Tag: Leadership

Avoid The Bridge To Nowhere In Your Startup’s Funding Plan

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

I have seen several recent startup pitches covering different markets, having different technologies, and built with teams of differing calibers, all of which shared one unfortunate trait: The founders’ funding plans looked a lot like a Bridge to Nowhere.

Elon Musk Demonstrates The Benefits Of Being Considered Foolish

This XSeed blog was written by Executive-in-Residence, Mike Hoefflinger, and originally appeared on Forbes.

Will Elon Musk’s navigation from near-bankruptcy to becoming the first new public American car company started in nearly a hundred years end with Model 3?

In a previous post, I introduced the “Clever-Foolish 2×2” behind

Founders: Steer Clear Of This Dangerous Mindset

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

When I ask friends with pilot’s licenses what the hardest thing was about learning to fly, they always say, “learning how to get out of a midair stall.” The hard thing about it, they tell me, is how counterintuitive the

Setting Sales Quotas Is Like Running A 10K Race

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on TechCrunch.

If you’ve ever run a 10K road race, you know that race organizers spend a lot of effort to have volunteers at every milepost telling runners what their time is. If you’re like me, you’ve probably sped up at each

‘We Just Cared More’: How Facebook Succeeds With ‘Foolish’ Ideas

This XSeed blog was written by Executive-in-Residence, Mike Hoefflinger, and originally appeared on Forbes.

If the Clever-Foolish 2×2 is Silicon Valley’s strategic playbook, here is how Mark Zuckerberg has employed it in the past, and will employ it long into the future.

In a previous post, I introduced the

Want To Win Like Amazon, Netflix And Google? Don’t Be Afraid To ‘Look Foolish’

This XSeed blog was written by Executive-in-Residence, Mike Hoefflinger, and originally appeared on Forbes.

There’s something special about breakout Silicon Valley-style innovation. Not the ecosystem that makes it possible for hundreds — if not thousands — of efforts to launch, but the handful that win. And keep

People Challenges Can Sink Startups: The Best Company Culture Is Not Where Everyone Gets A Hug

This article originally appeared August 7, 2015 on the Stanford Graduate School of Business website, featuring XSeed Partner Robert Siegel.

As a partner at XSeed Capital, an early-stage investment firm in Silicon Valley, Robert Siegel knows how quickly poor management of human resources can sink a fledging business.

“The single largest

Silicon Valley 4.0: How Apple Will Change Everything (Again)

This XSeed blog was written by Executive-in-Residence, Mike Hoefflinger, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Silicon Valley has remained the innovation engine of the world since its consumer beginnings in 1977. After that first wave of innovation, when the Apple II and the Atari VCS/2600 debuted, we’ve been through two more waves of innovation. The second

Create A Team With Complementary Strengths

This article originally appeared June 18, 2015 on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Tumblr blog, featuring XSeed Partner Alan Chiu.

“Winning teams pull together people with complementary strengths,” emphasized XSeed Capital Partner Alan Chiu (MSx ‘11) in a recent entrepreneurship talk at Stanford School of Engineering. Chiu shared advice for how engineering and business

How To Succeed In Product Management

This article originally appeared April 18, 2015 on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Tumblr blog, featuring XSeed Partner Alan Chiu.

What does it take to be a product manager?

XSeed Capital Partner Alan Chiu (MSx ‘11) kicked off his Stanford GSB talk, “Career Pathways in Product Management,” by first exploring the definition