Ron Conway on the meltdown



Links below to some sage advice from a seasoned pro which apparently started with a slide entitled "Good Times, RIP". Also good to see how the current wave of troubling news is being communicated to employees/partners in a realistic but not-nihilistic way. Follow the TechCrunch link for the full text of Conway's email.

Angel Investor Ron Conway Emails His Portfolio Companies Over Financial Meltdown
TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, October 8, 2008

Ron Conway, one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific angel investors (and he was also an early investor in Google), wrote an email yesterday to the CEOs of his portfolio companies. In no uncertain terms he outlines a bleak immediate future, and gives advice to his startups.

It’s the same advice, actually, that he gave in 2000 during the tech meltdown that was then happening in real time. Lower your burn rates to get at least 3 more months out of your current money, and raise money right now if you can. It’s very similar to what Sequoia (and other VCs, I’m sure) are telling their startups.

One thing Ron made clear in a conversation with me today. He’s not worried about the state of innovation in Silicon Valley, and he isn’t going to stop investing. He’s not pessimistic about the future of technology at all. What he is concerned with is protecting the portion of his portfolio companies who don’t currently have a large cash position to weather a storm, and he’s sharing his experience from the last downturn to help them through this one.

The full text of Ron’s email is below, along with similar emails he sent on April 17th 2000 and May 10th 2000.

More here: GigaOm, Business Week
Good critique here: Vallywag

vc, startups, funding, ron.conway, entrepreneur, techcrunch