There are some entrepreneurs out there who can create amazing things through the extraordinary force of their personality and vision. Richard Branson is one who seems to be able to create new businesses through the glint in his eyes. But most of us mere mortals cannot do that. We need to focus on the details of the business to make it […]

The reality (and fun) of venture capital investing is that you never quite know what the next big success story will be. But you know that a good team, a differentiated strategy and a large, accessible market is a good start..

“The road to success is paved with failures” is an oft-quoted truth of entrepreneurship. Or as Thomas Edison allegedly put it: “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Underneath them was an army of analysts and mangers fulfilling various parts of the execution process, but who did not understand the “whole story”. These people while highly skilled were not particularly useful to us, and of course the really talented people wouldn’t leave a lucrative career to join a maverick firm like ours. We therefore determined to build our own investment bankers. How did we do this?