Thinking About Thinking

Top European VC Blog Directory

Posted in Venture Capital by larrycheng on May 31, 2009

Following on the footsteps of the Global VC Directory, here is the subset of the list which represents the European VC bloggers.  As always, this list is dynamic and if you know of a VC blog I’m missing, please leave a comment and it will be added to the list.  Subscriber counts will be updated quarterly.  Blogs that have not posted in the last 3 months are denoted by an *.  Hope you don’t mind, but I have included UK bloggers as part of the European list.  

European VC Blog Directory (# of Google Reader Subscribers)

  1. Nic Brisbourne, Esprit Capital Partners, The Equity Kicker (335)
  2. Fred Destin, Atlas Venture, Fred Destin’s Blog (194)
  3. Saul Klein, Index Ventures, LocalGlo.be (178)*
  4. Max Bleyleben, Kennet Partners, Technofile Europe (106)
  5. Jason Ball, Qualcomm Ventures Europe, TechBytes (101)
  6. Gregoire Aladjidi, Techfund Europe, Investing In What’s Next (13)*

All of these blogs have been added to one Google Reader bundle that you can subscribe to here: Top European VC Blogs.

(I have also included my blog to this bundle so you can stay up on updates, but feel free to unsuscribe if you wish.)

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Global VC Blog Directory – Ranked By # of Google Reader Subscribers (May 2009)

Posted in Venture Capital by larrycheng on May 26, 2009

THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.  THE CURRENT VERSION (Q409) OF THIS DIRECTORY CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE.


The Global VC Blog Directory (# of Google Reader Subscribers)

