Eric Paley

@epaley

Managing Partner at Founder Collective. Entrepreneur and Investor.

Cambridge, MA
foundercollective.com
Joined May 2009
283 Photos and videos Photos and videos

Tweets

You blocked @epaley

Are you sure you want to view these Tweets? Viewing Tweets won't unblock @epaley

  1. Pinned Tweet
    16 Oct 2016

    VC assumption - more capital accelerates best companies to greater success. Unfortunately, the data says otherwise

    26 replies 136 retweets 326 likes
    Undo
  2. 4 hours ago

    Growth at any cost.

    I see this in an investor update at some point from almost EVERY angel investment I have made: "We burned more cash than we should have on paid marketing before realizing that that channel wasn't very productive"
    2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
    Undo
  3. Retweeted
    Sep 5

    Congratulations team ! Location data startup Factual nabs $42 million to accelerate growth and fuel international expansion

    3 replies 4 retweets 18 likes
    Undo
  4. Retweeted
    Aug 31

    A father set out with a simple goal—to enable his son to walk. Months of R&D followed, resulting in a custom-made, 3D printed orthosis that provides support/correction and finally helped him take his first steps independently.

    1 reply 3 retweets 2 likes
    Undo
  5. Aug 31

    How is helping students afford college cc:

    1 reply 2 retweets 2 likes
    Undo
  6. Aug 29

    Indeed

    “In Silicon Valley, it’s often embarrassing when you haven’t raised money...” “Many VC firms are not doing the work to think through what is the realistic exit potential...” Thanks I bet would find this interesting.
    1 retweet 4 likes
    Undo
  7. Retweeted
    Aug 29

    This, & buying out their investors, the "invisible unicorns" (), alternative forms of funding taking off, record year for crowdfunding... I think we're on the verge of a shift away from VC as the only path.

    This is starting to feel like more and more of a real phenomenon to me. /cc
    5 replies 50 retweets 162 likes
    Undo
  8. Retweeted
    Aug 28

    Thread worth reading 👇🏽 Radio 📻 TV 📺 24 hr news cycle ⏰ Internet 🖥 ... and now Twitter 📱 Every new media format has changed the Presidency. Glaringly obvious from this that most of the press hasn’t caught up yet.

    Earlier today, unblocked my twitter account. I thought I should probably talk about this in a little more detail.
    Show this thread
    2 retweets 2 likes
    Undo
  9. Retweeted
    Aug 28

    exactly

    Replying to @nickducoff @micahjay1
    what "lean into winners" is in practice is putting more money into companies that quickly raise much higher up rounds which may or may not be correlated to future returns
    1 retweet 5 likes
    Undo
  10. Aug 28

    Challenge is VC is very enticing & well sold to founders that really shouldn't take it until it's clear that their biz can scale to VC returns. VC path undermines many other good paths for startups. With so much capital in the VC market, many companies that shouldn't raise VC do.

    Replying to @lorakolodny
    The market is pretty well equipped to handle this. If a company *can* raise venture then its notionally venture backable. If not then probably should be bootstrapped anyways. Note: just because a company *can* doesn’t mean it should but that’s often only clear in hindsight.
    3 replies 7 retweets 52 likes
    Undo
  11. Retweeted
    Aug 22

    There seem to be two viable DNVB funding strategies: 🌱 Build a sustainable growth engine with a seed or small A round, or; 🚀 Fully embrace the “Go big or go home” playbook and try to use capital to scale to $1B+ to compensate for the “meh” multiples.

    2 retweets 3 likes
    Undo
  12. Retweeted
    Aug 26

    Startups are fucking hard. Every moment and milestone is a battle against self doubt. Thank you for diving into the non glamorous part of the journey. If you are deep in building a company or just considering it you'll definitely want to read this.

    8 replies 30 retweets 207 likes
    Undo
  13. Retweeted
    Aug 24

    If your startup is growing well, but there are some things you can't do because you don't have enough people, that's actually optimal. That's what it feels like in every great startup.

    106 replies 1,888 retweets 6,406 likes
    Undo
  14. Retweeted
    Aug 24

    I find that motivation is undervalued and ideas are often (way) overvalued. This is why building a culture of freedom and responsibility is so important.

    Adding too much value often reduces outcomes. For example, slightly better ideas executed with less motivation often give you worse outcomes than slightly worse ideas executed with more motivation. When in doubt, let people own the problem they are solving.
    2 replies 28 retweets 77 likes
    Undo
  15. Retweeted
    Aug 23

    I've received my first founder update citing the trade war as negatively affecting the business. <sigh>

    7 replies 10 retweets 49 likes
    Undo
  16. Aug 23

    Agreed and thank you!

    The point is NOT to raise huge equity rounds (or VC funds). In any normal market that makes it WAY harder to make money. The point is to build an awesome business that obviates the need for huge equity rounds. This tweet is currently non sensical - will make sense in the future
    1 retweet 5 likes
    Undo
  17. Aug 22

    We all know luck plays a big role. Just hope to prove other factors contributed too!

    Replying to @epaley
    so much truth in here.
    2 likes
    Undo
  18. Aug 22

    Also, everyone that benefited from an outlier success is eager to prove that it wasn’t just dumb luck.

    There's a paradox of success in tech -- those that are successful feel even more drive to outperform their last success because there's always another entrepreneur who built something bigger. Most of the successful founders I've met are humble and don't rest on their laurels.
    1 reply 8 likes
    Undo
  19. Aug 22

    Exceptional!

    A truly inspired response.
    1 like
    Undo
  20. Aug 21

    Just so unlucky to be associated with criminals.

    Just spitballing here, but if Flynn is guilty, and Manafort’s guilty, and Cohen’s guilty...maybe Trump’s guilty?
    7 likes
    Undo
  21. Aug 21

    3 likes
    Undo

@epaley hasn't Tweeted yet.

Loading seems to be taking a while.

Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

    You may also like

    ·