Articles in the Blog Category

Dallas Business Journal – Nimbix Seeks Super Computer Funds
Posted in Blog on 23 April 2012

Nimbix seeks super computer funds
Date: Friday, April 20, 2012, 5:00am CDT
 
In the 1960s, Sam Wyly became rich through a Dallas company, University Computing, that allowed businesses to essentially rent the use of computers, much like they paid for power from electric utilities.
 
Nearly a half-century later, another Dallas startup is borrowing …

Pivot3 Announces $23M Funding Press Release
Posted in Blog on 8 February 2012

Led by Samsung Ventures, round will be used to finance growth phase expansion
Austin, Texas – February 8, 2012 – Pivot3®, Inc., the leading provider of unified storage and compute appliances, today announced the closing of a $23 million round of new equity financing, which will principally be used to fund …

CES 2012
Posted in Blog on 17 January 2012

CES 2012 set records for exhibitors, space and attendance.   More than 3100 exhibitors were spread out over 1.8M square feet.  A record 153,000 attended including 34,000 international visitors.
2012 began the same as the 2011 show – the crowd was huge and crawling over all the major booths on the show …

The Rear-View Mirror
Posted in Blog on 22 December 2011

 
One of the skills of good executives is pattern-recognition, formed through experience. When it’s working, a single event triggers a chain of experience that leads to an experience backed decision. 
A recent week was filled with face-to-face meetings with startup companies.  The best teams had done their homework and research on …

Entrepreneur Research
Posted in Blog on 22 December 2011

If you’re an experienced entrepreneur, investor or limited partner, please skip this posting as you’ll find it obvious.
What’s not obvious is a number of company founders and startups don’t research companies they are considering for investment. Today, I read another email about how we are the perfect investor for …

The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
Posted in Blog on 20 December 2011

Simply stated, the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma is how to strike a balance between an exciting plan and one that is practicable.  This idea applies to the plan in its entirety as well as the constituent parts.  Failure to negotiate the razors-edge of the dilemma leads to dull or unrealistic expectations between …

The Business Plan
Posted in Blog on 20 December 2011

There are three forms of a start-up business plan, an executive summary, a presentation and the business plan itself. Each serves a unique purpose.
1) The Executive Summary. The summary should include the relevant points of the proposal, and be interesting enough to encourage a potential investor to seek more information …

On Reconnaissance
Posted in Blog on 20 December 2011

re·con·nais·sance re·con·nois·sance (rĭ-kŏn’ə-səns, -zəns)  n.
An inspection or exploration of an area, especially one made to gather military information.
[French, from Old French reconoissance, recognition, from reconoistre, reconoiss-, to recognize.]
Venture capital is best practiced in the field, not in the office. An investor can’t sit behind the desk and read business plans, analysts’ …

The Life and Death of a Trade Show
Posted in Blog on 20 December 2011

Trade shows run in life cycles, just slighty lagging their respective industry, technology or market.  Some observations about technology events that signal the maturity of the industry, and influence investor assessments.
1) Run by engineers, technologists and academia.  This is the formative stage where competing ideas and approaches are fighting to be the …

On Google’s Broadband for Communities Project
Posted in Blog on 20 December 2011

Google’s deadline for responses to the Broadband for Communities Project passed March 26th.  Over 1000 municipalities responded throughout the USA http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/.  They will announce the finalist communities by the end of the year.   Recently, a discussion started during coffee at CTIA – will they actually build it?
First, the naysayers speak up.  …