article thumbnail

LinkedIn: The Series A Fundraising Story ? AGILEVC

Agile VC

A lot of people ask me what it was like raising the Series A round for LinkedIn back in 2003. I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. Ok, now you have the context for early 2003. He provided our initial seed funding to launch the website publicly on May 5, 2003.

article thumbnail

Why Startups Should Raise Money at the Top End of Normal

Both Sides of the Table

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As the risks below get eliminated the higher the valuation investors are prepared to pay. So rounds tend to be “range bound&# where the top end of the valuation spectrum often being done in boom markets (i.e.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. Your A round?

article thumbnail

Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

Steve Blank

Underwriters realized that as long as the public was happy snapping up shares, they could make huge profits on the inflated valuations (regardless of whether or not the company should have ever been public.) For the next four or five years, technology M&A boomed, growing from 50 in 2003 to 450 in 2006. Warning sign? At best. ~

article thumbnail

Keep It Under Your Hat: Valuation Caps and the $650 Million Sale of MySpace for $125 Million

Gust

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. Valuation caps can come into play in settings other than seed-stage convertible note financing rounds. Read on for a fuller explanation. by February 2006).

article thumbnail

Why You Need to Ring the Freaking Cash Register

Both Sides of the Table

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.”

Burn Rate 412
article thumbnail

Bad Notes on VC

Gust

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. Your A round?