The hardest thing about being a venture capitalist is saying "no," reports David Pakman, a serial entrepreneur who joined venture capital firm Venrock as a
partner last year. He talks about the transition in this episode of The Deal's Behind the Money online video show.
Pakman's entrepreneurial past life included stints as the CEO of eMusic, co-founder of Myplay Inc., vice president at N2K Entertainment and co-creator of Apple Computer's Music Group. He regularly offers entrepreneurs advice on his "
Disruption" blog.
On Wednesday, Pakman will hand out more advice to entrepreneurs when he participates in a panel discussion provocatively titled How Not to Blow It at Silicon Alley Insider's Startup 2009
event as part of
Internet Week New York.
The event features a contest where 10 finalists
compete for $25,000 from General Catalyst Partners and $75,000 in services.
The Deal's video crew and I will also be at Startup 2009, taping video interviews with participants, including Mahalo.com co-founder Jason Calacanis, AlleyCorp co-founder Kevin Ryan, General Catalyst Partners' George Bell and Path101 Inc. co-founder Charlie O'Donnell, one of the finalists at Startup 2009.
For an insider's guide to the week-long festival, see The New York Observer's
coverage by Gillian Reagan.
For more on New York's entrepreneurs, see our
Behind the Money video show, which features interviews with Tumblr's
David Karp, OMGPOP's
Charles Forman, Drop.io's
Sam Lessin, Buddy Media's
Mike Lazerow, Path101's
Charlie O'Donnell and NY Tech Meetup organizer
Nate Westheimer (who recently
joined AnyClip.com as vice president of product).
Watch the video interview below or download it at iTunes. -
Mary Kathleen Flynn
Is this even put on every year? I need to check into it for next time if it is.