Second Mover Advantage — 3 Key Principles To Succeed As A Fast Follower
Ask the general public and they will tell you being the first into a market is the key to winning. But building a company is rarely a linear race. In fact, as many have...
Should I Take This Money? 5 Major Ways VCs Invest In You — And...
VCs come in many different shapes: investment thesis, fund size, geographic focus, profit-motivated versus strategic returns, and how they invest. Indeed, VCs use a variety of investment vehicles including opportunity fund, special-purpose vehicle (SPV,...
Why Diagnostics Is Hard: Three Extra Challenges And How Startups Can Still Succeed
Diagnostics shares the same two key challenges as most of digital health. One, long sales cycles of 9-18 months into providers, often even longer for payors and pharma. Two, FDA approval that necessitates clinical...
Virtual Fundraising For Startups — A Q&A
Q&A with Eileen Wu Raise Partners CEO and Sand Hill Network Co-Founder, Former CNN and CNBC Reporter/Producer Has virtual fundraising leveled the playing field for international founders? Is it easier now for international founders to...
Venture Capital is for the Elite only
Our economy has changed. I see three significant trends. A significant number of youngsters, freshly out of school, want to become entrepreneurs. Corporate is not attractive, and the best talents no longer dream of...
Why We Invested In Labelbox aka “The Pickaxe” Of The AI Revolution
We just invested in Labelbox as part of their $40M series C led by B Capital, here is some of the coverage: Business Insider, VentureBeat, company's blog post. Tau Ventures is an AI-first fund...
Why We Invested In Decoded Health aka “A Medical Resident In Your Pocket”
In January we invested in Decoded Health as part of their $4.5M seed led by Sierra Ventures. Tau Ventures is an AI-first fund in Silicon Valley investing primarily in seed but we occasionally take...
How to evaluate growth stocks like VCs
Two and a half factors to assess growth investments. This post will cover the following topics: The importance of being in the right market at the right time How hiring and people management is the...
Synthetic Equity — Pros > Cons For Startups?
In the US, limited liability corporations (LLCs) are a recent phenomenon -- Wyoming pioneered them in 1977, the IRS issued comprehensive rules around their taxation in 1988, and by 1996 all 50 states had...
Is Silicon Valley Dying? No And Why It Still Makes Sense For Entrepreneurs
There are these headlines: Aug 26, 2020: Palantir’s Bay Area move makes Denver the city to watch amid Silicon Valley’s exodus Dec 1, 2020: Hewlett Packard Enterprise moving headquarters from Silicon Valley Dec 12, 2020: Oracle to...
Disaggregation of the Hospital – A Counterintuitive Opportunity for Startups?
Tau Ventures is a seed-focused fund investing in applied AI in digital health, enterprise and automation (cars, robots). We think a lot about where healthcare is going and one of the biggest trends we...
To PR Or Not To PR? 5 Key Questions For Startups
Wired published a thought-provoking opinion article in 2015 comparing the news cycle around startups to a 12-hr clock. Indeed, tech in general and Silicon Valley in particular has received significant criticism over the years...
Pivoting Your Startup? 4 Ways To Do It Right
1) Cash In Reserve -- At the early stage, especially seed, chances are you will keep pivoting till finding product-market fit. At Tau Ventures we advise entrepreneurs with four main principles: to start fundraising...
Nitty-Gritty Details Will Make (or Kill) Your Valuations. Here’s Why.
Genius is in the details that other people skim. Answer me honestly. When’s the last time you bothered to read beyond the first line of a Terms and Conditions agreement or take the time to...
Why We Invested In FidoCure aka How Tech Can Help Save Dogs (And Eventually...
In October FidoCure, also known as One Health Company, announced a $10M series A led by Polaris Ventures and we increased our position given our continued excitement. Tau Ventures, an AI-first seed fund in...
Fundraising is badly misunderstood
If there is one thing that most startups misunderstand entirely, that’s probably fundraising. Thus, they create their own mental image of what needs to be done to raise money successfully. After interacting with more...
Replacing Your VC? 5 Principles For Entrepreneurs
At Tau Ventures we advise all entrepreneurs to look upon the diligence process during a fundraising round as a two-way street. We believe it is not only an opportunity but a duty of the...
Offshoring? 5 Key Principles For Startups
At Tau Ventures we have invested in startups that are fully in the US, where the CEO is in the US and the rest of the team offshore, and everything in between. For us...
Raising A Startup Round? How And When To Share Fundraising Updates
How long does it take to raise capital? Why am I not getting term sheets when other companies are? Is that investor really interested? These are among the most common questions entrepreneurs ask themselves and VCs. Rounds...
Can Startups Disrupt Medical Errors?
Primum non nocere -- Latin for “first, do no harm” has been enshrined by the medical practice since the times of the Hippocratic Oath. Unfortunately erring is part of the human condition and despite...