Top all-time · #104
Brad Feld
Personal blog · feld.comstartupsbusiness
Brad Feld writes Feld Thoughts, a personal blog at feld.com about startups and business. Since 2006, 367 different Hacker News readers have linked it 743 times, most often “The Illusion of Product/Market Fit for SaaS Companies”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 6 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Feld's VC blog as a reference on term sheets, dilution, liquidation preferences and SaaS metrics, and for posts on depression and personal routine.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called 'insightful', 'great', 'handy' and 'worth looking at'; one commenter says to 'check out' the term sheet series.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Brad Feld's blog on entrepreneurship, venture capital, books, and life
Most-linked posts?
- The Illusion of Product/Market Fit for SaaS Companies4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-01-20
- How to predict the future4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-06-22
- Term Sheet Series Wrap Up3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-04-23
- Everything you ever wanted to learn about term sheets3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-08-22
- Venture capital term sheet series3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-03-16
- The Rule of 40% for a Healthy SaaS Company3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-02-15
- Are we in a tech bubble or not? Look out for “unicorpses”3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-09-10
- /wp/archives/2005/01/term-sheet-liquidation-preference.html3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-05-19
- Why Most VC's Don't Sign NDAs (2006)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-06-22
- /wp/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-09-04
What Hacker News says?
I have found a large LinkedIn network to be useful for finding customer interviews for startup ideas. There are a lot of people that I am connected to enough that an intro from them beats a cold email. I often will find a company that seems like a good fit for a problem or idea I am working on, see if I have any second-degree connections there, and ask for an intro. I really enjoyed Brad Feld's post[1] on choosing h…
Comment linking /archives/2012/02/happy-birthday-im-unfriending-you.html
on “Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It”Submitted The Real Luxuries In Life as a story · 532 points
HN discussionChecking my rss reader ... https://feld.com/ (VC, but wide ranging) https://mapbrief.com/ Snarky GIS content https://randsinrepose.com/ Management advice for a level I'll never get to :) http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/ Right of center economics https://ultrasaurus.com/ Tech https://www.eugenewei.com/ Big pic tech and society
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Dear Internet: Let’s Demo The Slow Lane as a story · 410 points
HN discussionI keep hearing this book is a must-read: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2011/07/venture-deals-be-sma... If you don't want to buy it, you should check out the Venture Hacks Bible: http://venturehacks.com/friends I'm not sure any of them mentions SAFEs because they're very recent, you can read more details in YC's announcement: http://ycombinator.com/safe/
Comment linking /wp/archives/2011/07/venture-deals-be-smarter-than-your-lawyer-and-venture-capitalist.html
on “The New Deal”Submitted The Price of Free Is Actually Too High as a story · 353 points
HN discussionAsking for an NDA from an early stage VC is likely to actively hurt as it can make you seem inexperienced in the realm of startups/venture capital. A decent amount has been written on this. Here's a couple examples, but there are others: http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html https://feld.com/archives/2006/02/why-most-vcs-dont-sign-nda...
Comment linking /archives/2006/02/why-most-vcs-dont-sign-ndas/
on “One year as a solo dev building open-source data tools without funding”Submitted Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface as a story · 268 points
HN discussionI read the following from link 2 in your comment: http://www.feld.com/archives/2014/10/helps-depressed.html This may be veering off-topic, but reading the suggestions submitted by the reader in that post made me wonder some people (many, in fact) have to actively work so hard to hold off depression. Something is going wrong (organically, culturally, or both) that depression is the default state for so many. Cultural…
Comment linking /archives/2014/10/helps-depressed.html
on “Sometimes, it’s just time to go home”Submitted It can all go to zero as a story · 235 points
HN discussionIt shouldn't be the way. We met Brad Feld last year in Las Vegas (Up Summit) and he talked about his depression[1]. I suggest everyone to read the depression archives on Brad Feld blog [2]. Pretty insightful posts. I tend to be obsessive and I lost someone I really care about because of focus on money and too much work. At the end of the day, you have to focus on your priorities, your wife/family is one and should d…
Comment linking /archives/tag/depression
on “Sometimes, it’s just time to go home”Submitted Racism in Tech as a story · 185 points
HN discussionSee also: https://feld.com/archives/2019/10/the-miasma.html
Comment linking /archives/2019/10/the-miasma.html
on “Ask HN: How do we stop the polarization/toxicicity filling the web?”Submitted That Didn’t Need to Take an Hour as a story · 176 points
HN discussionCan you elaborate on the exact financial implications of a reverse split prior to IPO? This Brad Feld article [1] seems to say the aversion to this is simply emotional. [1] http://www.feld.com/archives/2005/06/when-are-350-million-sh...
