A Personal Blog
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The Next Step in Standardized Term Sheets: VC Declarations
Aug 17th
There has been a lot of fantastic chatter over the last few weeks about standardized funding docs. I caught wind of it from (no surprise) Brad and Fred‘s fantastic posts on the VC side, which led to Chris Dixon’s also amazing post on the entrepreneur side of the equation.
I love the fact that some firms, particularly law firms, are starting to release standardized funding docs.
A Lil’ Bitta Background
If you’re familiar with why standardized funding docs are important, skip this section :)
If you’ve never raised a round of funding before, you might be really surprised to learn that you can often agree on the principal terms (valuation, round size, board composition, etc) within a couple of weeks of pitching for the round. You then go through a period of Due Diligence, which is pretty normal, and finally you move on to LEGALS.
The challenge is that not only can this take 2 weeks to 2 months, but that:
- Each side is on the hook for their own legals if the deal doesn’t close (there are few things scarier than watching your legal bills go over the $20K mark, when you only have $10K in the bank)
- When sides do negotiating, particularly through their law firms, you can often have 3-10 lawyers in a room negotiating at $300-500/hour each
- This process can end up costing 50-100K
Some Sample Docs For Ya
Everyone involved agrees this is silly, which is why standardized funding docs are so critical. Both sides agree on a pair, both sides negotiate primary terms, both sides get a lawyer to look over final docs, closing docs, deal book, etc, and you’ve just shortened your time to deal completion by likely weeks (if not months). As my friend Mario would say, Hey bada boom bada bing!
For context, here’s TechStars’ standard docs, Y Combinator’s and some standard terms from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA for short).
The Next Step Is…
Brad says the next step is for all the big startup/funding law firms to actually standardize their docs. While that’d be great, I actually think there’s a more constructive next step: for VC firms to declare, publicly, that they agree with any or all of these docs on principle.
I kind of look at it like the whole RSS 1.0 / RSS 2.0 / Atom debate from a few years ago. Sure, having all of the teams standardize on a set of docs (a syndication standard, if you will) would be great. But ultimately, having a set of standards is the big thing. Pick one, pick all of them, entrepreneurs don’t (or shouldn’t) really care. They’re all quite reasonable, after all. Knowing a firm supports a standard makes our job of picking a firm and planning a funding round’s timeline 4x easier.
Ultimately if VC firms publicly declare their support for specific standards (even if it’s just via Partner blogs, like Brad and Fred’s), they’ll not only shorten the deal time, but they’ll also put themselves firmly in the middle camp of being focused on getting good deals done. And, as an entrepreneur, that actually ratchets up my respect for them.
At the end of the day, we need to focus more on getting back to business, and less on an archaic process on the VC side of weeding out the chaff by putting them through some convoluted gauntlet. Either your interview/partner/DD process works or it doesn’t. If it does, don’t use Legals as a second gauntlet. If it doesn’t? Standard/good/bad legals are the least of your worries.
Handing Over the Reins at b5media (Or: A Year of Transition)
Jul 27th
At the beginning of this year (literally, the 4th of January), I took nearly 2 weeks off work from b5media, the company I’ve been lucky enough to serve as CEO for the last 3 ish years (the original year or so was as a group of founders). I didn’t make it public, I told the management team ahead of time and I went totally offline for roughly 10 days.
I did it because I was tired, burnt out and recognized that my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I was working too much, unhappy at home, unhappy at work and just felt completely blah. Basically I did it because a friend asked me what I wanted my life to be… It was then that I realized not only was I unhappy, but that I had no idea what I wanted my life to be.
Over the course of my time off, I realized a bunch of things, but the relevant one for today was that I was no longer happy, passionate or energized in my work. This wasn’t b5′s fault, or anyone’s fault really. It was really just that I’m a builder and a fixer, and b5 had moved beyond the point of its life where it needed that. Sad? Yes. Tragic? No. In some ways I always knew the day would come where I’d have to step aside and hire my replacement, so while this was a bit of a shock, it wasn’t one of those “zomg I can’t believe this is happening” shocks, it was more of a “wow, huh, okay then…” type of shock ;-)
So… What’s Up?
