Dave Lerner

May 16, 2011

Venture Studio (13): Jeff Clavier, Founder SoftTech VC (or, "A Well-Tempered Clavier")

Dave Lerner

May 16, 2011

I sat down recently to speak with with angel investor turned MicroVC, Jeff Clavier, @jeff, founder of SoftTechVC I, II & III on a recent visit of his to NYC. (My thanks to the great people at Polaris Ventures' DogPatch Labs down in Greenwhich Village for hosting our talk.)

Jeff is a fascinating guy who saw a special opportunity in 2004 to invest in capital-efficient Web 2.0-type companies and got into angel investing in a big way, investing his own money in 20+ companies. He turned out to be enormously gifted at it. Hearkening back to my recent Series on Angel Investing, he most certainly skipped the "Mug" phase that Mark Suster and I have joked about.

He then had the opportunity to raise a small fund and thus became what the press like to call a "Super-Angel"- but what really is more aptly-named, a MicroVC. After 65 investments in this Fund (SoftTech VC II), he has now launched SoftTechVC III, (aka "the real-deal"as he jokingly called it) which will still be a "small" fund, but certainly considerably larger than II.

It was great to hear Jeff's perspective on early-stage investing, the market segments that interest him these days and how he has evolved over the years as an investor. Enjoy.

:26 - A little background on @jeff & how he first got into angel investing

1:19 - Raising his first micro-fund in 2004, which was $15M in size

1:43 - The pioneers in the MicroVC space, including Josh Kopelman

2:23 - On making 65 investments in SoftTechVC II w/10 exits already(!)

3:05 - Launching SoftTechVC III & venture partner Charles Hudson

4:14 - What types of companies/sectors will III be investing in? (See Matrix) Listen carefully here about Jeff's approach to various sectors

6:02 - After 99 investments & reaching this level- what changes in your approach?

7:21 - Epic Line: "In our business there's no pride- we basically do whatever it takes to help our companies"

7:31 - Jeff's perspective on acquisitions (of which he's had 17!) and how he works w/his portfolio company entrepreneurs in this regard

9:01 - Has he noticed network effects amongst his portfolio companies?

9:55 - Jeff invests in a bunch of NYC companies- what are his thoughts on NYC?

11:11 - What are the biggest challenges for him?

12:47 - What's an average day like for Jeff?

SOFTTECH VC III (so far)

SoftTech VC III Portfolio

Dave Lerner

May 3, 2011

Venture Studio (11): Jonathan Glick, CEO of Sulia

Dave Lerner

May 3, 2011

This is Episode (11) of Venture Studio

Welcome to this week's conversation with entrepreneur Jonathan Glick, founder and CEO of his latest venture, Sulia- which I learned is in many ways the apotheosis of a nearly two decades-long career at the cutting-edge of content-creation on the web.

Jonathan is a true web pioneer having started his career at AOL during its infancy and then at iVillage with a subsequent stint running technology and product development for the New York Times, as CEO of his own venture-backed startup OuterForce, and as Director of Research Operations for the Gerson Lehrman Group.

Learn about Jonathan's rich experiences through those early days of content creation on the web all the way through to the launch of New York-based Sulia, a venture-backed, real-time media company focused on filtering Twitter into high quality content channels. He's amazingly candid and open about his entrepreneurial journey. Enjoy.

:16 - Developming his "arcane" skills at AOL in "those early days"

:50 - Meeting and joining the founders of iVillage

1:00 - Joining the NYT & working for visionary, Martin Nisenholtz

1:50 - The genesis & premise of his first startup, OuterForce

3:55 - Funding via Flatiron Ventures (Jerry Colonna & Fred Wilson)

4:20 - The story of OuterForce & and many lessons learned

8:05 - New adventure with the Gerson Lehrman Group

9:02 - The premise of Sulia...

10:00 - Sulia's business model...

