Howard's Bank

Posted by Howard
on December 18th, 2009

I would never call my bank Howard’s Bank, but I plan to have a bank for entrepreneurs.

The death of venture capitalists has been a topic of discussion ad nauseum on the web the last 12-24 months. Bad VC’s die, great ones evolve and as is the case in any industry, some asshats that suck balls can still make a living.

The same goes for banks. You just can’t kill all the bankers.

Since I have run a fund and now am a general partner in three of them, I have a feel for what I would like to see happen. When I started Social Leverage, I had this vision of a different type of entity. The current venture fund strategy seems lacking. You hand an entrepreneur money, you bust your ass alongside the entrepreneur and the team and if you get it right you get a profitable exit. The next time you see the entrepreneur, he/she is asking for more money. WTF?

In the meantime, Joe Broker, Goldman Sachs and Barney Frank are making the real coin. Why?

If the crisis has taught me anything, it’s that responsibility rules. You can/should outsource all the math, money management and transactions, but you should not outsource the management of the responsibility once it is given to you and once you know you want it and can handle it.

If I have built the trust with the team of entrepreneurs that I am part of funding, I want to stay with that person/team and participate in all the ‘LONG TAIL’.

Yesterday I talked about the Bank of Apple and it’s a model that trusted brands that I am immersed with can have my basic banking. They can have the ‘Long Tail’ of my basic banking, transaction and saving needs. I don’t want to give it to Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank.

I believe start-ups like TechStars , Betaworks and even Social Leverage can do what the early incubators like CMGI, Idea Labs and Internet Capital Group failed to do, survive and thrive long enough to evolve into a very profitable and scalable long term business of reinvesting proceeds.

Social Leverage Capital – The Circle of Entrepreneurial Life!

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.