That is why I wanted to share this WSJ article I found in their “Small Business” section written by Antone Johnson titled 5 ‘IP’ Mistakes Start-ups Should Avoid. You might find Johnson’s five mistakes interesting:

1. “Contamination”
2. Mixing up what came from where
3. Planning to launch a business around a clever, catchy brand name that can’t be used
4. Confusing types of IP and means of protection
5. Overvaluing patents

When it’s time to raise capital these mistakes can come back to haunt founders and/or CEOs, regardless of whether their companies are in the early, expansion, or growth stage. To get the details behind these five mistakes you can read the complete article here.

All the best!
G

Editor’s Note: To get more great tips on helping your company navigate the startup or expansion stage, sign up for the OpenView newsletter.

“Elephant in the room” is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.

The first quarter ended and now is when board season begins for founders and or CEO’s, their investors, and independent board members. Board meetings begin and board meetings will end, and unfortunately many of them never get around to talking about that prickly pachyderm, “the elephant in the room.”

What could be going unaddressed? Examples include:

• Board members may not have confidence in the Sales VP’s (or feel free to substitute any management title including CEO) ability to execute
• The company’s DSO is growing
• The win/loss ratio is going in the wrong direction
• Development does not appear to be able to deliver the product on time or in a quality manner
• The management team is not strong enough or broad enough to take the company to the next level
• The company’s competitive messaging and marketing does not resonate with the market segment they have targeted
• The company looks like it will miss its budget and it is only the first quarter
• There’s not enough capital

And the list goes on and on…

At OpenView, it is our objective to make sure this does not happen in the board meetings with our portfolio companies. After all, nothing impedes an expansion-stage company’s progress more than an elephant in the room that does not get addressed, talked about, and remedied.

Everyone who is involved at the board level needs to make it their responsibility to talk about the elephant, or, more likely, the elephants in the room (because when you have a company that is growing rapidly and trying to scale there is often more than one) during the board meeting. If you’re not, a simple but effective way to make sure you do is make to it the last item on the board agenda for every meeting. You owe it to yourself and everyone in your company to discuss problems and issues no matter how uncomfortable they might be. Otherwise, you risk never living up to your potential, or, worse yet, you might just become another company that does not succeed in the market place.

Think about it…

All the best!

G

Editor’s Note: Board meetings are undeniably important, but another meeting may have an even greater impact on your company’s performance — the quarterly operating review. For information on the quarterly operating review process as well as the practical guidance and tools you need to start implementing your own, download OpenView’s free eBook, Quarterly Operating Reviews: Moving Your Business Forward by Looking Back.

Image provided by: mtv geek!

What I personally can’t say is whether Instagram actually is worth $1 billion or not. But it does stretch my powers of comprehension to understand how a company with 13 employees (although YouTube was purchased in 2006 for $1.65 billion with only 12 employees) is worth that price.

At OpenView we stress to all of our CEOs/Founders the need for:

• Product management
• Talking to your customers (users and buyers) and understanding their personas
• The importance of having a focus on the whole product and the user experience
• Never being satisfied with your product and user experience (continuous improvement)

In fact, we hold quarterly forums for our portfolio management teams. The one we have scheduled for May is a workshop on User Experience (you can check out the agenda here), because one thing that has been proven time and time again is that if you get the user experience right, magic can happen when it comes time for an exit or an IPO. As the Instagram deal demonstrates, that’s a powerful lesson all aspiring entrepreneurs should learn and take to heart.

Only time will tell whether Instagram was worth ”one BILLION dollars” for Facebook, but there’s no arguing it sure was for the founders!

All the best,
G

In his article on “6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers” he discusses how Adaptive Strategic Thinkers do these six things well:

• Anticipate
• Think Critically
• Interpret
• Decide
• Align
• Learn

You can check out his article here and if you want test your own strategic thinking aptitude you can do it here.

Image provided by: CrunchBase

Being involved as a Venture Partner in OpenView Partners, a venture capital firm with an investment model and approach to doing things a little bit differently, has been a real blast for the last five years.

During those years the team has started:

• OpenView Partners
• OpenView Labs
• OpenView Studios

The team has grown from an initial nine members to today’s 25 members and seven advisers, all focused on finding great companies in which to invest growth capital. We then help our portfolio companies scale their businesses in the most effective and efficient matter through operational execution, including OpenView Lab’s assistance.

During all of this OpenView:

• Closed Fund I in October of 2006 for $100 million. We invested in nine great companies.
• Closed Fund II in August of 2008, and capped at $125 million because it was over subscribed. We invested in 10 great companies.
• Closed Fund III  in March of 2012 targeted at $150 million, and capped at $200 million because it was also over subscribed. We are now about to announce out first Fund III investment. You can read the announcement here.

On top of all of this, OpenView was ranked No. 6 out of the Top Ten 10 VC Brands in Venture Capital by Heardable this week.

OpenView has sure come a long ways in five years… thanks to all the CEOs / Founders who have chosen OpenView Partners as their partner for expansion capital and the LPs who have been with us every step of the way!

I can’t wait to see what the next five years brings!

All the best!

G