press room

In my recent survey about Boston's go-to VCs, two investors popped to the top of the list: David Skok of Matrix Partners for enterprise software and services, and Bijan Sabet for consumer-oriented websites and mobile apps. (Last week, I published my conversation with Sabet.)
Skok is a serial software entrepreneur who joined Matrix in 2001. He's an investor in local startups like HubSpot, GrabCAD, SageCloud, and CloudBees, and he also writes the blog For Entrepreneurs.

I sat down with hm last Friday in Matrix's Kendall Square offices — which will soon be the firm's only offices, Skok divulged — to talk about the opportunities that Skok sees in today's tech landscape. I also asked a couple questions about how the Boston venture capital scene is changing, and the current craze for sprinkling around seed capital (generally regarded as investments under $1 million).

I spent the bulk of the interview asking Skok questions that had been submitted via Twitter. Among them:

@raj: Who's in the Matrix anti-portfolio?

@missusP: Does he see more or less opportunities for women in tech; in what ways? How many women-led companies has he funded?

@stevedupe: Ask him why east coast vc's can't remake themselves the way west coast vc's have. Andreesen is the new model.

@TheViaNetwork: Do you think Boston VCs will increase their portfolios with emerging international startups?

@Olivia_Dufour: How can the government help startups...?

@Dintersmith: How do you find time to be such a productive, helpful venture capitalist, and still win your club golf championship?

I wrapped up the interview by asking Skok about the best and worst ways an entrepreneur can approach him to discuss a potential investment. He also offered a quick demo of a mobile app from one of his portfolio companies, VideoIQ.

Watch the video here: