Outsourcing: Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance (Part 1)

Followers of this blog may recall that Elance was featured on Deal Radar in 2008. Founded in 1999, the Mountain View, California–based company continues to give outsourcing competitors like oDesk and Freelancer.com a run for their money. Sramana Mitra: Hi, Fabio. Would you give me some background about you and also about Elance. I know

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Dave Whorton, Founder, Tugboat Ventures (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the thirty-second interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Dave Whorton, the founder of Tugboat Ventures, an organization of investors who see themselves as not “venture capitalists” but rather as “mentor capitalists,” closer in spirit to the approach pioneered by

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Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 7)

SM: In your eyes, what is special about Silicon Valley? RK: Silicon Valley is unique in the US and the world. The reason is that this community has taken 70 years to build. It started with Terman at Stanford. It was an experiment that he ran effectively that became the innovation industry.

Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 6)

SM: I think there are opportunities in both developing economies and in Western economies. I am working on a forward-looking book about India right now. RK: Perhaps. I see energy as a good example. If India can resolve their unique energy issues in a way that only India can do it, then they would have

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Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 5)

SM: What about clean tech or green? How important is that for you? RK: Green is a different sort of investment. It is capital intensive and it is not an order of magnitude investing like other areas. In other investment areas, you are looking for order of magnitude decrease in cost, order of magnitude increase

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Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 4)

SM: You said that you like to get involved with companies early and help them solidify positioning; is that because you are good at it? Most VCs don’t do it, and even if they did they would not have a clue how to do it. RK: It’s just what I do. I agree that most

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Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 3)

SM: Could you contrast your proposed process to a business plan? RK: With a business plan, in a more conventional process, somebody would have identified a solution. It may not even be a solution to a real problem.

Getting To Plan B: Randy Komisar, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins (Part 2)

SM: Let’s get your basic concepts together. I saw four key concepts in your book; the concepts of analog, antilog, dashboard, and leaps of faith. RK: The way I think about the entrepreneurial or innovation process is from a “what’s the problem I am trying to solve” standpoint. In my business, I look for the

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