View from Seed

JANUARY 31, 2024

Consequently, nearly every founder is attempting to weave an AI narrative into their ventures, regardless of its necessity or fit, which will likely lead to an unhealthy market environment and potentially drown out genuine opportunities. A less encouraging similarity is the deluge of capital and the suspension of disbelief in the AI space.

Web 168

Web Generative AI Houston Distribution 168

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

Ask a founder of a growing startup what they need most, and you’ll often get an answer along the lines of, “We need great people, and we need them fast.”. Founders need to make sure the quality of the startup’s offerings remains high and provide adequate sales and service support for prospective customers and new users.

Metrics 120

Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

One of the tactical moves that I observed USV employ during the mid 2000’s was targeting a relatively lower percentage than their peers. I think that funds that were less dogmatic about ownership and focused on the priorities above tended to do better. Being able to have high ownership at exit.

Dilution 136

Dilution Early Stage Business Model Founder 136

View from Seed

JANUARY 20, 2015

A population of founders, employees, investors, advisors, and others all aligned in trying to build large disruptive businesses is naturally prone to lofty, even over-the-top language. And when and how should founders communicate challenges with their employees, investors, or other stakeholders? How can we put things into context?

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Employee PR 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2017

I was an early employee at PayPal and back in the 2000-2001 timeframe, and we ended up taking a fairly significant amount of strategic investment (tens of millions of $) from various banks in the US, Europe, and Asia. We recently led a large seed round for an autonomous vehicle company called Optimus Ride.

Strategic Investors 120

Strategic Investors Post-Money Valuation Seed Stage Cofounder 120

View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

My first startup job was as an early employee at PayPal, where I took a job at the end of ‘1999 and started a few months later in 2000. Additionally, a lot of people today work in startups or want to work in startups or want to be founders, which overall is a great thing.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage Boston 120