The general role of a board is to provide oversight, guidance, feedback, governance and accountability. With board meetings, as with many things in life, you will get out what you put in – planning ahead thoughtfully and doing the prep work can lead to extremely valuable and productive board sessions. The inverse is also true […]
Customer account management, which includes customer success, customer support and implementation is the key to a growing a SaaS business. This department, which typically develops after sales and engineering, is often the difference between business success or failure because its main function is to keep your existing customers happy and growing. Without it, SaaS companies […]
As entrepreneurs who have been through the fund raising process know, this question is one they should be prepared for when speaking with potential venture investors. Giving some real thought and analysis as to who will be a potential acquirer and why is important as it the mostly likely way that investors will eventually get […]
Borrowing an enterprise sales term, the “funnel” for startup opportunities at a venture firm starts very wide and ends up extremely narrow, and there are numerous stages along the way. From initial call or email to actual funding, there is a massive filtering process. The magnitude varies amongst firms, but to give you a sense, […]
Early stage investing has remained exciting and seen healthy, even increasing, capital flows since 2010. While it is defined differently by different venture industry participants, at Ascent, we separate angel and seed into a separate category that comes before the early stage. Those that are successful in the early stage and want to raise more […]
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, it seems like an appropriate time to shed light on a leadership style that goes beyond the norm: leading with love.
For more than 30 years, we have been laser focused on investing in early stage business technology in the northeast U.S. because we believe an ideal combination of factors exist: B2B tech has the potential for capital efficient and rapid growth which fits the venture model well, the competition is lower than the west coast, […]
Google that question and you’ll have all the advice you could ever want or need. One list of 25 items includes “grab attention,” “be accessible,” and “get involved.”[1] Another list advises would-be entrepreneurs to be “highly self-motivated” and “exhibit strong leadership qualities.”[2] A third suggests the need for a “strong inner drive” and “being excited […]
As we enter the middle of summer, new college graduates are setting out to change the world with their innovative ideas. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) projects 1,606,000 students at the bachelor’s degree level will graduate as the college Class of 2014. This year many of those students will choose to start their […]
Guest post by Todd Christy, Slalom Consulting and member of Ascent’s Technical Advisory Board. What do flat tires and Hadoop have in common? If you’re one of the 75 million drivers covered by the largest US roadside services provider you may experience the real value of “big data” when your tow truck arrives promptly to swap […]
![Leading with Love vs. Fear in Business [Valentine’s Day edition]](https://www.ascentvp.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Ascent-vday-blog-image-1024x683-1024x683-1.jpg)
