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Veteran entrepreneur of Silicon Valley shares his funding stories, what he's learned about the entrepreneur/investor relationship over the years, and the best way to pitch to a venture capitalist.

Funding Stories

When I was at E.piphany, my last startup, I was negotiating with a company called Infinity Capital at the time. They really wanted to invest, but it was the beginning of the bubble and I wanted an absurd number. All we had were six slides and I wanted a $10 million post-money valuation. Back then, all you got is a couple of slides. But it was my eighth startup and my partner had been around for a while too. We've had done this before. We had gone back and forth, but this was a new firm and they wanted us.

We're in their conference room. I say, "Why can't you guys do $10 million?" Finally they admitted, "Steve, we're...

Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development, Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a "science," and anyone could do it.

I'm beginning to suspect this assumption may be wrong.

Where Did We Go Wrong? It's not that the tools are wrong, I think the entrepreneurship management stack is correct and has made a major contribution to reducing startup failures. Where I think we have gone wrong is the belief that anyone can use these tools equally well.

Entrepreneurship is an Art not a Job For the sake of this analogy, think of two types of artists:creators andperformers (think music composer versus members of the orchestra, playwright versus actor etc.)

Founders fit the definition of a creator: they see something no one else does. And to help them create it from nothing, they surround themselves with world-class performers.

This is an introduction to a series of articles meant to paint a picture and inform web video producers and content creators about the deals, partnerships, and opportunities available to them abroad. From pre-sale to distribution to foreign partnerships, we'll explore and examine what international deals look like and how they can work for you. We're all aware we're part of a rapidly changing media landscape. Creative entertainment opportunities are constantly evolving. The traditional business models that finance original TV and digital content have—and are—changing. In most cases, that change is for the better. Web video is no longer a novelty. The industry has advanced to a point where it's regarded as an incubator for next-generation creative talent. It's a barometer for good content, and is evolving to a point where it could breed the world's next Spielberg, Scorsese, Michael Jackson or Johnny Carson (it already discovered Justin Bieber...

My two daughters are now in college and have put their toes in the working-world with summer jobs. As they've grown older, they've heard their parent's advice about women in the workforce.

This post is not advice nor is it a recommendation of what you should do. It's simply my interpretation of what I observed watching my daughters grow up. Our circumstances were unique, times have changed, and your conclusions and opinions will most certainly differ.

Gender Differences Growing up in the 60s and 70s when women were struggling against inequality in jobs, pay, etc., my wife and I came into parenthood with an unconscious bias that gender differences were mostly cultural. So how we raised our kids was an unintended science experiment.

When our two girls were toddlers, my wife started dressing them in overalls, and consciously bought them trucks and "boy toys" to play with along with dolls.

Lets face it. Creating a web series is just as much about casting and writing scripts as it is about building a business. We’ve been scouring the world for an attorney that knows both the entertainment and the startup side of things. We finally found him. In the first installment of his new bi-monthly ‘Ask the New Media Attorney’ column on Tubefilter News, James C. Roberts III of Global Capital Law Group will be answering your questions about the ins and outs of entertainment, startup and intellectual law. So, what are you waiting for, ask away! Remember: Your mileage may vary, or to put it another way, these answers are not legal advice. How the law applies to you will depend upon the facts of the situation. Talk with a lawyer about those facts. In some cases, talk also with an accountant. Question: Two of my friends and I...

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