Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). The market size for online advertising, e-commerce, and web premium services are 1/10th to 1/3rd the size they are today. Filed under Uncategorized.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

plus it's faster and costs half as much ), it ranks first in the world for number of blogs per Internet user, and has a formidable market of Internet consumers who spent €5.5 OSEO validation in turn makes early-stage startups eligible for a variety of support services and funding options.

France 163

France Technical Review Incubator Early Stage 163

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 3, 2018

I remember when I made that first flight out to San Francisco from Boston to meet the team in 2004, the company was down to its last $20K in the bank. I remember when we had a candidate join the marketing team and even on the second day, it was clear the fit wasn’t right on either side.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

The best VCs are the ones that balance their optimism, vision and enthusiasm for startups with realism based on very real constraints (the primary one being his/her own time, but also includes market development and exit timing). Too many pivots, and you can lose the market opportunity, even with the greatest idea.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Will Quist did a great job of explaining this market rhetoric in this thread. The three-question framework goes as such: Q: How much tech-related market cap will be created in the next 10-20 years? So, on one hand, the market see ms like a total frenzy these days. However, I am not sure that is the case with VC.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. In December, AngelList , a service that matches early-stage startups with investors, debuted the ability to allow accredited investors to actually invest in startups on the platform with as little as $1,000.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

YoungUpstarts

MAY 31, 2011

He recently founded The Startup Centre , an India-based accelerator for early stage start-ups, and also a hub for initiatives related to tech, design and entrepreneurship. I came back to India , in 2004. It’s a dramatic shift from how things were in 2004. Catch what he has to say below.

India 208

India Silicon Valley Early Stage Asia 208

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

While institutional LPs know big changes are happening, most focus too much on 1) increasing/decreasing fund size or 2) marketing + branding as the major trends. These two divergent groups have optimized for very different market conditions and behaviors. This is a long piece, so if you’re not a fan of inside baseball, skip it.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 3, 2020

Vancouver executive Christopher Kape is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who founded JAMCO Capital Partners , an early-stage investment and strategic advisory firm that focuses on a number of industries, including gaming, high-tech, food and wellness. The future is also exciting for JAMCO.

Partner 147

Partner Uganda Angel Investor Bulgaria 147

Eric Friedman

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

I have been working with a number of early stage teams going through various stages of fundraising and using this diagram to help explain my thoughts on some of the questions they will come up against. Well, for starters I don’t believe there was the ubiquity of broadband that existed in 2004-2005. The Right Time.

Technology 60

Technology Flash Early Stage Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

For entrepreneurs who want to learn about how to work with investment banks, how to position yourself to be acquired and what the IPO markets look like this is the episode to watch. You have to be selected to present and it is typically reserved for companies that have already raised early-stage capital and are well into revenue growth.

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

What I’ve honorably been able to do, however, is share the deck I used to pitch LinkedIn to Greylock for a Series B investment back in 2004. the consumer internet landscape in 2004 vs. today. In 2004, the consumer internet was just beginning to rebound. In 2004, investors regained interest in the consumer internet again.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Growthink Blog

FEBRUARY 6, 2012

Most famous among them is Peter Thiel, who we know in 2004 invested $500,000 into Facebook at a valuation of approximately $4.9 Well, Professor Shane estimates that the return expectation differential between an investment in an early stage, privately-held high tech company and one in a low tech company to be as much as 20x!

Angel Investor 76

Angel Investor IPO Private Equity Early Stage 76

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

But the early customers all compared it to MySpace. This was 2004, and we had never even heard of MySpace, let alone had any understanding of social networking. The people who are the lifeblood of an early-stage startup are earlyvangelists. They just dont need another authority figure in their life.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 27, 2011

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING Home About Consulting Products Programs Workshops Blog Resources Contact Subscribe by RSS Subscribe to Duct Tape Marketing by Email Small Business Week 2011 Our winners! The Referral Engine – Teaching Your Business to Market Itself – by John Jantsch.

Social Media 57

Social Media Stock Media RSS 57

thebarefootvc

JULY 3, 2016

New funds have popped up in increasing numbers over the last few years – but I saw gaps in the market that needed to be filled. There is still a lot of work ahead, but the market has been overwhelmingly responsive to the original thesis. And…I wanted to have fun and work with great people while doing so.

North America 40

North America Early Stage New York City Portfolio 40

thebarefootvc

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

New funds have popped up in increasing numbers over the last few years – but I saw gaps in the market that needed to be filled. There is still a lot of work ahead, but the market has been overwhelmingly responsive to the original thesis. And…I wanted to have fun and work with great people while doing so.

North America 40

North America Early Stage New York City Portfolio 40

Up and Running

APRIL 10, 2017

By the end of our initial two weeks in Santiago, we felt comfortable visiting the city’s parks, shopping at the market, and going out for a drink at night. When you’re building a startup or working at an early stage one, things are constantly shifting in unpredictable ways. So we were totally prepared, right?

