17 Venture Capital Blogs You Should Be Reading

Whether or not you’re raising money for your business, getting advice from venture capitalists can be invaluable. But, getting in the doors of a Sand Hill Road VC in Silicon Valley can be an incredibly difficult undertaking. Fortunately, many of the top VCs share their thoughts on their blogs and are full of advice for startups, both big and small.

Inside the minds of top venture capitalists: Blogs you need to read to understand how VCs think

1. andrewchen.co

Eric Ries of The Lean Startup has called Andrew Chen’s blog “one of the best entrepreneurship blogs of all time.” And, there’s a good reason why; it includes back-to-back essays on mobile, high-growth startups and technology. It’s one of my favorites on this list.

2. A Smart Bear

This is the home of Jason Cohen, software startup founder, bootstrapper, investor, and mentor. Jason does an excellent job explaining the math behind more complex subscription forecasting, but also touches on topics like marketing and company culture. It’s a great blog to visit, especially if you need help with your subscription business.

3. AVC

Probably the grand-daddy of VC blogs, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson has been posting every day since 2003. From life advice and commentary, to practical know-how for growing a tech startup, AVC is a must-read blog. Almost as good as the blog itself is the thoughtful and intelligent community that posts hundreds of insightful comments on a daily basis.

4. Above the Crowd

Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital doesn’t publish frequently, but his essays on market trends and Benchmark portfolio companies are a window into how VCs view the world and the kinds of business models that they find most interesting.

5. a16z

The Andreesen Horowitz blog is the work of the famous VC firm’s partners and covers all things software in Silicon Valley and beyond. Don’t miss out on their great podcast!

6. Bothsides of the Table

What do you get when a successful entrepreneur becomes a VC and then starts blogging about his experiences? You get Mark Suster’s excellent blog where he doles out advice to aspiring CEOs. From leadership advice to thoughts on how to build a thriving company, Mark’s voice is direct and succinct. Certainly one blog to keep high on your list of must reads.

7. Feld Thoughts

Brad Feld is a managing director at Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado. His blog is full of personal stories, gentle advice, and guidance that will be useful to any startup founder. Brad also has a much bigger list of VC blogs than this one if you’re feeling like you don’t have enough reading yet.

8. First Round Review

Ok, this technically isn’t a blog by a VC—it’s just brought to us by one of the top VC firms out there: First Round Capital. The blog is almost entirely guest posts from insanely smart and interesting people who have excellent insights into starting and growing companies.

9. Haywire

On Haywire, Semil Shah shares stories about his investments, giving a behind-the-scenes view on why he’s working with the companies in his portfolio. He also shares his thoughts, industry trends, and where he sees the companies going, from the investor’s perspective.

10. Hi, I’m David G. Cohen

David Cohen is the founder and Managing Partner of Techstars, the #1 ranked internet startup accelerator in the world. His blog skips any academic theory about building a company and instead provides actionable advice for dealing with the day-to-day of growing a startup.

11. Hunter Walk

Hunter is a partner at Homebrew and previously led consumer product management at YouTube. He talks about building a new VC firm, his investments, and his hits and misses along the way.

12. Paul Graham

As co-founder of Y Combinator and co-founder of the Viaweb which sold to Yahoo! in the late ’90s, Paul Graham has a wealth of experience that he shares in his “essays.” The word “blog” doesn’t really describe what Paul does, but subscribe anyway and don’t skip what he has to say.

13. Sam Altman

As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. He covers broad topics such as net neutrality, but also dives into the specifics of starting a company, touching on things like hiring and employee retention. His blog is a great read for both a VCs perspective on the tech industry, and for insight into broad trends, as well as detailed advice that will help founders build their companies.

14. Tomasz Tunguz

Tomasz really describes his own blog best: “I’m a partner at Redpoint and write daily, data-driven blog posts about key questions facing startups, including how to fundraise, startup benchmarks, management best practices, and team building.” Could you be any more precise?

15. The Barefoot VC

Venture capital is a male-dominated business and it’s rare to get the perspectives of female VC. So, it’s great to have Jalak Jobanputra, as managing partner at FuturePerfect Ventures, share her perspective on The Barefoot VC blog.

16. The Gong Show

Andrew Parker is a VC with Spark Capital in Boston. One of the most interesting parts of his blog is his section of “thesis” posts in which he describes the investments he’s made and why he’s made them.

17. This is going to be BIG

Charlie O’Donnell is a partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Like other VCs, he talks about his investments and why he makes them. But, he also has great advice on growth strategies for early-stage companies.