Joekraus - joekraus.com - Joe Kraus
General Information:
Latest News:
Some Unconventional Investing Rules 19 Sep 2012 | 03:31 am
Before I became a VC in 2009, I was an active angel investor for about ten years. During that time, I got exposed to the age old debate about the relative importance of team, market and product when m...
For every stage, there is a salesperson 11 Sep 2012 | 01:54 am
Does this situation sound familiar? Your product is about to go into beta. Your employees are all engineers or product people or designers. You, the CEO, are the lone business person. You know that yo...
First, Fire Thyself 30 Aug 2012 | 03:36 am
First, fire thyself One of the hardest things for first-time founder/CEOs to figure out is what role to play as the company starts to grow. All CEOs, founding or not, have a center of gravity. It can ...
First, Fire Thyself 29 Aug 2012 | 01:16 am
One of the hardest things for first-time founder/CEOs to figure out is what role to play as the company starts to grow. All CEOs, founding or not, have a center of gravity. It can be sales, product, e...
The Caller ID Test 8 Aug 2012 | 07:57 am
When you take venture money, you’ve got to assume you’re signing up to work with someone for a period of years. The relationship better work because more likely than not, you’re going to go through so...
If you don’t think you need it, you haven’t seen greatness 25 Jul 2012 | 08:06 am
One thing I can hear with some regularity from a small founding team is something like “we don’t think we need a marketing person” or “we’re not going to hire a product manager”. Those aren’t the only...
We’re creating a culture of distraction 26 May 2012 | 04:40 am
A few weeks ago I gave this rough presentation on a topic called “SlowTech”. I wanted to cover three things We are creating and encouraging a culture of distraction where we are increasingly disconne...
Your Product: Describe vs. Discover 24 May 2012 | 01:59 am
As a founder, I was in love with my products. Head over heels. There was nothing better. As an investor, I see founders who are in love with their products too. They’ve poured hours and hours into th...
Create Your Series B Deck Right After Closing Your Series A 17 May 2012 | 04:20 am
One of the things I wish I had done in both of my companies (Excite.com and JotSpot) was to take a piece of advice that I now give most entrepreneurs I meet. That advice is: “right after you sign y...
The lies we tell ourselves. “I’ve learned more from my failures than my successes” 10 May 2012 | 06:15 pm
One of the things I’m fascinated by are the small lies we tell ourselves. They usually take the form of aphorisms that seem to be true. Or more to the point, they have an important subtle message, but...
