May 2, 2020

Downturn Success Stories: Part 1

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold” - Warren Buffett, 2016 The COVID-19 epidemic has had a…

Grahme Taylor

Wildcat Venture Partners

March 24, 2020

Busting at the Seams & Screaming for an Outlet: Data Liquidity in the Healthcare Industry

Busting at the Seams & Screaming for an Outlet: Data Liquidity in the Healthcare Industry By Phyllis Whiteley, Partner, Wildcat Venture Partners, in conversation with…

Phyllis Whiteley

Wildcat Venture Partners

February 27, 2020

Bryan Stolle Guest on Kizzi’s Friday Game Changers Podcast

Kizzi's Friday Game Changers Podcast is the world's number one business podcast show. A unique radio-style podcast interviewing the world's most innovative business game changers.…

Kizzi's Friday Game Changers

February 25, 2020

Bryan Stolle Guest on Strategic Momentum Podcast

Ep. 67 - Evolution of Entrepreneurship: Perceptions, Realities and Finding the All-Important Truths - with Bryan Stolle Being an entrepreneur is one of the most…

Strategic Momentum

February 17, 2020

Maximizing Value for B2B Startups: Aligning Traction with Power

By Bob Bausmith, Founder, Accelerate Innovation, in conversation with Bryan Stolle of Wildcat Venture Partners “Startups routinely outperform incumbents in disrupted markets. How come? Because…

Bob Bausmith

Accelerate Innovation

December 16, 2019

Bryan Stolle guest on The Tech Talks Daily Podcast

Neil Hughes interviews tech leaders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, thought leaders and even the occasional celebrity about how technology is transforming their business on my daily show, The…

Wildcat Venture Partners

November 7, 2019

Digital Oil and Trapped Value in Practice (Part 2 of 2)

The signals and signs of trapped value are everywhere. Analysts estimate the spend for digital transformation (DX) will account for ≥10% of revenues for almost…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

October 23, 2019

The End of Capitalism?

Let’s be clear--capitalism is not going to end any time soon. It is, however, entering a new phase, and the secular changes under way are…

Geoffrey Moore

October 17, 2019

Win or Learn: Four Questions That Help You Keep Your Job

Living in an Age of Disruption can be exhilarating, but it is also unpredictable. Forecasting during the early stages of a technology adoption life cycle is…

Geoffrey Moore

August 23, 2019

John D. Villarreal Radio Show – Bruce Cleveland of Wildcat Venture Partners Interview

Bruce Cleveland appeared as a guest on the John D. Villarreal Radio Show - 1210 am Miami. He discusses Wildcat Venture Partners, the Traction Gap…

Wildcat Venture Partners

May 29, 2019

B2B vs. B2C IPOs

For the past dozen years, Top Tier Capital Partners has believed that using data wisely can potentially help us to “see around corners”. Venture capital…

Top Tier Capital Partners

May 6, 2019

Digital Transformation

Finding Your Path “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” It’s a family expression that I used to love until I actually thought about…

Geoffrey Moore

April 11, 2019

Why We Invested in Vlocity or, What Traversing the Traction Gap Looks Like

Some decisions are easier than others. Unlike other investments we have made, we knew from the very beginning Vlocity would be a winner. Why? We…

Bruce Cleveland

Wildcat Venture Partners

March 15, 2019

Seven Notable Trends From SXSW 2019

Artificial intelligence stole my crypto! Another SXSW is in the books, and some noticeable trends emerged. Admittedly, my take has selection and exposure bias. SXSW Interactive is…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

February 17, 2019

The Great Lie – Learning to Code Isn’t Going to Save the American Workforce

Over the last few years, you would have been hard pressed to have missed the hue and cry claiming digital transformation will require the preponderance…

Bruce Cleveland

Wildcat Venture Partners

February 11, 2019

On the Hunt for Users and Usage: Getting to Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

By the time your startup has reached a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), it’s already come a long way. What was once simply an idea now…

Wildcat Venture Partners

January 30, 2019

The 3 Talk Tracks Every Early Stage Startup Must Have

I have had the benefit of working closely — as an operating executive or investor — with some of the top technology B2B early stage startups that subsequently went…

Bruce Cleveland

Wildcat Venture Partners

January 24, 2019

Rough Waters Ahead for Copycat and Nice-to-have Products in 2019; The Seas of Non-Differentiation & Meh Are Treacherous

The road to startup nirvana is littered with companies that didn’t make it. Industry statistics show that at least 80% fail outright; it’s even higher…

Bruce Cleveland

Wildcat Venture Partners

January 9, 2019

2019 Predictions And Trends: Playing Catch-Up, Checking Out, Ducking For Cover and More…

For better or worse, it's popular to ask venture investors what they see happening in the new year. Alas, I am no exception, so I’ve…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

