Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fred Destin

VC Signalling Risk in Seed Rounds



 CB Insights  just published an interesting post about signalling risk i.e. the startup survival risk generated by getting a Tier I VC into the seed round who does not follow their money into the Series A. The data suggests getting no …


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Fred Destin

How we can thrive in a world of Chaos



Late last year I gave a TEDx talk about “thriving in a world of chaos”, looking at how we can deal with a level of unpredictability and a speed of change we were not genetically designed for and searching for …


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Fred Destin

Backing PillPack : a pharmacy you might actually love



Pharmacies are like banks.  When you have to go to one, it’s usually an unpleasant experience delivered in often indifferent fashion by overworked people.  TJ Parker and Elliott Cohen, the founders of Pillpack, together with the rest of the team, …


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Fred Destin

The Glorious Post Seed Startup Financing Chaos



The other day I got a call from Scott Kirstner at the Boston Globe answering: “what happens to all these incubators entrepreneurs after Demo Day”.   The short answer: chaos.  Full of opportunity, but chaos nonetheless.  Cue fractals on this …


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Fred Destin

Viva La Revolucion! AngelList goes into Hyperdrive



Viva La Revolucion !  As of this Monday, almost 2,000 of the 28,000 odd thousand startups currently present on Angellist will be able to start fundraising publicly.  At the same time, Angellist just announced (via a Dan Primack exclusive) a …


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Fred Destin

Shame on France : the Yahoo – DailyMotion debacle



 I was on the board of DailyMotion for many years, starting with the first round of financing in 2006 and ending with my resignation off the board in January 2013. We made many mistakes along the way but we survived …


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Fred Destin

Zombie VCs Take II – How to Spot an Active Firm



An entrepreneur called Danielle Morrill just kicked up a bit of a shitstorm with a nicely titled “Zombie VC” post.   It’s a nice pendant to her recent Zombie Startups post in which she deals with her own fears of …


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Fred Destin

LunchBeat Boston #1



 We’re all heads down building our startups and sometimes we forget to have fun.  No more.  Edition 1 of LunchBeat Boston got 150 odd people dancing at the HackReduce space, and with that massive endorphin rush I bet we upped …


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Fred Destin

The perspective of a gun owner



 I don’t own guns and do not know much about them.  I received a mail from my fellow startup investor John Gargasz who is someone I rate and respect, which I thought I might share with you to re-center this …


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Fred Destin

Children, Risk and #Newtown: don’t let Fear win



 I have 3 kids, aged 5, 7 and 9.  I cannot even pretend to relate to those who lost their kids, but I can picture what an obliterated classroom would do to them and me. After the shooting news broke …


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