Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

In fact, if you add the capital flows of the past ten years, there have been just shy of $50 billion in net cash outlays. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class. I have also heard LPs express concern over the last few years about the seed stage of venture. But there’s no doubt, some will make money.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). in net revenue and passes $0.58 2010 Net Income: -$389M (net loss) (2). Keep in mind Groupon’s net revenue is a percent of a percent. Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. 2010 Gross Profit: $280M.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

.” Making early-stage investment capital accessible to a broader range of founders is the impetus behind my own investments in companies like Concrete Rose Capital , 645 Ventures , and Village Global , among others. But inequitable access to seed-stage capital is a pervasive structural issue.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review America Government Silicon Valley 28

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. He covers broad topics such as net neutrality, but also dives into the specifics of starting a company, touching on things like hiring and employee retention. Follow Paul on Twitter @paulg.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

For the more advanced enterprises who have migrated to the cloud, this will be a year of net new technology and building applications. On the seed side, we are seeing more firms focus on smaller and more concentrated portfolios instead of a spray and pray mentality.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I like to break-out startup growth into four stages, not too dissimilar to four years of high school education: freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Sophomores are beta site to full production site with initial users (seed stage angels—raise $500K to $1MM). The valuation techniques.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . At NextView, we’ve experienced this changing environment first hand.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

This shrinks the gross/net return spread and is good long-term for LPs (assuming in this analysis that the 10% overage invested returns the same or better than the fund as a whole). management fee). But this doesn’t help a fund’s IRR. Some of those companies will be successful.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

2010 Net Income: $8 million. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Gross Margin: 94% –> i.e. for every $1 of revenue Kayak only spends $0.06 paying for travel data from ITA or others (customers acquisition spend is not included in COGS). 2010 Operating Income: $16 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

We at NextView Ventures invest exclusively in a startup’s seed-stage round , meaning that many if not most of our deals are made alongside individual angel investors. These angels, however, come in many different shapes and sizes. The “Sport Fisherman” Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 3, 2018

– Sarah Blakeley, inventor of Spanx underwear, whose net worth is now valued at more than $1 billion. Every company needs a starting point,” says Eric Paley, managing partner of seed-stage venture capital fund Founder Collective. “I Of course, you might say to yourself: “Wait a minute.

Seed Stage 178

Seed Stage Venture Capital Finance .Net 178

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Early Progress: Performance is a difficult thing to measure as a seed stage fund given the time horizons and the fickleness of private company valuations. Net net, I think things have gotten much better for entrepreneurs, which is a good thing for us overall. Y-Combinator was probably half the size.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Portfolio 50

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

We’ve observed it repeatedly in our portfolio as Founder/CEOs seek additional rounds of financing: the engaged skeptics just never quite get there, but the entrepreneurs who cast the nets wide enough find someone who believes.

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143

Hippoland

MARCH 13, 2016

For nearly all seed stage companies, the answer is no. At the seed stage, you don’t have enough information about the levers of your business to know how to do this. At the seed stage, you don’t have enough information about the levers of your business to know how to do this.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage .Net Revenue Acquisition 48

Hunter Walker

MARCH 8, 2014

Your Options Very Likely Worth Something : Options are lottery tickets and most aren’t worth much when you net out the lower cash compensation compared to what a Google would pay you for the same role. Now you might think it’s strange that a VC who runs a seed stage fund is telling new grads to join larger startups.

Liquidity Event 134

Liquidity Event Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 134

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Just as often, however, we’re investing alongside individual angel investors who are participating in the round as well. The “Sport Fisherman” Angel.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 257

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

As the seed stage that atomized and series A rounds have become larger and more traction based, the paths to series A have changed. 500K in angel or pre-seed funding -> Raise a $2–3M institutional seed -> Raise an A. This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

They are generally high net worth (accredited) individuals who have done well in their career, either as entrepreneurs or as executives and early employees at some of the companies that have done well (in the Valley that usually means Paypal, Google, Facebook etc). Most angels will usually invest under $50K per investment. Preferred Stock.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Early Stage 125

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

The gist of the story is that there has been a significant increase in seed stage investments activity over the last 2 years, and many companies are now coming back into to the market for their next round of financing. Active seed investors have also known that this was going to be coming.

Seed Stage 49

Seed Stage .Net Portfolio Valuation 49

Hippoland

DECEMBER 18, 2016

If you are generating a fair bit of revenue ($1m net runrate), then you might be paid a low 6-figure salary. Raised $1.5M+ : Lastly, if you’ve raised a large seed round, you’re probably a post-seed company indicating that you have significant revenues ($1m net runrate) coming in the door.

