The document provides a summary of lessons learned from Jay Jamison's experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Some of the key lessons include: (1) it is a golden age for startups but competition is high so companies need to prove traction with little funding, (2) the most important factors for startup success are the strength of the market opportunity, team, and product/market fit, and (3) founders should focus on shipping minimum viable products quickly and getting used to rejection from potential investors and customers. The document outlines numerous other lessons around fundraising, hiring/firing, distribution challenges, company values, and resources for entrepreneurs.

1. Startup & Venture Lessons
Law & Entrepreneurship Society at Duke
Jay Jamison
Partner, BlueRun Ventures
jjamison@brv.com | @jay_jamison | jayjamison.com
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2. Agenda
Introduction
Top 10 Lessons
Q&A
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3. Introduction
• Duke, BA, English, 1992
• Emory Law School, 1995-96
• MBA, Wharton,1998
• Microsoft, 1998-2007
• Founder, Moonshoot, 2007-10
• Partner, BlueRun Ventures, 2010-Present
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4. About BlueRun Ventures
• Over $1.0B under management
• Investing out of Fund IV ($240M)
• Focus: Mobile & consumer internet
• Seed & Series A
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5. Stuff that surprised me
• Having nearly 10 years at MSFT didn’t matter at all.
• Having an MBA from Wharton mattered even less.
• Having had a year of law school didn’t register.
• But, several of the skills from all this really helped.
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6. Top 10 Startup Lessons
1. Today’s Golden Age For Founders & Its Double-Edge Sword
2. What’s #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
3. Picking Co-Founders & How to Split the Equity Baby
4. Make It Happen
5. Get used to ―No‖
6. Hire Slow, Fire Fast
7. Distribution is Really Hard & Really Important
8. If You Stop Loving It, Make a Change
9. Values From Day 1
10. Pitching & Fund-Raising
11. Getting into Venture Capital
12. Thoughts on Legal
13. My go-to resources
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7. Lesson 1:
It’s a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs….
Cheaper than ever to start a company.
Better resources
• Incubators: Y-Combinator, 500Startups, …
• Resources: Startup Digest, Lean Startup, TC, VB
Technology is easier to learn, access, &c.
• Codecademy
• RoR
• AWS
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8. … And Investors Understand This.
I see lots of great companies that are:
• Capital efficient
• High velocity in coding and releasing
• Product in market with traction
• Clear customer insight on what works
• Battle-tested founding teams
• Clear, concrete ask on what $$$ they need
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9. Implication
While we’re in a Golden Age for
Entrepreneurs, it is raising the bar
for most very early stage
companies…
You need to prove more on very
little money, because so many other
start-ups are already doing so.
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10. Lesson 2:
What’s #1: Markets, Team, or Product?
Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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11. Which is most important?
A.Market
B.Product
C.Team
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12. Analysis
• 75 pitches / quarter
Market
• 0-2 get to term sheet Team
• Score each Traction
• Multiple regression Product
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13. How I think about Markets
Choose Any 4 Companies, Stack Rank Vision
• World’s largest store
• Redefine social
• Organize & access information
• Reinvent money
Your Company • ????
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14. Lesson #3:
Finding a Technical Co-Founder
More important than fund-raising
Requires almost the same skills
• Pitching and salesmanship
• Capacity to speak enough geek
• Resourcefulness
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15. Default founder split: equal
33% 33%
50% 50%
33%
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16. Lesson 4:
The Get It Done Principle
You never get a second chance to If you’re not embarrassed with your
make a first impression. – Anon. first launch, you’re waiting too long. –
Reid Hoffman
Lean Startup
Revenue from Day 1 Never stealth!
Building for Scale Scrum
Everything Inhouse
Offshore
Minimum Viable Product
StealthCo HTML5
Native Apps Customer Development
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17. Just Get Stuff Done
You never get a second chance to
make a first impression. – Anon. If you’re not embarrassed with your
My Advice & Learning: you’re waiting too long. –
first launch,
Reid Hoffman
• Absorb all this stuff
Lean Startup
• Listen to people you trust
Revenue from Day 1 Never stealth!
• Use what works
Building for Scale for you
Scrum
Everything Inhouse
• The key is work fast & economically
Offshore
Minimum Viable Product
StealthCo HTML5
Native Apps Customer Development
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18. Lesson 5:
Get Used to No
As Founder: Heard ―No‖ a lot, especially fund-raising
• At least 150 times
• From 5 different countries
As an Investor: I say ―No‖ a lot, especially to fund-raisers
• Probably 1%
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19. What’s weird about this…
• These numbers are probably about average
• Generally ―No‖ coming from smart, polite person
(Not always the case, so be careful)
• Under 10% of founders really follow-up and stay after it
• Lesson: build a plan to deal with ―No‖…
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20. Lesson 6:
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
Hire Slow Fire Fast
• Wait for real pain • When perf lags, speak up
• Everyone interviews • Set clear expectations
• Share feedback • Set a crisp timeline
• Do reference checks • Fire
• Dinner w/ SO • Ensure lawyer is in loop
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21. Lesson 7:
Distribution, distribution, distribution
This is by far the weakest part of
your business at this point
And, it is also one of the most
important…
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22. Love It or Leave It
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23. Lesson 9
Values
Values are key from day 1
• Set them & talk about them constantly.
• No ―right‖ way to do this, but doing it is important
• Make sure everyone knows them, everyone buys in
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24. Lesson 10
Thoughts on Fund-Raising
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25. Logistics : Pre-Meeting
• Arrive 15 minutes early every time
• Have back-ups (2nd PC, Dongles, USBs)
• Treat everyone you interact with politely
• Setup & preflight ppt & demo before meeting starts
• Bring ideally 2-3 people
Remember: You are SELLING
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26. Logistics: During Meeting
• Give everyone who attends a role
• Script which person handles which slide(s)
• Assign a scribe, every time
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27. Logistics: Q&A During Meeting
Often badly managed, and very important
Answer questions directly
Script answers on the obvious questions
– How much are you raising?
– How long does this last?
– What beachhead markets do you think are most promising?
– What holes exist in your team?
– Why won’t Google, Facebook, Twitter, or someone else eat your
lunch?
– What makes you the right team to do this?
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28. Logistics: Post Meeting
• Scribe: Write down all new QA for FAQ
• Follow-up in email that day w/ thanks, etc.
• Do what you need to handle rejection
• Keep positive & keep in touch
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29. Getting a Job in Venture
No clear career path into venture
Small, private partnership—bespoke cultures
Several routes in
My advice : Add Value
• Proprietary Deal Flow
• Earn Founders’ Trust and Respect
• Win the Right Business
• Showcase that you’re a great team player
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30. Thoughts on Legal
Michael Arrington Matthew Prince
Chris Sacca David Hornik
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31. Thoughts on Legal
Most important early stage needs
• Board composition
• All employee contracts & invention assignments handled
• Liquidation preferences & rights
Attracting clients
• Get out there and build presence
• Yokum Taku, e.g., Startupcompanylawyer.com
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32. Go To Resources
• TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechMeme, etc.
• JoelonSoftware
• http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
• Startup digest
• Netflix on Culture
• Compstudy.com
• Igor International Naming Guide
• Paul Graham’s blog.
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33. Thanks!
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