Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2015

When we started Foundry in 2006 we were very clear that we were not going to build a legacy firm. We were clear at that point that we wanted to continue to make early stage investments through a new Foundry Group fund, which we subsequently raised in the middle of 2015 and started investing at the end of the year.

Later Stage 70

Later Stage Early Stage Advisory Board Deal Flow 70

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

They built industrial-scale funds dedicated to backing early-stage startups with $500k rather than $5 million. These funds were active back in 2006 when I was raising money for my second company. They knew the venture math that if only 50 companies / year are sold North of $100 million the entry price for their investments mattered.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software PHP Open Source 334

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. But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

In 2006, Steven Dietz, a partner at my firm, GRP Partners, had given me $500,000 in a seed in convertible debt when I started my second company, Koral. Some people assert that the later stage investors didn’t make a high enough return. Some people assert that the later stage investors didn’t make a high enough return.

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur Warrant Silicon Valley Early Stage 321

VC Adventure

DECEMBER 9, 2015

When we started Foundry in 2006 we were very clear that we were not going to build a legacy firm. We were clear at that point that we wanted to continue to make early stage investments through a new Foundry Group fund, which we subsequently raised in the middle of 2015 and started investing at the end of the year.

Later Stage 48

Later Stage Early Stage Advisory Board Deal Flow 48

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

For reference, First Round Capital and Softech were founded in 2004 (although they were less institutional early on), Floodgate in 2006, Harrison Metal in 2008, etc. So, between 2008 and 2013, the early-stage landscape looked more like the middle segment of the chart. The entire funding progression of startups pushed out to the right.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

As the check size increases, investors tend to look for more traction, established revenue models, proven unit-economics, and other metrics that were previously associated with later stage companies. Several of these micro-VCs have almost slipped into this form of thinking, often without even realizing it.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

You could argue that choosing the name “first round” paints them into a corner in case they want to ever do a late stage fund, but I suspect they named it FRC precisely because they wanted to excel at early-stage investing. IA Ventures – Roger Ehrenberg was doing angel investing before he became a VC.

Community 304

Community Los Angeles Startup Silicon Valley 304

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. Seth Sternberg, MBA Class of 2006, blogging about how to do a startup, on TechCrunch. Then, forget everything else, VCs included, and just build.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84