Innovation Toronto » vc http://www.innovationtoronto.com Innovation Acceleration ~ Innovation in Action Across Disciplines & Generations Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:19:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en The Twice Shy Entrepreneur http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/12/09/the-twice-shy-entrepreneur/ http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/12/09/the-twice-shy-entrepreneur/#comments Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:26:12 +0000 ron http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/12/09/the-twice-shy-entrepreneur/ Silicon Valley these days is made up of two kinds of entrepreneurs (I’m painting with broad strokes, bear with me). The first group is the old guard. These are people who started companies during the late nineties and up until the 2000 stock market crash. The second group was either in school during that period, or doing something other that working in the tech world, and have started companies after the fallout from the crash.

Generally speaking, experience counts for something. So you’d expect entrepreneurs who’ve been through the ups and downs of a tech startup to have an advantage over the newcomers. Or at least have an equal chance at success. But in fact the opposite may be true. A number of venture capitalists I’ve spoken with have said that too many “old guard” entrepreneurs are not being bold enough in their business decisions, and it’s hurting their startups.

The first VC to bring this up to me was CRV’s Saar Gur at a recent conference. Since then I’ve brought it up with a number of other VCs. Across the board they agree - many entrepreneurs from the first bubble are overly cautious, and hurting their businesses.

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]]> http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/12/09/the-twice-shy-entrepreneur/feed/ Media Companies Regain Appetite for Taking Risks in Tech Start-Ups http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/10/20/media-companies-regain-appetite-for-taking-risks-in-tech-start-ups/ http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2007/10/20/media-companies-regain-appetite-for-taking-risks-in-tech-start-ups/#comments Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:54:02 +0000 ron http://www.innovationtoronto.com/?p=33 MEDIA companies are often criticized for not taking enough risks in choosing television shows, authors, movies and musicians. But when it comes to technology start-ups, their appetite for risk appears to be on the rise.


 

A growing number of media conglomerates have established divisions to take minority stakes in small Internet and technology companies. Other media companies that already have such venture capital arms are expanding.

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