January 2012
1 post
Returning to NYC →
As I’ve discussed with many people, I am moving down to New York City, where I started my career out of Boston College. I worked in NYC for about seven years then moved back to Boston to join SoftBank Capital about six years ago. As our fund has evolved, my responsibilities for our coverage in NY have increased significantly. I’m starting to spend too much time with the Delta Shuttle...
December 2011
1 post
WatchThis is a VC 101 presentation I first gave a few years back, which I updated slightly to reflect the evolution of startup resources.
October 2011
1 post
BRYCE DOT VC: You're Doing It All Wrong →
brycedotvc:
Close your eyes.
Imagine, if you will, a startup that meets the following criteria:
Their recruiting process is fundamentally flawed
Their operations are a mess
They make engineers pretty much do everything, which leaves almost no time for coding
They don’t (care) about charity or…
September 2011
2 posts
Crowdtwist raises $6M to take gamified loyalty big... →
We’re very excited to back this team!
Boston's Digital Showcase featured companies... →
August 2011
4 posts
WatchI gave this presentation for a second year in a row at Cincinnati’s The Brandery, one of the country’s best incubators, which was co-founded by my friend @daveknox. As I told the great crowd of entrepreneurs, this is a boring topic, but an important one nonetheless.
WatchI put this together for a class at my alma mater, BC.
The format was provided via the amazing Prezi.com.
bijan sabet: Latest tech things I'm playing with →
bijan:
Been playing around & researching a few tech things these days so I thought I’d write them down.
1. I bought a Kindle 3 a few weeks back. Actually I bought two of them. One for Lauren on her birthday and one for me. Lauren hates reading on her iPad. She thinks it’s too heavy and cumbersome. So…
Boston Digital Showcase: Connecting Boston’s Best... →
July 2011
4 posts
Softbank Shifts Focus To Early Stage Companies,... →
WatchShared this iPad book with my son this morning. Magical is the only way to describe it. Thanks for the heads up @nycsteady.
A Seed Strategy for LPs
I was speaking with a great entrepreneur recently about our seed strategy. We lead the majority of our seed investments with a goal of establishing a working relationship in which we can demonstrate our value and earn the opportunity to lead the Series A. To do so we spend as much time on these investments as we would with a larger round.
This strategy is shared by others, including many of the...
June 2011
3 posts
1 tag
April 2011
2 posts
How to Conduct References on Your Investors
When we are ready to make an investment proposal, we request a list of references. We also speak with off list contacts and ask permission to do so if those discussions could compromise the business. Any responsible investor about to enter a long term relationship with a team will follow that protocol. They need to learn as much about that team as possible within a relatively short time frame....
February 2011
3 posts
WatchAt today’s Launch Conference, a startup named LifeProof dropped my iPhone in the water, took a video from the phone in the process, and it lived to show the tale. Above is the geeky video, and here is a link to pre-order their killer case: http://www.lifeproof.com/
Reviewing Competitive Deals
Each year a typical venture capital firm reviews thousands of business plans and meets with hundreds of companies. Inevitably this leads to situations where we see teams with competitive strategies, including some with a vision that may overlap with the strategy of existing portfolio companies. I have been in this position even more frequently as of late given the increasing volume of startup...
January 2011
5 posts
Summer in VC with SoftBank Capital
We are looking to hire one MBA and one undergrad to join SoftBank Capital for eight weeks this summer as paid interns in our office in Newton, MA. Our fund is focused on entrepreneurs building socially-driven apps, services and content that are accessible across platforms and devices. We have been making early stage investments since 1995 in companies such as Yahoo!, E*Trade, GSI Commerce, The...
Passing with Entrepreneurs
I had a great conversation last night with Rob Go from NextView Ventures and successful serial entrepreneur Wayne Chang, a welcome addition to the Boston angel scene. We were talking about investing strategy and the topic of passing on investments came up. The biggest downside of being an investor, which is an otherwise amazing role, is turning down entrepreneurs. We pass on 99% of the...
