Tag Archives: startups
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 moreWhat is the biggest enemy of a startup?
In 1998–1999, when I was running my first company, one of my investors, the late Don Jones, came by to visit us at the office. Don was totally a people person and just an all around great person to talk to. In fact, I can hear the intonation of his voice in my head as […]
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 moreStealth is Overrated
“US Navy Sea Shadow stealth craft” by US Navy employee – http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-sea.html. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons. I’ve tweeted this before… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Stealth is overrated. Startups should use every opportunity to get their name out. — Manu Kumar (@ManuKumar) May 29, 2010 …and I’ve said it […]
Read moreProtip for nascent startups on payroll cycles
If you ask most startups how often they run payroll, the most common answer will be: “Twice a month.” Now ask them why they run payroll twice a month, and they will give you a puzzled look and then probably respond with, “I thought that’s how it’s supposed to be,” or, “That’s how often I got […]
Read moreWatch out for the Board Observer request
Ah, I love it when someone cancels a meeting with me at the last minute. It’s like found time. So liberating to have an unscheduled hour that I can use for whatever I like. Anyways… I wanted to use some of this time to briefly make a point that I’ve made very often to K9 […]
Read more‘Capital Efficiency’ doesn’t exist
“There is no such thing as a capital efficient company (at least in Silicon Valley). There are only two types of companies — those that attract capital, and those than don’t. And you obviously want to be the former.”
Read moreIdeas Matter
The idea is the seed. It is the kernel that is the start of something new.
Ideas are powerful because they invade the mind. Once you are introduced to an idea, you cannot get it out of your head.
Ideas are what provide that little twist of ingenuity that can make or break a company.
Sometimes ideas are not revolutionary, but they get the ball rolling and without them, that wouldn’t happened. The best ideas are often simple ones. Maybe that is what a revolutionary idea is — an idea so simple that it sparks a revolution.
Startups: Just say NO to outsourcing, contracting, and distributed teams
If you are a tech startup, where the technology is your business and not just supporting your business, then you shouldn’t be relying on any outsourcing, contracting, or distributed teams for developing your core product. I believe that the chance of success of a team is an order of magnitude higher when the entire team is local, in one room and working closely with each other. Bottom line: “When you stick a couple of smart people in a room together good things happen”
Read more#20tweets (updated)
Here are the slides from a talk I gave at a Carnegie Mellon Alumni event in the Bay Area today. #20tweets is tweet-sized advice for founders of tech startups. In the presentation I went into more detail and provided some rationale/anecdotes behind these tweets. For now, here are just the tweets: #20tweets by @manukumar View […]
Read moreThe truth about the Startup Visa
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry) recently authored an article that ran on Business Insider. The article was sensationally titled ‘The Startup Visa Act Must Be Stopped‘ and in it Pascal describes his reservations about the Startup Visa proposal. I don’t know Pascal, but I do hope that he, and others, will read and consider this response to his article. One of […]
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