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OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. Unemployment continues to rise – Unemployment as of September 2009 is 9.7% Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice VC Industry startup technology vc venture capital.

Technical Review 269

Technical Review Stock Hawaii Early Stage 269

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OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). 2009 has been the worst year for M&A in a decade.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

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APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. Example: if a VC is on their fourth $200 million fund that they just raised in 2009 then you might hear them talk about $800 million under management. Tags: Pitching VCs Raising Venture Capital VC Industry.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

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MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. Total raised: $83mm; Series B round (July 2009 for $43mm) valued company at $400mm. OTHER DEALS: 1.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

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OCTOBER 15, 2014

I first met Nick Halstead in 2009 when he was running a company called Tweetmeme (the predecessor to DataSift) who had invented the Retweet button and actually helped Twitter develop its early API. I remain as childishly giddy at Nick’s vision as I did in our conference hangout we had in 2009.

Founder 309

Founder CTO Hire Silicon Valley Leadership 309

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MAY 24, 2021

Imagine if, say, Autodesk had purchased it in 2009 for $100 million? Of the first four investments I made as a VC in 2009, two have exited and two (Invoca & GumGum) still are independent and likely to produce $billion++ outcomes . Case in point, Procore just went public and is trading at an $11 billion valuation. Maker Studios?—?sold

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

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NOVEMBER 14, 2010

They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon. in 2009 the market was completely constipated as investors focused on triage. I was very active in 2009 / early 2010.

Florida 299

Florida Technical Review San Antonio Los Angeles 299

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. On the other hand, exits at lower prices are easier with these providers of capital. Would they be willing to put a bridge loan in place if need be?

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

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DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. It was 2009 and it was terribly difficult to get any financing (if you can remember a time like that!) And Jim & I went on to raise several more venture capital funds in our day jobs. And Jamie hers.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

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JULY 13, 2013

So then when I wanted to go into venture capital, they said, “You can’t do that, you need to be in EIR.” So when I got into venture capital, I thought, “Well, what can I do that’s different?” ” “Okay, well you can be an operating partner or a venture partner.”

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

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OCTOBER 1, 2009

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. As of near the end of September 2009, we’re up 46% since the March 9th nadir (yes, I need to find a way to use one of my SAT words ; – ).

IPO 255

IPO Investment Bankers Venture Capital Marketing 255

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JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. DST invested $180mm last fall.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Non-Compete Vertical Europe 225

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SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

As more consumers were skipping commercials the idea of authentically integrating brands into media seemed obvious to me and ended up informing a lot of my investments in 2009 and 2010. Hamet started his career in Venture Capital working for the first post-apartheid VC fund in South Africa. The idea immediately resonated.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

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AUGUST 14, 2009

Most Venture Capital “A&# rounds (as of 2009) seem to start around $3 million pre-money and may go as high as $5-6 million pre-money if you’ve made a lot more progress or for some other reason the deal is “hot&#. The post I mentioned covers all of this.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

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FEBRUARY 14, 2018

Since our industry has been so heavily dominated by male leadership in both tech and venture capital for so long, this “inclusion” is something that would benefit us all in making better decisions. Dan talks about a landmark case in 2009 that involved whether it was legal to strip search a 13-year-old girl.

Founder 256

Founder San Francisco Deal Flow Los Angeles 256

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MAY 4, 2010

Online advertising platform for local businesses; ReachLocal reported over $203 million in revenue for 2009, compared to around $146 million in 2008. Its net income for the 2009 period is $11.66 Tags: This Week in Venture Capital. I think you’ll enjoy watching. And we shared our love for Zorik Gordon.

IPO 236

IPO .Net Venture Capital Strategic Investors 236

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AUGUST 24, 2015

I’m not saying I’m not investing – just that I’m generally aware that the market does drive venture capital fundings and I’m very interested to see how September plays out. But I can tell you from first-hand experience it was a real issue in 2008-2009 and the psychology persisted into 2010-11.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

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JULY 26, 2022

If I look back to the beginning of the current tech boom which started around 2009, we often wrote a $3–5 million check and this was called an “A round” and 12 years later in an over-capitalized market this became known as a “Seed Round” but in truth what we do hasn’t changed much at all. How do we plan to do it?

