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In my opinion, tracking deal flow and portfolio performance are two very distinct activities.During the course of co-founding Visible, we posed that same question to dozens of VC's and Angel investors across the country. The answer(s) took me by surprise. There are a lot of tools on the market that help investors track "deal flow", but almost nothing that helped them actually track a startup's real financial and business performance after the investment. Most of the folks we talked to said, "spreadsheets and email".One VC jokingly (I think) told us that their CFO just locked himself in his office for a couple of weeks, every year with a bottle of bourbon and just cried, while preparing reports for LP's.This was a relief on two fronts - first, I didn't feel like such an amateur after hearing their confessions and second, it was proof that there was in fact a big need for such a tool.Last year, we founded Visible to solve this very problem. Visible helps investors track their investments, across funds or in individual portfolio companies. Resulting in crystal clear insight into the value of those investments and, more importantly, visibility into how the individual companies are performing (MRR, cash on hand, expenses, etc.). It also makes life much easier for founders. They no longer have to manually craft investor updates and send them out to the 40 individuals and funds on their cap table. They fill out one simple report and visible automatically updates all of the investors that appear on their cap table.

Short answer: it changes over time.I was drinking bourbon with a friend of mine who runs a company in town (~200 FTEs), and at some point in our conversation a visualization came to mind of what it’s like to start and begin to scale a company.The key idea behind this is that if you boil companies down to several stages of growth, there are only a handful of things that actually matter. It all becomes about the ability to focus.*The drawings are supposed to represent an airplane cockpit, but I suck at drawing.***(It’s important to note that these illustrations are only examples. Every company has its own core metrics that matter. Sit down with your team and figure out what these metrics are and then fill in the blanks. Additionally, I'm coming at this from the viewpoint of a CEO reporting to his or her board. Sure, there are other things that matter that ultimately support some of these higher level items, but those won't necessarily be brought up during performance review, and can be delegated to others if need be.**At the "Birth Stage" there are only two things that matter, 1) you have cash in the bank, and 2) you're building product. Anything else is noise.At the "Seed Stage" there are only three things that matter, 1) you have cash in the bank, 2) you're building product, and 3) you're signing up customers. Anything else is noise.At the "You're a Real Company Now Stage" there are at-least nine things that matter, 1) you have cash in the bank, 2) you're on top of your product backlog, 3) you're signing up customers, 4) you're tracking and improving your Lead Velocity Rate, 5) you're tracking and improving your Marketing Qualified Leads, 6) you're tracking and improving your Sales Ready Leads, 7) you're tracking and improving your Customer Lifetime Value, 8) you're tracking and improving your Cost to Acquire Customers, and 9, your Average Selling Time doesn't scare off sales reps :). Anything else is noise.

Will Trump's tariff be the cause of the next recession?Alfonso Llanes, Master Degree in International DevelopmentAnswered just nowApparently Trump is living in an alternative reality pegged to his emotional outbursts and absent knowledge of public policy issues. In real life, sound decisions come from the best advice on a subject as the usual way to govern not by promises made at a campaign rally in a circus-like atmosphere and drunken party goers. For stand-up comedians being funny and sarcastic might be acceptable behavior but not for the leader of western democracies where U.S. and world politicians are observing with dismay a charade that resembles more a psychopath’s conduct than a comedian President.Many political observers predicted the collapse of the market due to Trump’s administration destructive policies and they were right about the facts but wrong about the timing. The issues in front of Americans today are how to stop the drive towards the abyss and still have a functional democracy? Should the President be consider normal and be afforded a private interview by Director Mueller or be subpoena to testify in front of the Grand Jury? Trump is impervious to the difference between reality and fiction and where he lives in the virtual reality of a video game where he can always win.Here is one transcending fact about the U.S. economy as recently reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): "The United States recorded a government debt equivalent to 105.40 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2017." Simple accounting tells us that if liabilities are larger than assets—WE ARE BANKRUPT!Trump nevertheless, handed billions in tax cuts to his circle of oligarchs while the country is in technical bankruptcy! If Trump is expecting to renegotiate the foreign debt held mainly by China and Japan like he negotiate his bankrupted casinos for a few cents on the dollar, he doesn’t understand the most basics principles of financial markets. He never attended graduate school at Wharton as he claims for he could not pass the entrance requirements. This is not surprising if his most sophisticated reading material was a MacDonald’s menu. Trump’s actions can result in the world ganging up against America as it stops being the beacon of the world in its social science of human achievement.Tariffs have already prompted threats of retaliation from America’s leading trade partners; European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker has discussed putting tariffs on “blue jeans, bourbon, and Harley-Davidson motorcycles — three iconic American exports”. Trade Minister of the western world are openly warning Trump that his rhetoric and actions may sink the world into a deep and dark recession.According to WH staff, Trump’s decision to launch an “easy” winnable trade war was born out of uncontrollable anger with the burning scandals of his own creation now creeping up on him like his sexual habits, his lack of ethics, his abuse of power, and most damming his collusion with the Russian who brokered his election.White-house staff often report that the president is detached from his surroundings arguing with himself, firing advisers or staff that refuse to commit suicide or go to jail on his behalf as he considers it an unquestionable loyalty owed him for the privilege of serving in his administration.The people who elected Trump should think about all of that for a moment as staff inside the White House are telling the press that bad political news causes the president to become rabid with anger when he decides that the best way to respond to his worst instinct to launch a trade war. This is policy making out of sheer emotional instability and dictatorial rule that in the past has resulted in bloody precedence of a kinetic war.Trump’s dangerous decision-making is view by many as the new normal. He does not consult with his economic and diplomatic advisers on the best way to implement his chaotic policies like tariffs and just acts on his own outburst of anger to make public announcements. The White House was virtually unprepared for the all-too-predictable angry response from foreign leaders after Trump’s monumental decision on tariffs before it was made. Nobody in Congress, the State Department, the Treasury Department or the Defense Department had been told that a new policy was about to be announced or given an opportunity to weigh in in advance.Wilbur Ross, the un-dead Trump administration’s commerce secretary, who also has a shady past over a deal with a Russian businessman connected to Vladimir Putin. The connection took place while serving as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. As the front line spokesman for Trump’s justification of tariffs just patched up a communication email to all concern and approved by Trump as the whole policy plan.We learned from inside the White House that the reason this kind of behavior hasn’t happened before, is that Trump’s advisers have been able to keep his worst instincts in place. Moreover, many of the gate keepers are leaving or being fired with few sober heads, like Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, that have to figure out ways to coaxing Trump away from his psychopathic destructive impulses and toward a more measured, conventional policy approach. How long can this craziness continue rests unfairly on the shoulders of Director Mueller and a partisan roll-over Congress.