Genuine VC

DECEMBER 3, 2014

The benefits have been touted previously : an anchor for attracting and retaining talent in Boston, as well as a breeding ground for the next set of great Boston entrepreneurs and founders. In a world which is increasingly won by startups who reach and then accelerate their product-market fit, not technology-market fit, this matters.

Boston 279

Boston IPO B2B Cofounder 279

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. Most of what I think about startup communities came from mentorship by Brad Feld through hours of private discussion and debate.

Community 378

Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2019

by Will Koffel , head of the Google Cloud Startup Program in the Americas. In 2013, I left a CTO job overseeing a 50-person product engineering team for the same job at a four-person startup. ” Most early startups don’t understand the distinction between the two. Manage Your Workflow — Or Else.

Management 125

Management Product SCRUM Early Stage 125

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

A few years ago, a friend of mine who was coming off an EIR gig at a well-known venture fund in Boston ended up joining one of my portfolio companies part-time as a technical advisor / interim CTO. They assemble what looks like a dream team — but one that ends up moving surprisingly slowly in the early stages.

Founder 159

Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

At seed-stage startups, especially companies with well-networked founders and investors, finding applicants who can do a job on paper is not overly difficult. To help you more effectively build your early teams, we asked a group of founders to share their favorite interview questions when they build new startup teams.

Founder 120

Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

When Jay joined our team back in 2014, we were the first early-stage VC in Boston to have a dedicated head of platform and one of the first handful in the country to do so. There is obviously a lot that goes into building an early stage company. Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

When Jay joined our team back in 2014, we were the first early-stage VC in Boston to have a dedicated head of platform and one of the first handful in the country to do so. There is obviously a lot that goes into building an early stage company. Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Boston is a great place to start and build a company. There is a wealth of resources that are unique to this town and a vibrant community of hackers, business people, and investors at various stages in their career. However, Boston is a transient town, especially for the student population that refreshes a large population each year.

Boston 56

Boston Technical Review Community CTO Hire 56

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. They want to lock in future clients at an early stage.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

On Tuesday, July 21, we hosted the first-ever Boston Consumer Tech Summit. But a large majority of our investments are in our backyard of Boston — and, aside from our work as investors, this city is near and dear to our hearts. Here’s Mike’s comment: Boston’s B2C problem is one of values.

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Back in June, the local Boston tech community together celebrated the ten year anniversary of the Web Innovators Group, affectionately known as “WebInno.” Each gathering showcases early stage startups in their infancy, not as a capital-raising pitch, but rather as a way to show off their product to peers for both exposure and feedback.

Boston 100

Boston Cofounder Seed Capital Software Engineering 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

But in Los Angeles, Santa Monica is akin to SoMa in San Francisco, Cambridge in the Boston area or Flatiron / Union Square in NYC. Santa Monica is the place where the highest concentration of early-stage startups are created if you consider also the contiguous geography of Venice Beach. Startup Advice'

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

New research shows Silicon Valley still rules the startup world. Startups based in the region stretching from San Francisco to San Jose raise more funding, make more money and have smarter people than startups in any other place. Sure, Silicon Valley is far and away the strongest startup region anywhere. (See

Chile 60

Chile Silicon Valley Los Angeles Video 60

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. The names of these once great, now defunct firms may not be terribly familiar today but here are just a few examples: American Research & Development [Boston] –> Founded by George Doriot and depending how you count it, either the first or second formal VC firm in the US.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

But in practice, these phenomena create a tremendous volume of startups, which investors then have to filter. Their late stage deals outside of the venture centers outperform by ~5% vs. those in the venture centers; early stage deals outperformed by ~4%. Just do a search online and the VC’s job is done! 2009) [ii].

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

startup ecosystem for many decades. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of VC funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. Best startup city rankings have reflected this truth for a long time. Austin, TX. Boulder, CO.

United States 113

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Silicon Valley 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. It used to be that startups went public about 6-7 years from founding; that number is now 10-12 years.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. Below, she shares lessons learned from the earliest days of marketing the company and how this has translated to her second startup role as VP of Marketing at Toast. Where do you land on that spectrum?

