More on Adapting to the Great Reset

February 24, 2016February 25, 2016 Derek Pillingfear, great reset, greed, growth equity, risk, technology valuations, Venture CapitalLeave a comment

My post on Adapting to the Great Reset was something that has been brewing in my head for a while.

I was pleased then when Luke Norris, CEO of Faction asked me to go deeper. Luke had seen a short presentation I put together for an CEO Forum earlier this week and he gave me a good reason to clean it up. Luke is a wonderful entrepreneur to work with because he’s intellectually curious, open-minded and doesn’t accept hollow answers to tough questions.

Btw, Luke, get a new Twitter picture…

The PPT is embedded below. Enjoy and please ask questions or comment, even if you disagree…

Tahosa’s Summit: 6 Months [Series]

January 12, 2016January 13, 2016 Derek Pillingbuilding a venture capital firm, growth equity, Venture CapitalLeave a comment

Tahosa Capital I enjoy reading blog posts of entrepreneurs that chronicle the journey of starting and building a business. The ones I enjoy most are at times heart-breaking and at other times triumphant. The most memorable are always always authentic and introspective.

To my knowledge, no-one has ever done a blog series on the process of building a venture capital or growth equity firm. If that is right, I’d like to be the first. Building a world-class investment firm feels to me to be every bit as entrepreneurial, with all highs and lows, exuberance and trepidation, joy and fear, as any entrepreneurial endeavor. It feels like its worth writing about.

The Good

Six months into the process of building Tahosa Capital, I’m feeling…

Unicorpse and The Moral Hazard of Making Unicorns

January 7, 2016January 8, 2016 Derek Pillinggrowth equity, moral hazard, unicorn, unicorpse, Venture Capital1 Comment

I’m sure that many more thoughtful than me have written about the moral hazard of venture capital. In economics, moral hazard occurs when one person takes an unreasonable risk because someone else will bear the burden of the negative consequences. In the age of unicorns, the moral hazard in venture capital has never been greater. Moral hazard and exuberance to make unicorns leads to unicorpses. I was reminded of this today during a conversation with an emerging growth business run by capable, yet young entrepreneurs.

The Situation

The 20 something entrepreneurs with whom I was talking have built a solid, already profitable business generating $4.3 million ARR. The company has taken a total of $200k of outside financing. With a modest amount of incremental…

My Thoughts on Launching Tahosa Capital

July 27, 2015December 1, 2015 Derek PillingBHAG, growth equity, growth equity firm, purpose, Tahosa CapitalLeave a comment

It has been about two weeks since Tahosa Capital announced its launch. I’ve found the launch to be invigorating. I find myself wanting to share the sense of purpose behind Tahosa Capital with anyone willing to listen. But, I can’t possibly reach everyone I know one-on-one; hence this post.

I started Tahosa Capital with a point of view on what it will take for Tahosa to be successful.

Start modestly And with a BHAG

Starting modestly (and alone) is humbling and really good. For now, Tahosa Capital is just me and a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG). As we wrote in Tahosa’s introductory blog post, Tahosa sets out with a clear sense

Kindred Disciplines: Growth Equity and Growth Hacking

December 19, 2014December 18, 2014 Derek PillingCAC, customer acquisition cost, customer retention, customer success, growth equity, growth hacking, lifetime customer value, LTV, product market fitLeave a comment

Growth hacking is now a mainstream term in tech circles, particularly those that are consumer-focused. Growth hacking definitions abound, but generally emphasize a data driven, creative and flexibly opportunistic approach to customer acquisition. Many would argue that growth hacking is simply a new term for an old concept – marketing. While the functions, tools and skills require for growth hacking may be essentially the same as “marketing”, the psychology and mission of growth hacking feel totally different to me. When I hear “marketing”, I think soft, fuzzy, ambiguous, and cost center. When I hear “growth hacking”, I think maniacal focus on growth, scrappy, data driven, tech/tool savvy, and…

After the honeymoon

November 22, 2013January 25, 2014 Derek Pillingalignment, entrepreneur, growth equity, investor, strategic planning, trustLeave a comment

Earlier this week, I participated in a panel discussion organized by Holland & Hart, a Denver-based law firm that has a strong practice area working with entrepreneurial growth-stage businesses. The topic of the panel was “After the Honeymoon”, focusing on investor/entrepreneur relationship dynamics in the critical period following the closing of an investment or acquisition transaction. Also on the panel with me were Matt Hicks of Excellere Partners and Flint Seaton, CFO of Accellos, an Accel-KKR backed business.

How we say “No” matters

November 20, 2013January 25, 2014 Derek Pillinggrowth equity, Lijit, Todd Vernon, turndown, Venture Capital, VictorOpsLeave a comment

I have to say “No”; alot. In fact, every one of us investor-types says “No” much more than we say yes. How we say “No” matters; alot.

Sometimes, you don’t know you have said “No” well until years after the fact. Today, I had one of those moments. Several weeks ago, Todd Vernon, founder and former CEO of Lijit and now, founder and CEO of VictorOps asked to have lunch. I didn’t ask the topic, because we’ve known Todd for a long time and because I like Todd. We had lunch today.

Non-Linear

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