Category Archives: Investments

2012: A Year of Building

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Ben T. Smith, IV

If you think about it, every year takes on a character, or theme, of its own depending upon goals we’ve set, decisions we’ve made and unplanned events that take place along the way. 2011 was driven by a few great … Continue reading →

Posted in Investments, Personal, Silicon Valley, Startups, Wanderful Media | Tagged Accelerator Ventures, alabama, Associated Press, CEO, investment, mobile, newspapers, Online advertising, silicon valley, Stanford, Startups, tablet, technology, venture capitalists, Wanderful Media

Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: Backing A College Dropout Might Be Your Smartest Investment Strategy

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

I recently invested in two companies whose founders either had little interest in school as students or who dropped out of grad school: MixRank and Influitive. Both management teams are driven, hard working and well prepared for the difficult road … Continue reading →

Posted in Investments, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged Bill Gates, Carly Fiorina, Chief executive officer, deals, investment, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin, Startups, University of Nevada Las Vegas, venture capitalists, web entreprenuer

Maximilian Schroeck, Ben Smith: Unlocking Value From A Portfolio’s Walking Dead | | peHUBpeHUB

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

We have all seen it. A startup has initial success with an innovative business concept, an early product, a first or second round of capital and a spurt of revenue growth. Then suddenly, its momentum stalls. More than 50% of … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Investments, Silicon Valley, Spoke Software, Startups | Tagged A.T.Kearney, deals, facebook, silicon valley culture, Spoke Software, Startups, venture capitalists, venture portfolio

Sooner is Better than Better, Getting Shit Done

Getting Shit Done The key to success in business is execution, whether you run a sprawling multinational or a 12-person startup. So measuring how your company stacks up against the best and brightest in your space is crucial. If you … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on January 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV | Tagged Entrepreneur, GSD, internet startups, merchantcircle, Netscape, silicon valley, Startup company | 2 Comments

I have now entered the blog world

After seeing where I put my blog content change, I have decided to start posting my blog content to my own blog. This should be an interesting process.

Aside | Posted on January 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV | Tagged alabama, blog, investment, merchantcircle

Tom Klaff, Ben Smith: A New Spin On Corporate Venture Capital; How Big Businesses Can Encourage Innovation | peHUB

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Corporate venture capital comes and goes in waves. In good times, money flows easily into startups. When times turn bad, most corporate investors disappear, and the waves they create crash violently on the shore. It doesn’t have to be this … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Investments, Relationships, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged A.T.Kearney, Carnegie Mellon, corporate investors, corporate venture capital, intel capital, Mergers, Startups, ups and downs, venture capitalists

peHUB » Doug Kilponen, Ben Smith: First They Ignore You, Then They Want To Buy You: Managing The Startup-Big Company Relationship

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Every entrepreneur has met them. Big company executives with big company swagger. They ignore you. They dismiss the business problem you spent your life solving. They think they can crush you. Then the tables turn. They push for strategic relationships. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deals, Investments, MerchantCircle, Startups | Tagged deal and no deal, deals, Disney, merchantcircle, Mergers, Startups, web entreprenuer

Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: Why Startups Innovate Better Than Big Companies | peHUB

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

With all their resources and talent, why do big companies have trouble innovating? How can a Blekko exist when there is a Google? Or a Tapulous when there is an Electronic Arts? Even more puzzling, why couldn’t Yahoo create Facebook … Continue reading →

Posted in Deals, Investments, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged Disney, enterprise innovation, game show network, investment, mesmo, ringcentral, Startups, tapulous, venture capitalists, yahoo 360

Ben Smith: Building Startups Is Cheap But Never Run Out of Cash | peHUB

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Internet startups have been getting cheaper to build for 10 years. So why is it more important than ever not to run out of cash? We built MerchantCircle into one of the 100 most trafficked U.S. sites and I honestly … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Investments, MerchantCircle, Relationships, Silicon Valley, Spoke Software | Tagged A.T.Kearney, Cash, deal and no deal, google, internet startups, investment, SimpleGeo, Startups, UrbanAirship

Economic Principles Return circa 2001

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Economic Principles Return circa 2001 Originally printed in one of the boom time internet magazines, one of my co workers from the period saw one of my recent articles and dug this one up and send to me. I wonder … Continue reading →