I Can Has Funding: Cheezburger Raises $30M For... →
As a lifelong fan of burgers, I’ve fulfilled a dream of investing in a related business, sort of. We are thrilled to participate in the global growth of the Cheezburger Network, which Ben Huh has built into one of the leading humor sites on the web in just a few years.
WatchThe Avett Brothers pick up the pace on their latest release, Kick Drum Heart.
December 2010
4 posts
Believeland →
ESPN relating LeBron’s departure to Cleveland’s history - “LeBron…was a reminder of what could have been and what once was. He is a 6-foot-8 steel mill.”
November 2010
4 posts
WatchGameGround, our latest announced investment, so addictive!
Running a Thorough Diligence Process
I just finished up a few weeks of diligence on an investment that we are very excited about. In a final discussion with management, we spent time talking through some of the reference feedback, which proved to be very insightful for the business. The experience got me thinking about the diligence process. There seems to be a fixation on making rapid decisions in today’s market. While I’m in...
October 2010
4 posts
Thoughts From a Networking Junkie
I really enjoyed last night’s Founder Dialogues event, where Eric Paley conducted an engaging interview with the very entertaining CEO of Communispace, Diane Hessan. She told great stories, including how the company nearly imploded when an early salesperson created numerous fraudulent contracts, and then used voice distortion technology to pretend to be those clients on calls with her...
Business Models for Startups
I recently visited The Brandery, an excellent venture accelerator in Cincinnati co-founded by my friend Dave Knox. Given my financial background, Dave asked if I would come in to discuss building a startup business model. Below is the presentation that I shared with the entrepreneurs.
Business Models for Startups
View more presentations from Joe Medved.
September 2010
1 post
Geoff Allen on Startups
Geoff Allen is one of the reasons I love venture capital. He is a serial entrepreneur who we have supported via SoftBank Capital at the last three startups he founded, including Grab Networks, Echo360 and ZipList. Geoff is technically brilliant and an incredible salesman, which is a rare combination. I have never seen someone so passionate about their product. Geoff recently shared the excellent...
August 2010
5 posts
Hot Potato: We've Moved to Facebook →
It’s been an exciting year at Hot Potato. Since going live last November, we’ve been inspired and energized by your reaction to the service and people’s appetite for socializing around activities and live events.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce that some of the features and thinking behind Hot…
Jonah Peretti Drops Some Viral Knowledge
Jonah Peretti, co-founder of The Huffington Post and founder of BuzzFeed, may be the guru on top of the viral media mountain top. (Disclosure: Both HP and BF are SoftBank Capital portfolio companies) At the inaugural Viral Media Meetup, Jonah recently gave the following brilliant presentation, which itself has gone viral! The best line, for both its humor and accuracy, was “Content is more...
July 2010
2 posts
Masayoshi Son 2.0
About a month ago, SoftBank Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son presented his 30 year vision for the company at the celebration of its 30th anniversary. In the last twenty minutes of his two hour presentation here (at about 1:47:30), Mr. Son provides a tearful, touching description of his rags-to-riches story. One of the translators needs a moment to gain her composure as Mr. Son describes a childhood of...
June 2010
5 posts
Consumer Web Collaboration at Open Angel Forum...
Last Friday evening I participated in the inaugural Open Angel Forum Boston at Polaris’ Dogpatch Labs. Hosted by Jason Calacanis, the event was another demonstration of the refreshing evolution of perspectives towards the consumer web from our region’s angel investment leaders. Jason created Open Angel Forum as a mechanism for providing emerging entrepreneurs free access to angel...
A Seed Ecosystem is Growing in the Northeast
Startup cultivation in the northeast is hitting an inflection point. A strong root system is taking shape given the increased level of seed-focused activity across the industry. In the first few days of June, over a period of about 36 hours, the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge showcased a slew of fresh startups, from Angel Boot Camp, to the Angel Capital Association meetup, to TechStars Demo...
