This post is the third of a series on “unexpected lessons” learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine, a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008.

When I set out raising our first round of financing, I was excited to have the opportunity to meet and directly interact with many super experienced angel and VC investors, many of whom had substantial industry experience and had been along for the ride on any number of high profile startup successes right from the beginning. This, I figured, would be an incredible chance to get feedback and input on our ideas and direction. I imagined it would be like a business school case discussion, only better, with just 3 or 4 participants — all protagonists.

I was wrong. That’s not how it works at all. Instead what I found was, by and large, every coffee, meeting and partner meeting was a series of largely one-way dialogues covering the basic elements of the pitch (team, market, demo, etc) and some fairly basic questions.

For the most part, the valuable parts were missing: body language, direct feedback, creative suggestions and challenging pointed questions — things that could let me know how the other side thought of the opportunity and things that could help me improve the pitch.

You can’t read a VC.

photo credit: muztiko

I’ve done deals (sales and business development) and I think of most things, from hiring to people management as being essentially “sales” where reading and responding (on the fly) to the other side’s concerns, needs, interests and ultimately reading what they think is paramount. In the case of pitching VCs, I came to realize that these cues were going to be absent.

In fact, when I thought I had a clean read on things, most of the time it was ass backwards. Here is one true story, paraphrased and names withheld:

Scene: at final full partner meeting
9:00am – start of my presentation
9:00am – 9:45am – peppered with continuous stream of semi-relevant interruptive questions
9:45am – blackberry beeps and one partner leaves abruptly
9:46am – second partner seemingly hitches on that opportunity to leave
10:00am – meeting ends. everyone leaves (I’m on slide 8 of 13)
10:15am – (email to team)
“Well, that totally bombed. We won’t be hearing back from them. I guarantee it.”
11:00am – (partner phone call to me)
“Thanks for coming in. Everyone enjoyed the meeting and we are excited to work with you. We would like to put a term sheet in tonight!”

Through two rounds of fundraising and negotiating several term sheets, it didn’t get much better.

Here’s the thing — it’s not that I’m bad at reading people, my theory is that since VCs are getting pitched all day long by so many people, that have grown numb to the usual 2-way feedback process. Also, they have zero incentive to give feedback in the first place. Direct, critical feedback might offend the entrepreneur and cut off an opportunity to invest. And overwhelmingly positive feedback might reduce their negotiating leverage. VCs don’t say “no” they just say “we would like to hear more, later”…it is their way of preserving option value.

Of course not all VCs are like this, which is how, in part, we chose the investors we went with.

Anyway, I’m curious to hear from others who have been through the fundraising process. Did you feel you got solid feedback from investors during the process?

Related posts:

1. Unexpected Startup Lesson #2: Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations
2. Unexpected Startup Lesson #1: Quitting the day job
3. Crucial first hire: the "do-it-all office admin"

This post is the second of a series on “unexpected lessons” learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine, a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008.

Snapvine was my first experience being in the driver’s seat of the fund-raising process, and in the 3 years prior to our acquisition we raised over $10mm in venture capital.

Valuation is an important aspect of VC deal terms, and a major determinant of your ultimate outcome.  Or is it?  I unexpectedly found that it was more helpful to think about the company valuation as an output variable in the fund-raising equation.  It hardly deserves any attention at all in the early stages.  I know this sounds crazy, but it’s not.

Photo by pauladamsmith (Flickr)

The typical thought process for a first funding in an early stage startup goes something like this:

• “Okay, given our forecast revenue and costs, plus a little buffer, we need to raise about $1 million to get through our first 3 milestones…”
• “And given our team, progress to date, IP/Patents, benchmarking against our buddy’s recent VC terms and that other startup that is similar and just sold to AOL last week….I guess we’re worth about $5mm today….”
• “Therefore, to raise that $1 million we need, we should sell a slice worth about 20% of the company”

Although this is logical, it’s not how things actually work.  Once the VCs have decided that the company can be big (based on its team, product, market, etc), they are mostly focused on their future return, and think about their investment like this:

• “I want to own between 30% and 50% when the deal is done, so even if there are future rounds, I’ll still have a decent chunk of ownership”
• “The more money I put in, the longer the runway they’ll have, and the greater the chance of success, thus helping me to maintain my ownership and maximize my return”

Ultimately, VCs think about the future value of the company, not the valuation at the time of the financing.   That’s a nice way of putting it.  You can read more about this on Josh Kopelman’s post.  Be sure to check out the links to Fred Wilson’s related post.

