The most important lesson learned in early-stage investing
Sean Silcoff had a thoughtful article in Saturday’s Globe & Mail on my path from entrepreneur to investor. It is a well-written piece with many great quotes and anecdotes and included the most important lesson about early-stage investing that I learned over the past 8 years: “If the fail rate of our companies is not high enough, it’s […]
How to bootstrap your way into becoming a VC
One of the most common questions I get is “How can I become a Venture Capitalist?” I suppose this is because to many people, being a VC is a coveted position: you control large amounts of money and can pick and choose where that capital goes. [But let me tell you that the VC business […]
Our 2014 in review
Just like last year, 2014 has been busy and eventful here at Version One. We added 8 new companies to our portfolio: Clio, a cloud-based practice management platform for the legal industry; Dwellable, a mobile-first vacation rentals marketplace; HandUp, a donation platform that lets you give directly to a person in-need; Mattermark, an analytics platform […]
Four predictions for 2015
The end of every year brings a proliferation of prediction lists. As we end an incredibly active 2014 in the tech/investment world, I am adding my own thoughts on what might be coming in 2015. A killer app for Bitcoin emerges We’ve seen Bitcoin adoption by major retailers like Overstock.com and Dell, but there’s still […]
Ride the Wave
In the course of your career or start-up, nothing is more powerful than catching a big wave at the right time. I was reminded of this as we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th. I was 16 and living in (West) Germany when the wall was torn […]