Chile 110

Chile Argentina Startup Chicago 110

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2024

Since I’ve started writing about Israeli startups in 2004, there has never been any event like October 7 and the war that followed. This could accelerate a new rally in the domestic market, so we are also becoming more aggressive here. Israeli startups deliver #NoMatterWhat I’ve started VC Cafe in December of 2004.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital 78

BeyondVC

MARCH 22, 2004

The more you hear the panel talk about technology and the job of the CIO as being a risk manager, you can clearly see why it is so hard for an early stage company to land a big customer. The post PC Forum 2004-Monday morning appeared first on BeyondVC. Who wants to take the risk of buying a new technology from a new vendor?

Architecture 60

Architecture Early Stage Open Source Security 60

Eric Friedman

JULY 12, 2016

Eric graduated from George Washington University in 2004 with a degree in Marketing. Mike is an Associate at KEC Ventures , an early stage venture firm here in NYC. Previously, Eric was the Global Senior Director of Sales and Revenue Operations for Foursquare. ERIC : Eric, please meet Mike Falb ( AngelList: https://angel.co/mikefalb

Email 60

Email Washington Incubator Early Stage 60

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 5, 2004

You must be extremely careful to make sure that the features and fuctionality that you build are “market-driven” meaning a number of customers or prospects support them versus one-off deliverables. And yes, product management is an incredibly important role to fill early on in a company’s life.

Customer 60

Customer Software Review Technical Review Bootstrapping 60

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Examples including indirect marketing, such as word of mouth and referrals.) The main value of these formulas is to give marketers an idea of where to invest their budget and how much to spend to acquire a customer. Having the upper hand on prioritizing and engaging high-spenders with hyper-focus makes marketing much easier.

Metrics 121

Metrics Acquisition Conversion Revenue 121

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 15, 2013

What I’ve honorably been able to do, however, is share the deck I used to pitch LinkedIn to Greylock for a Series B investment back in 2004. the consumer internet landscape in 2004 vs. today. Do they understand your market? MYTH : If your team is strong, show the team slide early in your pitch. Both are folly.

Finance 78

Finance Cofounder Early Stage Networking 78

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

It’s taken more than a decade since the tech bubble’s inflation and bursting but to me all of this is part of a long-term normalization of the tech IPO market. What are the implications for other late-stage private companies thinking of making the transition to public markets in the near to midterm future?

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 29, 2013

The discussion focused on companies that have hit product-market fit and are growing fast—a topic for advanced entrepreneurs. But the information was critical for any early-stage company that hopes to reach that critical point and wants to be prepared when it comes.

Lean 167

Lean Hiring Metrics Conversion 167

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 26, 2011

2004 gave us widespread blogging and Meetups, and 2008 showed how the web could be a community organizing and fundraising tool. I hope they can get there, because it would be a major boon to the rest of the market for them to justify their lofty valuations and hopefully the valuations of exits and IPOs. Reader beware.).

Technology 128

Technology Valuation Community Restful 128

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game. It literally drove FOMO.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

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 could do more in 2010 with more VC investment; the doubling assumes only ratable increase in marketing spend to achieve profitability. I believe this is wrong. Let me start with a couple of stories. Two answers from me.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

I liked the flattering Venture Hacks commentary so much Ill just quote it: Many founders believe that early stage startups are endeavors of execution. He believes that many early stage startups are labors of learning. What happened when we got early press (circa 2004) in violation of our own no-PR rule.

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2018

I enjoy learning about new technologies and ideas – and you get to see a lot of them in this business especially in early stage investing. Marketing – if you have t-shirts / watches / swag, parties – all of this fits under this budget. 1) It is absolutely the best job in the world for me.

Salary 48

Salary Capital Call Bootstrapping Cofounder 48

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2018

I enjoy learning about new technologies and ideas – and you get to see a lot of them in this business especially in early stage investing. Marketing – if you have t-shirts / watches / swag, parties – all of this fits under this budget. 1) It is absolutely the best job in the world for me.

Salary 48

Salary Capital Call Bootstrapping Cofounder 48

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

This is nothing new; long favored by family-controlled media empires such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation , among Internet firms alone, Google took a dual-class approach when going public in 2004.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159

BeyondVC

JANUARY 20, 2004

I was quite frustrated recently when one of my portfolio companies presented the board with a 2004 revenue forecast which was not based on reality. Average Selling Price (ASP)-in today’s market, you may see a small pilot deal followed 3 months later with a much larger sale (model this appropriately). Is the market ready for this?

Forecast 60

Forecast Sales Sales Cycle Early Stage 60

David Teten

MARCH 12, 2012

According to a 2003-2004 U.S. As investors in early-stage technology companies , we are particularly interested in some of the new technologies that have emerged that promote fitness, and we’ll promote their use. survey, Americans spend over half of their time awake sitting. And even the wall is optional. Technology.

Product 166

Product Portfolio Venture Capital Vesting 166

NZ Entrepreneur

JULY 8, 2019

In the first of a three part series on early stage business investment, we asked serial entrepreneur and investor Josh Comrie what three key things New Zealand entrepreneurs must get better at when it comes to seeking angel investment. I made my first investment in the stock market when I was 12 years old.

New Zealand 43

New Zealand Entrepreneur Valuation Dilution 43