Rob over at the Founders Fund gave me a couple hour overview of Venture Capital - VC 101. We went from the ground up. Rob started off explaining a bunch terms VCs use…followed by the differences between private equity and the public markets. Next, he explained in depth the investment process and the forms of investment. There is a bunch more to add to this post! If you are interested in viewing the notes, send me an email. All in all, the lecture was very helpful.
Spending time at the Founders Fund has been great. I have had a blast and will continue to make the most out of it!
Let me briefly tell you about my first day. Justin Fishner-Wolfson (the guy who I am interning for) was in New York, so I arrived and met Ken, Luke, Brian, and Andrew. Andrew gave me a brief overview on the importance of accounting in both the venture and startup world. Through our two conversations that day, I learned that you have to know accounting when starting a company…with that said, I will definitely be taking classes on accounting in college.
I then heard a company (that will remain nameless) pitch to the Founders Fund. This particular company had a preexisting relationship with a couple of the people working at the Founders Fund. Relationships and having a strong team are key in the venture and startup world. One could say that most important part of a startup is arguably the team. The idea constantly evolves and changes…but the team will always be the same.
One billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.
When did you become involved with Charity: Water? What made you want to do so?
I have been interested in non-profit work for a long time. I was going into medicine, and after deciding it wasn’t for me I tried many jobs after college. I have a friend who worked with charity: water and was swamped with the upcoming charity ball. I talked to him about visiting and seeing the organization, and he offered me an internship. I accepted and have been here ever since.
How did y’all come up with the idea of Charity: Water?
Our founder, Scott Harrison, was a night club promoter here in NYC. He had a revelation one day about how selfishly he was living his life, and left it. He gave everything away, hopped a mercy ship off the coast of Africa, and started taking pictures. The story hit him hard, and when he came back he used the photos to put on an exhibition, and realized the power of the images. He also realized that one of the largest problems plaguing these nations was a lack of clean water. He used his 32nd birthday to raise money, giving up all the gifts, only asking for a $32 donation. That was the “Born in September” campaign, and the beginning of charity: water.
How often are you out building wells?
I’ve only worked here seven months, and haven’t been in the field yet. All staff members are on at least one trip a year, while Scott and Becky Straw (our water projects manager) are in the field quite a bit more.
Where do you see Charity: Water a year from now? What about five years from now?
Charity: water is growing in leaps and bounds. Even with the tough economy new and exciting things are coming in every day. We have some large plans in the five year scale, but you’re just going to have to wait and see what they are
Please describe your favorite Charity: Water success story.
There are too many to count. I thought this last years charity ball was a huge success. The biggest success has to be seeing the wells go up in the field, and knowing that what we are doing has a good end result.
What are your top three favorite books?
I have a lot… I’ll just list three good ones I’ve read lately.
“Hippocrates’ Shadows: Secrets from the House of Medicine” - Davidy Newman
“Dead Aid” - Dambisa Moyo
“Backgammon for Blood!” - Bruce Becker (currently reading… The guys in our office have a friendly addiction to backgammon, and I’m trying to get better so I can compete)
Who are some of your mentors today? Do you have a favorite entrepreneur?
My mentors continue to be some of my teachers, family, and friends I’ve grown up with for years. I value their opinions more then anyone. As far as entrepreneurs go, I have to say I’m impressed with the people who have started charities, like the ones we work with, out of nothing more then a story. I know how hard it is to turn a small grassroots organization into a much bigger movement, and the people that pull it off are amazing.
What is Evan Slusher’s definition of success?
Rolex…. Just kidding…. Just being happy with your life. It doesn’t matter what you do, where or how you do it. If you go home at the end of the day and you’re happy, then that’s the key.
My junior year in high school will come to an end in eight days!
Here’s a real brief post announcing my summer plans:
During half the month of June, I will be interning at the Founders Fund in San Francisco. If you live in Silicon Valley and want to meet up please contact me!
For three weeks in July I will be hanging out in Aspen, Colorado with my family and a couple of friends.
Finally, in August I will visit Hawaii for the first time.
Along with those travel plans I will be: hanging out with friends, working on a few business projects, playing a ton of tennis, studying for the SAT, and relaxing.
I was pretty disappointed with the results of the first project. To read the assignment, check out the post written a couple weeks ago.
A few teams dropped out and did not complete the project. One very noticeable, constant problem was that students were afraid to execute. Ideas are cheap… implementation is not! The people that execute and actually make things happen are the ones who go far in the world.
