2nd edition of OpenView Venture Partners' weekly newsletter. Each week, we create and disseminate the best new ideas targeted at senior managers of expansion stage companies.

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Viewing Value
March 31, 2010
Latest from the OpenView team
The Ideal Path to Expansion Stage Growth
I just got back from having lunch with a CEO of a Provo-based software company. It was a
fascinating discussion. We were neck deep in talking about...read more.
Goliath has Weaknesses - Exploit Them!
As a Venture Capitalist who has been on the Microsoft Venture Capital Partner Advisory
Committee for several years, I am a bit sad to see the recent press on innovation issues at
Microsoft. That said, I wrote a blog series...read more.
The Importance of Setting Goals
Having clear, defined and agreed upon goals are very important to every team and every
business. Each team should have their own goals that all help to contribute to the firms
overarching goal...read more.
News from the Industry
How to Recruit Top Talent
Hiring and retaining the best talent is as tough as it's ever been, with projections through 2012
indicating that, for the first time in U.S. history, the number of younger workers entering the
labor market won't be enough to replace those who are leaving. By 2006, one in six workers will
be over the age of 55, while the 25-to-34 demographic will have shrunk by nearly 9 percent,
according to a study by the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers.
Courtesy of: entrepreneur.com
Just Getting Started? Focus on This to Get to the Next Level
As strange as it might sound, the key to success in startups is not always knowing where you
are in your revenue and profitability growth cycle. Instead, it's much more important to keep
track of people, strategy and capital - and in that order. Understanding the strengths of your
team - and your leaders in particular - allows you to build the details of your strategy that you
can proactively manage.
Courtesy of: venturebeat.com

2. Nature vs Nurture and Entrepreneurship
I went down to Philly yesterday and spent the afternoon with students and faculty at Wharton
Entrepreneurial Programs, the entity that administers the entrepreneurship major/courses at
Wharton and runs a bunch of fantastic "outreach" programs like the Venture Initiation Program.
WEP is run by Professor Raffi Amit and as we were making our way from one meeting to
another, I said to Raffi that "you can't teach people to be entrepreneurs but you can teach
entrepreneurs business." He replied to me that his research into the topic suggests that "there
are no unique and defining characteristics of entrepreneurs" which leads him to believe that you
can in fact teach people to be entrepreneurs. Courtesy of: avc.com
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