https://techcrunch.com/tag/ask-a-vc/ Startup and Technology News Sun, 05 May 2024 18:35:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/cropped-cropped-favicon-gradient.png?w=32 https://techcrunch.com/tag/ask-a-vc/ 32 32 https://techcrunch.com/2013/01/25/ask-a-vc-kleiner-perkins-ted-schlein-on-how-the-vc-industry-has-changed-whats-next-for-the-enterprise-and-more/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:34:43 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=744631 Ted Schlein join me on Ask A VC this week. Schlein, who joined Kleiner in 1996 and has nearly two decades of experience in the VC world, discussed what's changed in the VC industry as well as what the expectation is for a return on investment for startups. We also tackled what's next in the enterprise world as Schlein sits on the boards of a number of enterprise companies including Jive Software, and was an early employee at Symantec.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/ask-a-vc-submit-your-questions-now-for-true-ventures-and-shasta-ventures/ Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:09:46 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=721856 Tony Conrad and Puneet Agarwal in the studio, and Thursday, Shasta Ventures'co-founder Rob Coneybeer will be in the hot seat. ]]> https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/ask-a-vc-kleiner-perkins-megan-quinn-on-whats-next-for-ecommerce-the-mobile-revolution-and-more/ Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:20:43 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=721468 joined us in this week's Ask A VC, chatting about her views on what's next for ecommerce, where mobile innovation is heading, technical product managers vs. non-technical PMs, and more. ]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/15/ask-a-vc-bijan-sabet-on-competition-mbas-and-what-hed-rather-be-doing-tctv/ Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:45:30 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=294558 It's time for Ask a VC, and this week Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital was back. We talked about whether it's worth it for startups to launch at a conference like DEMO or Disrupt, the decision to turn a profitable lifestyle business into a venture-backed, cash-burning startup, how entrepreneurs in other countries can find US mentors and the value of MBAs. In one of our more personal questions from a reader Daryn asks Sabet what he'd be doing now if he wasn't a VC. Tune in below for his answers.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/ask-a-vc-bijan-sabet-returns-to-the-hot-seat-send-your-questions-now/ Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:16:19 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=293428 https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/ask-a-vc-izhar-armory-defends-patents-answers-reader-questions-tctv/ Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:16:34 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=293158 Izhar Armory of Charles River Ventures was my guest on Ask a VC this week and he answered a host of reader questions including whether Twitter should be making money from celebrity Tweets, whether MBSAs aspiring to be entrepreneurs should drop out of school, what role academia still plays in the startup economy and why entrepreneurs today aren't starting more substantial, life-changing companies. But the bulk of the conversation was around the controversial concept of patents, particularly the way companies like Intellectual Ventures use them. Armory is on the board of Intellectual Ventures and explains the "misunderstood company." Video below.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/07/ask-a-vc-izhar-armony-answers-your-questions/ Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:30:01 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=292042 https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/18/ask-a-vc-peter-barris-on-scaling-the-vc-business-and-snagging-the-first-stake-in-groupon-tctv/ Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:00:36 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=285648 My guest this week on Ask a VC is Peter Barris of NEA. NEA is one of the oldest venture firms in the country, one of the first to be bicoastal and one that unabashedly sticks to the same mega-fund strategy in good times and bad. Reader questions for Barris included everything from how to avoid getting cheated by bad VCs and what metrics he looks at when investing in an ecommerce company. And for those of you who write in week after week asking why more VCs don't invest in the rest of America-- Barris is an investor after your own heart. He tells the story of how loyalty for his hometown of Chicago has lead to a burgeoning portfolio of promising deals-- including the first venture stake in Groupon.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/12/ask-a-vc-mike-maples-defends-diggs-honor-and-the-kno-tctv/ Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:38:34 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=283851 Mike Maples, my guest on Ask a VC this week, is known for backing some of the best Web 2.0 entrepreneurs early on and hunting down "Thunder Lizards" or the 15 truly disruptive companies that hatch each year. But some of his most celebrated investments have turned controversial. In this video he defends Digg's honor against some tough reader questions and defends Chegg's co-founder and chairman Osman Rashid's decision to get into hardware. For non-haters, he answers some general questions on why he doesn't back more middle-aged entrepreneurs and how much of a stake he needs to do a deal. Enjoy! And check out our earlier interview with Maples and his three companies that got away here.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/03/07/ask-a-vc-with-mike-maples-and-peter-barris-this-week-send-questions-now/ Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:53:00 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=282051 https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/25/ask-a-vc-investing-in-music-is-a-little-like-vietnam-tctv/ Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:54:47 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=278718 Ask a VC was on hiatus for a few weeks, but your Friday investor-talk fix is back. Our guest this week is Tony Conrad, partner at True Ventures and founder of About.Me, which recently sold to AOL along with TechCrunch. There was a pent-up flood of questions this week, and Conrad addressed many of them. In case you want to skip around here they are in order: -Why does True Ventures invest in more product and gadget companies than most VCs? What do they look for? -True's views on International investing. -Conrad's advice on getting into business in Southeast Asia and the moment he knew he'd "gone native." -Does Conrad have a secret "formula" for building companies to flip? And did he sell About.Me so early, because he didn't believe in the business? -Why True isn't betting big in the current game frenzy. -Why True doesn't bet on education or music companies. -And a general roundup of questions about how to pitch True.