Chapter 14
Runways and Landing Strips
Sitting in the Silicon Valley office of famous venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ)—renowned for investments in companies like Tesla, Skype, and Baidu—the cofounder of Livescribe pitched for funding. The entrepreneur described how the company’s digital stylus captured pen strokes and audio, allowing users to replay the recorded audio simply by touching the pen to the notes. Warren Packard, managing director of DFJ, listened closely and then posed one of the most familiar questions in the entrepreneurial world: “What’s your burn rate?”1 The entrepreneur tossed out a number, and Packard’s eyes wandered to the ceiling as he divided the startup’s remaining cash by the burn rate. “So you have sixteen ...
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