Tim Keane

DECEMBER 14, 2009

  He is a partner in a pretty much exclusively software seed stage fund, Y Combinator that you can read more about.    He is a partner in a pretty much exclusively software seed stage fund, Y Combinator that you can read more about.  Bootstrapping. Starting Startups. Starting Startups.

Burn Rate 60

Burn Rate Angel Groups Seed Stage Startup 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically). My invention and prototype works, but I need funding to continue.”

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2015

Scott’s thought leadership is popular and widely followed, and you’ll want to hear some of the things he did to bootstrap Behance and gain initial traction, not least of which was creating and selling a paper notebook as his very first product. Bobby Kane (@ bobbyjkane , www.bobbyjkane.com/ ).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Product Bootstrapping Portfolio 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2015

Scott’s thought leadership is popular and widely followed, and you’ll want to hear some of the things he did to bootstrap Behance and gain initial traction, not least of which was creating and selling a paper notebook as his very first product. Bobby Kane (@ bobbyjkane , www.bobbyjkane.com/ ).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Product Bootstrapping Portfolio 120

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Huge funding gap appears for seed stage companies as seed stage VC firms look for series A traction and accelerators look for seed stage traction. For better for worse, only entrepreneurs ready to bootstrap their companies for 12-24 month are able to start new ventures.

Seed Stage 84

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 84

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically). My invention and prototype works, but I need funding to continue.”

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Huge funding gap appears for seed stage companies as seed stage VC firms look for series A traction and accelerators look for seed stage traction. For better for worse, only entrepreneurs ready to bootstrap their companies for 12-24 month are able to start new ventures.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. There’s Semantic Machines , one of the best collections of AI and ML minds in the world, led by serial entrepreneur Dan Roth. Want the next TripAdvisor or Wayfair?

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. If you want to avoid all these stage and investment considerations, you can always bootstrap the business (fund it yourself, and grow organically). My invention and prototype works, but I need funding to continue.”

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I like to break-out startup growth into four stages, not too dissimilar to four years of high school education: freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K). As an example, a seed stage sophomore raising $500K may be valued at $2MM post-money.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

For new entrepreneurs looking for seed-stage help, concentrate on investors who know you or organizations with a vested interest. Even today, more than 90 percent of new businesses are bootstrapped. Don’t believe the myth that finding outside investors is easy, an entitlement or even necessary.

Cost 120

Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 15, 2010

million in seed-stage funding has been raised. 27 of 39 (~70%) TechStars companies have either raised outside funding after the program or bootstrapped to profitability. The data that David published covers a lot of ground, including status by individual company. TechStars companies currently employ 156 people.

Seed Stage 125

Seed Stage Boston Bootstrapping Programming 125

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1). ► May. (1). Can you start a company on $10K? ► March. (1). ► January. (1). The Most Important Venture Capital Statistic. ► 2008. (14). ► December. (1). Why didn't I think of that?? ► November. (1).

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

Hippoland

MARCH 13, 2016

Do you bootstrap and attempt to raise again when you have made more progress? For nearly all seed stage companies, the answer is no. In many cases at the seed stage, you have some sense of 1 or maybe 2 customer acquisition channels that are working (at least for the time being). Below your target raise?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage .Net Revenue Acquisition 48

Hippoland

MAY 16, 2018

on the state of Q2 2018 seed-stage fundraising. Just in general, given how cheap it is to start a company and how few pre-seed investors there are, I think it makes sense to bootstrap to some level of revenue traction before fundraising. Post-seed rounds are being done by seed investors.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Convertible Security Equity 48

Hippoland

MAY 16, 2018

on the state of Q2 2018 seed-stage fundraising. Just in general, given how cheap it is to start a company and how few pre-seed investors there are, I think it makes sense to bootstrap to some level of revenue traction before fundraising. Post-seed rounds are being done by seed investors.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Convertible Security Equity 48

Tim Keane

OCTOBER 3, 2012

 My advice was to execute with the big player by bootstrapping and then, as the market risk retires, to think about deploying outside capital.    Greg Gianforte at RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, Montana (recently sold to Oracle) is a famous proponent of bootstrapping for this exact reason. Bootstrapping.

Technology 74

Technology Marketing Intellectual Property Montana 74

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Below is a short description of their philosophy: "The part of our philosophy that makes us most different from other startup investors is that we dont believe gut feel is a reliable indicator of potential at the seed stage. Bootstrapping 101. Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1). ► May. (1).

