A few weeks ago, the American Alliance for Equal Rights won a legal victory in an Atlanta when the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporary blocked a small venture capital fund, Fearless Fund, from running a grant contest that awards $20,000 grants to small businesses led by women of color. The victory may or […]
Seth Levine
Posted inInnovation
A Venture Capitalist Asks, Do We Add Value To Startups?
Editor’s Note: This post appeared originally on Seth Levine’s blog, VC Adventure in August 2022. Seth is a venture capitalist and co-founder of Foundry Group based in Boulder, Colorado. Companies looking to raise money turn to venture capital for a variety of reasons. Top among them is generally access to capital, but often on the list is the hope that raising […]
Posted inVC Spotlight
Take Your IRR With A Grain Of Salt. It’s A Vanity Metric
I’m observing that IRR is a metric that is becoming an increasing focus in venture, replacing fund return multiple as the key metric of success. I understand the draw of IRR, and – as a fund draws to a close – there’s no question it’s an important metric. LPs have plenty of options for where […]
Posted inMentorship
The Myth of the White Male Tech Founder
Excerpted and edited from The New Builders, written by Times of E founder Elizabeth MacBride and venture capitalist Seth Levine, the authors look at the landscape of entrepreneurship across America. The New Builders was published May 4, 2021 by Wiley. Danaris Mazara and her husband, Andres, arrived in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 2002, from Puerto Rico. Born in the […]
Posted inMentorship
Older Entrepreneurs Are The Fastest-Growing Segment Of New Business Owners
We had the opportunity to talk with many great entrepreneurs doing research for our book, The New Builders. I was struck by how thoughtful, determined, and gritty they were. As most readers know, the book focuses on entrepreneurs from a diverse set of backgrounds – people that truly represent the next generation of founders in the […]
Posted inTrailblazers
Opinion: Overcoming Trump’s Legacy of Racism
As I listened to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden give their speeches from Wilmington on Saturday, I was struck by the contrast they offered to the rhetoric we’ve heard coming out of the White House for the past 4 years. Perhaps I had forgotten what ‘normal’ actually was. Both Biden and Harris spoke to the […]
Posted inMentorship
Venture Capital Returns Are More Skewed Than People Realize
This post originally appeared on Seth’s blog. Some of the most popular posts I’ve written over the past couple of years were the two that focused on just how rare outsized returns for an individual deal are in venture capital. You can see the original posts here and here. In those posts I was analyzing […]
Posted inInnovation
The Real Story Of America Is About Small
Out in the corral, Mark Cheff rubs some salve on Chinook’s leg above her hoof. Yesterday, two of the mare’s children were standing on either side of her, licking a deep wound caused by a sharp branch sticking out across the trail at just the wrong angle. Cheff thinks she’ll be OK by the end […]
Posted inMentorship
CFOs, Financial Advisors Volunteer To Help Small Businesses Navigating Loan Programs, COVID-19 Crisis
A lot of companies are struggling to figure out how to respond to the economic crisis that was precipitated by COVID-19. Should they cut staff or should they furlough them (and what’s the difference)? Should they ask people to take a pay cut? How much should they be cutting back on marketing and other expenses? […]
Posted inPersonal Finance
Social Distance Is Necessary. It Doesn’t Have To Be Social Isolation.
This post originally ran on Seth Levine’s blog, VC Adventure. I took a poll of the Foundry portfolio this morning to check in on the shift to Work From Home. As of today, about 1/3 of our portfolio companies have implemented a mandatory work from home policy. The vast majority of the rest are recommending […]
