Archive for 2012
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The start of a new adventure
May 15, 2012If you’ve been reading the French press recently, you are no doubt aware that this week represents the start of a new adventure… I’m of course referring to the imminent road show for Facebook’s IPO. Already affecting a billion people on the planet, and probably 100% of RudeBaguette readers, Facebook strikes me as the perfect [...]
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Making your board work for you
May 8, 2012Fred Wilson ran an excellent series recently on his blog about startup boards of directors. The series began with several posts of Fred’s typically concise and valuable insights, and subsequently featured guest opinions from a number of experienced practitioners in the ecosystem. I encourage you to read them all (start here) when you have time [...]
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Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
April 24, 2012Pardon the overused cliché, but I figured it was appropriate to pay homage to the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic’s fatal voyage since every media outlet seems to be doing so (my favorite was The Onion’s commemorative tribute in applying its rarely-used 100-point font to the headline). But the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on [...]
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The easy money period (relatively)
April 17, 2012In France we’re now entering what I think of as the “easy money period” for startups. The easy money period begins roughly around April 15 (purely coincidentally, the U.S. tax filing deadline) and runs until June 15 (the French wealth tax filing deadline, and that’s no coincidence). To be fair, fundraising in a startup is [...]
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The disruption and renewal of sakura
April 10, 2012As style entrepreneur and design authority Tyler Brûlé once astutely observed, it’s always a good time to visit Tokyo. I had the honor of spending the past week there on a business trip, which by stroke of good fortune, coincided with a week of cherry blossoms (sakura) in full bloom. Appreciation of the fleeting moment [...]
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Warning: this blog post is unrealistically optimistic
April 3, 2012I don’t think a week goes by in our office without at least one fundraising pitch employing some variation of the phrase, “These financial projections are conservative.” I understand the well-meaning intent. The entrepreneur’s objectives are often twofold: i) convey us that the market potential for the given startup is enormous; and ii) convince us [...]
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Last question: gimme your password
March 27, 2012Imagine this scenario: You just completed a full day of second-round interviews at the Company’s premises following your successfully making the first cut at their on-campus recruiting session. It was a long, grueling day, but you feel good about the positive impression you made on everyone. Your well-prepared questions clearly hit the mark, and you [...]