  1. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (17,555)
  2. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (11,821)
  3. David Hornik, August Capital, VentureBlog (7,060)
  4. Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (6,434)
  5. Marc Andreesen, TBD, Blog.pmarca.com (5,099)*
  6. Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (3,310)
  7. Ed Sim, Dawntreader Ventures, Beyond VC (3,239)
  8. Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (2,973)
  9. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (2,257)
  10. Jeff Nolan, SAP Ventures, Venture Chronicles (1,528)
  11. David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, Who Has Time For This? (1,261)
  12. Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures, Life With Alacrity (1,194)
  13. Seth Levine, Foundry Group, VC Adventure (1,154)
  14. Multiple Authors, Union Square Ventures, Union Square Ventures Blog (1,090)
  15. Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, The Post Money Value (795) – Canada
  16. Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners, Seeing Both Sides (727)
  17. Mike Hirshland, Polaris Venture Partners, VC Mike’s Blog (726)
  18. Tim Oren, Pacifica Fund, Due Diligence (661)
  19. Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC, Software Only (656)*
  20. Mike Speiser, Sutter Hill Ventures, Laserlike (643)
  21. Mendelson/Feld, Foundry Group, Ask The VC (587)
  22. Matt McCall, DFJ Portage Venture Partners, VC Confidential (432)
  23. Stu Phillips, Ridgelift Ventures, Soaring on Ridgelift (424)
  24. Eric Friedman, Union Square Ventures, Marketing.fm (405)
  25. Paul Kedrosky, Ventures West, Infectious Greed (399)
  26. Jason Caplain, Southern Capitol Ventures, Southeast VC (387)
  27. Scott Maxwell, Openview Venture Partners, Now What? (338)*
  28. Nic Brisbourne, Esprit Capital Partners, The Equity Kicker (335) – Europe
  29. Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group, Mendelson’s Musings (307)
  30. Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group, McInblog (306)
  31. David Beisel, Venrock Associates, GenuineVC (293)*
  32. Will Price, Hummer Winblad, Will Price (266)
  33. Howard Morgan, First Round Capital, Way Too Early (259)
  34. Raj Kapoor, Mayfield Fund, The VC In Me (255)*
  35. Dan Grossman, Venrock Associates, A Venture Forth (228)*
  36. Albert Wenger, Union Square Ventures, Continuations (224)
  37. Baris Karadogan, Com Ventures, From Istanbul to Sand Hill Road (218)
  38. Andrew Parker, Union Square Ventures, The Gong Show (218)
  39. Christine Herron, First Round Capital, Christine.net (209)
  40. Keith Benjamin, Levensohn Venture Partners, SF Venture (202)*
  41. Fred Destin, Atlas Venture, Fred Destin’s Blog (194) – Europe
  42. David Feinleib, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Tech, Startups, Capital, Ideas. (183)
  43. Saul Klein, Index Ventures, LocalGlo.be (178)* – Europe
  44. Vineet Buch, BlueRun Ventures, Venture Explorer (177)*
  45. Ouriel Ohayon, Lightspeed Gemini Internet Lab, MYBLOG by Ouriel (176) – Israel
  46. Steve Jurvetson, DFJ, The J-Curve (145)
  47. Bijan Sabet, Spark Capital, BijanSabet.com (130)
  48. Philippe Botteri, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cracking the Code (125)*
  49. Rob Finn, Edison Venture, Ventureblogalist (124)*
  50. Marc Goldberg, Occam Capital, Occam’s Razor (117)* – Europe
  51. Daniel Cohen, Israel Venture Partners, Israel Venture Capital 2.0 (116) – Israel
  52. Peter Rip, Crosslink Capital, EarlyStageVC (113)
  53. James Chen, CXO Ventures, PureVC (111)
  54. Allen Morgan, Mayfield Fund, Allen’s Blog (109)*
  55. David Aronoff, Flybridge Capital Partners, Diary of a Geek VC (106)
  56. Max Bleyleben, Kennet Partners, Technofile Europe (106) – Europe
  57. Jeremy Levine, Bessemer Venture Partners, Nothing Venture, Nothing Gained (101)*
  58. Jason Ball, Qualcomm Ventures Europe, TechBytes (101) – Europe
  59. Mark Peter Davis, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Venture Made Transparent (101)
  60. Rob Hayes, First Round Capital, Permanent Record (99)*
  61. Michael Eisenberg, Benchmark Capital, Six Kids and a Full Time Job (98) – Israel
  62. Chris Fralic, First Round Capital, Nothing To Say (95)
  63. Pascal Levensohn, Levensohn Venture Partners, pascalsview (92)
  64. Michael Feinstein, Sempre Management, The Fein Line (86)
  65. Sagi Rubin, Virgin Green Fund, The Grass is Greener (78) – Israel
  66. Richard Dale, Sigma Partners, Venture Cyclist (74)
  67. Paul Fisher, Advent Venture Partners, The Coffee Shops of Mayfair (73) – Europe
  68. John Ludwig, Ignition Partners, A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way (66)
  69. Dan Rua, Inflexion Partners, Florida Venture Blog (66)
  70. Steve Brotman, Silicon Alley Venture Partners, VC Ball (64)
  71. Larry Cheng, Fidelity Ventures, Thinking About Thinking (63) [special thanks to the early adopters]
  72. Martin Tobias, Ignition Partners, Deep Green Crystals (61)
  73. Matt Winn, Chrysalis Ventures, Punctuative! (56)*
  74. Sarah Tavel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Adventurista (51)
  75. Stewart Alsop, Alsop-Louie Partners, Alsop-Louie Partners (49)*
  76. Jacob Ner-David, Jerusalem Capital, VC In Jerusalem (46) – Israel
  77. Ed Mlavsky, Gemini Israel Funds, GOLB: Is This Israel? (46)* – Israel
  78. Ho Name, Altos Ventures, Altos Ventures Musings (45)
  79. Rich Tong, Ignition Partners, Tongfamily (45)
  80. George Zachary, Charles River Ventures, Sense and Cents (41)*
  81. Rob Go, Spark Capital, Rob Go Blog (38)
  82. Kent Goldman, First Round Capital, The Cornice (38)
  83. Rachel Strate, EPIC Ventures, Wasatch Girl (37)
  84. Sid Mohasseb, Tech Coast Angels, Sid Mohasseb (35)*
  85. Satya Patel, Battery Ventures, Venture Generated Content (34)
  86. Multiple Authors, Foundry Group, Foundry Group Blog (30)
  87. Mo Koyfman, Spark Capital, Mo Koyfman (29)
  88. Rob Day, @Ventures, Cleantech Investing (28)
  89. Marc Averitt, Okapi Venture Capital, OC VC (25)
  90. Michael Greeley, Flybridge Capital Partners, On The Flying Bridge (22)
  91. Adam Fisher, Bessemer Venture Partners, Savants in the Levant (22) – Israel
  92. Justin Label, Bessemer Venture Partners, Venture Again (21)*
  93. Ted Driscoll, Claremont Creek Ventures, Evolving VC (20)*
  94. Multiple Authors, Highway 12 Ventures, Highway 12 Ventures Group Blog (20)
  95. Santo Politi, Spark Capital, This and That (18)
  96. Lee Hower, Point Judith Capital, Venturesome (16)
  97. Charles Curran, Valhalla Partners, VC Blog (16)*
  98. David Dufresne, Desjardins Venture Capital, Dav-Generated Content (15) – Canada
  99. Jon Seeber, Updata Partners, Jon’s Ventures (14)*
  100. Todd Klein, Legend Ventures, Media VC (14)
  101. Max Niederhofer, Atlas Venture, Life In The J Curve, baby (14) – Europe
  102. Gregoire Aladjidi, Techfund Europe, Investing In What’s Next (13)* – Europe
  103. Vinit Nijhawan, Key Venture Partners, Entremeister (12)
  104. Todd Dagres, Spark Capital, Todd Dagres Tumblelog (9)
  105. Multiple Authors, Brightspark Ventures, Let the Sparks Fly! (6)
  106. Don Rainey, Grotech Ventures, VC in DC (6)
  107. Multiple Authors, True Ventures, True Ventures Blog (6)
  108. Rob Schultz, IllinoisVENTURES, Go Big or Go Home (5)
  109. Art Marks, Valhalla Partners, Entrepreneurial Quest (5)*
  110. Brad Burnham, Union Square Ventures, Unfinished Work (3)
  111. Brian Hirsch, Greenhill SAVP, New York VC (2)
  112. Adi Pundak-Mintz, Gemini Israel Funds, Adisababa’s Weblog (2) – Israel
  113. Peter Lee, Baroda Ventures, Seeing Eye to Eye (2)
  114. Allan Veeck, Pittsburgh Ventures, Pittsburgh Ventures Blog (1)
  115. John Abraham, Arrowpoint Ventures, JMA’s Views On Everything (1)