Here are what the teams did:
1) bought a pack of gum with their $5 and resold each piece
2) sewed/made and sold socks.
3) sold personalized business cards
4) contacted the Astros foundation for two autographed baseballs to resell at a little league baseball game
These teams did not move beyond the standard response and challenge traditional assumptions. I was hoping the teams would realize that the $5 was simply an unneeded resource. Focusing on the money frames the problem too lightly.
The most common lesson learned was that marketing is extremely important. In order to sell a product, you need people not only present but also aware of what you are offering.
Team 4 made the most money. All of the money was donated to the Astros Foundation.
Founders of start-ups and the venture capitalists who finance them have two ways to get their money out of the company: sell it to another company or sell shares to the public.
The market for initial public offerings has dried up and companies are not being very acquisitive these days. In the first three months of 2009, only 56 companies were sold, half the number of a year ago, and none went public.
What do we need to do to make this happen? How can we make investing in private companies easier?
First off, the accredited investor law is whacko - there has been a sudden loss of employment and salary cuts have occurred sharply. The government needs to take a look at this law and adjust it. The changing of this law will improve the small business (and local) communities.
The SEC should do a better job at policing bad/unethical companies…they should not prevent people from investment opportunities. Having the mindset of only letting “rich” people invest is un-American.
The American investor has been beat up by the stock market and small businesses are coughing up blood. America is a capitalist country - it is non-seneschal to not be able to invest in small companies.
There should be a way to better empower small businesses and to better the capital for small businesses. By doing so, this could create a larger (local) community around such small businesses.
The way most are currently conducting business is not good - there is panic, fear, and lack of confidence.
I agree with this comment below. User “NYCStartupfiend” left this comment on Fred Wilson’s blog. He said this market is…:
Incredibly badly needed. Many entrepreneurs who have already built reasonably successful companies, but have not yet had any liquidity (read: money in their pocket) are likely to become better entrepreneurs after they sell some stock. With the “putting food on the table”, or more likely, putting the kids through college, risk gone, they be psychologically freed to think more boldly and clearly about their strategy. For the investors, employees, and the entrepreneur herself, that might well be one of the most critical levers in creating a massive return instead of a middling one.
What are your thoughts? How can we make this happen? What are current capital raising restrictions that exist which harm small business? Please use the comments to discuss / brainstorm.
Last week Brad Cohen spoke to a large group of teenagers in Houston to stress the power of one.
Brad is an award-winning teacher and author who has severe Tourette syndrome. During his childhood, he was accused of being a troublemaker in school and was punished by his teachers for the tics and noises caused by his Tourette syndrome.
After graduating from college, Brad decided to “become the teacher that he never had”. 24 elementary schools rejected him from a teaching job. Can you imagine getting rejected 24 times from your dream job? After being told several times your dream could not come true? After the 25th interview, he was hired at Mountain View Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia. As a new teacher, he was named Georgia’s First Class Teacher of the Year.
J-Serve is the annual day of service for Jewish youth throughout the world. It is a day on which Jewish teens join their counterparts in other faith communities, other cities and other countries in giving of their time to serve the communities in which they live. I served on Houston’s planning committee this year and put a lot of work into the event.
We came up with the theme “Embrace the Challenge” and yesterday around 400 teens and child participants with physical and/or mental disabilities were involved in sports, performing arts and carnival activities. Our main goal is to help educate teens about challenges facing those with disabilities and I think we accomplished that goal.
Here is an email I received from our parent project chair following the event:
You brought together a community. Teens from all over Houston, different schools and denominations, working together for one amazing cause. I truly believe each and every teen today was moved by the speaker and the projects. You brought together families with disabilities and gave challenged children a very special day, parents a much needed break, an inspiring speaker, and siblings a day that they could feel special too…You had people thinking and acting outside their comfort zone and realizing how great it feels. You used music, art, sports and games to make something magical happen, finding commonalities and building bridges between teens and their buddies. You inspired other teens to want to be leaders.
I agree with Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, who stresses the importance of taking responsibility.
I’m not late because there was traffic, I’m late because I didn’t leave early enough to account for the fact that there was traffic.
The project didn’t finish not because my colleague didn’t do his part, the project didn’t get finished because I didn’t set up a team where my colleague wanted to do his part.
Taking full responsibility is one of the most empowering things you can do!