December 10, 2018

Bill Davidow on risk taking and today’s startup innovation

In the years sinceBill Davidow co-founded Mohr Davidow Venturesin 1983, venture capital has changed dramatically. A period of capital scarcity has turned into an era of capital…

Mark Boslet

PE Hub

December 7, 2018

How the Chief People Officer is the CMO of the Employee Experience

New people I meet always ask me what I do for a living. When I reply “human resources,” they say something along the lines of,…

Jennifer Trzepacz

Wildcat Venture Partners

November 29, 2018

Why We Invested in LeaseLock

Who Needs a Security Deposit? Too many of us are all too familiar with the burden of signing a new lease and its most dreaded sidekick,…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

Wildcat Venture Partners

November 9, 2018

SaaS Myths: #1 – Successful SaaS Companies Don’t Have Service Revenues (Part 3 of 3)

We’ve established in Parts 1 & 2, that professional services are a significant part of many successful SaaS company playbooks, and we have identified the…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

November 2, 2018

SaaS Myths (#1) — Great SaaS Companies Don’t Have Professional Services (Part 2 of 3)

In the first installment, we showed how professional services are a key component in most successful SaaS company playbooks. Mature SaaS companies derive almost 20%…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

June 18, 2018

Why We Invested in tuition.io

Americans are being crushed by student loan debt, and the trend is continuing. More than 44 million Americans currently owe $1.5 trillion in student debt.…

Wildcat Venture Partners

May 1, 2018

Why We Invested in what3words

There are many ways conventional addresses fail us. It can be as trivial as trying to find a friend at a music festival to the…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

Wildcat Venture Partners

April 3, 2018

Why I joined GreenFig as CEO: Skilling learners for the digital economy

Businesses across the globe are struggling to keep up with the pace of change and customer demands as the digital transformation rewrites the rules on…

Sara Leoni

GreenFig

February 14, 2018

Wildcat Venture Partners Hires Jennifer Trzepacz as Chief People Officer & Operating Partner

Wildcat Venture Partners today announced that industry veteran and human resources (HR) executive Jennifer (JT) Trzepacz has joined the firm as chief people officer and operating…

Wildcat Venture Partners

January 30, 2018

Why We Invested In FIGS — and Why I’m Excited About Its New Investment

One of our portfolio companies, FIGS, announced a great round of financing by Tulco Holdings last week. FIGS, the medical apparel company that is shaking…

Katherine Barr

Wildcat Venture Partners

December 14, 2017

Running Great Startup Board Meetings

In an ideal world, the most open and least stressful relationships startup founders have would be with their board members. Unfortunately, for many founders the…

Edward Sullivan & John Baird, Velocity Group

December 4, 2017

Why We Invested in Carrum Health

Why We Invested in Carrum Health There’s not much predictability in healthcare costs, as anyone who’s ever shopped around for elective surgical procedures knows. Depending…

Wildcat Venture Partners

September 28, 2017

Why We Invested in KEY

When a group of guys got together to send their buddy off into the land of marriage, they needed a few beers. Specifically, they needed…

Wildcat Venture Partners

July 25, 2017

Why we invested in C3.ai

Every appliance, widget and device we own or use—even ones we haven’t yet imagined—will one day be connected to the Internet via sensors. In fact,…

Wildcat Venture Partners

June 23, 2017

In Search of the Science of Sales

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with a longtime colleague, Jim Hughes, founder of Quick Start Strategies, a leading-edge sales advisory firm singularly…

Bruce Cleveland

June 2, 2017

In Pursuit of Becoming a Platform

In 2006, after 20+ years in a various product management and engineering roles, I transitioned into an investor role. When I made that transition, although…

Bruce Cleveland

May 22, 2017

Digital Systems Maturity Model

Digital Transformation: A Stairway to Heaven Every so often a phrase emerges from the Word Cloud to achieve capital importance, the sort of thing that…

Geoffrey Moore

April 27, 2017

Creating a 21st Century Job Ready Workforce

A Skills Problem The global economy has been rapidly transitioning from a 20th century industrial economy, to a 21st century “digital economy” – an economy…

Bruce Cleveland

April 25, 2017

Why We Invested in GreenFig: Preparing the Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce

Preparing the Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us and our current workforce isn’t ready for it. At Wildcat Venture Partners,…

Wildcat Venture Partners

April 19, 2017

Investing in the Wake of AI’s Impact

Through parts 1, 2, and 3, we’ve covered a lot of information around the displacement that’s going to occur as a result of AI, but we’ve also talked…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

April 12, 2017

Understanding Power in the Digital Economy

We are all stakeholders in the economic systems within which we live and work, and the better we can understand their dynamics, the more likely…

