November 2005 Venture funding works like gears. typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. The advantage of raising money from friends and family is thattheyre easy to find. This stops with VC-scale money. MORE >>

March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard ComputerSociety.) You need three things to create a successful startup: to start withgood people, to make something customers actually want, and to spendas little money as possible. The way a startup makes money is to offer people bettertechnology than they have now. MORE >>

Valuation is an important aspect of VC deal terms, and a major determinant of your ultimate outcome.  I unexpectedly found that it was more helpful to think about the company valuation as an output variable in the fund-raising equation.  The net effect was more money raised, higher valuation and the same percentage of equity sold.  MORE >>

Josh and Howard began co-investing as angels and in 2005 they started a $10 million fund. They did not take salaries during the first two years and invested more money in the firm than they received from management fees.  First Round Capital’s pre-money range is usually between $3-5 million.  and Half.com.  MORE >>