I build things and organizations. Periodically, I ramble on about them here. See https://colopy.com for information about Colopy Ventures.
I build things and organizations. Periodically, I ramble on about them here. See https://colopy.com for information about Colopy Ventures.
Last month, I had the honor of being the keynote speaker for the MBA@UNC commencement. MBA@UNC is the online MBA program for the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill. I speak fairly often. Sometimes it is good. Sometimes it is random. This is one of the good ones and worth a watch. I start […]
Last month, I was interviewed by Durham Magazine for my views on startups and entrepreneurs. One of my views is that great entrepreneurs have a strong propensity for action. The interview also details quirky stories from my past — like how I majored in Computer Science to avoid writing papers. Pro tip: bad idea! You […]
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking to a Duke class on Intellectual Property and Innovation: Law, Policy & Entrepreneurship. Thanks Ed for including me! In addition to sharing my story and hawking GrepBeat, I reviewed five things that mattered when thinking about Intellectual Property (IP) for software startups. But, let me save you $60k/year […]
YAWA! Yet Another Web Application. Software has clearly moved to the cloud and web applications are the way for software to be delivered. In the late 1990s, SalesForce.com and others were innovators in this new business model: software as a service. Times were good and Bronto jumped on it in the early 2000s. Twenty years […]
We are pleased to welcome back another member into the Colopy Ventures team this summer! Alon Greyber worked here last summer, and will join us again this summer as an engineering intern. Hey, Alon! It’s great to have you here as another intern to work with. I heard that you worked here last summer […]
Hello! My name is Emma and today I had the pleasure of talking to Seguno’s founder, Chris Geiss. Seguno is one of Colopy Ventures’ latest investments. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about Seguno. To start, what is Seguno? Sure, thanks for having me. I started Seguno last year with my co-founder and […]
There is math and then there is startup math. For many entrepreneurs this includes evaluating an angel or seed round investment that requires an option pool. I created this handy Google Spreadsheet to help you do the math for this typical situation: The startup is founder held before the round. The round requires an option […]
I played the scarecrow in my elementary school’s rendition of Wizard of Oz. One of the best parts was when my fellow sixth grade Tin Man, Dorothy and I cantered across the stage as we chanted “Lions, Tigers and Bears … oh my!” Tales of my performance still echo through the hallowed halls of Fairlawn […]
Entrepreneurs and investors are on a perpetual quest to have hockey stick growth for their startups. Hockey stick growth happens (hopefully!) after you get product-market fit and start ramping. If growth accelerates, the revenue curve maps to the curve of a hockey stick — smoothly up and to the right. But, in reality, startup growth […]
Modern day Shakespeare would be a startup entrepreneur asking the question: “TO VC, or ALT VC?” Raise venture capital or bootstrap? Bootstrapping is a hard but great alternative to raising venture capital (VC). Unfortunately, the media rarely tells the story of the bootstrapping startup. The more commonly told story is of the glories of raising […]
