Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. Lastly, he touched on the distrust of equity following the bubble in 2000, and that, particularly on the East Coast, people need to see good exits and good exits that reward employees.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Cofounder API 281

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. What a bubble means for each entrepreneur. Still, market amnesia by ordinarily rational actors always surprises me. I believe that.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Babak Nivi is one of the most understated, helpful & important people on the entrepreneur / startup scene in NorCal. What he (along with Naval) started with AngelList is also a very important transformation to the communications between first-time entrepreneurs & angels. But it +is+ an anti-entrepreneur stance.&#

Southern California 267

Southern California Angel Investor Early Stage Silicon Valley 267

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. These are not scientific, just anecdotal and just trying to provide some transparency for entrepreneurs on what I’ve seen the market. It was early 2000. That’s fine.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. On Being an Entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

And so it happened that between 2000-2008 I was the biggest buzz kill at dinner parties. Yet nearly any entrepreneur who has an idea that other people aren’t doing will tell you that it’s hard to get investors excited. Investors are conformists by nature. This requires novel thinking.

Florida 299

Florida Technical Review San Antonio Los Angeles 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. But any entrepreneurs raising capital should keep in mind that this opening of the markets could possibly be temporary.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

First, I would say that most entrepreneurs do almost no reference checks or at least do them very informally. For some reason most entrepreneurs do. I always tell entrepreneurs, “in good times of course everybody loves their VC. My chips were down in late 2000 / early 2001. Don’t let that be you. Except GRP.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Term Sheet Cofounder Partner 288

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Experienced and serial entrepreneurs in the content management space. I met a lot of really bright people that were passionate about and experienced in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses. Page 2: What’s unique about Koral. Folksonomy. Free product.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. In 1998 there were around 850 VC funds and by 2000 there were 2,300. By 2000 the total LP commitments had mushroomed to more than $100 billion. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! The Funding Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Mark pointed out that on the one hand 6 months ago one of Silicon Valley’s best known ibankers told him that SaaS public valuations were the most over-valued since the dot com bubble in 2000. While this is temporarily a good thing for entrepreneurs it will turn sour when we go through the next inevitable downturn.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2011

Look more modern than our previous website, which had a very 2000 feel to it. Become a resource for entrepreneurs to have access to the lawyers, accountants, real-estate professionals and other people with whom our entrepreneurs work. Demonstrate the deep relationships we have with the CEO’s with whom we work.

Early Stage 260

Early Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Partner 260

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. In 2000 our industry had more than $100 billion in LP money. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. Get to the entrepreneurs earlier next time.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs try to do things on the cheap. But there are also problems / risks: - the funding environment might change dramatically – there may never be a next round (see: March 2000, September 11, 2001 and September 2008). - But the lower end also has risks. Don’t let that be you.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Silicon Valley Warrant 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

industry investors rather than VCs) a good idea for entrepreneurs. His view: sometimes entrepreneurs expect too much value from the partner. Founded in 2000 in New Brunswick, NJ. Are “strategic investors&# (e.g. Paul discussed his perspective having been at SAP Ventures. Competitors: InformationBuilders , DataWatch.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

This conversation seems to come up very frequently these days both with portfolio companies and with entrepreneurs just looking for mentorship. I like to tell entrepreneurs that the “fairway&# of fund raising is 25-33% per round. The other thing I ask entrepreneurs to consider is what will happen to competition in a market.

Pre-Money Valuation 303

Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

But some companies have entrepreneurs that seem talented on paper, are in a space that seems interesting to investors and are able to raise venture capital early in the company’s existence. million which closed the first week of March 2000 – a week before the market crashed. True story.) million were enormous.

Founder 299

Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

I freely admit this (along with nearly everything between 1999-2000) was a mistake. But I thought I should do a quick post on the topic. Options are gravy - I lived through the first dot com era where we used stock options as a recruiting tool.

Stock Options 294

Stock Options Stock Valuation Liquidation Preference 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

I know you’re thinking that you have your head on straight but I promise you the experience of finding yourself in this maelstrom will leave any first time entrepreneur spinning. My Story: The public coming out for my first company, BuildOnline, was in early 2000. Fame and adoration corrupts first timers.

South Africa 310

South Africa Europe Disintermediation Poland 310

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

I’m often asked the question about why there aren’t more women who are entrepreneurs. My inspiration to become an entrepreneur came from my mom, not my dad. She was the dominant figure in my family and was both an entrepreneur and a community leader. On my blog I’ve been hesitant to take the topic head on.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Open Source Social Network 341

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Within a year, by late 2000 / early 2001 consulting firms were firing people en masse. I’m certain that if you look at every single one of the entrepreneurs who’ve gone on to build big, enduring businesses they were unfundable once too.&#. Bryce is a bit like the entrepreneurs I search for. I love that.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000. Our final closure was the first week of March 2000. So, where does this all come from and how can you apply it in practice?

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley San Diego Non-Compete 308

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

I recently read a blog post by Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures about why entrepreneurs should care about from whom their VC funds raise their capital. There are a lot of things I think entrepreneurs should care about when raising from a VC: How big or small their fund is? I could go on for a long time.

LP 150

LP Entrepreneur United States Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I never suggest that entrepreneurs just randomly pitch VCs. You’ll never make a great entrepreneur. So your journey to fund raising begins by strengthening your relationships with other entrepreneurs.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. We exchanged ideas when I was an entrepreneur along side him in NorCal in 05-07 and my point-of-view on founder / VC relationships hasn’t shifted even 1% since I went to the dark side. I believe this is wrong.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. Increasingly local entrepreneurs are finding they don’t have to “take the trip up North” quite as often because on a weekly basis venture firms are down in LA — it’s only an hour’s flight. We take this responsibility seriously.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Las Vegas Venture Capital San Francisco 287

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

It was obviously a scheme set up by young entrepreneurs to line their pockets and some big-company executives who didn’t understand innovation. In April of 2000 there were fears that the AOL / Time Warner merger would create a monopoly on the Internet. This was Politburo-style innovation and was laughable. Enter Facebook.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Internet Technical Review 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Why ADD Might Actually Benefit Startup Entrepreneurs. I also became more aware of the impact of food on my body overall after being diagnosed with acid reflux in 2000. After seeing a doctor I found out what acid reflux even was and it turns out it’s very common in entrepreneurs. The doctor told me.

Mobile 150

Mobile Partner Entrepreneur Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If you have or are thinking about a business in the video space you’ll enjoy hearing from Gregg but even more broadly this is a great conversation for entrepreneurs, investors or industry analysts. They never did any PR or marketing to get their videos to first get shown on the news during the 2000 election.

Viral 303

Viral Investment Bankers Video Business Model 303

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

I’d like to explain as best I can my opinion on what is going on because most of what I hear from entrepreneurs is not only wrong but is reminiscent of what I heard in 1997-2000. ” “This will be great for VCs and bad for entrepreneurs.” What is the True Sentiment of VCs? All of these are false.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Trust Between 1998–2000 the world became enamored with the “new economy” and Internet companies that were going public on NASDAQ in the United States. But putting large sums of money in the hands of first time or even experienced entrepreneurs with absolutely no oversight is a recipe for disaster. Regulation will come.

Government 280

Government Distribution Stock United States 280