VC Blogs – the old and new

I was in California 3 weeks ago when Jeff Nolan told me he was leaving SAP Ventures and moving to a new group within SAP desgined to "Kill Oracle."  We talked about all of the great innovation happening on the web, much of which is consumer-focused, and why it was a good time to make a switch.  Yes, SAP is the dominant player in the enterprise market and even after you account for Oracle’s acquisition binge Oracle still remains the distant number 2 player in enterprise software.  That being said, there are new technologies and new ways of doing business which SAP must keep close tabs on as it maintains its dominance – think service oriented architectures, SaaS, and new markets to enter and conquer.  So I am sad to see one of my VC buddies go back to the operational side, but I look forward to working with him closely as he helps SAP evolve its stategy and maintain its leadership.

Another VC friend, Scott Maxwell of Insight Venture Partners, has launched a new blog with encouragement from myself and Brad Feld.  Many of the VC bloggers on the web are early stage focused so Scott will bring a unique twist to the VC blogging world by focusing on expansion stage companies that have a product and some decent quarterly revenue.  As Scott mentions in his post:

The issues faced by technology companies at this stage of development are very different that early stage companies. The major issues are around distribution strategy and execution, but as companies scale they tend to need more formal development approaches and have many other process, organization, skill, and staffing gaps as well. Every CEO is also looking for more leads, customer introductions, and ongoing advice in every category, personal and professional.

I tend to agree with Scott so if you want a different perspective, a perspective of what your later round VC is looking for, I suggest putting Scott’s blog on your must read list.