Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shahamazon.com
Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
An interesting exercise is to walk into a company and ask three people what is the purpose of the company. If you get the same answer from all three, it tells you that the CEO is doing their job.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
The best tool to cut through the noise is gross margin. The bottom line is that the price is a message from the marketplace. Listen to it and believe it. Shah:
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
What are some of the signs that you are way too early? Wagner: The key sign is when you’re spending all your time educating the market and the market never seems to be much readier. There is always an education phase when you’re doing a market-creation type of project. But if that education is never drawing to a close and you’re in constant educati
... See moreTarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
If you want to start a company, you really have to go to people who will talk to you. Entrepreneurs have to go out to get objective feedback on their ideas.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
Also, asking the obvious stupid questions is effective. Getting everyone together and asking really stupid questions works surprisingly well. Trying to be the really smart guy in the room usually fails.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
A good purpose statement is, “We want to put a computer on every desktop.” This tells a lot: the customer, the size, the cost, maybe even the shape, etc. It’s very clean and provides guidance.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
Oddly enough, you would think that the CEO would be the superset of the creator of things. But rather, the CEO must have discipline and know when and how to say no. Otherwise, you just end up with a company that isn’t productive and can’t get the necessary things done.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
The better the quality of the board and the investors, the better the quality of the management team.
Tarang Shah, Tarang Shah, Sheetal Shah • Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes
An ideal start-up has a gifted founder. What does it mean to be a gifted founder? Well, they are coming from a unique situation that allows them to perceive an opportunity in a way that is different from other people. They can turn that perception into a vision of what they are trying to build. They can communicate that vision to others and then ge
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