Event Best Practices

25th September, 2015 No Comments Blog , CoVenture , Fundraising

Some people naturally make a good impression at a cocktail party, fundraiser or conference.  Charisma and enthusiasm help, but a few practical habits go a long way as well: Introduce yourself to anyone you don’t see regularly (e.g less than weekly).  Many people have trouble remembering names and doing this will put them at ease. […]

About CoVenture: Update

31st August, 2015 No Comments CoVenture

I find myself explaining what we do at CoVenture more as our model evolves.  This post is meant to compliment and expand on my original post on Joining CoVenture; as such, I’ll skip the preamble here. At CoVenture, we do two things together with and for startup companies: We write software in exchange for equity, […]

Better Meetings

10th June, 2015 No Comments Blog , Cornell Tech , CoVenture , Fundraising

Meetings seem to have more champions than does e-mail.  Meetings enable you to “look ‘em in the eye” and are personal.  These sentiments get to the heart of the main – perhaps the only – advantage of a meeting over other forms of communication:  body language makes a meeting a much richer form of communication […]

E-mail Best Practices

20th April, 2015 No Comments Blog , Cornell Tech , CoVenture , Fundraising

E-mail is an oft-pilloried form of communication.  It’s sometimes tone-deaf.  There’s too much of it.  It’s not as immediate as texting or calling. I am reminded of a line attributed to Winston Churchill; “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.”  Similarly, e-mail is flawed, but it’s often the best mode […]

Communication Best Practices

24th March, 2015 No Comments Blog , CoVenture , Fundraising

Communication is one of the most important skills in business; perhaps in life.  Recently, I saw David Tisch talk about communication best practices in a lecture at Cornell Tech.  I agreed with nearly everything he said and made me think someone should write a blog post on the topic.  He was kind enough to let […]