11:17 - Sulia's relationship with Twitter

Click for Venture Studio (12) w/Matt Harris of Village Ventures

Dave Lerner

August 30, 2010

Respecting OPM

Dave Lerner

August 30, 2010

This is part of my various Series' on Angel Investing, Venture Capita l and Entrepreneurial Culture.

Every entrepreneur who has sought to raise capital at some point in their career knows that sometimes it's just really hard to get other people to invest in your startup. Also, depending on who one approaches, the reasons for this difficulty can of course be anything and everything. Furthermore, although some angels or vc's will tell you exactly why they are passing- most will simply not tell you the whole story. So whether it's the economy, the market, the team, you, the technology or any other perceived weakness, the entrepreneur sometimes keeps spinning his wheels and doesn't necessarily see a pattern forming- (if there is one at all). In today's post, however, I'm going to highlight a very specific problem that I haven't seen discussed very often by way of the following real-life scenario:

I know one fellow who has been hawking an investment in his startup in the healthcare space for at least 18 months. Not a single angel or vc has shown a scintilla of interest. He nevertheless persists and shows up at every imaginable investor forum or event he can find. Some part of me admires his determination for sure, but another part of me wishes he would take more stock of his situation. In his case, I think investors shy away from him for two reasons. First, his technology is too early and un-proven and he needs to show more proof of concept. But secondly, I think the investors perceive that he does not really care too much about returning value to them. He talks past them in conversations and the impression he leaves is of a person who isn't after building a long-term relationship in the least. He's definitely throwing off the vibe by everything he says and does that he wants to conduct his "proof-of-concept" experiments on someone else's dime- and it doesn't matter where it comes from- so long as it's not from his own pocket. He certainly won't put any of his own savings in the mix nor will he approach his family and friends. If there ever were an example of a friends-and-family-round, this would be it. Yet by insisting on relentlessly going after outside investors, he's signaling that he's all about OPM (other people's money), and that he does not have confidence in the outcomes. This is definitely not the right approach or mind-set to have if you are looking to raise money.

In my experience entrepreneurs with a sense of loyalty and obligation to investors have the right mentality. My experience is that most entrepreneurs who actually do get funded, in fact, possess this mind-set. Ones that don't seem to get weeded out right off the bat or at least after their first venture.

An extreme example of this type of commitment was shown by Ev Williams, (currently CEO of Twitter), who returned all his investors' money after his effort with Odeo did not pan out as hoped. He then gave all of these investors the opportunity to invest in his next venture, which happened to be Twitter! On a much smaller scale, a first-time entrepreneur I backed who's efforts did not pan out recently returned 2/3 of my investment to me though he certainly did not have to do so. It was an impressive gesture that took me by surprise and I'm very inclined to back him on his next venture.

Of course these last two are extreme and unusual examples. But having been on both sides of this equation (as an entrepreneur raising money and as an angel investor investing in other people's ventures), I'm merely pointing out that investors have a keen eye for whether someone they back will feel a keen sense of commitment to the investment and the investors.

Everyone in the early-stage ecosystem knows this is a super high-risk game and we're all big boys and girls after all. But if there's even a whiff of the general lack of concern about someone's else's investment on the part of a prospective entrepreneur- most investors will pick up on it right away.

Dave Lerner

June 28, 2010

Map of Silicon Alley's Early-Stage Tech Investor Ecosystem (updated)

Dave Lerner

June 28, 2010

This is part of my various Series on Venture Capital and Angel Investing.

In that I am a heavy user of mapping software and think programs like MindNode are excellent visual aids, I decided to put together a first draft of the early-stage tech investor ecosystem here in Silicon Alley as a resource for entrepreneurs. As this is a first stab, I would ask your help in the comment section of this post letting me know about any early-stage investors I have left out and/or about any corrections of errors you come across on this map.

As the print is quite small due to the size of this map, simply click on it and it will open in a separate window. You may then use your zoom feature or simply click it again to enlarge once more at that point.

Looking forward to your feedback.