Instead of “We are worth about $5m because we have done XYZ and we need to raise $1m, so let’s sell 20%” it’s better to think about valuation as an output variable, like “Let’s raise $2mm and sell 33%, our (pre-money) valuation is therefore $4mm.”

I have to admit, the light bulb didn’t go off for me until I was negotiating term sheets.  In one particular negotiation, we went from one valuation to a much higher valuation (like double) in the course of a single day and two phone calls, simply by discussing the “what if” scenario about increasing the total amount raised.  The net effect was more money raised, higher valuation and the same percentage of equity sold.  It was baffling at first until I realized that valuation is an output and that the focus is on future value.  (To protect the innocent:  we ended up going with a different investor)

I’m not going to explain the venture math (pre-money, post-money, etc) but it is something you need to know inside and out, because term sheets often have 24-hour expirations and you’ll need to be able to negotiate them quickly.  Read more about deal math on Brad Feld’s blog.

For some closing thoughts, I’ll just add that:

• Valuation tends to be too much of a focus for most early stage companies.  Other factors such as your team, the market you are in, your ability to execute, and in fact other terms in your term sheet are much, much more important to your outcome and financial outcome than is the valuation of your company at the time of financing.
• Deals come in all shapes and sizes, and seed stage funds like First Round Capital and programs like TechStars provide flexibility
• Explosive growth companies and multi-time successful founders get atypical deals
• The other terms (besides valuation) matter too!  For example, liquidation prefs.  Read Terms that Hurt (Venture Hacks).
• Read up on the “unwritten terms” in term sheets having to do with exit multiples here
• For bootstrappers, the math is even easier:  100% of the upside goes to you and your awesome team.

Related posts:

1. Unexpected Startup Lesson #3: Why You Can’t Read a VC
2. Unexpected Startup Lesson #1: Quitting the day job
3. Add logs, pour fuel (VC money), light match (beta release day)

This post is the first of a series on  “unexpected lessons” learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine, a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008.

In the years just prior to starting Snapvine, I racked up 2 years of debt attending the MIT Sloan School of Management.  School was great, but the costs were hefty:  tuition, travel, the expense of selling a house and moving, the opportunity cost of going without salary for 2 years, the high cost of living in Boston and stress associated with my wife changing jobs twice to follow along.

Thus, 6 months after graduation when I was contemplating leaving my job, the risks felt enormous.  My inner voice was asking:

• What if we go 12 months without pay only to fail to prove out the concept?
• What if we DO prove out the concept but fail to raise money?
• What if we DO raise money, but fail to deliver on the vision?
• What if we DO raise money AND deliver on the vision, but the business model doesn’t pan out?*
• What if we fail and my wife doesn’t let me do startups anymore?**
• What if my MBA classmates get 3 years into a great career while I spend 3 years for ZERO and then I have to crawl back to the corporate world begging for a job, while they are laughing at me?***
  

Chewing on these types of questions was totally unproductive and made me feel shitty.   I’ve come to realize that doing startups is mostly an irrational choice. Just effing do it.

photo credit: divemasterking2000

After I quit my job, incredible people jumped into my world to help.  Before the company even had a name, people like Hadi Partovi, Thomas Reardon, Kirsten Morbeck, Rob Williams, Rich Miner, Jeremiah Robison, Curtis Vredenburg and many others helped shape the product roadmap, recruit early employees, craft a pitch deck and introduce key investors.

The unexpected lesson:  about 4 to 5 months after quitting my job I was already ROI positive in terms of networking, learning and satisfaction.

In just a few months I felt completely confident that if the startup went splat on someone’s windshield, I’d be able to find a more interesting and higher paying job that I had before.  Also, compared to an MBA, doing a startup felt like an amazing deal:  On one hand, an MBA (tuition alone) might run about $85,000 whereas the startup has cost me only $5,000.  The salary was the same ($0) but the learning and networking with the startup was much, much greater than with the MBA.

