The BV Blog

The world of venture capital as we know it is changing. Dating back to its birth in 1957, venture capital has largely been about the repetitive cycle of raising capital from limited partners (LPs) and investing that capital in startups whom are believed will maximize returns for the LPs and venture fund. Since then, venture has remained the same for the most part, even with the introduction of Crowdfunding. This permitted individuals to invest in securities-based crowdfunding transactions subject to certain investment limits, similar to VC’s, but still largely focused on the investment, not on the operational elements of the business.

The one thing that has changed and become more increasingly difficult for VCs is finding the right (read: the best) startups to actually invest in. The playing field has gotten larger, and more players are being added every single day. What’s more, and only marginally arguable by percentage points, 75% of all startups fail - making the investment decision, carry even more weight than ever before.

So how do you reduce that risk? One of the answers is why I joined Blarney Ventures...Incorporate proven high quality, high volume lead generation programs along with sales expertise that drives revenue first and THEN invest.

Zirtual is a provider of U.S. based, dedicated virtual assistants. Capitalizing on the sharing economy popularized by companies like Uber and Airbnb, Zirtual uses collaborative consumption to offer a high quality virtual assistance service for the 99%. They are truly revolutionizing task management, and are helping entrepreneurs, professionals, small teams, and busy parents be more productive.

It’s that time of the year when people start making resolutions. Many people will buy a gym membership, while others will quit drinking (or some other vice). At work, people are talking about how next year will be better than the current year. Business is 20% ideas and 80% execution and often times I find companies have great intentions without any capacity to bring them to fruition. To that end, here are the five reasons your business will gain little to no additional traction in 2015 than you did this year.

Not using CRM properly

Have you ever misspelled a word in an email by mistake? How did it make you feel?

Eight months ago, I was in a really good place, professionally speaking. At age 30, I was running the sales and marketing programs for a 100MM-dollar-a-year middle-market environmental services firm. I sat on the board of the company and had direct involvement in most major decisions within the firm. Our CEO was a brilliant businessperson whom I very much admired, and the guy had serious drive.