Blog

Perspectives on entrepreneurship, startups and venture capital from K9 Ventures.

Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

What is the biggest enemy of a startup?

In 1998–1999, when I was running my first company, one of my investors, the late Don Jones, came by to visit us at the office. Don was totally a people person and just an all around great person to talk to. In fact, I can hear the intonation of his voice in my head as […]

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Stanford Roundtable discussion on US Immigration Policy #startupvisa

On Saturday, October 24th, Stanford University hosted the Stanford Roundtable. The renowned interviewer Charlie Rose moderated a discussion titled: ‘The Road Back: From Economic Meltdown to Renewal’.  The archived webcast video is available on iTunes and on YouTube. At one point in the discussion Charlie Rose asked about the education system. President Hennessey remarked that: “We depend at the graduate level […]

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My story and support for the Founders Visa

  In the past few days there has been a lot of discussion on the topic of a Founders Visa. The credit for starting this fire goes to Paul Graham from Y Combinator, who wrote a great essay titled The Founders Visa in April 2009. Brad Feld (Brad is an advisor to K9) from the Foundry Group was instrumental in keeping the flame alive by […]

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Insane Perseverance in the Face of Complete Resistance

  It was 2:00 AM and I was still sitting in ‘The Cave’ — the name we affectionately gave to the cubicles in the bowels of Wean Hall  at Carnegie Mellon. It was called ‘The Cave’ because it’s all under ground, with no natural light portals whatsoever. The cave was kinda like Vegas — once […]

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Starting up is hard

Ultimately doing a startup is about passion and perseverance. It is an experience of a lifetime that cannot be replicated in any other setting. No educational program can even come close to what you learn in doing your own startup. And regardless of whether you succeed or you fail, know one can take that experience and that learning away from you. That is your true gift.

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