View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Building off Rob’s original post, let’s continue to look at the 2007 vintage. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). What Does the VC Performance Data Tell Us? during this time.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

by Michael Woolf that is worth any startup founder reading to get a sense of perspective on the reality warp that is startup world during a frothy market such as 1997-1999, 2005-2007 or 2012-2014. Plus, most early-stage M&A fails so this isn’t likely a good use of capital for a young company).

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Altgate

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

The presentation was on outsourcing generally, not just software engineering and the audience was very early stage companies (some yet to be founded). Now, for very early stage companies, you may be thinking, “I don’t have any cash, so outsourcing isn’t an option.&# To that I say baloney.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Building off Rob’s original post, let’s continue to look at the 2007 vintage. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). What Does the VC Performance Data Tell Us? during this time.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

While 2011 is only eight years ago, it’s a lifetime in the world of finance, private equity, venture capital, and business. It was indeed private equity’s moment. That year private equity firms initiated one of every five mergers globally and even more, 29 percent, in the United States.

Private Equity 82

Private Equity Cofounder Equity Venture Capital 82

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

What everyone can agree on, though, is that there are definitely more seed and early stage funds now than ever before, and more people willing to give money to young companies looking to make it big. There has been a big debate over the last few years over whether the Series A crunch is real or not. That’s what K9 does.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Early Stage Portfolio Software Engineering 48

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

With that in mind, let’s look at an illustration of these trends below, which demonstrates what’s been happening to early-stage financing rounds over the last 15 years or so. Series A investors invested quite early, often before product/market fit. Also, the stage of the company tends to be very early.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Altgate

DECEMBER 17, 2009

it's up to the Board or CEO) One or more financial metrics Balanced scorecard For very early stage startups (e.g. " Well, there are basically three ways you can link pay to performance (in startups): Discretionary (i.e.  It is just too hard to see out 12+ months with any certainty to be able to pick meaningful metrics.

Venture Capital 47

Venture Capital Metrics Startup Software Review 47

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. But, later on they often wish they had the ability to erase many of them.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The Equity Equation. by Nivi on July 19th, 2007. As this nuclear winter of venture hacks continues, I thought you might enjoy our thoughts on Paul Graham’s The Equity Equation. ” Read the rest of The Equity Equation first; it is great. You have to pay market rates regardless of the equity equation.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Instead of hearing from your long lost third-cousin, you will be inundated with an avalanche of ‘congratulatory’ emails, calls and letters from people who want to relieve you of the burden of your hard-earned equity round. Many such ‘congratulations’ will come from consultants. Their story, market positioning, products, etc. Pyramid Power.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I became a VC 12 years ago in 2007 when the pace of deals was much slower. As a result that company is now as valuable as Invoca ( last round raised >$70 million ) so Jason ended up with two very valuable equity positions and has now raised an early-stage seed fund.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Community is more powerful than money or technology » August 11, 2007 How much equity for investors and employees? Entrepreneurs face some pretty tough questions at a very early stage. How much equity should I give up? How much equity should I grant to early employees?

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

Pascal's View

SEPTEMBER 5, 2010

Mannie and I share a strong interest in research in the field of venture capital and private equity. In recent years, many universities have followed, teaching venture capital as an elective course. In October 2010, our new textbook will become available.

Venture Capital 44

Venture Capital China Technical Review Due Diligence 44

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 7, 2007

But when done well it can really help get a company going fast, professionally and without the founders having to give up much (if any) equity - or bankrupting themselves. The founders may believe they are onto such a good idea that they don’t want to give up any equity. Posted by: Matt | September 10, 2007 4:46 AM Good read but.

Bootstrapping 41

Bootstrapping Offshore Startup EC2 41

David Teten

APRIL 16, 2012

Make no mistake, this will be your company: you will take complete control and will get an unusually high equity stake. About ff Venture Capital ( http:/ffvc.com ) : We are one of the most active early-stage investors in New York. Initially you will likely be working out of our co-working space on West 36th St.,

Cofounder 133

Cofounder New York Venture Capital B2C 133

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

Michael is a very accomplished corporate executive in his own right having run Sega Gameworks and helped IPO EuroDisney as well as having been on the founding team of DreamWorks SKG (where he helped them raise their first $900 million in equity). Founded in 2007 by Oxford Univ. We discussed: 1. TechCrunch. GroupSpaces. students. -Is

IPO 242

IPO Venture Capital Private Placement Cofounder 242

Ben's Blog

APRIL 7, 2021

Corporate incentives: Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 developed a broad-based equity incentive compensation program known as stock options. Over time, the concept of broad-based equity ownership has become characteristic of most tech companies and embedded in Silicon Valley startup culture very early on. Venture capital.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Non-Compete San Francisco Government 36

