Danny Robinson's Comments

StartupCFO : Real Ventures announces takeover of Year One Labs

Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:12:47 +0000

And who said Tequila was bad? Congrats guys! Great example for the rest of the country.

Bootup Labs Entrepreneurial Society : Next Co-Founder Speed Dating is Jan 5

Tue, 7 Dec 2010 22:28:05 +0000

Good point Luke! - Developers have some of the best ideas! There's no pre-set formula of what makes a good co-founder. It's usually personality fit and respect for each other's skill first and foremost. Many times that means two developers.

Bootup Labs Entrepreneurial Society : Bootup - We are Just Getting Started.

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:16:21 +0000

Fantastic, can't be more excited to watch this come together! - If feels odd for me to be posting from the outside, but I'll get used to it. Big thanks Maura! Thanks Boris Wertz for diving in.

Bootup Labs Entrepreneurial Society : Announced: Launch Party Vancouver 10 Showoffs

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:03:53 +0000

testing comment

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:17:04 +0000

Touraj, I think you've been in the valley too long. :-) The world is a big place, and the magnitude of valuation swings is much more pronounced there.

I'm talking about only debt financing specific user acquisition channels that have proven to be lucrative.

Put it this way. If a user acquisition channels is not predictable enough to be trusted with borrowed money then selling equity might not be the answer either. It might be that the business just doesn't work, or at least that you should stop buying customers via that channel.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Sat, 2 Oct 2010 00:32:50 +0000

Touraj, I think you've been in the valley too long. :-) The world is a big place, and the magnitude of valuation swings is much more pronounced there. But, I'm really only talking about debt financing specific user acquisition channels that have proven to be lucrative. Put it this way. If a user acquisition channels is not predictable enough to be trusted with borrowed money then selling equity to finance them might not be the answer either. It might be that the business just doesn't work, or at least that you should stop buying customers via that channel.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 23:40:11 +0000

Thanks Gary. Espresso is exactly who I was thinking about when I mentioned "specialty lenders" in my post, and I agree that banks won't be the first to do this. Maybe they'll never do it. But I am aware of others too. The added benefits to this model for the lenders, equity investors and founders are quite material. Lenders don't have to wait for the elusive "Exit" in order to generate a return. The previous Seed & Series A investors will not get diluted by relentless rounds of later stage equity financing. And the founders will, in most cases, retain control of the company.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 18:41:08 +0000

Sam, Very much appreciate your view point. That why I asked you for your thoughts. Calibrating theories is what trying to predict the future is all about. Perhaps it is an optimistic vision, but hey, I'm an entrepreneur and we're plagued with eternal optimism. That said, it is a vision of the future, and I never meant to suggest that this model is in existence today. So I can't point to any early examples, even though @IanHand mentioned some in a later comment. Although, this is not something that I see happening now, from my vantage point, I am suggesting that this could very well happen in the near future. To believe, it takes a deep understanding of how systematized it has become to build Internet companies.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 05:46:12 +0000

I thought you'd get a kick out of this post.... Agree, Banks wont be first to try this out. But I've been speaking to one very progressive bank about this and I can assure you that they're looking at it very seriously. In the mean time, I fully expect that some of the companies I work with will put some of Gary's money to good use.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 05:42:29 +0000

Thanks Derek. I think if we apply temporal viewpoint to all this it might make more sense. It seems that we all have experiences to draw on, but experiences, by definition, is something that has happened in the past. What I am actually trying to do is predict the future (I know, good luck eh!). But one thing is certain, this whole VC market is changing fast, therefore it's virtually guaranteed that anything we know from experience is not how it will work in the future.

Bootup Labs Blog : Tsunami Continues to Rip Through VC Industry. First Wave Complete, Second Wave is Approaching

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 05:34:46 +0000

Yes, I agree that I was thinking about the consumer space first. But, just to make sure you understand the argument I'm making, companies may only raise 2M from sales of equity, but could easily borrow another $5-$10-$20M in growth debt. This type of financing for growth only will provide the revenue/income the company needs to reinvest in innovating the product, developing new markets, and acquiring small startups. Both Four-Square and Twitter are not "freemium" type internet companies. They're shareholder value is based on the number users they have, so in that case, I agree with you. But, regarding Zynga and GroupOn, they had to raise $40M in equity because they had no choice. The concept I'm talking about in my post isn't available today, let alone in the past. If GroupOn was raising that $40M a year or two from now, my bet is they wouldn't raise $40M by selling equity. thanks for the comment!

Bootup Labs Blog : The 4 Stages of a Rockin Startup Eco-system

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:22:40 +0000

Agree. Even if the founders of our previous successes don't mentor or angel invest (which I hope they will), they can still provide inspiration in the form of creating a story to tell. in other words, PR. We need to brag about our wins more, and that should inspire new founders to say "hey, if those guys can do it, so can I!" That's a powerful moment.

Bootup Labs Blog : The 4 Stages of a Rockin Startup Eco-system

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:16:23 +0000

As with all of these things, it depends on the stage of the company. There is a certain stage at which a grey haired person may fit in the team. Grey haired defined as someone level headed, operationally focused, finance driven. For your first round, the gray haired person is a myth. What investors want to see is a team, regardless of age, who understand what their customers want, and who can also actually code it up.

Bootup Labs Blog : The 4 Stages of a Rockin Startup Eco-system

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:02:24 +0000

Thanks Ben!

Bootup Labs Blog : The 4 Stages of a Rockin Startup Eco-system

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:01:16 +0000

Of course, I knew that :-) Hey, I'll be in Montreal Oct 5-7 for AngelSummit. Let's get together.

Bootup Labs Blog : The 4 Stages of a Rockin Startup Eco-system

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:47:18 +0000

Thanks Mark. Haven't worked with you yet, but I'm aware of all the great stuff you do in Toronto. Look forward to working together some day.

Bootup Labs Entrepreneurial Society : Early Bird Tickets Selling Fast for #LPV9

Mon, 31 May 2010 21:22:37 +0000

think she's talking about this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrCh2UhWrFE&fe...

Bootup Labs Blog : I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned.

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:20:23 +0000

Hi "David" thanks for your comment. You're correct in that not all of the details about what happened have been published, and they will not be. Although all the termsheets were subject to us receiving financing, we should have delayed the program until we had it in the bank. That is the mistake that will not be repeated, and will prevent this from happening again. Time will tell if we can earn the trust back again. I just know that I have to work twice as hard to do it. I'm not afraid of that. Derek made the point in his comments here:http://bit.ly/cQQ9V0 I have helped and am continuing to help Jamie and the other founders in different ways, but the details of that are between us.

Bootup Labs Blog : I made mistakes. I was wrong. Lessons Learned.

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:45:31 +0000

I have met Dana a 2-3 times at tech events. We have emailed her some announcements from time to time, but I didn't speak with her before she wrote her story.