Over the last 6 months I’ve made a bunch of life changes outside of work to find a bit more happiness, but today marks the culmination of the work-related changes for this current season of my life. As of today, I am stepping aside as CEO of b5media, and we are bringing on Elaine Kunda as the new CEO. I say “we” because I’m still a board member, still a shareholder, still a founder and still a huge, huge b5media fan. And I’ll remain available to b5, it’s employees, Elaine, our bloggers and our investors because I flat out love the company, team and bloggers. This ain’t me abandoning ship, it’s me handing over the reins to someone who can take things to the next level (which is actually pretty darn exciting!).
Over the last 3 years, I helped turn b5 from an idea into a reality; from a loose gaggle of folk into a real business; helped to raise millions and millions of dollars; helped establish blogging as a real industry and helped to hire the absolute best team possible to rawk this puppy for all its worth. The journey was incredible, scary, fun-filled, sad and totally, totally worth it.
I want to be clear that this is a personal decision. There are seasons of every entrepreneurs life where you work your 80-100 hour weeks and you thrive. Then there are seasons where you need to breathe for a change, damnit. And this, for me, is the latter season. I’ll still work my ass off, but I’ll do it in a more balanced way. I’ll exercise more, spend more time with my girlfriend, spend more time with my boys, maybe even take up (or renew) some hobbies. I’ll probably start to play drums again, spend more time meditating and praying and generally remember what it is that makes me “me”. I’ll probably play with some startup ideas, help some younger companies and CEOs out and I’ll take on some consulting work (more on that later) so that I can pour everything I know and can do into a project for 2-3 months and then take a break if necessary instead of going so hard and strong that I literally collapse in exhaustion for 3-4 days.
Whatchoo Talkin’ ‘Bout Willis?
For those who love to attempt to read between the lines let me save you the trouble: yes this is my choice, no I’m not being kicked out, yes b5 is doing incredibly well and yes the team is absolutely going to kick ass. While sometimes CEOs leaving reflects on the CEO or on the company, in this case it reflects on one thing and one thing only: I need a bit more balance in my life, and I need to find my flow again.
I want to publicly say how very proud and honoured I am to have worked with such an amazing group of employees, bloggers, advisors and VCs. Really, I (and b5) wouldn’t be where we are without you guys and your efforts, passion or energy. b5 has become more than I ever dreamed it would be, and while I’ve worked my ass off, so have all of you guys and you all deserve a huge round of applause and at least a dozen beers (Elaine’d probably prefer if this was done after work hours, heh). This goes doubly for our bloggers who have stood with me, the other founders and the company through a myriad of changes, most of which have been good but some of which I know have been really, really hard. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Back to the Future, Episode 4: Return of the Errrrngh
For those who are wondering what’s next, the answer is pretty simple: I have no idea. For the short term, I’ll be working with clients via a quasi-agency I setup to do that: netmobs (site is a work in progress, so be thou gentle), I’ll also be taking a bit of time off, I’ll be thinking about what really makes me happy, what really makes me passionate and how I can take what I’ve learned over the last half dozen startups I’ve done and both have fun with it and do something really interesting.
If you have any questions or whatever, you can reach me in any of the standard ways (email is jeremy@netmobs.com, cell is 416 726 3602, skype is jeremy_wright, Twitter is @jeremywright). Oh, and feel free to comment/ReTweet, whatever. It’s great news for b5, great news for me and my happiness and even great news for the industry that we continue to evolve, survive and thrive.
I guess that’s it. Another chapter from my 20s closes. Next, I think I’ll learn to skydive. Always wanted to do that! ;-) Or maybe I’ll take up ballet. I think the pink’d really bring out my eyes! :-D
Mark,
As Satish mentioned, we tried to interpret what was effectively amy’s “art” into something that was truly a “logo”. As Satish said, some of this involved “un-arty” things like simplifying the look and so forth, but we still tried to maintain her core concept. In doing this, we realized that there were effectively 2 paths we could take, and your confusion to the logo would tend to support that assumption:
Path 1: Go the “art” route, where everything’s very free-form and flowy. We believe this will potentially look more arty, but won’t necessarily result in more purchases in the long term … and may actually end up distracting from Amy’s products.
Path 2: We believe a cleaner, perhaps more retro look (per amy’s examples she sent) will be professional, fun and, most importantly, will let the work speak for itself instead of potentially distracting a user, reader or potential purchaser.
While we do recommend path 2, we are good with either path :)
As Satish mentioned, we’ll be bringing some design samples on Saturday, which we think she’ll actually really enjoy. We think it captures the spirit of what she’s trying to do, keeps things neat and tidy, but also lets the work stand on its own. But if Amy prefers to go down the “art” route, we can definitely make that happens as well.
