We've backed a lot of serial entrepreneurs over the years. It is one of our favorite things to do. About half of our current portfolio is led by serial entrepreneurs who are working on their second, third, or fourth startup.
One hard choice an entrepreneur faces is whether to put the band back together.
On one hand, you want to bring some new blood and new thinking into the mix.
On the other hand, there is great value in reassembling a team that has worked together successfully before.
Dave Morgan, founder of Real Media, TACODA, and now Simulmedia, tells me that each time he has started a new company, he has intended to go with an entirely new team and each time he has found himself bringing back the bandmates within a year of getting started.
I saw Mark Pincus do that with Scott and Cadir, his co-founders of SupportSoft, about a year or two into the development of Zynga.
And I recently saw Mike Yavonditte bring together the product team he worked with at Quiqo into his new startup Tracked.com.
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. Assembling the team is such a critical part of startup success. But I do think it is worth noting that we have seen a tendency of entrepreneurs to go back to the well and put the band back together more often than not. And even when they don't do that initially, it seems that over time, it is impossible to resist that urge.
