Archive for December, 2008
Vivek Kundra, D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer, invited me to his office yesterday to discuss the upcoming inauguration and government operations with the other Apps for Democracy winners. I walked away from the meeting thinking one thing – Vivek Kundra is a bad ass! I never in my wildest dreams thought a government official would make it to my top 10 technology hero list. He now sits along side Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Kevin Rose and Michael Arrington to name a few.
Forget about the fact that he manages a staff of 600 people that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors, his approach to technology and government spending is unbelievable. He has taken a $500 million yearly budget and visualized it in such a away that a 4th grader could understand it. His rationale was that before he arrived, the government was spending an unforeseeable amount of tax payers’ money and nobody could account for it. Now, everything is elegantly displayed on dashboards that surround what looks like the trading floor of a stock exchange. The custom built Ruby on Rails solution displays everything you need to know, including budgets, time lines and even a ‘happiness’ factor. I’ve seen a lot of cool things and just recently went to the Google I/O conference and the TechCrunch 50 but nothing tops the operation I saw at his office.
If you ever get an opportunity to meet him, don’t hesitate.
Understanding the core principles of a Venture Capital deal can be quite the challenge. For starters, you need to know that VC money can be smart money but its real expensive money too.
There are different stages of funding but today I’m going to be discussing an early stage term sheet. Also, you need to know that east and west coast deals work differently. West coast deals seem to have better terms than East coast – this is primarily due to the investment banking type of mentality you find in places like New York and Boston. First question that probably comes to mind is why shouldn’t I just get west coast funding? Well, it’s not that easy, West coast VC’s tends to want to have you in their backyard. So unless your geographical located in Silicon Valley, this will be a challenge.
The most common mistake entrepreneurs commit is that they get completely blinded by a valuation and forget about the terms. Whatever you do, make sure you get a good lawyer that knows about these things. If you have a friend who’s already been down this road, don’t be afraid to ask them for a referral to their lawyer.