Hope this helps, and all the best :)
How Google's App Suite SHOULD Work
Jul 21st
It’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I’m not a huge Google fan. I’ve railed against their policies, tactics, AdSense, book scanning and dozens of other things the company has done. But, I rely on Google on a daily basis. Not because I want to, but because there is no better option. On a daily basis, I use the following apps:
- Gmail
- Gmail mobile
- Google Maps
- Google Calendar
- Google Calendar Sync
- Google Calendar Mobile
- Google Docs
Suffice to say that Google keeps me going on a daily basis. When Gmail goes down, I lose it (almost as much as when Twitter goes down, heh), so yeah Google keeps me going, keeps me in business, etc.
But the suite of Google apps, while powerful, simply suck when used in tandem. Why, for example:
- Can’t I get notifications of new emails when I’m in Google Calendar?
- Can’t I get reminders of upcoming appointments when in Gmail?
- Can’t I favourite/bookmark files (or have RECENT FILES) easily accessible from any app?
- Aren’t my Google Reader notifications easily visible from anywhere?
- Can’t I easily include files from Google docs as attachments in emails?
- … and oh, oh so many more (don’t even get me started on creating calendar items/todos from emails)…
I mean, seriously, yay (</sarcasm>)that we can FINALLY one-click access any app in the suite (well, most apps in the suite)… but, Google, that’s not enough.
And it’s certainly not enough for me to keep paying for this “suite” of applications.
Google, if you want me to pay, fix the stuff above.
In order to help Google along, and to hopefully generate some brainstorming on this subject, I’ve done up a quick mockup, borrowing heavily from Facebook‘s footer menu (which I use daily… in fact, it’s the only reason I use most areas of Facebook, because they’re so easily accessible).
And here it is… (click for fullsize version)
Something like this would:
- allow search from right within any app (which, since I’ve switched to Bing, would mean I’d use Google Search more often since it was so easy)
- lists several easy to access apps that I use on a regular basis, has favourite files or recent files
- notify you of unread emails (and preview them for easy processing such as deleting, marking as read, moving to folders, etc without leaving whatever app you were in)
- notify you (and allow you to to mark as read) items in Google Reader
- notify you of upcoming appointments
- allow you to use Google Chat from anywhere and get those notifications as well (though personally I’d probably turn those notifications off so I was more productive)… this would also save many of those “awww crap, I was talking to someone but clicked on Google Docs and now they’re gone” from Gmail’s chat UI.
Granted, I built this for me, so others might have other things they want. And, obviously if an appointment was upcoming there should be an alert of some kind that was a bit more intrusive (potentially making the window flash in the toolbar, generating a sound, having a toast, whatever).
Anyways, this seemed so obvious to me that I had to check with several friends to make sure this didn’t exist.
In addition, this kind of tie-in would make other features, such as the ability to attach Google Docs directly into Gmail emails easy, would hold your Google Profile information and would presumably allow for things like integration to Facebook and so forth. If this was built as a piece of downloadable software, it would also give Google huge data on your true browsing habits, the ability to index Facebook pages just for you, etc.
Dunno, maybe I’m off my rocker, maybe this does exist, but for me… I’d pay for this.
3A00DDHow to Raise a Dragon
Jul 7th
More than 4 years ago, b5media started. More than 3 years ago, I met Rick Segal to talk about somehow getting a bit of cash into the company. We were originally talking 30-50K, hah. 3 years ago, Rick and JLA Ventures and Mark and the Brightspark crew decided to invest a lot of money in a little company with a very, very young CEO.
In many ways, Rick was incredibly smart and did his best to raise a dragon. He gave me and the b5media team space, let us eat whatever we wanted, let us roam in the backyard til we were ready for the big bad world, taught us to fly and occasionally fed us pigs and chickens whenever we got tired or sick.
Image by damienvanachter via FlickrWhen you’re just starting your first VC-backed company, there is just so much you don’t know, are afraid of, don’t think to be afraid of, etc. Rick was amazing at always choosing his companies first, always choosing his CEOs first, always giving you his straight up opinion and always, always, always going to bat for you when you needed him to.
