Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2013

That means there are far more entrepreneurs looking for money than there are investors, and entrepreneur entitlement is not a realistic expectation. Angel investors look for prior domain and startup experience. No VC or Angel investors I know are interested in a bunch of angry, crammed-down small investors as co-shareholders.

Cram Down 269

Cram Down Angel Investor Intellectual Property Venture Capital 269

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

In very few specific cases, depending on the nature of the business, the business model might demand a considerable gestation period or extensive research and development. For these businesses, it is imperative to get funding from the start without which the company cannot be set up. Equity investors.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. Individual angel investors and crowdfunding have been adding to the momentum, some say exceeding VCs in total amount invested.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

Bockerstette, Main Street Venture Fund As I outlined last week, trophy angel investors are always looking for trophy entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, we read far more poorly written business plans at Main Street than good ones. Planning for valuation growth and investor exit should begin prior to the investment. By Joseph A.

Intellectual Property 265

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Phoenix Arizona 265

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Due to the economy as well, traditional individual angel investors haven’t been able to fill the gap. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). BTW, Angel investors do not have limited partners, and often invest for reasons other than just for financial gain (e.g., FDA approvals?

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over 60 times as many companies, according the Center for Venture Research. Individual angel investors have been filling the gap, and now match VCs in total amount invested.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital doesn’t publish frequently, but his essays on market trends and Benchmark portfolio companies are a window into how VCs view the world and the kinds of business models that they find most interesting. Follow AVC on Twitter @avc, f ollow Fred on Twitter @fredwilson. Above the Crowd.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

Yesterday I was having a discussion with one of our executives on the strength of network effects inherent in the data.world business model. This led to a far ranging strategic discussion that got us both really excited about the huge potential of our business. I really look forward to seeing the impact they have in the world.

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In the early days of every business the incumbents tend not to respond because you’re too small and insignificant. As they see you grow the become intrigued and probably analyze your business model and potential. As an investor that’s precisely what goes through my mind. Choose that market. Microeconomics.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

We still have some collective scar tissue: the idea conjures up the hordes of dot-com hopefuls that descended on VC’s and angel investors with little more than a business plan. It rarely occurs to either party that the founders could be busy inventing the next disruptive product, but doing so in a non-disruptive way.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Austin Startup

APRIL 27, 2019

Recently one of the startups in our portfolio, eRelevance, failed, as the Austin American-Statesman documented. As I wrote about in my post on Seven critical lessons learned in angel investing , this is painful and you must have a diversified portfolio to practice angel investing and actually make money. But I digress?—?this

B2C 51

B2C Austin Cofounder IPO 51

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Teams can prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model. And we can offer investors metrics to play Moneyball – with the Investment Readiness Level. We focus on evidence and trajectory across the business model. Here’s how.

Oakland 327

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics 327

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Kapor Capital’s expansive portfolio includes Bit.ly The firm’s portfolio includes the likes of Gist , Lijit , Brightleaf, Memeo, SimpleGeo , StockTwits and Zynga. Gary Vaynerchuk: Personal branding master and creator of Wine Library TV, Gary Vaynerchuk is also an angel investor with an expanding portfolio of companies.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Although this post is about what I look for, every investor (incl pre-seed investors) looks for this. 2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? This one is pretty investor-specific. Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Although this post is about what I look for, every investor (incl pre-seed investors) looks for this. 2) What is the business model and the potential unit economics? This one is pretty investor-specific. Certain investors tend to gravitate towards certain business models.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

Many thanks to David Rose , Ilana Grossman , Justin Stanwix , and the whole Gust team for making the Gust Blog such a valuable platform and resource for entrepreneurs and angel investors. How much is it worth investing in cultivating and enforcing an IP portfolio ? What kind of advantage will this create vs. our competitors ?

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

VC Cafe

JUNE 29, 2012

Kevin – consumer Internet plays, often times they don’t have a business model. Kevin – different angel investors put money in things that they are passionate about. Rick – I first see if I like the team, how are they going to start targeting the market they think they can address.

