I recently came across this cool chart put together by the team at VC firm Bessemer Venture Partners. They plot what they consider the top private cloud companies grouped by functional area (marketing, sales, finance, HR, etc.).
The team at BVP also has an interesting Cloud Computing Index they keep up to date which tracks over 40 publicly traded cloud companies.
Check out the chart and the index at http://www.bvp.com/cloud or, click on the image below.
BVP Cloudscape
Posted in Cloud Computing, Venture Capital
Tagged Bessemer Venture Partners, BVP, Cloud computing, infographic, venture capital
On his blog, Lee Hower (one of LinkedIn founders) has an interesting post titled “Making good decisions still means you are sometimes wrong” in which he talks about the tough choices VCs have when deciding which startup to back. There are so many deals coming their way, they can’t possibly bet on every single one of them and identifying good opportunities, especially early stage, is really difficult.
I especially liked his link to Bessemer’s “anti-portfolio” web page where they show companies they declined to invest in and have great comments on why. Just goes to show that you shouldn’t feel bad after that meeting where the VC tells you the startup you have been working on and investing your life savings is not interesting to them. Maybe they are missing on the next eBay, Google, or PayPal. Just maybe. đ
Pitch San Francisco ’11 is now over. An interesting gathering of over 90 startups presenting their products and services to VCs and the public, ended with the following winners:
Congratulations!
But other startups are worth mentioning. For example:
If you missed this year’s event, make sure to sign up for the next one!
Posted in Events, Funding, Networking, Pitching
Tagged checkinon.me, dealangel, let's listen, pitch san francisco, venture capital
The question that seems to be a deal killer, no matter what type of product you are building, is the market sizing one. It comes in various formats:
Among others, is a key question that often turns off potential investors. Especially if you can’t answer it “correctly”. Â A nice post by Bryce Roberts titled “You can never size a market in Excel“tackles this pesky problem entrepreneurs face and gives sound advice:
“An investorâs instinct around something as fundamental as whether your business can reach the scale needed for venture capital returns is one that wonât be found scouring the latest market forecasts from Forester or Goldman Sachs. It wonât be found in endless meetings and it wonât be found in detailed financial forecasts or market sizing exercises.
It will be found in the connection an investor makes to you, your product and your vision. Either they will believe it or they wonât.”
It is a refreshing view on the question of market sizing. And also tells you a bit about how to assess whether the investor in question will be really a good match with your startup.
Check out the full article here.
Tagged excel, investing, market sizing, picthing, vc, venture capital
Max Shapiro from People Connect Staffing turned me on to this great video of a recent gathering of Angels and VCs titled “How to Select Your Angels“, from a Total Access session sponsored by Orrick.
The panelists were Jeff Clavier, Jared Hansen, Rob Hayes, Mitchell Kapor, and Naval Ravikant and moderated by Larry Kane.
Here are some key points from the talk:
Tagged angels, funding, raising money, vc, venture capital
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