Las Vegas 48

Las Vegas Salary Burn Rate San Francisco 48

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Just as often, however, we’re investing alongside individual angel investors who are participating in the round as well. The “Sport Fisherman” Angel.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 128

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

so that's what I said my exits would be as a seed stage fund. Do seed investors have Limited Partners with different return expectations than Series A and beyond investors? I'd say no--they're taking money from the same endowments, high net worths and pension funds as everyone else. But what does the model say?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

Hippoland

JANUARY 4, 2017

Here’s a quick primer on how investments tend to work in startup companies at the seed stage. Later, if you sell the whole company to Google at say $5 per share, I will earn $500k for a net gain of $400k. But, all in all, this is probably my favorite format of raising money at the seed stage.

Convertible Security 48

Convertible Security Equity Security Silicon Valley 48

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

And yes, this post may seem self-serving, since I work at a seed-stage investment fund. It’s a question I seem to be getting more and more often—why bother raising 500k if you can just grab a million or a million and a half? Feel free to take this free content with a grain of salt.

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

Rob Go

MAY 5, 2014

Seed stage investing has developed significantly over the past 7 years that I’ve been in VC. It’d pretty standard for entrepreneurs to contemplate raising an “institutional seed round” prior to approaching VC’s for series A rounds. Many have said that the institutional seed is the new series A.

Seed Stage 69

Seed Stage Leadership Portfolio Boston 69

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?). Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit. Funding: Startups typically raise anywhere from $100K to $750,000 in pre-seed. This pre-seed stage typically takes 6-12 months.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

Not only does the fund need to be net profitable, but it also needs to outperform other assets that our would-be backers could be investing in – such as other VC funds, real estate opportunities, the public stock market, etc. At the seed stage, it seemed like a weird niche idea to sleep on someone else’s air mattress.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

But on balance, I think you’d rather be a seed stage company building from the beginning in a softer market than in a really hot market. For mid-stage companies, a weak market means that you are entering into a game of survival. In either case, investors will be distracted or more conservative than they otherwise would be.

Marketing 28

Marketing Dilution Burn Rate Seed Stage 28

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

Not only does the fund need to be net profitable, but it also needs to outperform other assets that our would-be backers could be investing in – such as other VC funds, real estate opportunities, the public stock market, etc. At the seed stage, it seemed like a weird niche idea to sleep on someone else’s air mattress.

Sales Cycle 48

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

The Next Web

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There aren’t a tonne of funds focused on seed-stage funding worldwide, but we can add a new one to the list today. SparkLabs , the company behind the accelerator program in Korea , is expanding its scope with its first seed-stage fund that will “help great startups go global.”. Asia Entrepreneur Insider News sparklabs'

Seed Stage 139

Seed Stage Asia Silicon Valley 139

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

2011 Net Income: $1.00 I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. The next chunk comes from Facebook’s platform, in essence “taxing” the revenues of app developers like Zynga, which represents 15% of revenue. Financial Snapshot : 2011 Revenue: $3.71 Read More ».

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

“The median net return to VC fund investors has not been positive for any vintage year since 1998″ – [link]. Seed Stage Valuation Guide – [link]. Avoid Decision by Indecision – [link]. Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice – [link].

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 8, 2012

But that follow-on money has come primarily from local angels and high-net-worth individuals in our network. A group of high-net-worth individuals in the St. Louis area recently banded together to create a seed stage fund called Cultivation Capital. What I need to solve is the A round of institutional venture funding.”.

Silicon Valley 143

Silicon Valley St. Louis Venture Capital Houston 143

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Especially at the seed stage, because there are lower barriers to entry for a new firm with a seed stage strategy (because of capital requirements to raise mid-/late- stage specialized fund), a plethora of new firms will continue to be founded.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Seed Stage Entrepreneur LP 150

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

So seed investors usually care lessabout the idea than the people. This is true of all venture funding,but especially so in the seed stage. Like VCs, one of the advantages of seed firms is the advice theyoffer. But because seed firms operate in an earlier phase, theyneed to offer different kinds of advice.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Simply put, we believe four years is better than three for achieving time diversity at the seed stage. And to get to a target return of 4-5x net, it means we need to return 5 * $90 million (ie $450m) to our investors. We’ve generally got a recycling target of ~110% and minimally want to get to 100% invested.

Product 82

Product IRR LP Seed Stage 82

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

The 2013 Joah didn’t realize he was about to run into the buzzsaw that was being black while fundraising in 2014 and 2015, two of the best years for a seed-stage startup to raise funds in Silicon Valley. I think I inherited it from a society that worships wealth…Since I can remember, I equated ‘successful’ solely with net worth.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco 48