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Dave Berkus

Dave Berkus is a noted speaker, author and early stage private equity investor. He is acknowledged as one of the most active angel investors in the country, having made and actively participated in over 87 technology investments during the past decade. He currently manages two angel VC funds (Berkus Technology Ventures, LLC and Kodiak Ventures, L.P.) Dave is past Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, one of the largest angel networks in the United States. Dave is author of “Basic Berkonomics,” “Berkonomics,” “Advanced Berkonomics,” “Extending the Runway,” and the Small Business Success Collection. Find out more at Berkus.com or contact Dave at dberkus@berkus.com

Latest

Bottom Up Budgeting Creates Waste

| Dave Berkus

Many people believe that bottom up budgeting leads to waste and misdirection. The advocates of top-down budgeting are strong in their belief that if you give each person or department no guidance, they will budget…

5-kinds-of-risk-in-building-your-business

5 Kinds of Risk in Building Your Business

| Dave Berkus
If you could predict a crisis within your business before its occurrence, wouldn’t you move to prevent or reduce its impact? Making such predictions is a skill that can be developed, and here’s one method of doing so.
nail-it--then-scale-it

Nail It, Then Scale It

| Dave Berkus
So your business has begun to take off. You’ve figured out your channels of distribution, pricing model and how to support your growing list of customers. Don’t be alarmed by this next statement. That’s relatively easy.
premature-scaling-kills-businesses

Premature Scaling Kills Businesses

| Dave Berkus
Venture capitalists sometimes make an error in directing their portfolio company CEOs to push resources to the limit and scale the business to immense size quickly, all to seize market share.
5-simple-steps-to-executing-the-plan

5 Simple Steps to Executing the Plan

| Dave Berkus
It is all about execution. Waiting over a year to see results is too long, since your chance of mid-course correction is greatly reduced. To make the point, Harvard’s Robert Kaplan believes that less than 10% of corporate strategies are effectively executed. Ouch!

Fish in the Giant Ocean, Not in a Shallow Creek

| Dave Berkus
There are big fish and small fish, potential customers, all swimming in the sea that is your potential marketplace. You, the lonely fisherman, have to weave a net to catch your fish.

Money Motivates

| Dave Berkus
There are many studies that can tell us how various industries reward employees for achievement above a base pay, or beyond expectation.

The Coffee and Wine School of Innovation

| Dave Berkus
Here’s one for debate around a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Most innovation occurs when creative people are relaxed and thinking about other things.

Reward Success and Failure. Punish Only Inaction.

| Dave Berkus
Reward failure? That may be a difficult concept for an executive. And there are limits of course. We wouldn’t reward a failure to follow laws, or protect lives, or deliberate endangerment of the company or its people.

Power is Sometimes Assumed When Not Granted

| Dave Berkus
How many times have you heard someone say, “Let’s do it now and ask permission later?” It’s a common practice in companies where there is a barrier between levels in the chain of command, or lack of communication.