Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Main Street Venture Fund LLC, an angel fund of about 25 private investors, was formed by Ruffolo Benson LLC in northeast Indiana with the intention of bringing together area entrepreneurs and private investors to create economic value for the region. For an angel investor, it’s a buyer’s market.

Angel Investor 208

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Indiana Phoenix 208

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I once showed a company to another VC for an investment we were syndicating. This investor loved the team and thought the solution they were building was compelling. Ultimately, this firm passed because they couldn’t get comfortable with the “market size” given that they were a big fund and only targeted $1B+ opportunities.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I once showed a company to another VC for an investment we were syndicating. This investor loved the team and thought the solution they were building was compelling. Ultimately, this firm passed because they couldn’t get comfortable with the “market size” given that they were a big fund and only targeted $1B+ opportunities.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

In short, more and more entrepreneurs are signaling their price expectations earlier in their seed fundraise process. In theory, there are three levels of pricing for an entrepreneur to potentially signal to a prospective investor: 1. Lower-Than-Market Value. Market Value. Above-Market Value.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Agile VC

DECEMBER 19, 2013

It’s been awhile since we worked together on a daily basis so a lot was just general catch up, but one of the primary reasons for our chat was that this person was starting to become a more active angel investor and was just looking for feedback.

Angel Investor 265

Angel Investor Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 265

Rob Go

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Nearly all seed rounds we are a part of include angel investors. In almost all of these cases, these smaller investors were included into a syndicate because they “added value” either through domain or functional expertise or through their network. I’ve seen that happen sometimes.

Angel Investor 28

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage 28

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!,

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

If the deal is from out of your geography and/or out of your focus area or a deal is being referred by a well-know investor who normally co-invests with similar syndicates – at least ask yourself, “Why am I so lucky to be getting this call.” I seek out great entrepreneurs. End of story. Avoid the herd.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 337

mashable.com

MAY 9, 2011

a New York-based sizzle reel production company specializing in promotional videos for PR and marketing professionals, and the Young Entrepreneur Council. I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs what fledging tech startups should be looking for in a CTO hire to ensure founders get the right person for the job.

CTO Hire 73

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2016

The overall trend around angel investing is a pretty interesting one. I’ve talked about this trend before – specifically the acceleration of angel investing in 2011-2014. Angel investors need to do a better job aligning their outcomes with that of the companies in which they invest and the ecosystems they support.

Syndicate 48

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Colorado 48

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Geoff worked with Greg at Madrona for a decade and is one of the most prolific and successful angel investors in the Pacific Northwest. PSL was announced today and GeekWire’s conference and there’s an extremely comprehensive post explaining how it works at Top Seattle investors raise $12.5M

Seattle 70

Seattle San Francisco Angel Investor Syndicate 70

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 19, 2017

One of the things I didn’t realize as an entrepreneur was that at the seed stage, *anyone* could potentially be an investor. A lot of entrepreneurs just think to pitch to VCs or well-known angel investors or people who have signaled they are angels on Angelist. They don’t signal they angel invest.

Angel Investor 48

Angel Investor Accredited Investor Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley 48

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 13, 2012

What entrepreneur hasn't dreamed that our startup will experience the same magical beginnings as Google ? In 1998, before they even incorporated, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were trying to present their concept to early-stage, or "angel" investors, with limited success. So what do angels want?

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Exit Strategy 128

Genuine VC

JULY 30, 2012

In theory, there are three levels of pricing for an entrepreneur to potentially signal to a prospective investor: Lower than “market.” This approach is almost never a good idea. Above market. By definition, all entrepreneurs should think that their endeavor is truly exceptional.

Valuation 136

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Syndicate 136

Hippoland

MAY 15, 2016

On the flip side, through the rise of syndicates, angels are now more akin to VCs. They can write much bigger checks through essentially a band of angels coming together on a deal. As entrepreneurs, we don’t usually think about where our investors’ money is coming from, but in this case it matters a lot.

Syndicate 48

Syndicate Syndication Limited Partner Portfolio 48

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 2, 2010

They are: Fred Wilson: Lead Investors, Dipshit Companies, and Funding Every Entrepreneur. Dave McClure: MoneyBall for Startups: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down AFTER. Lead Investors, Dipshit Companies, and Funding Every Entrepreneur ), and treat them the same way we would with a $10m investment.

Angel Investor 152

Angel Investor Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 152

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

I once showed a company to an investor for an investment we were syndicating. This investor loved the team and thought the solution they were building was compelling. It’s maddening feedback for entrepreneurs, because no one likes to think they are not working on a “big enough” opportunity.

Marketing 52

Marketing Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication 52

Agile VC

DECEMBER 5, 2011

seed round from NextView, Atlas Venture, and Google Ventures, and angel investors. There’re lots of reasons why we’re pleased to be involved, from the market opportunity and product and beyond, but of course team is central for all startup investments. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Rob Go

MARCH 10, 2012

My friend Jordan Cooper wrote an interesting post a few days ago about some of his predictions of the venture market in 2012. Really smart people end up writing thoughtful posts on the future of the venture market pretty much every year – and I often agree with many of them like I do Jordan’s. Syndicate diversification.

