The legendary Eugene Kleiner, cofounder of KPCB, penned ten of the most immortal lines of wisdom in the history of venture capital known as Kleiner’s Laws. Many is the time I have heeded their advice and, arguably more times, wished I had. They remain the cornerstone of wisdom for entrepreneurs. Through the past 20 years of sitting on both the CEO and Venture Capital side of the table, I’ve learned (usually painfully and occasionally embarrassingly) what I will humbly offer up as a few corollaries.
On Planning: Measure twice, cut once. It’s faster and cheaper.
On Planning: Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
On product development: Tom had it right: The waiting is the hardest part. It will take longer and cost more than you think. Always.
On metrics: Lord Kelvin said it best: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
On metrics: Financial statements are like a speedometer & gas gauge: you need them, but you can’t drive by them.
On financials: The dirty secret of every business is that it’s just a numbers game. It must add up.
On IP: Value comes from what you keep, not what you create.
On IP: Whatever your IP budget is, double it. (from Craig Johnson, legendary Silicon Valley attorney and my cofounder at Grassroots Enterprise.)
On failure: If you don’t fail once in a while you’re not pushing hard enough. Fail incrementally & fast, pivot & move on.
The golden equation: product + market + team = deal
On execution: Step by step: prioritization & sequencing are key.
On boards of directors: Communicate early and often and exercise their contacts and experience as much as they are willing.
On hiring: Trust but verify: trust your gut, but do the background check.
On money: It’s necessary but not sufficient.
On term sheets: Mick had it right: You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you can get what you need. Go with the best partners & don’t over-negotiate.
On sales: It’s not sales, it’s the revenue department.
On sales: Everything is sales whether it is product, equity, or staffing.
On sales: Never hire a salesperson that doesn’t play golf, drink and make you feel slightly uncomfortable unless you are selling bibles.
On sales: Selling more equity usually means you haven’t sold enough product.
Startup Capital Ventures 