In retrospect, jumping into the startup led to some immediate and unexpected benefits that, at least for me, far outweighed the forgone salary of my previous job and positioned me better for my future.  Quitting turned out to be a zero risk move.

* Interestingly, this is probably the closest to what actually happened, and things turned out fine
** Even though we’d already had the discussion “if I do 55 startups in a row and they all fail, is that okay?”  Answer: “yes”
*** I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t laugh at me if I ever failed, but I’m hopeful they’d hire me

Related posts:

1. Unexpected Startup Lesson #2: Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations
2. Unexpected Startup Lesson #3: Why You Can’t Read a VC
3. Add logs, pour fuel (VC money), light match (beta release day)

1) “try before you buy” –> enlist contractors that aren’t tied to agencies so you can retain the option to hire full time.

2) “lots of coffees” –> do the leg work of meeting interesting people even if they aren’t looking. Nothing beats getting the word out and generating excitement. Great people know each other, and they talk.

3) “hyper focus on one school” –> don’t just show up at the annual career fair at 5 schools. Go DEEP on one. Give informal presentations and brown bags, show up to the affiliate dinners, drop in to student open houses. Hold “meet ups” after recruiting fairs and invite the best students. It’s better to make a name for your company at one school than to be passively involved at 5 schools.

I apologize for the quick post…was testing out WordPress on my iPad and didn’t expect this to get so much uptake via Hacker News.   For a longer post related to hiring, see Hire the Do-It-All Office Admin.

Related posts:

1. How to recruit top engineers to your startup
2. Crucial first hire: the "do-it-all office admin"
3. 5 Tips for Conducting Successful Board Meetings

Last week’s post “Sell Ice Cream, Not Cream and Ice” received 30X the traffic that I my blog posts normally receive.

Normally I get about 50 to 100 visits per post, but this time my post was voted onto the front page of Hacker News and ended up getting 2,530 visits over a three day period.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 1,542 from Hacker News
• 574 direct
• 50 from twitter.com
• 49 from craigslist
• 32 from jimmyr.com
• 200+ from various others

Thoughts and observations:

• “Direct” is probably various twitter clients, mobile apps and email that do not send referrer information.
• Craigslist? like, wtf?   This was directed at my earlier post, “Crucial first hire: the do-it-all office admin“, which was used in a job advert posted by ThinkSpace, an office coworking provider for startups.
• Average blog traffic before this post:  about 15 visits / day
• Average blog traffic after this post:  about 30 / day
• JimmyR.com is an interesting blog and news aggregator that I’ve never heard of, but it shows the power of syndication for traffic
• I gained about 30 twitter followers @jheitzeb.
• I’m not sure how many times my post was shared on twitter since not all were shared through tweetmeme and a lot of the RT’s did not credit my twitter name and changed the post title

Related posts:

1. Sell Ice Cream, Not Cream and Ice
2. Recommended Blogs
3. 3 Things I’ve Learned To Recruit Great Hackers

I’m heading up to Vancouver tomorrow for the inaugural board meeting of a startup I recently invested in. It will be the entrepreneur’s first ever board meeting.   It made me think about what I’ve learned about conducting good board meetings.

Donuts by VeganWarrior (Flickr)

1) Bring an informed point of view

Startups can be thought of as a never -ending set of decisions and risks.  It’s a big part of the CEO’s job to anticipate the most important ones, think through a set of options and (importantly) prepare a point of view on the matter.  When faced with a dilemma, don’t just say to the board, “okay, we have this issue and need to make a choice.  What should we do?”

Instead, come prepared with what you think are the possible alternatives and your recommended choice — with supporting data to back it up.   Leverage your board and your advisors to come up with the alternates in the days before the meeting, and of course be open to further investigation or even changing course based on the discussion.

2) Be upfront, open and honest

This may be your first startup, but it won’t be your last.   Listen when your stomach starts telling you something is not going well in the business, or there’s something you need help on.  Be up front about it.  There’s no point to hiding anything or glossing over negatives.

Lay everything out and rally people to help solve.  Taking a “we’re on the same team” type approach goes a long way towards building rapport and support.  It’s helpful to have the people who hold the purse strings on your side, especially when the shit hits the fan.

