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Shawn Carolan
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Back to Basics: Fundamentals for Building Breakout Consumer Companies

Economic downturns force us to get back to basics: The cost of new capital and low valuation multiples—even for top-performing public companies—force startups to make substantial progress per dollar to get a term sheet, much less an up round.

January 18, 2023Shawn Carolan and Katie Keller
Catching Lightning in a Bottle

How to align product with what customers want, differentiate from competitors, and win your market

October 13, 2021Shawn Carolan
The Secret to Cracking the Minimum Viable Product

Startups fail when they don’t build a simple solution to a problem many people have. Many startups fall into the trap of building toward a “mission” rather than a minimum viable product (MVP).

March 25, 2021Shawn Carolan
The Power of a Photographic Memory: Our Investment in Construction Tech Leader OpenSpace

Today, we are excited to announce our investment in OpenSpace, the leading provider of automated 360° photo documentation and analysis for construction sites.

July 27, 2020Shawn Carolan
Cheers to Chime: Finally, a Bank Consumers Can Love!

Today, we’d like to congratulate Chime on their $200 million fundraising round led by DST, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Forerunner, and more.

March 5, 2019Shawn Carolan and Steve Sloane
Nobody Cares About Your Big Idea

As an early-stage consumer VC with a laser focus for efficiency, few things make me wince more than meeting brilliant entrepreneurs devoted to building products few people will want.

February 15, 2019Shawn Carolan
Welcome Our New Head of Marketing, Tiffany Spencer!

Tiffany will oversee the marketing efforts of the firm and, as part of the Fuel team, she will work closely with Menlo-backed companies to help them achieve their marketing goals.

October 11, 2018Shawn Carolan
Welcoming Naomi Pilosof Ionita as Our New Investment Partner

Naomi comes to Menlo with deep operating experience from Evernote and Invoice2go, where she was most recently VP of growth.

February 7, 2018Shawn Carolan
How Roku Thought Outside the Box

Millions of people know Roku as the little black box that streams Netflix to their TVs, but there’s far more to the story than this. Following the company’s September IPO*...

November 17, 2017Shawn Carolan
The One Thing Your Company Needs to Get Me to Invest

This week, Shawn Carolan explains the single element that unites all great consumer technology companies.

November 28, 2016Shawn Carolan
Better Ingredients, Better Companies

As better ingredient technologies arrive on the scene, they open the door for new, iconic companies that meet our needs in fundamentally better ways.

September 28, 2016Shawn Carolan
Back to the Not-So-Dark Side

Today I’m thrilled to announce my return to Menlo Ventures as a Managing Director to lead our consumer technology practice following my time as Founder and CEO of Handle.

September 8, 2016Shawn Carolan
Successful Investing Is About Great Entrepreneurs

Each year, Forbes publishes its highly anticipated Midas List, an honor bestowed on the year’s top 100 investors in private technology companies.

March 25, 2015
Why We Need Don Draper Mentality

“You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells.” —Donald F. Draper, Creative Director, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (Mad Men)

September 29, 2013Shawn Carolan
Menlo Ventures Welcomes Venky Ganesan as New Managing Director

Today, we are pleased to announce that Venky Ganesan will be joining the Menlo team as a new Managing Director.

February 20, 2013Shawn Carolan
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