Venture capital

For decades now, venture capitalists have played a crucial role in the economy by financing high-growth start-ups. While the companies they've backed--Amazon,...

More data isn’t always helpful.

The Gulf oil spill looks like it might be capped. U.S. financial regulation is underway, plugging holes of another kind, which won't allow sub-prime mortgage...

With a venture buyout, an established company partners with a VC firm to spin out an internal startup.

Rapid growth is more dangerous for entrepreneurs than starting from scratch.

A recent report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation raises serious questions about the degree to which venture capital deserves emulation. The report, provocatively titled “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us” [PDF], summarizes its findings thus: Limited Partners — foundations, endowments, and state pension funds — invest too much capital in underperforming […]

Since at least the 1980s (the era of deregulation, that is, over which Alfred Kahn presided) managers of big companies have been upbraided for their intolerance...

When companies stay private longer, stock options are less appealing.

Most entrepreneurs understand that if the fundamentals of a business idea—the management team, the market opportunities, the operating systems and controls—are sound, chances are there’s money out there. The challenge of landing that capital to grow a company can be exhilarating. But as exciting as the money search may be, it is equally threatening. Built […]

Being clear on what it means is not just an academic exercise.

An analysis of more than 4,000 firms, their founders, and their funders.

The key is to embrace risk, disagreement, and agility.

In the book we're working on right now, we make the argument that capitalism is evolving because the environment in which it is situated is changing in...

In Silicon Valley, exciting new business ideas rapidly attract capital and talent away from less worthy ventures. But in big companies, ideas, capital, and talent are stagnant—prisoners of traditional bureaucratic ways of allocating resources. To capture the Valley’s entrepreneurial magic, your company needs to move from resource allocation to resource attraction.

Seed funding isn't in short supply.

Leadership matters more than the business model.

In case you hadn't noticed, Facebook really doesn't want to go public. At least, not yet. The seven-year-old company is now valued at $50 billion, significantly...

Research suggests they’re likely to be disappointed.

Venture capital is ignoring the region for all the wrong reasons.

Most VCs and entrepreneurs believe start-ups are inherently iterative, that a string of mistakes doesn't prevent success, but may even be the path to...