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Enter Raul: This capital table startup options valuation model was created with the purpose of valuing options for an illiquid, early-stage start-up. To illustrate dilution effects, we show a couple of investment rounds (angel and VC) as well as employee option increments at different stages. (I’m

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

In my view the terminology being used for early stage investors by the press and the media is not as clear as it should be. I’ve talked about this on several occasions when I’ve been at conference and on panels, but I figured it would make sense to do a post explaining my taxonomy of the early-stage investing world.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Early Stage 125

ConversionXL

JULY 29, 2015

Equity-based – Equity returns (e.g., Harms (2007) found that economic value was one of the strongest motivators for crowdfunding supporters. Those early donors are simply personal connections of the project creator: “Friends and family funding plays a key role in the early stages of fundraising.

Campaign 48

Campaign Reputation Metrics Naming 48

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2013

AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant concludes , “The real winners here are going to be the seed funds and early stage VCs that can write a $1 million to $2 million check. All exits occurred between 1990 and 2007—the vast majority after 2000. Second, all investments are equity instead of debt.

IRR 114

IRR Angel Investor Angel Groups Cofounder 114

www.startupnorth.ca

OCTOBER 23, 2010

But for every founder, there is an early employee that takes near equal risks in joining an early-stage company. Remember the goal is to incent early employees to have an emotional ownership of the product and company they are building. Darmesh Shah has a great list of insights for employees joining early stage companies.

Employee 41

Employee Founder Salary Equity 41

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) government’s SBIR and STTR programs.

Programming 278

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 278

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

It might appear that origination is becoming much easier because of new tools like AngelList and the SEC moving toward adoption of rules that will allow equity based crowdfunding. We published the full report in the Journal of Private Equity ; it’s now the #2-most viewed article in the Journal’s history.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Altgate

MARCH 8, 2009

There are three types of venture investing (early stage, “growth&# stage and later stage. Early stage means the first real investors in a startup when the team could be as small as 5-10 people. Early stage investing is complicated, hard work. But some will be saved. So what to do?

Later Stage 34

Later Stage Early Stage Venture Capital Portfolio 34

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

With a unique vision for starting and successfully managing innovative companies, he is the Managing Partner of Social Leverage, a holding company that invests in early stage web businesses. Panel 2 – How Social Investing is Disrupting Investments in Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds, and Other Alternatives.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

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. By then I was still on the board of my first company but it hadn’t yet sold (it ended up selling in 2007 to a publicly traded French company). I believe this is wrong. Let me start with a couple of stories.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Altgate

JANUARY 4, 2009

We’re already starting to see layoffs at the large private equity funds where Blackstone , Carlyle and American Capital announced staff cuts between 7% and 19% in December. His company is doing well and recently received a couple of term sheets for his first institutional round.

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Term Sheet Private Equity Early Stage 28

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) government’s SBIR and STTR programs.

Programming 170

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 170

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

If my math is correct, this is approximately a 31% IRR, which has to beat individual angel investments on aggregate and venture capital returns over the period of the study (1990-2007). Valuation at this stage is clearly much more art than science, but I subscribe to the splitting up the pie school of thought. Back to the panel.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Individual accredited investors in typical angel deals put personal capital at risk for an equity share of growth-oriented, start-up companies. For this round of investment, the angels collectively purchase 20-40% of the equity of the company and are seeking a return on investment of 20-30X in a period of five to eight years.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

In 2007, Paul Graham gave a variety of causes for startup death in How Not To Die. Here’s the problem: this opportunity doesn’t exist for early-stage startups, because, by definition, they have no users or customers. Worrying about “scale” in the early days of your startup is simply a bad investment.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 20, 2013

I love the early stages of building a company. After more than a year of searching, we brought Dan Nye in as LinkedIn’s new CEO at the beginning of 2007. As I’ve already detailed, the decision to bring in a professional CEO was one I initiated back in 2007, after a lot of self-examination.

Founder 78

Founder Hiring Cofounder Hawaii 78

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. In 2007, he was named the Anne Armstrong Leadership Fellow, a position given annually to the most promising young foreign policy professional. Today, we are lucky to welcome Dan Kimerling of Deciens Capital. Dan has a B.A.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Breakups are hard If you’re going to fall out with your co-founder, do it early, recover the equity into the option pool to keep the company going, and recruit someone else great to fill the missing slot. How to build your core team for early-stage startup? Build in founder vesting (a.k.a. Buy it here.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2015

During these discussions, we reflected on the incredible collection of early stage VC firms we’ve invested in personally over the years. At the same time we discussed our later stage investment strategy. At the same time we discussed our later stage investment strategy.

Later Stage 70

Later Stage Early Stage Advisory Board Deal Flow 70