Thank You - Venture Capitalists

I've been helping - or rather attempting to help - Serality raise capital. Full disclosure - I made an angel investment in Serality about two years ago. As of this moment, I've contacted 143 venture investors.

I want to thank fifteen of them. Those fifteen have turned us down.
Obviously I'm not thanking them for that. But I understand it. They have a business to run and they need to make a profit. If our business plan is off-strategy for them, or we are too small or too early-stage or they simply think we've got a bad idea; all that is OK. I appreciate the straightforward turndown.
Serality is aimed at helping real-world communities that support the over-50 population - which is surging with millions of aging baby boomers. That has lead to some interesting comments from some firms even though they are decling to invest. Comments such as: "this isn't appropriate for us, but I've recently been dealing with my aging parents - you are on to something really important".

To: Charles River Partners, Edison Ventures, Flywheel Ventures, Weston Presidio, 406 Ventures, Hummer Winblad, Sequoia Capital, Ed Dorado Ventures, Firstmark Capital, KB Partners, Crosscut Ventures, e.ventures, Onset Ventures, Heritage Health Ventures and Shasta Ventures, thanks for getting back to us and letting us know were we stand.
To the firms that have expressed an interest and are now getting to know us and our business strategy better - we are looking forward to making a lot of money together.

Comments

Book Review: What Matters Now by Gary Hamel

Interview of Eric Schmidt by Gary Hamel at the MLab dinner tonight. Google's Marissa Mayer and Hal Varian also joined the open dialog about Google's culture and management style, from chaos to arrogance. The video just went up on YouTube. It's quite entertaining. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Cover of The Future of ManagementMy list of must-read business writers continues to expand.Gary Hamel, however, author of What Matters Now, with the very long subtitle of How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation, has been on the list for quite some time.Continuing his thesis on the need for a new approach to management introduced in his prior book The Future of Management, Hamel calls for a complete rethinking of how enterprises are run.

Fundamental to his recommendation is that the practice of management is ossified in a command and control system that is now generations old and needs to be replaced with something that reflects an educat…

New Research on How to Use Exercise to Grow a Bigger Brain

The Good News We’re swamped with research on how to grow and maintain a bigger brain into old age. Much of the research emphasizes exercise as essential to brain health at every age. Here’s a summary of relevant baseline research, then we’ll move to some new, interesting and thought-provoking research. Background Dr. Carl Cotman and Dr. Nicole Berchtold of the University of California Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia performed research on aerobic exercise and brain health. Cotman and Berchtold concentrated on “brain-derived neurotrophic factor” (BDNF). Because, in their words “it supports the survival and growth of many neuronal subtypes, including glutamatergic neurons”. In our (very) layman understanding, BDNF is a protein that helps nerve cells do, well, a lot. Grow in particular, as well as get stronger and avoid premature cellular death. Cotman and Berchtold learned that the act of consistent exercise increased levels of BNDF in the hippocampus. This finding was important, b…

Add This Great Work to Your History Bookshelf

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The more I study American history, the more I realize how little I really know. I just completed Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals in which she explores the inter-workings, personalities and politics of the Lincoln administration.Every American schoolboy or schoolgirl knows that Lincoln presided over the most difficult period in American history save the George Washington era.Most know that he struggled with a series of second rate generals until Grant emerged. And that he was tragically assassinated just as the War Between the States ended. But how many of us know that many of the cabinet members opposed Lincoln in the primary?That many of those thought he was unqualified for the office?That one of them – Salmon Chase – actually tried to build support to oppose Lincoln in the 1864 election?Or that Lincoln’s opponent in 1864 was former General McClelland, who so famously failed to take advantage of his…

Gene Morphis ' View

Search This Blog