Geoffrey Moore

March 28, 2017

AI as Kinetic Energy: The Creation of New Categories

Imagine for a second a snapshot of a carpenter in mid-swing with a hammer at the very tippy top of it’s arc. At this point…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

Medium

March 13, 2017

In Search of the Perfect Team

I have been fortunate to have been either an operating executive or investor in some very transformational software companies in Silicon Valley, joining or investing…

Bruce Cleveland

February 17, 2017

In Search of the Mythical “VP Sales & Marketing”

I have to admit to having an extreme bias. It rears its ugly head when a startup CEO comes into our offices to take us…

Bruce Cleveland

January 31, 2017

Why Great Companies Fail: How to Halt the Series B Crunch

First, some bad news: A Series B crunch may be upon us. According to Mattermark, in the first quarter of 2016, Series B rounds dropped…

Traction Gap Institute

January 17, 2017

…What I’m Feeling in Tech Part 2: VR and AR

Last week I started writing up some views on what I’ve seen so far, and my thoughts on technology moving forward. As we know CES…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

January 17, 2017

The Interview

If you sit down with a number of HR executives and ask each of them which questions companies should ask candidates during the interview process…

Bruce Cleveland

January 10, 2017

CES as a proxy to let you know what I’m feeling in tech (Part 1)

Every January all eyes are on CES, tech’s biggest distraction of the year. I think they do it that way so they can offset the…

Nathaniel Krasnoff

December 1, 2016

PRTech’s growth could mean more integration with marketing technologies

In 2014, I made a case for PRTech and the opportunities that lie therein. Since I wrote the article, PRTech has seen explosive growth, a…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

September 30, 2016

To Stretch Or To Sandbag, That Is The Question

When it comes to planning and goal-setting, perhaps the most basic and often vexing question is where to set the bar. One school of thought…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

September 12, 2016

AI is from Venus, Machine Learning is from Mars

The rise of cloud computing brings with it the promise of infinite computing power. The rise of Big Data brings with it the possibility of ingesting…

Geoffrey Moore

June 3, 2016

Raising The Next Round — Proving Minimal Viable Repeatability (MVR)

When an entrepreneur takes investor money, they are expected to deliver on the plan and milestones they “sold” to investors during the fund-raising process. These…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

May 27, 2016

Where Angels Fear to Tread – How Angels Get Screwed in The Startup Game

An angel investor friend recently got a bit of hard news – they were going to get significantly less on a recent acquisition of an…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

April 27, 2016

Rihanna Calls The Tech Bubble Like It Is

I’ve shelved this post for almost a year now because though I’ve been in venture for five years across both Wildcat Venture Partners and Mohr…

Abhas Gupta

Medium

April 25, 2016

Sorting Out 2016: Seven MegaTrends

An awful lot of tech stuff is going down these days, and it is creating some serious confusion. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot is rapidly becoming the…

Geoffrey Moore

April 11, 2016

Why We Invested in Clover Health

As early stage venture investors who only invest in a select number of companies annually, we unfortunately have to pass on many great entrepreneurs and…

Abhas Gupta

Medium

March 14, 2016

Where Product/Market Fit Breaks Down

A tweet from GrowthHackers caught my eye recently — “Our #product market fit and NPS are off the scale, but we’re struggling to grow. Any…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

January 14, 2016

8 Key Startup Lessons-Learned 2015 Style

As we kick-off 2016, I reached out to my entrepreneur network and asked, “What was your biggest ‘lesson learned’ last year?” Introspection is a very…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

December 9, 2015

Why We Invested In Earnest: Inside A VC’s Mindset

Earnest recently announced a $275M total raise (Series B + lending capital) on the back of well-earned momentum. As Series A investors in the company, I’ve been asked a…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

November 13, 2015

CodeGirl And Inspiring Advice From Top Entrepreneurs (Who Happen to be Women)

The statistics are dismal: 74% of high school girls show an interest in STEM subjects, but only 4% of college girls choose to major in…

Katherine Barr

Inc

October 27, 2015

9 Reasons Why Now Is The Time For Fintech

Next week is Money 20/20 in Vegas, a conference that is fast becoming the Fintech confab. This conference’s remarkable growth (5x in four years) parallels the emergence…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

September 23, 2015

Roundtables at Dreamforce: Part 3 of 3 (One Disruption In Three Ways Out)

This is part 3 of a 3 part series. Read Part 2 Here. This is the final installment in a series of blogs about a…

Geoffrey Moore

September 21, 2015

Roundtables at Dreamforce: Part 2 of 3 (The Hierarchy of Models)

This is part 2 of a 3 part series. Read Part 1 Here. In the previous post, I reported out on a series of executive…

