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Venture Capitalists Get Paid Well to Lose Money

Harvard Business Review

2013 had all the signs of being a comeback year for venture capital. Booming public equities and a recovered IPO market generated record portfolio company exits and distributions from VC funds. The ongoing poor performance of venture capital firms should be an obvious problem for institutional investors.

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Just How Risky Is Entrepreneurship, Really?

Harvard Business Review

Steve Jobs , Mark Zuckerberg, and Michael Dell make fine fodder for commencement speeches, but when parents and career counselors thrust graduates into the job market, the default isn't entrepreneurship, it's corporate serfdom. A quarter of first-time venture-backed firms are acquired for at least $50 million or file for an IPO.

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What African Start-Ups Need to Do to Hire and Keep Great Talent

Harvard Business Review

With limited exit opportunities via initial public offers ( IPOs ) and acquisitions, smart young people understand that stock options rarely bring a big payday. He invested in training his staff, but that backfired as those individuals then became more marketable and moved on.

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Become Your Own Best Gatekeeper

Harvard Business Review

And I recall well, at the start of my career, how flattered I felt to be asked for a meeting or some advice — thrilled to be looked at as enough of an expert to be of help. I was recently talking with Jeffrey Bussgang , a prominent Boston venture capitalist. Kathryn Minshew may simply be a better time manager than I am.

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How Singapore Became an Entrepreneurial Hub

Harvard Business Review

based venture capitalists about my plans to move my family out to Singapore to oversee Innosight’s nascent investment and incubation arm. Since I had never done venture investing before, I was trying to get advice from as many people as I could. “You are crazy.”