Last week Bonnie Halper and I hosted Jason Klein at our Investor Insights event. Jason is an experienced media CEO and builder of digital and traditional businesses who has led two successful turnarounds. He is the founder and CEO of On Grid Ventures with a portfolio of 25+ early-stage companies. Jason is co-President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels Association with 18 chapters across four continents, and Chairman of the largest chapter, HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York.
With his experience and knowledge, we were all quickly drinking out of a firehose as he shared a ton of great information about Angel Investing and Venture Capital. He covered the processes many startups use to get funding along with the pros and cons of different paths.
His presentation clearly explained the difference between different types of early-stage funding and the experience (and the expectations) #startups will have while working with each investor group including:
-Friends and Family
-Angels (along with the difference between Individual, Professional, and Angel networks)
-Venture Capital
-We discussed why many companies fail due to VCs pushing the company to spend too quickly. This might be counter-intuitive to some but listen to the full recording to hear the discussion.
-The importance of exit plans.
-How to value your company at different stages of growth and fundraising (and if the valuation has any meaning at some stages.)
3 reasons early-stage companies fail:
1) Not having the right team (including investors and partners)
2) Not having an MVP
3) Following false positives (early adopters of products are not always aligned with the larger market)
3 reasons later-stage companies fail:
1) Lack of talent
2) Moving too fast to expand and not getting the market right
3) Failed moonshots
There was a ton of great info shared for anyone working on or building a startup. Too much for this one post.
Join us every other week for another discussion with a new investor to hear their point of view on startup investing.
About our Guest Investor: Jason E. Klein is an experienced media CEO and builder of digital and traditional businesses who has led two successful turnarounds. He is the founder and CEO of On Grid Ventures with a portfolio of 25+ early-stage companies. Mr Klein is co-President of the HBS Alumni Angels Association with 18 chapters across four continents, and Chairman of the largest chapter, HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York. Mr. Klein was previously CEO of Newspaper National Network LP; and CEO of Times Mirror Magazines/Time4 Media, publisher of Golf Magazine, Field & Stream, and Popular Science. He began his career as a consultant with McKinsey. He is one of AlleyWatch’s “25 Angels Investors in NY You Need to Know” and a member of New York Angels. Mr. Klein has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB from Dartmouth College.
Note to attendees: We always keep the group small so that everyone has an opportunity to participate.
View all Investor Insight event recordings on our YouTube channel.