Geoffrey Moore

September 18, 2015

Roundtables at Dreamforce: Part 1 of 3

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series. Okay, it wasn’t exactly the World Series of Poker, but at Dreamforce this week I hosted…

Geoffrey Moore

September 17, 2015

Headhunting Basics (Part 1) — When to Engage a Professional Search Firm

At some point, a startup will exhaust the founders’ networks for recruiting/hiring purposes, and must turn to professional recruiters to fill key positions. When the…

Bryan Stolle & Elizabeth Patterson

Forbes

September 16, 2015

6 Magic Tricks to Noticeably Increase Your Productivity (and Your Happiness)

I was recently asked, "Aside from world peace and the elimination of poverty, if you had one wish, what would it be?" At first, I…

Katherine Barr

Inc

September 8, 2015

Ten States That Matter

We’re not talking politics here, people—we’re talking technology adoption. In any major technology adoption life cycle there are two trajectories of development, the first led…

Geoffrey Moore

August 21, 2015

Return on Innovation: Are You Playing Offense or Defense?

One of the key lessons I learned from posting on LinkedIn an early draft of my next book (Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in…

Geoffrey Moore

July 22, 2015

Systems of Engagement and User Experience Design

We are now well into the decade of Systems of Engagement. Enterprises in all walks of life are waking up to a world where their…

Geoffrey Moore

June 3, 2015

Hurry up, please. It’s time.

We’ve been talking about the disruptive impact of digital forever. Time to stop talking. Here’s why. As we all know, digital has already reset the…

Geoffrey Moore

May 19, 2015

8 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make That No One Talks About

Entrepreneurs are commonly described as: competitive, evangelizing, risk taking, nimble, scrappy, and visionary. However, there is a broader skillset and mindset that entrepreneurs require to…

Katherine Barr

Inc

May 13, 2015

Chapter Six: The Transformation Zone

This post is the sixth in a series of posts that will eventually become a book. I am looking to improve the text by incorporating…

Geoffrey Moore

April 24, 2015

Startup Cooking: 5 Ways to Manage Like Joe Torre, Former New York Yankees Manager

It’s baseball season again, so what better than a blog with a baseball theme? I ran across a piece a while back about how Joe…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

April 23, 2015

5 Jedi Mind Tricks to Dramatically Improve Your Performance

Andy Puddicombe spent 10 years studying to become an ordained Tibetan monk and is now the successful co-founder of the meditation app Headspace. In his TED talk, he…

Katherine Barr

Inc

April 9, 2015

The Gender Bias Question In Technology and the Tech Startup World

I was asked to help address the tech/startup gender bias question a couple of times recently at SxSW in Austin. The first opportunity was as a…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

April 1, 2015

Finding The Best Executive Talent: Can Recruiters Really Help?

When it comes to hiring a key member of your executive team, hiring a recruiter can seem expensive initially. However, do not underestimate the value…

Katherine Barr

Inc

March 27, 2015

10 Lessons from The Pitch: How to Pitch Your Startup and Win, SxSW Style

Mark Twain is often associated with the quote, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." It was in fact Pascal…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

March 11, 2015

The Top 3 Ways To Be a Powerful Business Leader In 2020

Entrepreneurs have always embraced innovation and change, and reinventing oneself as an entrepreneurial leader will be critical over the next handful of years. Here are…

Katherine Barr

Inc

March 4, 2015

Startup Cooking: 10 Rules For Making a Successful Startup Pancake

There is plenty of discussion about how to build a valuable and sustaining business. Yet, I don’t often see much coverage of the building blocks that…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

February 23, 2015

Ready! Aim! Fire!: How To Execute Successfully Every Time (Part 2)

This is the 2nd installment about startup planning and execution based on the concept of “Ready, Aim, Fire” – a time-tested, tried-and-true adage that applies as…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

February 18, 2015

6 Ways To Get The Most And Best From Your Board

Thoughtfully selecting and effectively working with your investor board members and independent board members (who are not typically investors in the business but asked to…

Katherine Barr

Inc

February 4, 2015

Ready! Aim! Fire!: How To Execute Successfully Every Time (Part 1)

Ready! Aim! Fire! It’s a very old, tried and true adage. This legendarily accepted process of operations works universally whether shooting a gun, a bow…

Bryan Stolle

Forbes

February 4, 2015

How to Become a Great Leader

Be authentic. Figure out your values and who you are, and be true to both. Trying to be who you aren't will impede your company…

Katherine Barr

Inc

January 14, 2015

The 7 Must-Have Qualities Investors Look For in Entrepreneurs

Early stage venture is a lot about the entrepreneur--who that person is and what she or he is capable of. As an investor, my filter…

Katherine Barr

Inc