What’s more important: product or sales?
It’s the age-old debate among start-up circles: which is more important to the success of a start-up: the strength of the sales/distribution strategy or the quality of the product? On one end of the spectrum, many start-ups think that great products sell themselves, while the other camp argues that it’s the channel and monetization that […]
We’re hiring an analyst!
It has been almost a year since the initial launch of Version One Ventures and the first 12 months have been very busy with about a dozen Seed and Series A investments. So it is time to get some help to manage the fund and I am excited to announce that Version One is hiring an analyst. […]
The easiest path to growth and profit is up: why startups should focus on the long-tail
The easiest path to growth and profit is up, and the most deadly attacks come from below This quote from Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma perfectly encapsulates how startups can find success over incumbents in their markets. Incumbents often look left, right, and above – yet sometimes they’re most vulnerable from below. The tiny market niches […]
Talent, hard work and luck
“Hard work plus luck is what gets you a jet instead of just a BMW.” (Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan) Start-up success typically boils down to three elements: hard work, talent, and luck. Yet when we dissect the successes and failures of other start-ups, we tend to focus on the hard work and talent of […]
Crowdfunding: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Generally speaking, I’m a huge fan of crowdfunding. I’m an investor in one of the major platforms, Indiegogo. Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are helping fill the financing void for startups that struggle to find traditional financing. For example, I recently wrote about crowdfunding being a viable option for hardware startups who notoriously have a tough time attracting funding […]