Redeye VC

Josh Kopelman

Managing Director of First Round Capital.

espite being coastally challenged (currently living in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

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Monthly Archives for 2010

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No voice...

Istock_000002891120xsmall I spent all day yesterday on the phone. 12+ hours of phone conversations – and I went to bed last night with a sore throat. So when I woke up this morning with no voice, I wasn’t completely surprised.

I had two entrepreneur pitches and one board meeting in New York City today – and I felt OK – so I decided to take the meetings. Initially, I was extremely concerned that my laryngitis would dramatically reduce my effectiveness and productivity in the meetings. However, as the day went on, I noticed something interesting. Because it was so difficult for me to talk, it forced me to make every word count. Where I previously might have interjected with a question, now I was writing them down to see if they got answered elsewhere in the presentation. If I wanted to provide feedback or an opinion, I was much more concise than I otherwise would have been. And, I found that my meetings were just as productive/effective as they would have been if I could speak freely.

So what should I learn from this? Well, I guess it shows that I should talk less and listen more (something my wife has been saying for years). And when I do choose to speak, I should conserve my words. It will be interesting to see if I have the discipline to continue this when my voice returns…\

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