3) Establish a template and stick to it

Much of the structure (product metrics, finances, hiring updates and so forth) doesn’t change – only the contents do.  The same metrics you use to manage the business should be the same metrics you’ll use for the board presentation.  If you’re spending lots of time just pulling the basic board deck data points and formatting things, it’s a sign that your metrics aren’t automated enough or you’re not looking at the right metrics day to day.

4)  Send the materials out in advance

When your board members have a couple of days in advance to review the basics, then you’ll have more time to spend on the most value-added discussion during the meeting.  If you find yourself awake at 2am the night before the board meeting, try blocking some time out well in advance of the next board meeting to finish your prep early.

5)  Serve food to lift spirits

Studies show that eating certain foods can improve one’s mood.  Enough said.

I probably should have posted this all a few days ago.  I’m really craving donuts right now!

Related posts:

1. Crucial first hire: the "do-it-all office admin"
2. How to Use Google Docs to Get Continuous User Feedback
3. Does Seattle shun startup failure?

In 2006 when we launched Snapvine’s first viral widget and phone app for teens, it went viral overnight. We were overwhelmed with success within 3 weeks: our servers were swamped with signups – 1 million of them within the first 7 weeks. This was one of those “good problems to have” — so “good” in fact we had to turn off sign ups 25% of the time over those first few weeks. The problem was, our entire team turned into a band of maniacal database tuning, code-optimizing, high scale server junkies.

So my dilemma became:  How do you take a team that’s swamped with work and make them become incredibly customer focused overnight?

Our solution? every day, print out a few hundred new user photo thumbnails and post them on the walls.  As the days passed, the number of photo pages grew, and even if you were an engineer consumed with debugging some MySql indexes, you became intensely curious about the users: real people with faces, smiles.  Who were they?  Why were they signing up?  What did they want to see next?

As a result, everyone pushed for more focus on user stories and learning more about our users and what they wanted to see next. We instituted a weekly standing focus group, sourced from Craigslist by our do-it-all office admin, and watched them use the product and listened to their reactions to our new feature ideas.

Print out your user’s photos and line the walls with them.  I think any startup can use this simple technique to make everyone on the team more user focused. If you don’t capture photos as part of your product, pick some new users every day, email them and ask them to send some in. I promise, it will pay off.

Thanks to Pete Warden, Mark Maunder, Tony Wright, Dave Schappell, Bryan Starbuck, Scott Porad, Galen Ward and Fai Leong for editorial input on this post.

Related posts:

1. Unexpected Startup Lesson #2: Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations
2. How to Print Your Own Children’s Books (that won’t be eaten or torn apart)
3. Sell Ice Cream, Not Cream and Ice

Back in June of 2006 after having closed a small series A, it was time to move out of our spare rooms, get some basic startup office space and hire a couple of employees so we could move fast and get on with our mission.

One of the best decisions we made at the time was to hire a “Do-It-All Office Admin” (DIAOA) as one of our very first hires.  The point was to free up everyone else to focus exclusively on building the business. Basically, we needed someone to tackle all of the “distractions”:  anything that isn’t a direct action related to a core goal.  The list of distractions was growing fast:  find office space, determine what kind of office space we even wanted, get a cheap (used?) fridge, get a laser printer, plan a party (for recruiting purposes, of course), figure out what kind of benefits we should offer and then get something priced out, sweet talk the neighboring office into sharing their wifi connection for a few hours, etc.  All important things but also all things that are incredible time sucks and aren’t going to make or break the success of the company at the early stage.

In the two and half years until we sold the company, we had two successive people fill this role.  Neither had more than a year of professional experience when they started, but both did incredibly well in the role and have moved on to greater success (one was just accepted into an MBA program and interned at BCG and the other is currently in law school full time).

Here is some advice on hiring a Do-It-All-Office-Admin.

Personal characteristics to look for:

• Self-driven, tenacious, energentic – this person will need to be able to take a loose project description and drive it to completion, with little help.
• Eager to gain experience – they may not have experience but they are eager to prove to the world how they can shine.  Startups are great places for these types.
• Smart – because smart people will respond to challenges like “figure out a way to get free pastries from that new bakery downstairs for our next board meeting”
• Trustworthy — this person will invariably have access to sensitive information like cap tables, employee records, bank statements and your email inbox (if you let them)

I could write an entire blog post on how to suss out these characteristics during an interview, but for now the critical things are (a) call multiple references and ask direct, frank questions and (b) give situational interviews and ask the candidate to problem-solve and walk you through how they would execute on example tasks (intentionally vague/challenging example tasks).

