Announcing our latest investment: Clio
At version one, we are big believers in the vertical SaaS opportunity. Small to mid-sized businesses have long been underusing technology. A mobile-first approach, combined with a laser-like focus on a specific vertical, can create the right toolset to help SMBs achieve huge productivity gains (I wrote about this nearly a year ago for TechCrunch). […]
The programmable web and the future of platforms
Virtually every start-up dreams of becoming a platform at some stage. After all, it is the most powerful position in the ecosystem. What has been the one rule to becoming a platform? Develop a killer app that gets you to scale: and then open up the platform once your reach is attractive enough for other developers […]
The investor’s role in a founder’s three key priorities
It’s often said that a CEO should focus on three key things: Do I have the right people on the team? Are those people working on the right thing? And is there enough cash in the bank to keep the lights on? The right investor should help a founder with all three of those questions: […]
Does free/freemium work in the enterprise?
When developing a business model, every software and app start-up eventually faces the same core question: Should we focus on monetizing customers or driving usage? For consumer apps, this question has been answered (or mostly answered): the best approach is to offer a free service to help attract and retain users. As Fred Wilson put […]
Investors need to actually use their portfolio products
PayPal President David Marcus recently stirred up the hornet’s nest with a memo scolding employees for not installing and using the PayPal app. In part, the email read: “Everyone at PayPal should use our products where available. That’s the only way we can make them better, and better.” (you can read the complete text of […]