So it’s with a bit of sadness, but mostly excitement that I’m welcoming Rick back to the startup world after his announcement that he’s leaving JLA. Most folk either don’t know or have forgotten that Rick was a startup guy long before he was a VC. Dunno why, it’s probably becuase his polo shirts totally make him look like a VC and not like a startup guy ;-)
If there’s a type of VC Canada needs more of, it’s the type that Rick was (minus the polo shirts, please?).
Either way, Rick was fantastic for me personally, amazing for b5 and I know he’ll do great things for the startup community now that he’s back on the more glamorous side of the fence, lol.
So Rick, thanks for teaching me what to eat, what not to eat, how to fly and where to take a dump. I’d be a much poorer and sicklier dragon if you hadn’t helped raise me :)
Startup Lesson #1,218: Making the Tough Calls
Mar 31st
If there is one thing I’ve learned about Start-Ups is that every day is an adventure; sometimes not necessarily a good one but an adventure nonetheless. Even in the healthiest economies, with the perfect product, solid vision and a fantastic team, tough situations come up that require tough calls. Sadly, in spite of an amazing community and one of the best teams anyone could ask for, we’ve got those tough calls to make in order to ensure b5media survives and thrives.
The Backstory
Over the fall we restructured blogger pay as well as over the winter restructured our back office team Through it all we’ve worked hard to keep costs down, people focused and b5 growing.
Thankfully, these efforts, as well as our recent reorganization of our blogs into larger content sites (Bizzia for business, Splendicity for beauty & style, EveryJoe for men and Blisstree for Lifestyles) have resulted in growth on all fronts and by all measurements. The team has been fantastic and the results speak for themselves. Our bloggers are great, the content is great, advertisers love it and, most importantly, our readers have responded with more page views, friend referrals, and some great complimentary emails, tweets, and blog posts of their own.
When we’d done the cost-cutting, we’d originally projected (in Q3 of 2008) the economy recovering late 2009, early 2010. We have a variety of trigger points, forecasts, and other tools we’ve been using to track all of this. Armed with all this data, we no longer see our original plan as being a safe bet. Given that there is nothing more important than b5’s long term growth, the management team decided to act now while we had plenty of cash, controllable costs, and (most importantly) time.
We decided to do what is rarely done; start at the top and protect the bloggers and the team as much as possible. It made no sense for the management team to sit around and cut bloggers, blogger pay, or the working team until every other penny was squeezed out of the system to extend the cash, keep the operational team rolling, and avoid harming the bloggers.
What’s Happening
Effective Tuesday, March 31st (no, this is not an early April Fools joke), there will be a significant restructuring of the b5media team, starting at the top.
First, I’ve cut my own salary to somewhat above minimum wage (by about 60%). Salim Teja, our COO, and Jon Prosser, our VP Finance are both coming off the payroll. They are top talent and they worked the budgets and supported the right things for the company knowing that it meant bad results for them. They have been amazing to work with and I’ve learned many things about true professionalism from these guys. I know that both will find fantastic positions elsewhere because both are absolute rock stars.
In addition, this also involves laying off three of the non-management team. Each of these people has our full support in their journey going forward.
What This Means
Clearly this is a significant change. But the biggest part of this is that the investors, the team, and I continue to believe in the value of the network, the quality of our writers, and the value of the assets we have created over nearly 4 years of working on b5media.
By taking this path, we have extended b5’s runway to the point where we can ride out this economic storm with no capital requirements, headcount adjustments, etc. Providing our bloggers and our team with this protection and confidence was one of the central goals behind this change.
To reiterate, b5media continues to remain a healthy, growing and valuable business. We continue to retain the confidence and excitement of our investors, advertisers, team and partners. And while this is a significant change, we believe that by starting the change at the top we will be able to continue to serve our bloggers, advertisers, partners and investors for many years to come.
What This Means for Me
I’m still involved in b5media. I’m not leaving, nor have I quit, I’ve reduced my salary. My first love, passion, and responsibility are to ensure the b5 family remains on the right track, continues to grow, while continuing to serve our bloggers, partners and advertisers.
Given the pay cut, though, I am considering writing a follow-up to Blog Marketing (which has sold incredibly well, and been translated into an amazing array of languages and resources over the last 4 years), since it’s become more than a little dated. I’m also available for Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and the occasional car washing opportunity.
If anyone has any comments, questions, concerns, etc, feel free to leave a comment, drop me an email (jeremy@b5media.com) or give me a call (details on contact page).