Seed Stage 49

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Marketing 49

Professor VC

JULY 25, 2013

This is the feeling you get from watching the venture capitalists talk about the entrepreneurs and other investors in the film. The company either fails and provides little or no return to investors or is a success and returns a multiple to investors. Startup outcomes tend to be very binary.

Term Sheet 46

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 46

Rob Go

JANUARY 27, 2014

It’s an exciting time to be an entrepreneur and investor in this ecosystem. In the early stages, entrepreneurs have historically known who all their investors are. Entrepreneurs will certainly know the VC’s that led their round, and they certainly know the friends and family that invested in their companies.

Syndicate 73

Syndicate Syndication Early Stage Cap Table 73

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

Texas is the most promising technology market in the United States. Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio form a massive startup Megalopolis that is attracting top talent, impact-focused investors, and the most innovative companies in the world. All of the investors, all of the big companies, all of the government groups?—?they

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

Growthink Blog

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

They would exempt companies looking to raise $5 million or less from standard SEC filing requirements and lighten the virtually impossible to follow rules on utilizing social networking and other Internet-based communications to market offerings. As an angel investor, I say “ how can I get in on the fun! ”

SEC 76

SEC Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 76

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

This week, we helped organize an Angel Bootcamp where some of Boston’s most successful angel investors shared their experiences and lessons learned to a crowd of aspiring angels and entrepreneurs. The reason is that most seed syndicates have room for 5-10 angels or more, but only room for 1-3 funds.

Syndicate 66

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence Liquidity Event 66

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Each has a process in place to accept applications or recommendations for investment into new companies, and to review these and make decisions based upon their exploration, previous experience in the field, knowledge of the company or industry, or about individual entrepreneurs. Some can supply more when syndicating with other such groups.

Equity 62

Equity Finance Liquidity Event Angel Groups 62

VC Adventure

AUGUST 10, 2010

In it, he describes our philosophy around seed investing and differentiates it from what others (but not everyone) in the market is doing. This mapped with some of the ideas Niel was thinking about as well and over a series of months we tossed around a number of different ideas in search marketing.

Syndicate 74

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence SEM 74

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Of late, I have had a number of friends who have recently become more active as angels and have been trying to track down some of the advice from the event. Just yesterday, Adam Medros , SVP of Global Product at TripAdvisor and an entrepreneur advisor for NextView, just asked about when the next event will be. Why Invest?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Of late, I have had a number of friends who have recently become more active as angels and have been trying to track down some of the advice from the event. Just yesterday, Adam Medros , SVP of Global Product at TripAdvisor and an entrepreneur advisor for NextView, just asked about when the next event will be. Why Invest?

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

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. These angel investors generally invest $25,000 to $100,000 in a round totaling $250,000 to $1,000,000. A local network of angels is critical to achieving a diversified portfolio.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Tim Keane

APRIL 12, 2006

Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. « "What Makes an Attractive Angel Investment" | Main. | Ten questions the entrepreneur should ask the (prospective) investor. The best salesperson is. past round one.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Valuation Sweat Equity Common Stock 60

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

By connecting Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and the rest of the state into a Texas S tartup Megatropolis we can unlock billions of dollars in capital and unleash thousands of diverse entrepreneurs. More connections means more business, more investors, more revenue, and more growth.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

An excellent question to ponder as the school year begins, but the answer depends on whether you are looking for a plumber or an angel investor. In corporate finance, students are taught that capital markets are efficient and this is an underlying assumption for valuing stocks, bonds and other financial instruments.

Angel Investor 28

Angel Investor Angel Groups San Jose Venture Capital 28

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The concept poses both great benefits and significant challenges to entrepreneurs. If you’re a startup entrepreneur, you risk facing a competitive disadvantage if you wait too long to expand your operations. The first step in the process of expansion is identifying which markets are of the most strategic significance to your business.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

In liquid markets, most of the calories expended on technology and analytics are focused on trade selection, or “ origination ”. I use another live Google doc to maintain my database of companies I’m marketing to other VCs. 2) Market . Many tools designed for B2B marketing in general are also relevant to investors.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

www.gabrielweinberg.com

AUGUST 28, 2012

I syndicated (helped them put together the round) in five: Notehall, MyZamana, Locately, Zippykid, and Instinct. I believe this strategy will make you money as an angel investor and would continue to make us money if we continued to pursue it, but for a variety of reasons I'm evolving our strategy away from it. Theme agnostic.

Valuation 54

Valuation Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor 54

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Out of 5,923 investment professionals in our dataset, 916 (15.5%) were focused primarily on origination and marketing. Annual Deal Pipeline for Selected VCs and Angel Investor Groups. Acquirer/ Investor. Angel groups using Gust. They’re the entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of their respective disciplines.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MARCH 18, 2023

They also serve as mentors and provide valuable advice to help entrepreneurs overcome any hurdles they might face. VCs have invested in dozens of startup companies, and they can offer entrepreneurs tips from their own experience. You can use money from your savings, angel investors or crowdfunding platforms.

Artificial Inteligence 52

Artificial Inteligence Startup Early Stage Syndicate 52