Kelly Benthall often finds traveling terrifying, but she does it anyway. Kelly Benthall Last year, Kelly Benthall, now 54, and her husband quit their jobs and retired early to travel the world. She found the
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think about everyday, including: How to
On Funding — Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value
On Funding — The Denominator Effect I recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio, which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage
Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in
The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm — even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed.
Nearly six years ago, I was thrilled to invest in Andrew Farah and the team at Density when they had a vision for building anonymous tracking of how people use office buildings, rentals and other
Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box) Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. From 2019 to May 2022, the market was down considerably with public
Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasn’t always like this
Credit: Apex Today, Apex announced their Series B funding round, led by XYZ Ventures and CRV, with participation from Upfront. And if you spend much time in LA, you’ll quickly realize that we’re in a
The Ford Pinto. New Coke. Google Glass. History is littered with products whose fatal flaw— whether failures of safety, privacy, performance, or plain old desirability—repelled consumers and inflicted reputational damage to the companies bringing them
It’s one thing to invent something cool within controlled laboratory environments. It’s entirely another to scale that new baby for sale. The tension between innovation and commercialization is something we regularly wrestle with at Abstrax.
It’s no secret that warming temperatures, wildfires and flash floods are increasingly affecting lives across the United States. With the U.S. government now planning to ramp up fossil fuel use, the risks of these events
When disasters happen—such as hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes—every second counts. Emergency teams need to find people fast, send help and stay organized. In today’s world, one of the fastest ways to get information is through
Paula Davis is the founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute. She is a globally recognized expert and adviser regarding burnout prevention at work and building resilient teams. Previously, she practiced law, and
Americans often receive a lot of grief for being less internationally traveled than citizens of other countries. But in recent years, more Americans are traveling abroad than ever before. Numbers compiled by the digital magazine
When I lived in Florida, I had a neighbor named Ms. Carmen. She was in her late 70s, fiercely independent, and lived alone with her two dogs and one cat, which were her closest companions.
On Monday, Starbucks rolled out a new dress code as part of its larger corporate overhaul. But union workers say the change is both restrictive and unproductive—and now, baristas are walking out. The dress code
When a friend and I began investing in thoroughbreds in 2018, it wasn’t fantasies of running in the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness Stakes that excited us most. It was naming the racehorses. We’d seen