I can’t say enough about how important and valuable our Do-It-All-Admins were and how grateful I am for their work.

Here’s a starter JD for reference…

You must:

• Be driven to accomplish a lot and learn a LOT very quickly
• Be smart and have great problem-solving skills
• Be resourceful, upbeat and enjoy getting things done on a startup budget (translation: you must be frugal, scrappy and happy)
• Have web and computing skills, including maybe a little HTML and a good command of MS Office

Example responsibilities:

• Find office space – identify criteria for office space, select real estate agent, work with agent to narrow down to 3 or 4 spaces and arrange visits
• Recruiting – Post jobs online, screen candidates for basic fit, arrange all phone screens and interview days and follow-up with candidates
• New hires – develop a streamlined new hire paperwork process, make sure employee is 100% set up and productive on their first day
• Spreading cheer – be the face of the company to the employees and all visitors, be upbeat always and keep things lively
• Office management – make sure printer ink, paper, soda is in stock, keep office relatively organized, everyday coffee prep
• Independent tasks – do whatever misc tasks are needed with minimal guidance, e.g. “get a used refrigerator here by Friday for less than $250″
• Exec admin – arrange board meetings, do lightweight word/powerpoint/excel prep and whatever else the CEO needs to keep moving quickly

Background:

• You have some professional business experience, and ideally have a college degree
• Experience with accounting, HR or recruiting a plus

About this opportunity:

• Although this is a junior role, you will play a key role at a venture-backed high-tech startup.
• You will report to the CEO
• If you are looking for an exciting, demanding job that provides unique experience and gives you a chance to shine, this is a special opportunity.

Related posts:

1. 3 Things I’ve Learned To Recruit Great Hackers
2. How much traffic do you get from being on the front page of Hacker News?
3. Add logs, pour fuel (VC money), light match (beta release day)

Related posts:

1. How to Use Google Docs to Get Continuous User Feedback
2. If you want to ship, cut, cut, cut!
3. Unexpected Startup Lesson #2: Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations

I spent nearly 2 years living in Japan, both deep in the countryside working on a farm and in the heart of Tokyo working in an R&D lab.  Beside that, I studied Japanese at the graduate level and worked in the mobile software arena for a few years.  Someday I’ll write about the experiences I had during those times.

Recently my friends Brendan and the very pregnant Ellie visited Japan so I put together this quick write up of recommendations and things to do.  Enjoy!

Tokyo
I recommend avoiding the Hilton’s, Hyatt’s and other western hotels and going with a local hotel where you can save a little money and enjoy a “quirky” local experience.
These are all centrally located in a good area (i.e. a few blocks walk to a JR and you’ll be able to zip off to anywhere)

http://www.yokohotel.co.jp/english/index.html
http://www.asakusaplaza.jp/english/
http://www.pelican.co.jp/asakusacentralhotel/eng/index.html
http://www.ishinhotels.com/sunroute-akasaka/en/index.html
http://www.granbellhotel.jp/akasaka/index_e.html
http://www.toshicenter.co.jp/e/index.html

I actually stayed for a month in the Yoko Hotel and it was awesome….totally cheesy local experience and free wifi internet.

Looks like they all have english pages you can book from.  Let me know which you choose and I can find a local good restaurant from a local guide site.

Yakiniku in Tokyo
For totally awesome “local” food, have some Yakiniku from any of the vendors under the train tracks near Yurakuchou.
Go to Yurakucho station — 有楽町 and ask for the yakiniku places (焼き肉）

Show this to someone once you get to the station and they’ll point the way:
この辺に焼き肉屋とか焼き鳥屋などが沢山ある場所に近いですけど、はどちらへ歩けばいいですか？

Tsukiji Fish Market　（築地）
Tsukiji is the name of the location within Tokyo as well as the market’s name.
This is a great place to go our your first day in Tokyo, because it’s best to go early (7am) and you’ll be jet-lagged anyway.
You’ll see every kind of fish imaginable and many strange things.  There are simple and cheap restaurants lining the place serving excellent food and (of course) fresh fish.

