Signs of Spring in Silicon Valley
Mark Lonergan, February 21st, 2023
News coverage in the Silicon Valley validates the observation that we humans are hard-wired to give preference to negative information over the positive. That said, I see some real signs of recovery in our region – recovery based on real innovation and new technologies that promise to change our world. Three examples of these positive
Venture Backed Companies Need Real Help in 2023
Mark Lonergan, January 24th, 2023
There is a lot of recent research about the number of board seats held by individual Venture Firm General Partners. It is true that the average GP has more than doubled the number of companies on whose boards they sit. Perhaps this practice is sustainable during prolonged market upswings, but the dilution of the GPs time and
Who’s in Charge Around Here?
Mark Lonergan, January 3rd, 2023
In November, Bret Taylor walked away from the Co-CEO role at Salesforce. He had been in that role for only 12 months and it is clear that he and SalesForce founder Marc Benioff were pulling in different directions. There were dozens of articles written in the wake of Taylor’s resignation citing reasons for his abrupt departure.
Time to Clean House?
Board Performance in a time of Economic Urgency
Mark Lonergan, November 30th, 2022
In its most recent survey of public company board directors published just last month, PwC found over 48% of respondents indicated that there’s at least one other board director who they think should resign their board position. 19% indicate that they think two or more fellow board members should resign. And these numbers are up
Does Your Founder Need a Dance Partner?
Mark Lonergan, July 15th, 2022
Recently, venture-backed Logistics company Flexport announced that it had recruited Dave Clark of Amazon to join Flexport as that company’s CEO. That’s not news. Lots of young companies are considering new CEOs in this wonky economy.
What made this special was how it happened: the Founder/CEO Ryan Petersen initiated the CEO change,