Comment linking /archives/2005/06/when-are-350-million-shares-no-different-than-35-million.html
on “Twilio S-1”- px · 2010-09-02
Submitted Four Minutes in the Morning as a story · 172 points
HN discussion To be clear for those who aren't following the salient detail here - the preferred stock does not convert to common if the liquidation preference is exercised. The investor gets up to their money back (1x preference), and no more. If they choose to participate pro-rated they convert to common first, and participate equally with everyone, without the preference. The investor would chose to convert to common when the…
Comment linking /wp/archives/2005/01/term-sheet-liquidation-preference.html
on “A founder-friendly term sheet”Submitted Dear Google, I Have More Than 10,000 Contacts as a story · 155 points
HN discussionFirst off, sorry to hear this! It sounds like you're really having a tough time. Second, I think that this search for meaning is not unique to you, nor to modern people. We've been doing this for millennia. Religion, philosophy, stoicism, psychology, they all try to answer the question: how do I live a good life? I don't know you, but I'll give you the answer that I'd give a friend who came to me with this question.…
Comment linking /archives/2015/04/bringing-depression-shadows-startups/
on “Tell HN: Turned 44 today and I'm lost”Submitted The Three Machines as a story · 132 points
HN discussion40% rule for SaaS: https://www.feld.com/archives/2015/02/rule-40-healthy-saas-c...
Comment linking /archives/2015/02/rule-40-healthy-saas-company.html
on “Elastic files for an IPO”Submitted Stop the Slow Lane as a story · 111 points
HN discussionWorth looking at the 40% rule for SaaS: https://www.feld.com/archives/2015/02/rule-40-healthy-saas-c... The rule states that a "sane" target for annual growth rate + profit margin is 40%. At a 100% YoY growth rate and -33% profit margins, Elastic is sitting at 70% -- making it pretty solid!
Comment linking /archives/2015/02/rule-40-healthy-saas-company.html
on “Elastic files for an IPO”Submitted Getting President Obama To Play With Your Product as a story · 100 points
HN discussionour startup just got google fiber TODAY courtesy of brad feld! http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2013/04/the-feld-fiberhouse-...
Comment linking /wp/archives/2013/04/the-feld-fiberhouse-is-now-the-handprint-house.html
on “Google Fiber announced for Provo, Utah”Submitted Being full of value‑added shit as a story · 91 points
HN discussionIn a typical Scorpion manner ( http://www.feld.com/archives/2014/07/amazons-scorpion-proble... ), they are going in for the kill.
Comment linking /archives/2014/07/amazons-scorpion-problem.html
on “Amazon Local Register”Submitted Be On Fire as a story · 91 points
HN discussionHere's their funding history: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/satisfaction/funding... And here's a handy explanation of "participating preferred" which is one way early sharholders can end up with nothing: http://www.feld.com/archives/2004/08/to-participate-or-not-p...
Comment linking /archives/2004/08/to-participate-or-not-participating-preferences.html
on “Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing”Submitted After Your First Big Startup Success, What’s Next? (2014) as a story · 84 points
HN discussion
