Blogposts
Double Team Your Fiduciary Assignments
I have followed this practice for over 20 years and continue to train next generation General Partners today. I have always brought new team members into my firm with the following statement:
“There are no shortcuts in this business. Venture capital is an apprenticeship. I am willing to teach you, and hopefully you will rise to the challenge and learn.”
Practical Advice: How to Be a Good Board Member
“Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, 'Physician, heal thyself'.” Luke 4:23
This proverb from the New Testament invites those who proffer expertise to prove their convictions by incorporating the same solutions they offer to others in their own practice.
Unintended Consequences: When SAFE and Convertible Notes Go Awry
Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch, Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. We’ve received numerous constructive comments, both privately and on social media, from attorneys, VCs, and CEOs who are well aware of the problem (including several who are experiencing it in real time).
This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company. But it is also a topic that many find esoteric and difficult to grasp …
Read more … Unintended Consequences: When SAFE and Convertible Notes Go Awry
How to Build a Global Center of Innovation Excellence in Salzburg, Austria
I recently joined the Advisory Board to Gerhard Blechinger, the Rector of the Fachhochschule Salzburg, (the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) and became a guest lecturer on Entrepreneurship at the University …
Read more … How to Build a Global Center of Innovation Excellence in Salzburg, Austria
Partnership for Freedom – Rethinking Supply Chains Challenge Grant Awarding $500,000 to Entrepreneurs
I am excited to join in announcing the launch of Rethink Supply Chains: The Tech Challenge to Fight Labor Trafficking from the Partnership for Freedom, for which I will be serving as one of the judges.
The Rethink Supply Chains Challenge is a call to action to a wide range of communities – developers, designers, social entrepreneurs, advocates, and innovators – to apply their talents to a critical cause: ending forced labor and modern slavery in the global supply chain.
Governance Models That Don’t Scale: The World According to Charles T. Munger and Jean Jacques Rousseau
Can you name five benign dictators who have ruled successfully for any meaningful period of time (non-fiction)? Can you name five successful, long serving CEO’s (excluding Warren Buffett) whose governance histories are free of the “high-beta” associated with outliers such as Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs?
It’s not easy. Why? Because enlightened dictators and their corporate CEO equivalents are very, very rare; maintaining immunity to the intoxicating effects of power challenges basic human nature.
