I started to see a trend about 90 days ago – executives that were “done” two years ago are quietly coming back and letting me know they are “available.” It turns out they can only play so much golf or ski so many runs before starting to go “stir crazy.” I have also heard that […]
Stop looking away and hoping Somebody does Something. Stand up. Be Somebody and do Something. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
The news came out yesterday that VC funding in the US was down in Q1. Really down. VC funding into start-ups averaged roughly $20 billion a year for many years since the bubble crashed and recently (2007 and 2008) had creeped up to $30 billion a year. The Q1’09 figure was $3.0 billion, suggesting we […]
Last night I was invited to attend (thank you Brenda Chia, president AAAIM) the panel discussion “Market Changeup: Fund Management as a Business”, with Priya Mathur (Board director of CalPERS, California Public Employees’ Retirement System; one of the biggest investor in LPs and VC funds), David Fann (President & Chief Executive Officer, PCG Asset Management), […]
Dan Doman, an associate at G-51 Capital, won our March Madness Extravaganza this year, which prompted the following thoughts. Thanks for the opportunity peHUB readers. Hopefully you’ll enjoy my tortured sports metaphors, and laugh instead of grimace at my attempts at comedy. So here are my three rules for winning your office pool and making solid seed-stage investments… or how business and sports sometimes merge in the same lane of the brain. 1. Advance good teams In college basketball, good teams typically have a great floor leader playing the point (CEO), a dependable big man (techie) and a third player that if he gets hot can really carry a team deep (biz dev, sales stud or maybe even a marketer). As an investor, you want the ball in the CEO’s hands; you trust him to lead the attack and minimize costly turnovers, and you depend on him to get the best out of his teammates. This player needs to be coachable or have experience under the spotlight in good times and bad.
Storm clouds and static keep threatening the already uneasy relationship between Wall Street and Washington DC, and many disgruntled investors and bankers believe the financial services industry is being unfairly singled out for blame by Congress and the Obama Administration. As a veteran investment banker with more than 20 years’ worth of deal-making under my […]
My Maine friends tell me that’s a common response to give tourists who don’t appreciate their state’s mountainous or cove-studded terrain. The first time I heard it, I thought “That’s nonsense – of course you can get anywhere from where you are.” What I realized they meant was that you can’t get there if you […]
The annual wireless industry trade show, CTIA, had some interesting trends this year. Putting aside the fact that Las Vegas feels like a ghost town, cab lines are uncharacteristically short, and my personal frustration that I find myself agreeing with an arch-conservative economist Arthur Laffer’s editorial in today’s WSJ on how Obama’s estate tax policy […]
Here’s an idea for you. Put out a message via Twitter, Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, Plaxo, or the ACG Essential Network asking for savvy finance professionals who perhaps have been laid off in this most recent recession and would be more than happy to join “The Workout Corps.” This organization of very talented folks would […]
Pam Hendrickson, chief operating officer of The Riverside Co., this morning testified at a Congressional Small Business subcommittee hearing titled “Expanding Equity Investment in Small Business.” What follows are her prepared remarks: Chairman Altmire, Ranking Member Fallin, and member of the subcommittee: Good morning. My name is Pam Hendrickson and I am the Chief Operating […]