The Pros and Cons of Taking Investment from Corporate VCs

The NY Times recently published a great article on the increasing number of corporate venture…

Understanding Waterfall Diagrams

I posted recently on the dangers of getting too hung up on pre-money valuation and promised to write a…

Pittsburgh as a Startup

When I first moved to Pittsburgh in 2002 and joined Innovation Works to help build the technology community, one of…

Hardware Startup Mistakes

I’ve spent the past 4 months looking for the best and brightest hardware startups around the country for the…

The Best Way to Do Cap Table Math (In My Opinion…)

Hardware Startups: You Need to Understand Cash Flow

I’ve spent a lot of time recently helping companies with their financial projections. This is the first of two posts I’m going to write addressing some common mistakes that I see in forecast. This post is focused on an overarching point…

Working With Your (Non) Technical Co-Founder

Whenever I give a presentation or sit on a panel I often introduce myself as a…

Pre-Money Valuation Doesn’t Always Mean What You Think It Does

It’s no revelation that many Founders get overly focused on valuation while fundraising. Fred Wilson’s post on Valuation as a Scorecard makes some great points on why it’s an unhealthy metric. I want to tackle a different…

Too Early, Too Late, Or Just Right: When Is My Company Ready For AlphaLab?

It’s not your father’s funding environment

If you are over 40, like me, your world of investing has been turned upside down. If…