Developer 103

Developer Silicon Valley Software Review Mexico 103

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

Through connections, or through a chance meeting at a networking or social event, an angel investor hears the entrepreneur's story, likes them and their technology, and on the spot, writes a check to provide the company with its first outside financing. Venture capitalists Have Very Different Objectives than Angel Investors.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

Four of the portfolio companies have had successful exits: CardMunch was acquired by LinkedIn , BackType was acquired by Twitter , IndexTank was acquired by LinkedIn , and just this week, card.io K9 Ventures II will still be syndicating most investments with other seed and angel investors. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

Four of the portfolio companies have had successful exits: CardMunch was acquired by LinkedIn , BackType was acquired by Twitter , IndexTank was acquired by LinkedIn , and just this week, card.io K9 Ventures II will still be syndicating most investments with other seed and angel investors. Not interested in me-too businesses.

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Here’s why.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Can't wait until you have some actual portfolio results to analyze and compare against Cambridge returns. What does it take to be an Angel Investor? I am an active angel investor and on the board of Sand Hill Angels. September 27, 2011 5:51 PM. Post a Comment. Newer Post. Older Post. Twitter Updates.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

When I was starting LinkedIn, I had an early board member who asserted to me with great vigor and certainty that the business model of LinkedIn would be advertising. We should focus on this as an advertising business.” You might have an angel investor or an experienced executive as a part-time board member.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

I thought about doing this in a top 10 format, but will limit to my top 3 reasons: Misalignment of incentives - As an angel investor I want to do everything I can to help the entrepreneur succeed. What does it take to be an Angel Investor? I am an active angel investor and on the board of Sand Hill Angels.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Hearpreneur

MAY 4, 2019

Why did you start your business? What I’ve learned from my experiences as a four-time entrepreneur and an angel investor in more than thirty startups is that while it often looks as if world-altering business opportunities emerge by accident, they can, in fact, be discovered and scaled in a methodical way.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur Venture Capital 66

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

How-to learn about angel/vc term sheets - Gabriel Weinberg , June 28, 2010 I think every startup entrepreneur (and angel investor) should have a good understanding of financing term sheets. It sounds like Angel Boot Camp rocked. You can follow us all on twitter via the new hacker-angels list. Delegate and automate.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

Lane Merrifield is a co-founder and CEO of FreshGrade , a learning collaboration and portfolio tool focused on enhancing teachers’ lives and making students’ learning visible. Lane served as Executive Vice President at Disney for five years before returning to his entrepreneurial roots to become an angel investor and launch FreshGrade. .

Cofounder 146

Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 146

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

Lane Merrifield is a co-founder and CEO of FreshGrade , a learning collaboration and portfolio tool focused on enhancing teachers’ lives and making students’ learning visible. Lane served as Executive Vice President at Disney for five years before returning to his entrepreneurial roots to become an angel investor and launch FreshGrade. .

Cofounder 120

Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Most are sitting on large portfolios of private companies that are raising money now or will need to do so in the future and they know that they’re up against some headwinds. Can Investors Spook the Market into Falling? “10 angel investors walk into a bar …” Do you remember AngelGate at Bin38 ?

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 20, 2015

A while back, a larger fund courted one of my portfolio companies heavily. I wasn''t sure if this firm was the best partner for the company, so I reached out to an experienced founder who had been through lots of rounds as both an entrepreneur and an angel investor. They should do no harm. Way to go, 8th best seed fund!

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor PR Portfolio Reputation 60

Professor VC

APRIL 11, 2008

I personally enjoy the earliest stages and building a portfolio of start-ups and entrepreneurial teams. Anonymizer, a company where I was an early investor, advisor and board member, just got acquired by Abraxas Corporation for a very nice multiple. What does it take to be an Angel Investor? ► July. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Venture Capital Balance Sheet 28

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

For four years we have offered the synchronization service for no charge, predicated on the hypothesis that a business model would emerge to support the free service. We had the wrong business model. I would advise any entrepreneur or investor considering content to think twice, as Howard Lindzon from Wallstrip warned us.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

one company running out of cash and another with cash but searching for a business model). Often times those involve trading within a venture capital portfolio or between two venture firms portfolios. I was a Limited Partner in Angel Investors II (Ron Conway's angel fund) that was an investor in Confinity.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Tim Keane

OCTOBER 3, 2007

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. « Is Business Model Analysis Important To You? Nothing gives an investor the heebie-jeebies faster than that phrase. Main. | "God is in the details."

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Marketing Business Model IP 60

Tim Keane

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. « Are Investors Being Unreasonable? Or a paradise for investors? I'm just reading a post  from Wisbusiness.com  by Joe Kremer of the Wisconsin Angel Network.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Valuation Angel Investor Startup 60