To subscribe to this directory through Google Reader (Atom or OPML), here are some bundles:

The last two bundles are tied to these directories:  The Israeli VC Blog Directory & The European VC Blog Directory

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237 comments

How Can We Double Down?

Posted in Venture Capital by larrycheng on May 19, 2009

One thing I wished I had done from the beginning of my venture career is to simply dedicate a notebook to great pieces of wisdom I would hear around specific situations raised in the context of a board meeting or partners meeting.  At the end of the day, the venture business is about pattern recognition and such a notebook would help in building that database of patterns that one could fall back on.  Fortunately, I have a decent memory for these things, but if I had it all down on paper, that would be even better.  For those of you VCs who are earlier on in your career, I’d recommend you trying something along these lines.  I may use this blog to capture some of these insights going forward.

Today’s post is about one such piece of wisdom that I think is particularly relevant in these times.  This piece of wisdom came from Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO, Amazon.com during an MFG.com board meeting.  Jeff asked the question, “Is there anything big or small, that is working better than you expected?  Is there any where we could double down?”  Jeff’s point was that we spend a lot of time focusing on what’s not working in Board meetings (especially in times like these), and not enough time focusing on what is surpassing expectations and how we can “double down” on those areas.  Often times the key levers in businesses are found in little things that are really outperforming whether by intention or not (often not, actually).  Sometimes these are things that are either adjacent enough or small enough that they wouldn’t make a board presentation or be an obvious discussion point because they’re just seedlings that need to be watered.  I appreciate how Jeff wanted to bring these seedlings to the forefront to see if they deserved some real investment.

I now make a point to periodically check in with all of my companies, whether things are going great or not, to see if there are areas where things are working better than planned – areas where we can double down.  Some types of things I have heard in the last year:

  • A particular use case for a product is taking off despite the fact that we’re not marketing that use case.
  • A particular customer segment has a sales cycle that is much faster than the other segments we’re targeting.
  • We’re completely ignoring some aspect of the business that is “non-core” but it continues to do well despite that.
  • A customer is getting real value from our product in a way that we didn’t anticipate.
  • A specific region is adopting our product, and we have no sales and marketing there.
  • Customers are saying great things about us on the Internet.
  • A particular marketing channel or marketing message is converting better than we expected.
  • A particular sales rep has cracked the code and is destroying their quota.
  • We have a particular customer who is going out of their way to help us in our product development and positioning.
  • Employee morale is high and retention is great.
  • Etc. etc. etc.

To all of these cases and many more like them, it’s worth asking the question, “How can we double down?”  So often the market tells us things that are key to the success of our business if we just ask the right questions and listen closely enough.

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