On Tuesday, SendGrid announced that they have raised a $21 million growth round of capital led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Having led the seed round of funding for SendGrid, this was obviously gratifying for us here at Highway 12 Ventures and was another in a long list of validation points that SendGrid is on its […]
Archive for the ‘Entrepreneur’ Category
Jan
19
Jan
13
A Successful Pivot
I vividly recall a night in September 2008. I was having a beer with Pete Gombert, CEO of Balihoo, one of our portfolio companies. We were celebrating the recent stretch of good fortune that the company was enjoying. The company was on the verge of closing multi-million dollar relationships with a couple of the largest […]
Oct
11
Should I Bootstrap or Raise Capital?
Should I bootstrap or raise capital? Over the last four years at both Highway 12 Ventures and the University Venture Fund, this is an ongoing dilemma that I’ve seen nearly every startup face. Given how frequently the question surfaces, and the varying solutions, I thought it would be worthwhile to highlight a handful of real […]
Jun
30
Entrepreneur feedback for VC’s
As you may know Highway 12 Ventures is a part of the Village Ventures network of funds and my partners and I are attending the semi-annual Village Ventures Fund Managers meeting this week. It is a couple days where we can meet with other Fund Managers to share best practices, network, etc. Contrary to what […]
Apr
12
Why Should I Apply To BoomStartup?
Ever heard of BoomStartup? It’s a mentorship-driven startup accelerator in Salt Lake City similar in structure to the renowned TechStars program of David Cohen and Brad Feld. In fact, BoomStartup recently became one of the first members of the newly formed TechStars Network (which essentially means if you’re accepted to BoomStartup, you can gain improved […]
Feb
22
TechStars Boulder Early Application Deadline - Feb. 24th
The early application deadline for TechStars Boulder is rapidly approaching. The deadline is February 24th, 2011 and you can apply here. Over the years, Highway 12 Ventures has invested in a number of TechStars graduates and based up the terrific performance of these companies, we strongly believe that this program gives startups a tremendous advantage […]
Jan
13
Do Something
My partners and I at Highway 12 Ventures are in a two day planning offsite, so in between big thoughts and bad jokes I have been catching up on a little reading. This morning I came across a recent TechStars blog that reminded me of a quote from a childhood idol of mine. His simple […]
Dec
21
Drive | The Great Equalizer
During my time at University Venture Fund and Highway 12 Ventures over the last few years, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with many highly successful entrepreneurs and investors. I’ve always been fascinated by the common threads that bind successful people and one story in particular on the subject. Chris Gardner’s […]
Nov
28
5 Minutes with Matt Warta, CEO of GutCheck
Highway 12 Ventures recently invested in an exciting new company called GutCheck. Anyone who has worked in product development, or any area of marketing knows how important it is to be able to capture and understand the “voice of the customer”. Big companies have traditionally used things like Focus Groups to capture this information. GutCheck […]
May
06
Great Products Don’t Require Education
Brad Feld wrote a great post the other day titled “My Obsession With The Product”. I would highly recommend it to all CEO’s and any aspiring entrepreneurs. From my perspective, the gist of it was that to create real value for the customer and to build a successful business, you can’t be satisfied […]