StartupLJackson was born August 2011 as a result of misfortune from learning about angel investors and venture capitalists. Interestingly enough, this is the same month as my birthday, right when I hit my misfortune with my startup, mytweetmark. My cousin shot his dad on my birthday that year, August 17th, 2011 to be precise. There is some connection between StartupLJackson and mytweetmark, but for that to understand, we would need to go back in time …

StartupLJackson was Dave McClure in his past life. Dave McClure was running social networks before all the angel investors and venture capitalists showed up on twitter. Before Twitter, Dave was instrumental in FB Rev Fund, really weird name for a fund, but it was instrumental in the adoption of Facebook games, which was instrumental in huge adoption of Facebook worldwide. Look at both twitter and Facebook now, kicking ass in the public market. On the world’s center stage, while Dave is still running around, helping these companies behind the scene. It’s work that you don’t get credit for, but that’s where the pleasure is. He continues to run around, and do more. Never tired, rather trying to build more startups on the footprints of the great soldiers of social networks.

There is a method to the madness. It’s just that the players have disappeared. Many for their own reasons, perhaps their own limitations. The families come in the picture as well. Most people are family bound, hence don’t have time for thinking outside the box. It’s hard to build leaders. Dave has a great background with coding in his previous lifetime in Paypal, hence he understand the tech geeks and technical founders really well. This is a huge plus in the venture capital industry. The industry looks at the tech guys for all the answers, especially the smart ones. Therefore, Dave continues to expand his wings outside United States. The work ethic speaks for itself. There is none that I have seen as a business entrepreneur out there better than Dave. The reason for that is that he understand data. If you understand data, you can read analytics charts. From the charts, it’s easy to predict ups and down for startups. The problem is when you are surrounded by people that are not listening, or get tired of hearing the same voice, are not affected. So hence, there hasn’t been any unicorns for the past few years. There is a tough balance, whether to build the startups, or go outside and look for funding for them? The money is tight. The startups are not getting sold. China perhaps has influence on the deals. Dave will be fine, but the rest of the venture capitalists look affected. Superstar VCs from 2010 are showing pictures of their food and kids on their social media profiles, to look more legitimate, a hope to get funded. There is turmoil, but nobody is facing it.

Hence StartupLJackson is born to raise awareness in our existing venture capital and entrepreneurship system. Running around, chasing investors and entrepreneurs, encouraging them to become business and technical leaders. He is enlightened, which gives him a extra sensory perception to look through all the bullshit. It’s tough when you are running around, looking like money. This is where he has to deal with his own shadow constantly. His appearance brings the devil out in others, that he has to deal with. But overall, the venture capital industry is very sweet. They act tough, but inside, they are beautiful souls. The guru souls, hidden inside a venture capitalist body.