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David Hornik
Venture Capitalist, Musician, Father, Character Actor.
Interests: parenting, technology, cape cod, computer music, sumo, intellectual property.
Recent Activity
Lobby Capital + Faros AI
Just last night I was trading emails with an amazing founder who is chasing an audacious goal. I am a huge fan of his and would love to work with him again. But I was trying to articulate why it was that Lobby Capital couldn’t get our arms around an... Continue reading
Posted Jun 27, 2023 at VentureBlog
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Announcing August VII
I am extremely excited to announce that my partners at August Capital and I have raised a new fund. This fund is the seventh in August Capital’s twenty year history. And while the venture capital industry has seen a fair amount of change over the last twenty years, our approach... Continue reading
Posted Feb 11, 2015 at VentureBlog
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Patience is a Virtue!
My grandmother used to tell me, my brother and sister that “patience is a virtue.” Of course, she used to say it while we were playing gin rummy and she was taking too long to drop a card. But her point was not lost on the Hornik siblings. My grandmother... Continue reading
Posted Sep 9, 2014 at VentureBlog
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Want to get funded? Get an introduction!
The other day when I was giving a talk I was asked the simplest of simple questions -- "how do you get funded by a VC?" I thought about it and could only come up with one, for sure, piece of advice. Get introduced! I told the audience that in... Continue reading
Posted Sep 16, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Success Breeds Success
Last week I received a fantastic email. The email was from the CEO of one of my portfolio companies announcing the promotion of his administrative assistant. After three years of doing great work for the CEO, this assistant was promoted into a role in the marketing department. As much as... Continue reading
Posted Jul 18, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Ten Years of VC Blogging
Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of Venture Capital blogging. How do I know? Because my first post on VentureBlog was on March 5, 2003 (a pithy little post entitled "I'm a VC. Who the hell are you?" -- no, it wasn't a precursors to my post on Narcissistic Personality Disorder,... Continue reading
Posted Mar 6, 2013 at VentureBlog
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In Memory of Jody Sherman
I flew down to Santa Monica today to attend a memorial service in celebration of the life of Jody Sherman. Along with a hundred and fifty of his closest friends, we shared stories of the Jody we remembered. We celebrated his incredible spirit. More than a few tears were shed,... Continue reading
Posted Mar 4, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Do VCs Find Mobile Interesting?
It has been a while since the last time I had a guest post on VentureBlog. But it seems only natural for Howard Hartenbaum, my partner at August Capital, to be posting here. Howard and I do a podcast together called VentureCast that is really fun (at least fun to... Continue reading
Posted Feb 7, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Secondary Market Stupidity
I have heard of short term memory, but this borders on amnesia. Were the buyers in this latest secondary transaction (Twitter at $10B) asleep during the Facebook IPO? Did they miss the part where lots of well intentioned "investors" bought Facebook shares at $80B, $90B, $100B, only to see the... Continue reading
Posted Feb 1, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Pick Your Angel Investors Wisely
A great deal has been written about angel investing in recent years. Angel investing has become the sport of choice for many successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley (e.g., Dave Morin, Chris Michel, Ariel Poler, etc.). What's more, it has spawned a whole new class of venture funds -- once called... Continue reading
Posted Jan 25, 2013 at VentureBlog
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The Value of Fundraising
In 2012 my partners and I raised our sixth fund, aptly named August VI. August VI is a $550 Million fund, with $300 Million focused on early stage opportunities and $250 Million designated for what we call "Special Opportunities" (spinouts, take private transactions, later stage opportunities, etc.). As we have... Continue reading
Posted Jan 14, 2013 at VentureBlog
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The Entrepreneurial Lessons of Great Sushi
If you want to appreciate what it takes to build a great business, watch the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi. In this amazing documentary, director David Gelb takes a look behind the scenes of Jiro Ono's 3 Michelin Star rated sushi restaurant. Jiro's restaurant is booked months in advance, despite... Continue reading
Posted Jan 7, 2013 at VentureBlog
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Investing is About Passion
Entrepreneurship is about passion. Great entrepreneurs are not driven by a simple desire to make money. They are driven by a need to change the world. They may change the world by building a better operating system or a better search engine or a better social network. But whatever it... Continue reading
Posted Dec 27, 2012 at VentureBlog
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The Temptation of Data
There is nothing investors like more than data. We love it. It gives us something to grab onto. It gives us something to compare. It gives us the sense that we are bringing a scientific approach to an otherwise amorphous evaluation process. We look at data when assessing investments. And... Continue reading
Posted Sep 10, 2012 at VentureBlog
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Congratulations on the Best Venture Capital Investment ... Yet!
