Brooklyn   Charlie O'Donnell

    13. Be a team player, but strive to be the best

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jul 11 2011)

      I always liked Heath Bell--thought the Mets shouldn't have gotten rid of him.  He once avoided arbitration because he said he didn't want to have to wear a suit and a tie.  Today, he showed what a great mindset he had that struck a good balance between being a team guy, but also being a standout all at once...   "ESPN reports that Padres closer Heath Bell told reporters in Arizona, where he will pitch for the National League in the All-Star game, that he would be willing to serve as a setup reliever for the remainder of the ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell   Espn   Arizona

    14. Ignore startup history at your peril

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jun 13 2011) Marketing

      It’s great to see so many first time entrepreneurs out there taking the big leap.  At First Round, a lot of the companies we invest in have new founders at the helm.  It’s exciting to work with them and incredibly rewarding to help them succeed. Our penchant for backing new teams also means we’re willing to meet with lots of first time founders on the way to backing that select few.  When people ask me what areas I’m interested in, I often say “early”.  Taking meetings with entrepreneurs at these early stages means that you have ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Facebook   First Round   Zynga

    15. 7 Tips for Building a Strong, Vibrant Network

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jun 8 2011) Recruiting

      I was speaking at Internet Week yesterday on networking and so I wanted to gather some of my thoughts.  I've been very lucky over the last six years of being involved in the NYC innovation community to meet some fantastic folks.   I have a huge network of people here and it's probably the thing I get valled out the most for--and complimented on.  I think people appreciate the fact that, generally, if you meet someone through me, it's bound to be a good intro to a really high quality person.  Building my network is something that comes ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Fred Wilson   Ron Conway   Josh Kopelman

    16. 25 Things that make hiring technical talent much easier

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jun 2 2011) Recruiting

      1. You already have other top tier tech talent that they can learn from, get mentorship from, and be challenged by. 2. You're working on a technically interesting problem. 3. A technical person is the one recruiting them. 4. You can pay at or above market rate, which is already pretty high right now.  You don't lowball, sending a signal that you don't value devs. 5. You've built up some kind of a relationship over time--because recruiting (as opposed to hiring) is a long term game. 6. You can provide flexibility in terms of choosing which ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell   Jud Valeski

    17. The Five Advisors You Meet in the Deadpool

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (May 5 2011)

      Advisors, investors and board members come in all shapes and sizes.  I'm a strong believer in having a board, even at a seed stage, to report to and set strategy with.  The most successful companies have strong boards and so as a good housekeeping practice, why not start acting like a great company as early as possible.Having a board and advisors is usually better than having none at all, but the following characters don't really provide the kind of value add you're looking for.VC Blogger FanboyThis geek reads all the blogs religiously and is a ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Ashton Kutcher   First Round   NYU

    18. How to approach and make an introduction to a VC

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Apr 29 2011)

      I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch.  Mostly, it was a function of who he could get introductions to.  No matter how much I or any of the team here at First Round made themselves accessable through Office Hours, LinkedIn, Twitter, speaking, blogging, etc., he was always going to go where he already had the warm intro versus going in cold.  Made sense--and made me think I need to spend more time trying to get great intros from the people I know and trust. At the ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell

    19. Raising Money: What are you optimizing for?

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Apr 19 2011) Funding

      Raising Money: What are you optimizing for? Yesterday, an entrepreneur asked me whether or not First Round does convertible notes.  I wasn’t trying to be evasive, but after saying that we have done them on occasion, I pushed the entrepreneur to think deeper about his fundraising goals.  To me, asking about a whether a VC does a specific security seems like the wrong question.  It’s like asking an assassin whether or not he uses rifles or grenades—it really depends on the situation and what you’re trying to optimize for.  I haven’t killed anyone lately, but I’d imagine that factors like range ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   TechStars   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell

    20. You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Mar 28 2011)

      There's nothing that used to make me feel more like a pompous VC than when I would respond to an entrepreneur by saying their idea isn't big enough--that a success for them would likely be too small for what our firm was looking for.  Even though First Round is a small, seed stage fund and we don't have the kind of approach that forces more money on an entrepreneur than they need, the idea of calling something too small made me feel uncomfortably close to that mindset.  It almost seemed hypocritical when, at the same time, I ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   First Round   NYC   Charlie O'Donnell

    21. Don't bite the hook

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Feb 22 2011)

      We all have things that get under our skin--and when they turn up, they get us going from zero to sixty in a heartbeat.  Every frustration, every bit of negativity cumulated over every previous encounter--it all just sits there waiting to get turned on like some big machine.  Often times, they're things we can do nothing about or they're things we probably shouldn't let get to us, but in the moment, that doesn't matter.  We are gone--venting, raging, etc. about yet another instance of here we go again.  It could be about someone who undeservingly gets ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Charlie O'Donnell

    22. Having the wrong map versus no map at all

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Feb 15 2011)

      You know what they say:  "The best laid plans..." Over the last week, I've sat down with a handful of entreprenuers and given the same advice--to construct the fantasy model.  Yet, we know very well that the most thoughtfully constructed cashflow models and hockey stick traffic predictions never come out the way we thought they would, so what's the point of making them at all? When we launched Path 101, the startup I worked on for two years, my board suggested building a traffic model, including a detailed funnel.  That felt pretty pointless because I was taking a ... (Read Full Article)

    23. Setting Expectations at Funding

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Feb 9 2011)

      Great, so you’ve closed on some cash and now it’s time to get to work—except that now you have all these random people who wrote you checks asking you questions, wanting to know what they can do, introducing you to people, etc.  How do you manage these relationships? Investors have the same issue.  You met a great team and you want to see what they can do, but you know there’s a great syndicate around the table so you figure that you’re not going to be depended on that much for day to day work ... (Read Full Article)

    24. Startup Recruiting Hacks

      Explore - This is going to be BIG! (Jan 24 2011) Recruiting

      Yesterday, First Round had its annual CEO Summit. One of the cool things about being a fund that works with so many early stage companies is that bringing the whole portfolio together in one place results in a lot of collaborative learning opportunities. One of the topics that was discussed in a breakout session was recruiting. From what I've seen, most companies simply don't get enough people in the top of the funnel. Finding the right person is hard, but it also starts with being a volume game. The more candidates you reach and evaluate, the better the ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Facebook   First Round   Charlie O'Donnell