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/ask-a-vc-is-back-with-tony-conrad/ Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:43:35 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=277520 https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/28/ask-a-vc-john-ofarrell-gives-tips-on-deal-making-advice-to-would-be-vcs-tctv/ Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:18:05 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=269107 This week's Ask a VC has a different twist, since we had a different kind of VC on the show, John O'Farrell Andressen Horowitz's guru on business development and deal-making. The questions you asked O'Farrell are below. As usual, feel free to watch the whole show or use the links to skip ahead to your question. "Have you ever invested in a single employee startup? Would this be a situation in which you guys would make a deal?"]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/ask-a-vc-andreessen-horowitzs-john-ofarrell-answers-your-questions/ Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:02:08 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=268244 This week our guest on Ask a VC is John O'Farrell of Andreessen Horowitz. O'Farrell is yet another Opsware alum filling out the firm's partnership ranks, and he follows the firm's strategy of hiring partners with specific company building expertise. At Opsware, he headed up the company's business development and leading Opsware's partnerships, acquisitions and eventual purchase by HP for $1.65 billion. He had a similar role at hot cleantech startup Silver Spring Networks before jumping to Andreessen Horowitz last year. So those startups or would-be entrepreneurs out there with burning questions about deal making? This is the perfect week to send your questions to AskaVC(at)techcrunch(dot)com.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/21/ask-a-vc-the-george-zachary-edition/ Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:46:44 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=266262 With the Crunchies later tonight, TechCrunchHQ is a bit of a mad house today. Paul Carr and I are MC'ing, so we've got interns sorting M&Ms by color, per our rider, while we try to figure out the line between "Oh that's a funny joke" and "you're fired." Laura is polishing Monkey statues. Heather is counting and recounting and counting votes again. There are so many flowers and gift baskets from hopeful nominees, we can barely walk through the office. And at noon today the TechCrunchTV studio will be ripped asunder so the cameras can go to the Palace of the Fine Arts for comprehensive Crunchies coverage. That gives us just enough time to do this week's episode of Ask a VC, starring George Zachary of CRV. Zachary's investments include Twitter, Yammer and Crunchies nominee Millenial Media. Zachary is deeply connecting in the industry and can regale you with stories about working with everyone from the iconic Jim Clark to Elon Musk to Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. He also spent some time in Hollywood producing movies with other ex-PayPalers, so questions about the Hollywood-Silicon Valley cold war are fair game too. We film in just two hours so get your questions in NOW to askavc(at)techcrunch(dot)com]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/14/ask-a-vc-satish-dharmaraj-on-india-the-beauty-of-fragmentation-and-farmers-markets/ Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:22:27 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=264073 I have a dilemma with Ask a VC. Generally, I'm trying to do shows that are under 10 minutes, so they're more consumable. But in the case of Ask a VC, I want to get to as many reader questions as possible and would rather not cut someone off when they are giving you business advice. So starting this week we're going to post the whole show as usual below, and give you links to each question and answer. That way if you don't have 15 minutes to watch it all, you can still find out the answer to your question or a question that you are grappling with. I usually find that its easier to consume long-form videos in podcast form than during my daily blog reading, so as a reminder, you can also download the episodes of any of our TCTV shows from iTunes. This week, Redpoint Ventures' Satish Dharmaraj was our first return guest and we got to a good number of questions including...]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/14/ask-a-vc-welcome-back-to-the-hot-seat-satish-dharmaraj/ Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:19:53 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=263870 We had a last minute cancellation on Ask a VC this week, so filling in is Satish Dharmaraj who was our second ever guest on the show. For those who don't remember, Dharmaraj is a relatively new partner at Redpoint Venture Partners, after selling Zimbra to Yahoo for $350 million and Onebox, which he sold for $850 million. Not bad. Dharmaraj focuses on a lot of Redpoint's consumer Web portfolio, but he has a history with enterprise too. I'll be interested to hear which he's most excited about in 2011. Because he's a last minute fill-in, we have a quick turn around so get your questions in now to AskaVC(at)techcrunch(dot)com.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/07/ask-a-vc-why-saas-is-more-than-a-new-business-model-plus-salesforce-v-yammer-v-jive-tctv/ Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:24:25 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=261464 Who cares about enterprise software? Apparently you do. Even though I posted this solicitation for Ask a VC questions late on a Thursday, I woke up this morning to one of the better inboxes of questions since the show began. Our guest in your virtual hot seat was Jason Green of Emergence Capital. Like a lot of things in tech, Green is a believer that the hype in software-as-a-service may have over-promised in the short term, but has underestimated how big this trend will get over time-- and how big companies can get. His LPs certainly hope so. There are few firms who have bet so heavily on this single trend.]]> https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/06/ask-a-vc-questions-about-the-new-enterprise-boom-ask-jason-green/ Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:55:30 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=261291 https://techcrunch.com/2010/12/17/ask-a-vc-kairouz-on-canada-splurging-on-wine-and-the-surging-nyc-scene-tctv/ Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:03:12 +0000 https://techcrunch.com/?p=255810 Habib Kairouz of Rho Ventures was my guest on Ask a VC this week, and as I mentioned earlier this week, he's had a range of Web exits in the last ten years. He's also seen tremendous changes in his home tech market of New York. It's gone from silly Silicon Alley days to tumbleweeds and now to a thriving hub that's stolen Boston's East Coast venture thunder, at least when it comes to consumer Internet companies. In this episode we talk about what New York finally got right, why Rho has offices in Canada, the value of an incubator versus bootstrapping and why Kairouz doesn't think there's as much opportunity in online beer as there is in wine. (Note: Apologies on my audio. We had some issues, but Kairouz is the one answering the questions and his is just fine.)]]>