Charles Hudson, SoftTechVC: Are the Founder’s Awesome?

Charles Hudson, SoftTechVC speaks about all the changes in the venture industry.  It was much simpler in the ‘old days’ for founders but now there are so many more sources of capital & so many more rounds that its hard for founders to figure out to whom should I speak about this funding round & what is the check size?  There’s tons more firms & the landscape is way more fragmented & complicated.  The good news with all this fragmentation as there  are great new options for the ecosystems.  Charles is a people person, he’s a Seed Investor & he invests in innovation.  He gets really excited about people, he looks for people who are totally invested in the outcome of the startup.  One of the funniest things that ever happened to Charles as an investor was that a founder came in to pitch & a few minutes into the pitch her laptop completely died. She got totally upset & they were clearly not investing in this talented woman because she got totally flustered.  Charles suggested that they give her another shot because he had a previous meeting with her before & he found her incredibly compelling.  They ended up funding her & his partner went onto the Board of that company so it all worked out well. Another great story, they have a DropCam in their elevator & they had a founding team that pitched.  They thought that something was off & when they checked out the clip the team were literally screaming at each other in the elevator on the way down after their meeting. They decided not to fund them & the video clip gave them some sense about whey they felt uneasy about the interpersonal dynamics! He also spoke about how he reached out to someone in his network who synchronistically was interested in one of his portfolio companies.  He feels that value add is in the eye of the receiver not the giver (wise statement)!  His talent seems to be his intuitive punts that he takes.  He likes to talk with the founders & he focuses on founder’s strengths.  Awesome founders hire better, they build better products, they inspire people & press get excited about covering them.  That’s his number one thing ‘Are the Founders Awesome!?’

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Vivek Wadhwa: The venture capital industry needs to fix itself for its own good! #smartmoneysv

Vivek Wadhwa, Author & Journalist @NVCA 2014 who spoke on the Diversity Panel. Less than 5% of venture capitalists are women, they know the female market & they are more compassionate. He says the trouble with the venture capital industry right now is that it’s the same boys club, the same people who’ve invested together – they have group think! This is why the venture capital community is in so much trouble! VCs may be doing well now because of the boom in IPOs but since the last decade its decimated itself! Women have different perspectives – diversity breeds innovation! You need to have different thinking, you need to have people challenging each other, questioning each other. The worst thing you can do is to bring in people who are like minded or the same & then try & look for innovation. The venture capital industry needs to fix itself for its own good! Twitter has an all male board & look at how the company is struggling. It didn’t have the broad perspective from the beginning – it doesn’t understand it’s customers & it doesn’t understand it’s markets. It is the best of times & the worst of times in the venture capital industry! it’s the best of times because there are so many exits right now. It’s the worst of times because the future is bleak for venture capital because the cost of developing technologies has dropped exponentially. You don’t need venture capital anymore! Whatsapp came on the scene 6 months after Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends. The greatest vc didn’t even see that coming & it was the most valuable acquisition ever! That’s because vcs are not able to keep up with advancing technologies. VCs are not looking beyond social media types of companies. They all jump on the same band wagon. They need to diversify & start connecting with the next generation & their technologies. Its the next generation that is going to build these technologies & they’re not college dropouts! There are some great vcs btw who are focused on the right technologies but they’re the outliers. The good news is that they will be the next moguls, the next leaders in venture capital but it will take 5 or 7 years before we get there.

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Manu Kumar, Chief Firestarter K9 Ventures #smartmoneysv

We bumped into Manu Kumar, K9 Ventures @Launch 2014.  He was there to watch the demo for Coin as he was one of the earliest investors. He contributes greatly with a hands on approach with all startups in which he invests. As he said he invests ‘frighteningly’ early!  Check out his blog for really helpful info about startups & investment

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