Category archives: VC
State of Venture in Fall 2023
Things feel s-l-o-w in the venture ecosystem. Some craziness around AI, but everything else is “Zootopia DMV slow slow.”
Read moreThe Story of How/Why K9 Invested in Pragli
Pragli is a virtual office for remote teams… I often found that it was easier for me to communicate with a remote colleague on Pragli that it was to even get up and walk to the other room to talk to a co-located colleague! In my mind Pragli had nearly achieved remote-work Nirvana!
Read moreInvestors should pay their own legal expenses
Legal by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images There, I said it; right there in the title of the blog post. And I’ll repeat it again: Investors should pay their own legal expenses. I’ve never understood why the norm for someone putting money into a company comes with the company bearing the cost of the legal […]
Read moreThe Logical Evolution of Private Markets: A new class of company.
Recently I attended a lunch where we were all asked to present something provocative/mind-blowing. I thought about that for a while and realized that I want my provocative thought to not be something that is a pie in the sky idea but instead something that is based on a series of logical conclusions. Well, here […]
Read moreThe Pre-Seed FAQ
One of the people I respect the most in the VC/PE media ecosystem is Dan Primack. I’ve been an avid reader of Dan’s Term Sheet while he was at Fortune, and now Pro Rata at Axios. His writings and knowledge of the inner workings of the VC/PE ecosystem is impressive, and I have learned a […]
Read moreAnnouncing K9 Ventures III, L.P. – A $42M technology-focused Pre-Seed fund
42: The Answer to the ultimate fund size? Those of you who have read or watched the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are aware of the pop culture meme around the number 42. Yes, 42: The answer to life, the Universe, and everything. For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, here’s a clip courtesy […]
Read moreHow to reference check your prospective investor
Of all the advice I have given founders over the years, one of the most important ones is to make sure they do reference checks on their prospective investors. When founders do their homework on investors, they make informed choices about who they will be working with for many many years to come. As the […]
Read moreVC Cold Email Outreach: “The Only Winning Move is Not to Play”
Every few weeks one of the founders of K9 Ventures’ portfolio companies forward over an email they’ve received from a “Partner” at a VC firm. And every time I go through the same ritual, explaining to the founder when to respond, when not to respond, and how to respond to such emails. So […]
Read moreManu Kumar on The Twenty Minute VC
Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Harry Stebbings from The Twenty Minute VC. Harry has done a phenomenal job of getting some of the top people in venture capital on his show and had high-quality, high-bandwidth, and chock full of good information conversations with them in a medium that is highly […]
Read moreEverlaw Raises Series A led by a16z
Today K9 Ventures’ portfolio company Everlaw announced that it has raised $8.1M in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from K9 Ventures. I couldn’t be more excited about Everlaw’s Series A round as it reflects a recognition of the amazing work that the company, co-founded by CEO AJ Shankar and Jeff […]
Read moreIt’s Not Easy applied to Venture Capital
Note: If you’re a founder, stop reading this post now. Your job is to build your company and listening to VCs pontificate about their industry doesn’t do you any good. If you build a good company, investors will hunt you down. If you don’t, no amount of reading this stuff will help you get funded. […]
Read more#PeakVC
Earlier today I tweeted: Calling #PeakVC. Right here, right now. Done. — Manu Kumar (@ManuKumar) October 13, 2015 But I realized shortly after tweeting this that there is so much nuance packed into that one term #PeakVC that it requires a lot more than 140 characters. So here are some of the things I […]
Read moreBeing an investor, in four paragraphs
Most days I love what I do, but some days are rough; filled with tough decisions (good ones and bad ones) that are often time sensitive in nature, and involve conflicting interests. The most difficult part however is that as an investor I can’t really talk about or share details with anyone without violating portfolio […]
Read moreThe Seeds Have Changed: An Epilogue
Note: This is a long post and it’s based on reflecting on a couple of years of observations in the venture industry. It’s a work-in-progress and I expect to update (last update 10 June) and refine the content, especially in the next week as I prepare for a talk I’m giving at the PreMoney […]
Read moreStartup Revenue Milestones
At K9 we invest in companies which have a clear/direct revenue model and typically don’t invest in companies that follow the Ubiquity first Revenue Later (URL) revenue model made famous by Eric Schmidt in 2007. In my discussions with K9 portfolio founders about scaling revenue, I very often end up drawing the same picture: […]
Read moreManu Kumar in discussion with Joe Beninato
Last fall, Joe Beninato interviewed K9 Ventures founder and Chief Firestarter, Manu Kumar, on his weekly webcast FounderLine Manu talks about the history of K9 Ventures including the origin of the firm’s name. Joe and Manu also talk about K9 Ventures’ investment focus (hint: new technology/new market), investment stage (hint: frighteningly early), teams (hint: need a […]
Read moreWhen Vinod Khosla answered my question with a non-verbal
No, not that kind of non-verbal gesture. I believe this was in April 2010 and if memory serves me correct it was an event hosted at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos by Sand Hill Angels, where Vinod Khosla gave a talk. I was relatively new to the investing world at the time having […]
Read moreThe New Venture Landscape
In May 2011, I wrote the post: Investor Nomenclature and the Venture Spiral. That post got a lot of attention because back then all the buzz was about “Super Angels.” The venture landscape was evolving and had reached a point where Super Angels were an important part of the ecosystem. Well, now in 2014, almost 3 […]
Read morePartner, Partner, Partner
Shortly after wrapping up our PhDs from Stanford CS, my peer group had a running inside joke. Whenever we would meet at an event, we would greet each other with “Doctor, Doctor, Doctor.” It’s hard to describe in words, but you have to imagine a bunch of geeky guys standing in a circle and shaking […]
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