Noted Venture Capitalist Scott Kupor Headlines Entrepreneur’s Series

Scott Kupor is currently a Managing Partner Andreessen Horowitz, one of the premier VC firms that got its start in July of 2009.  For 45 minutes yesterday, he shared with a crowd of over 150 his firms approach to this ever-changing world.  All 7 partners have operating experience and are supported by a staff of 65 that have functional responsibilities that are provided to their portfolio companies.  A very unique VC model.  Something that older VC’s are struggling with.

Prior to his VC life, Scott was Senior Vice President, Global Field Operations Opsware Inc. and in this capacity spent time in the Raleigh/Durham area.  “I have a soft spot for RTP”, he shared.  And all smiled.

• There were 472 seed fundings (<$1M) in 2009
• There were over 1,700 in 2012
• This has led to the noted “Series A Crunch”
• Lower costs create opportunities for big companies unlike 2000 where startup costs were so high

One of the most interesting comments about today’s startup environment is the ability and preference for “Experimentation at seed”.  This is at the core of how we think at TSF and my interpretation of his thoughts align around the balance of risk changes from 10-15 years ago.  Today, startups can generate lots of data to support their vision and basically de-risk seed investing to some level.

The last compelling point was their thought that Android is outselling IOS 5-1 and could go to 10-1 as a mobile platform.  Who wins and loses in this scenario?  Share some comments and opinions!!