VC blogs for entrepreneurs

I wish more VCs blogged often and in detail.  There’s already a critical mass of VC bloggers, sufficient that smart entrepreneurs have plenty of data points giving insight into the VC process like never before, so it’s not that.

It’s that there’s a disproportionately small amount of VC blogging coming out of Silicon Valley based VCs.  I have a pretty comprehensive list of RSS feeds from VC blogs and the regulars are mainly (though not exclusively) non-valley.  That’s a shame, as I think you gain a real insight into the individual when a VC blogs regularly.



I read a comment on Fred Destin’s blog a while back that described wannabe entrepreneurs, as folks who don’t cross the chasm to being an actual execution-oriented startup entrepreneur, as falling into two camps of VC haters or VC suck-ups.  I liked the characterization as I think we’ve all met both.  But I actually think that even outside of the wannabe category, in the actual entrepreneurs group, too few entrepreneurs think of finding the right investor as it is:  you’re interviewing someone you have to work with for the next 3-5 years (possibly longer).  You want to get as many data points on this person as possible - yes that includes their postings on reading lists and favourite books, or their kids softball games.

Brings me back to Silicon Valley.  I wish I had the same level of information about the thinking of more Silicon Valley VCs, ones that invest in Silicon Valley start-ups, overlapping with the network of contacts and relationships I have out here.  I wonder if it’s that they don’t feel the need to build their personal brands and attract deal flow the same?  Or maybe Silicon Valley VC culture prefers to maintain the information asymmetry.  Who knows.

Still, the trend is in the right direction.

For what it’s worth, some great VCs blogs I follow (getting less active as you go down the list):

• Fred Wilson. The gold standard of VC blogs plus any entrepreneur needs to sit up and take notice of the portfolio of Union Square Ventures - these guys really get it.
• Fred Destin.  Europe based VC who is brave enough to be active in forums that attract both real entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs and has the scars to prove it.
• Mark Suster.  Former entrpreneur who writes about the VC process from both sides of the table, and has a comprehensive archive of tips for entrepreneurs.
• Larry Cheng.  Maintains the most complete list of VC blogs out there, though not all are active.
• Jeremy Liew and the Lightspeed Ventures team with some valuable posts recently about what it takes to grow a company to VC scale using ad-based business models (think - if I’m not going to be a top 100 site, preferably top 50, we may not be VC scale)
• Chris Dixon.  Not strictly a VC but worth reading.

Others in my RSS reader include:  Brad Feld. Ed Sim. Josh Kopelman. Seth Levine.  David Cowen. Jeff Bussgang.  David Hornik.