Unlike Pike Place, this is not a tourist place nor a retail outlet — just a wholesaler’s market — so watch out for forklifts!

Traditional Japanese knives
While in the market, check out some traditional knives at a store called “Aritsugu”.  They are located on the outer perimeter of Tsukiji market.
I’ve been there once and its awesome to see steel knives for every possible cut of a fish imaginable, including huge ones.

Location (show this to anyone at the market and they’ll direct you)
有次［本店］
東京都中央区築地4の13の6

“Houchou” is the word for knife.   In Japanese, this is 包丁

If you don’t mind, I would love to get a knife in the approx $150 ~ $200 range.
Show them this:   商品番号　us011 and say “Kono You na Knife oh Kaitai” meaning “i want to buy a knife like this”.　　このようなナイフを解体です。
That is the item number of a general purpose kitchen knife that’s 10,300 yen (~$110)

I just want a general purpose knife that can be used for slicing sashimi or chopping veggies.

Also, it is a good idea to get a wooden cover for it, called:  鞘 or “Saya” — about $15.

Kamakura
鎌倉 = “Kamakura”.
This day trip outside of Tokyo is highly recommended as a way to see some traditional Japan and historic temples.
Some of the sites you can see

Hokoku-ji Temple — 報国寺 — temple & site of an amazing bamboo forest/garden
Get off at Kamakura sta. on the JR line or Enoden line, and take a Keikyu bus to Jomyoji

Kotoku-in Temple – 高徳院 – giant Buddha statue (second largest in Japan)
Get off at Enoden Hase sta.

Say “Daibutsu wa doko” to ask for directions.  高徳院の大仏の方に行きたい。

There are tons of other temples, but each is a short local train ride away…depends how much time you have but I recommend the above.

Veggie Meal Prepped by Monks
Something I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the chance….精進料理 or “Shyoujin Ryori” — a veggetarian multi-course meal prepared by monks.
It must be arranged in advance.  Think lots of very carefully prepared incredibly fresh veggie dishes with amazing presentation.
Here is a video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKbDWv0W-8o

There is a temple where you can experience this amazing meal.
Name of the temple:  光明寺 — “Kou Myou Ji”
Location:  鎌倉市材木座６−１７−１９　 (Kamakura City, Zai Muku Za, number 6-17-19)
Phone:  ０４６７（２２）０６０３
How to get there:

This temple was established in the year 1175.

Misc
- must reserve in advance
- may be cash only payment!
- 5000 yen per meal, drinks not included
- arrive at the temple 15 minute before your reservation
- your meal will be 1.5 hours

http://park16.wakwak.com/~komyo-ji/html/shoujinryouri.html

Place to Stay

Traditional Inn = 旅館 = “Ryokan”

The selection of traditional inns in Kamakura is more limited than I thought.　I recommend that you don’t miss out on the experience of staying in a traditional inn at least once.
Surprisingly there are not a lot of Ryokan in Kamakura and the few that I researched online didn’t have any openings.  Better to experience this in Kyoto ($$!) or to take another separate day trip to Hakone, an area known for lots of hotsprings and hotspring spa Ryokan’s.

Helpful Phrases

Sorry, I am pregnant.    Gomen nasai.  Watashi wa ninshin shite imas.  Yoroshiku oney gaishimas.
Say this to get attention and special treatment.

I’m fine (but….)      Daijyoubu desu kedo.
Say this after you’ve generated lots and lots of attention from the “i’m pregnant routine”…use puppy dog eyes when you say this.

Because I’m pregnant, I won’t eat raw foods.    Ninshin des kara, nama na tabemono wa tabemasen.
Say this if you are worried about eating raw things.

Where is the supermarket around here?    kono hen no suuupaaa maaakettoo wa doko des ka?
They have awesome cheap food in supermarkets.  And free samples.

Related posts:

1. FiReGlobal West Notes
2. Insider tips for visitors to Seattle
3. Unexpected Startup Lesson #2: Channel your Inner VC to Understand Startup Valuations