As an early-stage consumer VC with a laser-focus for efficiency, few things make me wince more than meeting brilliant entrepreneurs devoted to building products few people will want. They mistake novelty, whiz-bang technology and cool factor as the keys to a breakthrough startup. My advice? Humbly admit that consumers don’t…

Our work days are filled with a never-ending barrage of audible pings and flashing badges from our email, Slack, Twitter, social media, browser tabs, and more. Despite our best efforts to focus, constant electronic distractions steer us off course and fragment our concentration. …

We are thrilled to announce Naomi Pilosof Ionita as the newest partner on our investment team. Naomi will lead investments across both the consumer and prosumer markets. She comes to Menlo with deep operating experience from Evernote and Invoice2go, where she was most recently the vice president of growth. …

Disclosure: Menlo Ventures is an investor in Roku.* Millions of people know Roku as the little black box that streams Netflix to their TVs, but there’s far more to the story than this. Following the company’s September IPO and rise to $3.9 billion** in market cap, Roku has emerged as…

One year after laying off team Handle (now back in business thanks to @kgellci) and six months after rejoining Menlo Ventures, I’ve taken heart in how much the experience taught me about company building, life, friends, family, myself, and even love. A token of my gratitude this Valentine’s Day. To…

Today I’m excited to announce my return to Menlo Ventures as a Managing Director to lead our consumer technology practice following my time as Founder and CEO of Handle. My friends jest that I “returned to the Dark Side”, and while far from a galactic battle of good vs. …

The goal of a VC teaser is simple, to get a meeting. Businesses are complex and it’s impossible to describe the details of yours in the 60 seconds your prospective investor has to scan your email. Don’t try. Help them figure out “is this worth a meeting?”. It’s their job…

E-mail Doesn’t Need to be Replaced — Our Workflow Does A brief history of Handle and our vision behind it In March 2012, Paul Graham wrote a post on 7 Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas. His #2, “Replace E-mail”, observed: “E-mail was not designed to be used the way we use it now. E-mail is not a messaging protocol. It’s a…