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

A business like that will just have a really hard time raising money at the early stages, and if that’s feedback you are getting from at least 2 people, you may want to consider adjusting your plan and raise from angels and/or bootstrap for a long time. 2) Your idea is not the right fit for stage / industry.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

David Cohen

JULY 28, 2013

I’m not saying this is better or worse than how seed funding happens in the US, but it does seem to cause more UK entrepreneurs to self-fund, bootstrap, focus on revenue earlier than might be natural–or simply decide to pursue their business in the US.

Seed Stage 62

Seed Stage New York Cofounder Bootstrapping 62

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Some founders are able to skip an institutional seed round and go straight to a multi-million dollar A-round where a larger VC puts in the lion’s share of the capital. These platforms are really interesting to seed funds because they are simultaneously a threat, a weapon, and a sourcing mechanism.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

A business like that will just have a really hard time raising money at the early stages, and if that’s feedback you are getting from at least 2 people, you may want to consider adjusting your plan and raise from angels and/or bootstrap for a long time. 2) Your idea is not the right fit for stage / industry.

Sales Cycle 48

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Board Effect

MAY 13, 2019

Cap Table Management While Bootstrapping. At this stage, startups should be taking the time to develop a cap table structure that supports growth; plugging in the formulas to eventually model valuations and equity dilution during seed-stage negotiations.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Management Liquidity Event Dilution 40

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

These are some of the most important criteria to investing in seed-stage teams. In the beginning, this may not be a problem — you can bootstrap. But once you get to say a series A or B level and you have say 30 people on payroll, if you cannot raise, it’s really difficult to bootstrap a company of that size.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Campus Entrepreneurship

MARCH 9, 2012

However, as Facebook illustrates, more student-founded companies are bootstrapping without university technology, leaving schools without any profit — though that may be changing. ” Rimalovski’s fund, which was created by the university in 2010, makes seed and series A investments in startups with ties to NYU. .

IPO 42

IPO Coder Seed Stage Startup 42

Rob Go

JANUARY 16, 2013

Remember, this was way in the pretty early days for Kahn Academy and way before online education was considered “hot” At that point, I was focused on seed stage investing, so never pursued the company. Today, it was reported that Lynda raised $103M after bootstrapping itself to over $100M in revenue.

Seed Stage 38

Seed Stage Chicago Aggregator Bootstrapping 38

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). At the pre-seed stage, there is no way to prove that your thesis is right or wrong. The way you get to a V3 statement is to start running the business and charging customers. And that’s ok.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). At the pre-seed stage, there is no way to prove that your thesis is right or wrong. The way you get to a V3 statement is to start running the business and charging customers. And that’s ok.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

I bootstrapped it on my own. You’ve bootstrapped a company, so you can see all those things, and you’re skeptical of the VC side. So VCs invest in different stages. You have seed stage, A round, B round, C round, D round. Trying to learn this environment. Let me say this to you. 99%, maybe 99.8%

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Seed stage investing is all about the team, so there may be something to this idea. Bootstrapping 101. My first reaction is incredulity that limited partners would buy into this idea. Of course, when 10-year returns for the entire venture capital asset class is about to drop below zero, drastic measures may be in order.

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Or you can find seed-stage investors who will give you the money to hire a developer. That’s why you need to be looking for seed-stage investors at the same time as technologists. It’s basic bootstrapping; you’ll want to leverage a little bit of high-level technical expertise to minimize risk.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Fractional CTO Partner CTO Hire 40

K9 Ventures

JULY 21, 2016

And 2 seed stage companies that haven’t launched yet. At the same time given all the complexities outlined above, hardware companies require more capital than a software company might require at a similar stage. Coin — a programmable payment device in a credit card form factor.

Software Review 48

Software Review Forecast Portfolio Distribution 48

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

In that case, VC money is used mainly for "acceleration" and not for bootstrapping. Paradigm shifts - why the market leaders get left behind Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebook - Instant On, Always Connected, No Hassles Seed stage investment bubble? And if you think I'm wrong, just take a look at Facebook's history.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

techcrunch.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Today, AngelList is debuting Docs, which lets seed-stage startups close their round online. For a seed stage round, legal fees can be upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, which is costly for a bootstrapped startups. The next step is actually facilitating these deals.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet San Francisco Technical Review Seed Stage 70

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Design/Front End: Twitter Bootstrap : Include this in your website, and you are half finished. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. Get Satisfaction. Event platforms. Eventbrite. Women Focus. Girls in Tech. Add a class name to buttons, forms, quotes, etc. and they will instantly look pretty. Useful blogs and links for startups.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53