As I sit here this morning, it is impossible to ignore the import of the Facebook IPO. It is everywhere online. In fact, anyone writing or tweeting about anything else this morning might as well be talking to himself. The story, the only story today, is Facebook. It is impossible... Continue reading
Posted May 18, 2012 at VentureBlog
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Big Data 2.0 -- Data as a Platform
Ever since Splunk went public I have been inundated with "Big Data" requests. Splunk is now the poster child for Big Data. And Big Data is all the rage. I'm getting Big Data business plans. I'm being asked to speak at Big Data conferences. I'm being called by reporters to... Continue reading
Posted May 8, 2012 at VentureBlog
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A Tribute to Splunk
Wow. What an incredible day. Today Splunk went public. In a BIG way! I am so humbled by the whole process and by everything that the Splunk team has achieved. In many ways, going public is just another chapter in a company's life. There's so much more work to be... Continue reading
Posted Apr 19, 2012 at VentureBlog
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The Wisdom of Jeff Bezos, Part 3
Two words: low margins. That's the secret to Amazon's success. Seems crazy when you put it that way. But Jeff Bezos views it as a competitive advantage. Amazon has spent a decade and a half making low margins profitable. And, as Bezos sees it, when you aren't addicted to high... Continue reading
Posted Feb 7, 2012 at VentureBlog
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The Wisdom of Jeff Bezos, Part 2
As I mentioned here last week, I was truly taken by Jeff Bezos' thoughtfulness and wisdom in his recent Wired magazine interview. He touched on a number of interesting topics in the interview. I have decided to take up a few of them here at VentureBlog. Last week I talked... Continue reading
Posted Jan 17, 2012 at VentureBlog
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The Wisdom of Jeff Bezos, Part 1
On a plane flight the other day I was catching up on an issue of Wired Magazine that had sat in my backpack for several weeks (as an aside, Wired continues to be my go-to airplane reading -- it is so well written, well designed, well researched, always entertaining --... Continue reading
Posted Jan 13, 2012 at VentureBlog
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Pitching a VC: Why Financials Matter
I was once being pitched by a very smart entrepreneur who, when he got to the slide about his companies financials, said "I made all of this up, but here you have it." On the one hand, it was an pretty flippant approach to a relatively crucial aspect of his... Continue reading
Posted Oct 27, 2011 at VentureBlog
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Congratulations Dave Marquardt for 30 Years on the Microsoft Board!
"Dave Marquardt has done an amazing job as a Microsoft board member." -- Bill Gates Today is the 30th anniversary of the day my partner Dave Marquardt first joined the Microsoft board of directors. Pretty amazing when you think about it. 30 years on any board is an impressive accomplishment.... Continue reading
Posted Sep 21, 2011 at VentureBlog
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Just Say No To Capped Convertible Notes!
Speaking at an angel investors conference last week I took a bold stand and begged the attendees to say no to capped convertible notes. It may seem an odd thing to take a stand against. Sure, take a stand against racism, homophobia, cilantro, but uncapped notes? What's the big deal?... Continue reading
Posted Sep 7, 2011 at VentureBlog
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Company Culture Counts
What a great week I had last week. On Tuesday I attended the Splunk Worldwide User Conference. On Thursday I attended the SAY Media all hands meeting. (On Wednesday I had board meetings for StumbleUpon and Ebates -- they're building awesome companies as well, but that has nothing to do... Continue reading
Posted Aug 23, 2011 at VentureBlog
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Welcome Oren Jacob, Our Fantastic New EIR
Before I get to Oren, some of you may well be wondering, "what is an EIR?" That's a perfectly reasonable question. The simplest answer is that an EIR is an Entrepreneur In Residence -- an entrepreneur who moves in with you. And that's pretty much it. So you have an... Continue reading
Posted May 2, 2011 at VentureBlog
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