Emerging Enterprise Center Blog - Commentary and Analysis For Entrepreneurs and Startups

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog post.  In part, I just ran out of steam.  In part, I have been running non-stop since May.  Why?  Because business has picked up in a major way.  Since May the pace of financings and exits has picked up in a very noticeable way.  So, here is a prediction, when I write the comparison of Q2 deals published by by Foley Hoag, Fenwick, it will show a major jump from the Q1 numbers. Here is what my partner, Dave Pierson, had to say about Q1 activity, “The total number... More

The bad new is that I have taken a blogging holiday since February 2.  The good news is that the holiday is the result of being pressed on client matters and business travel (including to China).  But, it is time to come back.  As I have done each quarter for some time, this blog presents a comparison of the published statistics relating to venture deals from my firm, Foley Hoag LLP, and the west coast firm, Fenwick & West LLP.  This time I am not including Cooley LLP because their year end edition has not yet been published.  Here are... More

There are days when you come home from a full day of fly fishing without having caught anything.  Hence the old chestnut to the effect that that is why they call it “fishing” not “catching.”  Looking for financing is sort of like that.  There are a lot of days when you come home empty handed,   Then every now and again, you catch something.  The other day I went steelhead fishing on the Salmon River and caught a couple of monsters.  Here is one:   Anyway it is time for the quarterly catching report – that is the report on... More

Bijan Sabet has a post on the subject of east coast versus west coast term sheets. The post raises the issue of whether there are differences and why. The more interesting part is the comments. There is a lot of back and forth on east coast having tougher terms etc. There is a comment to the effect that east coasters are more likely to have redemption rights and founder reps and, perhaps, other terms. There is even comment to the effect that a lot of the differences stem from the lawyering style. But I want to make a few points. First, while we all have some... More

Should you jump on a plane to look for money on the west coast? Last Friday David Bell (from Fenwick & West), Sarah Reed (Charles River Ventures), Lizette Perez-Deisboeck (Battery Ventures) and I were the panel for a Dow Jones sponsored Webinar on the subject of "The Evolving Venture Term Sheet: What VCs & Execs Must Do To Secure the Best Deal." This Webinar was built around the deal statistics published by Fenwick (a west coast law firm) and Foley (an east coast law firm). As you might expect, the numbers appear to confirm that there are some identifiable differences... More

This morning  I attended a “CEO Breakfast” with Don Bulens, former CEO of EqualLogic (here's a video interview of him from YouTube), sponsored by The Massachusetts Network Communications Council. He commented on a couple of things that are recurring themes in this blog.  Don made reference to slide 49 from the now famous (infamous?) Sequoia Capital’s 56 slide presentation of doom. This slide has a red line labeled “Death spiral” which shows a hypothetical company that does not trim its burn rate falling off a cliff to presumed extinction some time in ’09. It also has a green line that shows a hypothetical... More

I had lunch the other day with an entreprenuer/venture capitalist, Vinit Nijhawan.  One of the things we discussed was the apparent difference in risk appetite between east coast based VCs and west coast based VCs.  We both agreed that there is a popular perception in the Boston entreprenurial community that west coast VCs are more aggressive (in the sense of willing to take more risk on early stage companies) and more patient (in the sense of willing to build lasting companies rather than go for good, if early, exits).  I noted in Vinit's blog that he wonders why more west... More