Jul 7, 2017Farewell Medium. My bleeding edge thought leadership is going elsewhere.Going forward, if you want my uninformed opinions on topics, they will be shared solely in the CB Insights newsletter which is free and read by 294,000+ (as of July 6, 2017). Subscribe here and impress your boss and friends today. Bye.Startup1 min readStartup1 min read
Jul 16, 2016Got multiple startup job offers? Here’s 8 tests to pick the right oneI was at a recruiting event at the engineering school of my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, recently and a student asked a straightforward question. I have two offers from startups. How do I choose which one to pick? A lot of the answers given basically boiled down to: …Venture Capital12 min readVenture Capital12 min read
Published inDecentralize.Today·Jun 19, 2016Hey brother, can you spare some blockchain?“Oh shit, I need some blockchain. Where do I get some blockchain?” These were the words of famed venture capitalist Fred Wilson who questioned financial services’ recent interest in all things blockchain. …Fintech3 min readFintech3 min read
Oct 17, 2015I analyzed 147 cold sales emails and 93.9% were shitty as hell93.9% of the cold emails from business development / sales people are absolute and utter rubbish. That’s what I learned from analyzing 147 cold emails I received in a two week span during late August into early September. The cold emails came after we announced a funding round from the…Email10 min readEmail10 min read
Oct 12, 2015Rise of the wantrepreneurRise of the wantrepreneur This is from my now defunct personal blog but it seems just as or even more appropriate now so thought I’d bring it back to life with a couple of new thoughts. — — — — - There were some negative comments about 500 Startups on…Startup3 min readStartup3 min read
Aug 6, 2015Dear Venture Capitalists — Some Thoughts on How to Improve Your Cold Email Pitches to StartupsAs we’re scaling up CB Insights, we’ve gotten more inbound interest from investors. More often than not, the inbound interest comes via email. …Venture Capital8 min readVenture Capital8 min read
Published inART + marketing·Aug 1, 2015Bold & not very beautiful: 13 unicorn company websites before they became billion dollar companiesWe took a look at the CB Insights’ real-time unicorn company list and the websites of 13 of the most valuable private companies before they became the companies that everyone is talking about today. As you look at them, think about whether you’d have predicted they’d be worth $1, $10…Startup4 min readStartup4 min read
Jan 23, 2015Why Seed Investment is Booming2014 was a huge year for venture capital funding driven primarily by a number of mega-rounds. While the large financings garner the headlines, the other piece of notable news for entrepreneurs was the continued strength of seed stage investment activity.4 min read4 min read
Dec 15, 201454 Screwups as a Startup CEOWe’re having a pretty great year at CB Insights — revenue is up, the team is growing and we’re executing at a high level. But things weren’t always good. We’ve had lean times and made many, many mistakes. …19 min read19 min read