San Francisco 408

San Francisco Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles 408

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MAY 25, 2013

“I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” By 2009 had reduced to around $15 billion in capital from LPs. But I became a VC in 2007 and wrote my first check in 2009 – 4.5 The second is not. That’s normal.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

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APRIL 25, 2011

This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. I gave them advice I don’t think they were expecting from a VC, “Don’t raise venture capital for this business. This team is talented.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

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MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. Following Microsoft’s addressable advertising trials with NBC in June 2009, many suspect that Google’s investment may have some defensive motivations, as well. Invidi is based in New York and founded in 2000.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

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AUGUST 20, 2015

If one entered between 2009-2015 he or she is no doubt in the “hazard” phase where one need to be careful about thinking he know more about the industry than perhaps he do. I think I’m at the expert stage of venture capital and I mean in the Wardley sense. I see it in many young pups. Same as I felt.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Silicon Valley Brazil Valuation 150

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MARCH 17, 2010

First, I’d like to quote (paraphrase) Brad Feld speaking at Twiistup in LA in 2009, “I keep hearing people in LA talking with a chip on their shoulders about building a tech business here relative to Silicon Valley. Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. We picked up activity aggressively in 2009. What do you get when you combine 7 panelist plus one moderator on to a stage for 30 minutes to talk about a serious topic? Answer: Not much. It’s a shame. VC is different.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

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NOVEMBER 7, 2009

This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. I’m sure I’ll spark the ire of some VC’s for saying so, but there is certainly such a thing as black-out days in venture capital. It is very difficult to raising venture capital between November 15 – January 7th.

Venture Capital 304

Venture Capital Green Partner Restful 304

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JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. And what we think about Sequoia’s website , First Round Capital’s and True Ventures (we both like to copy stuff from True). Read more: TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Los Angeles Oakland Asia 217

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MAY 22, 2010

This week I was preparing for my weekly This Week in Venture Capital web show and was researching some of the deals that were announced for the week. billion (plus an earn out that could have totalled $4 billion but didn’t in the end) in 2005 before selling 65% of the company in 2009 for $1.9 So Skype was ubiquitous.

Term Sheet 266

Term Sheet Europe Wiki Cloud 266

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FEBRUARY 14, 2016

As you can see below, investments have skyrocketed – up 300% since 2009. The vast majority of this recent boom in prices is not being driven by VCs but rather by hedge funds, mutual funds, corporate investors and other sources of non-traditional venture funding.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

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JUNE 23, 2015

Brian grew up locally and after he was graduated from Stanford (engineering) and Stanford MBA he went to work at a firm called Palomar Ventures. Rick was a partner there having previously been a Managing Director and founding member of Sun America’s venture capital practice and having been graduated from Harvard Law School.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder Early Stage 150

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AUGUST 9, 2011

Come 2009 we felt really bullish about the future for startups because the froth was gone and so, too, were wantrapreneurs. The people left standing had a compelling vision to build companies and we backed many in 2009. When this period was fresh, in Sept 2009, I wrote a very detailed assessment of what I thought had just happened.

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305

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MARCH 6, 2011

Jody self-funded the company and worked from his spare bedroom in February 2009. It was created to provide peace of mind to moms looking for safe, healthy products for their kids. His passion stemmed from what he saw moms doing. He noticed their extremely social tendencies and the potential of a very large market.

Valuation 292

Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

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AUGUST 30, 2010

VC funding is definitely back from the constipation that was 2009 replete with frothy valuations chasing dreams of the next Facebook, Groupon or Zynga. I’m a venture capital investor so I will still be looking to make investments. In the end.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Technical Review Balance Sheet Government 298

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MARCH 6, 2017

Every year Upfront Ventures surveys Limited Partners (LPs) who are the main source of capital that invests in VC funds and thus the main source of capital that goes to startups to get an early-warning sense of the year ahead, leaving aside any Black Swans. link] So here are some details (please thank & follow!

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LP Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup 286