Categories investment and innovation

Why Gustavo Souza Looks Up to Peter Livingston


Peter Livingston - Unpopular Ventures

As the final part of this interview series with SaaSholic venture capitalist founder Gustavo Souza, we touched upon people he looks up to. Who? Peter Livingston. And we talked about why.   I/ But first, who is Peter Livingston?   Peter Livingston began as a full-time employee in a tech company. The company did perform very well and IPOed. He hit the jackpot and…

Categories investment and innovation

On becoming a Business Angel when you’re broke


About two years ago, before the pandemic broke out, I spoke to Alexandre Scialom, a business angel friend of mine based in Silicon Valley who is working on building up his own fund, Fresh Ventures. Alex told me that any Business Angel hoping to invest in Y Combinator startups must sign a million-dollar checks to get a seat at the board. That’s a lot…

Categories investment and innovation

What’s a VC’s most important and hardest job?


Gustavo and I recently talked about what venture capitalists do. In this article we look at each activity and try to and position it on a “most important/hardest matrix”. The most important and hardest matrix The X axis defines the most important activities venture capitalist have to do. In the previous post, Gustavo and I discussed the main generic activities that investors do and…

Categories investment and innovation

What do venture capitalists do?


In the innovation ecosystem, venture capitalist stand apart. A source of money and ideas, entrepreneurs seek their advice and capital while industry leaders glean their insight on disruptions in the market. So clearly, venture capitalists are coveted. But what do they do? I cover this topic with Managing Director of venture capital firm SaaSholic, Gustavo Souza.   I/ A Very Brief Introduction of Gustavo…

Categories investment and innovation

How VCs create value


Venture Capitalists create value

VCs are in risky business as mentioned in a recent article where I talked about how the Venture Capital business operates. Yet the world’s top seed investor, Fabrice Grinda is developing a systemic approach to generating a steady 68% realized Internet Rate of Return. I’ll talk about my conversation with Fabrice in an upcoming article. In this article, I’ll talk about how VCs create…

Categories investment and innovation

Introducing the Venture Capital Business


How does the Venture Capital Business operate? Most would agree that innovation investments come with high risks especially compared other asset classes like real estate and publicly traded indexes. Yet, in a recent conversation with the world’s top seed investor, Fabrice Grinda, I learned of his systemic approach generating a steady 68% realized Internet Rate of Return across 540 deals since 2009. I’ll get…

Categories Financing Innovation, In english

Invest in France – 2/2


Emmanuel Delaveau - General Partner - Partech Ventures

Why invest in France? This is a question I addressed with Emmanuel Delaveau, General Partner at Partech, a leading VC. I/ Invest in strong demand France is a country of choice for innovation and investment because of strong demand. In France, incumbent corporates have long minimized the impact of the Internet on traditional industries. Too many established corporates once believed that Facebook was only a…

Categories In english

Invest in France – 1/2


Emmanuel Delaveau - Partech - Invest in France

Why should a large IT company decide to invest in France? This is a question that Emmanuel Delaveau, General Partner at Partech, a venture capital company based in Paris, Silicon Valley and Berlin, addressed in a recent presentation. In his view, France is a country of choice for innovation and investment for at least four reasons.   I/ Introducing Partech Partech is a transatlantic…