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Bryan Stolle is Impressive
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by cicero on 2010-12-05
I'm the co-Founder of a startup that provides technology to sales and marketing teams and when raising money, I was looking for a Partner or firm who understands the needs and dynamics of sales organizations.
Bryan was one of the very few people who "got it" and was not only clearly an entrepreneur himself, but also had direct operational experience and was a mensch on top of it all. He was a rare find.
PRIVATE: Members Only (1221 Characters)
Team Member Rating
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by percy on 2010-08-01
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Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2009-08-30
Jim Smith: Professional, Smart VC, Good Interactions
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2009-01-02
Pitched my company to Jim Smith at two stages of financing. He didn't invest, but our discussions were very nice and professional - memorable enough for me to take time out of an extremely busy time to write this post.
Disclaimer: I've founded, built, sold, multiple startups. Met more VCs than I can remember. Have observed MDV as part of one of their earlier investments as well.
The good: Jim is very sharp. Gets it quickly. Let's you make your pitch how you need to. Asks tough questions and they are mostly directly related to the issues you were worried about.
Very polite, easy to deal with, and prompt.
The not-so-good: Jim had suggested slightly traditional solutions to certain issues he raised. Not as entrepreneurial about those solutions as an entrepreneur might be, but then he is a VC. And his suggestions did make us think of more traditional, lower risk ways of doing this, which helped us in the end.
I've met Randy Strahan and Sven, dealt with Jon Feiber as well, and I think each of them was very professional. Good experience, and I would recommend Jim and the MDV team to any entrepreneur.
PRIVATE: Members Only (320 Characters)Stay Away From Mdv
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-05-26
My experience with this fund was terrible. Greatly harmed founders and the company over and over again. The fund needs a structure that allows entrepreneurs or CEOs to have a recourse when faced with a bad board member. They would also benefit from an objective review by the whole partnership or an external advisory board of each partner's performance with his/her companies and of the fund's performance with each portfolio company, replacing every board member who proved ineffective in his/her existing boards. Their attitude of 'the cards are dealt' and 'we'll play out this hand' as if a company was a round of poker instead of the dream, hard work and investment of real people is ruinful. Not facing up to correcting mistakes once they become self-evident is worse than making the mistakes in the first place.
PRIVATE: Members OnlyDon't Worry about Them Saying "No", Worry about Them Saying "Yes".
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-03-16
Beware.
PRIVATE: Members Only (53 Characters)Katherine Barr is Great
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-02-26
We talked to Katherine about our company. Even though we were probably too early for MDV (we were pre-series A, and they seem to like somewhat mature companies in the consumer space), talking to Katherine was definitely worthwhile. She had some good insights about our business and helped us refine our pitch, but more importantly she graciously introduced us to angels who fit our business and could provide a seed round that would get the business to the point where it would be fundable by MDV.
I'm not knowledable enough about the firm to speak for MDV as a whole, but Katherine has a really good feel for the consumer space and won't hesistate to give you good feedback (and when warranted, tough love) so it's definitely a good idea to talk to her and get on her radar.
PRIVATE: Members OnlyMixed Bag
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-10-25
Went in quickly working with Jim Smith. Very smart and asked the right technical questions; then was handed off to a series of newbies and uninterested due-dil guys who had never bothered to look at our deck or understand clearly what we were doing.
Had 6 meetings and every one was starting over again as we slogged through the pitch to bring their guys up to speed and feedback was random and unorgainized.
These are not bad guys, and I would pitch them again, but some basic courtesy and competent follow-through is needed here.
PRIVATE: Members Only (191 Characters)Big Time
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2008-01-13
MDV wants mature businesses and management teams.
PRIVATE: Members Only (219 Characters)Partners Range From Great to Abysmal
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Software Veteran on 2007-08-08
A great firm that has added some weak and ineffective new VC's. Nancy Schoendorf and Jon Feiber are among the very best in the business, Smart, direct and great assets to any start-up.
But some of the newer hires are dolts who don't seem to realize their previous success was due more to timing than insight and execution.
PRIVATE: Members Only (210 Characters)Misleading & Not a Consumer Market VC
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-05-15
I would never work with MDV again. We went pretty far down path with 2 of their partners on a potential seed deal...
PRIVATE: Members Only (1144 Characters)Very Rude, Clueless
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by ThirdStartup on 2007-05-08
Wow... I had the same experience except worse!!!
They canceled my meeting with them while I was in the air flying in to see them! STAY AWAY FROM THIS FIRM!
PRIVATE: Members Only (1850 Characters)Lack Respect
Fund: MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Posted by Anonymous on 2007-05-05
Had a bad experience with them.
PRIVATE: Members Only (277 Characters)