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 10, 2014

He is currently a second year student at Harvard Business School and will be focused on supporting the early-stage startup community in Boston and its schools. There’s been a lot of discussion lately about startup fundraising by graduates of various business schools. Boston’s talent pool is unparalleled.

Boston 328

Boston Seed Stage San Francisco Startup 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

I think you have to listen to the queue’s.” “…if you look at a lot of the early stage investors, whether it be Union Square Ventures or First Round or Jeff Clavier at Softtech or Dave McClure – we want to try the product, we want to experience the product, we want to get a sense of how the entrepreneur is thinking about it.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

David Teten

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

On February 16, I visited Washington, DC, where I attended an HBS Club of DC lunch on the Case Foundation and Startup America. One of those partnerships is with Startup America , who was also featured at the lunch. Startup America is an example. Derek Holt of Startup America. Our customer is ultimately the startup. . •

America 144

America DC Startup Aggregator 144

View from Seed

JULY 28, 2015

While the startup environment in Boston has vastly improved over the last several years , I continue to hear the sentiment that it’s really tough to build a great consumer startup in Boston. This is expressed by people outside of Boston, but it often comes from those within our community too.

Boston 120

Boston Marketing Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Building a new startup hub Last week, I had a unique opportunity to spend some time in Boulder at the behest of TechStars. It was a great experience to see a relatively new startup hub in action - and thriving. Their model looks like a key ingredient in the startup brew there.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

That prediction obviously turned out pretty wrong, but it did drum up a whole lot of chatter about the right ingredients for building a startup community—about New York vs Boston on the East Coast and whether cities like Austin and Seattle would ever break through. Those two things aren’t really the same.

Community 161

Community Miami Portland Startup 161

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

Here in 2021 startups operate in a more distributed fashion earlier in their lifecycle, a trend which preceded COVID but certainly was accelerated by the remote work environment for knowledge workers brought on by the pandemic.

Chicago 177

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 177

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

But whether you are trying to build daily, habitual products for business users like Slack or InVision or trying to reach truly mass market consumers like Wayfair, Jet, or Chewy, there is someone in the Guild who has faced this challenge at the early stages of a business and at scale. Brian Balfour, Founder & CEO of Reforge.

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

startup ecosystem for many decades. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. with their startups growing by 81.2 Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S.

United States 82

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 82

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

Here in 2021 startups operate in a more distributed fashion earlier in their lifecycle, a trend which preceded COVID but certainly was accelerated by the remote work environment for knowledge workers brought on by the pandemic.

Chicago 156

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 156

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Below, Josh talks about designing features from nothing and how to make important design choices during the pre-seed and seed-stage phases of startup growth. Once you identified that What to Wear Daily was worth building, what worked in acquiring your first 100 users — especially since it was focused on just Boston to start?

Design 330

Design Product Cofounder Boston 330

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2013

An older study, published by CB Insights, Venture Capital Human Capital Report , summarizes a variety of characteristics for private early-stage Internet ventures funded in the US. California (Silicon Valley), New York (NYC), and Massachusetts (Boston) are the places to be in the US for venture capital attention. Marty Zwilling.

Venture Capital 238

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Massachusetts California 238

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). We tried to provide a framework for startups to think about what activities should be outsourced and why. What kind of startup outsources everything? To that I say baloney.

Software Review 65

Software Review Offshore Startup Boston 65

The Next Web

JANUARY 24, 2014

As a startup hub, Amsterdam grabs the same amount of attention as the girl with braces at the high school dance. So is the Dutch tech startup story sold short? Think of Stanford and Sandhill road in Silicon Valley, Route 128 in Boston or IIT in Bangalore India. Robert Verwaayen is a Dutch venture capitalist. Not in my view.

Netherlands 143

Netherlands Technical Review Stock Silicon Valley 143

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

Here in 2021 startups operate in a more distributed fashion earlier in their lifecycle, a trend which preceded COVID but certainly was accelerated by the remote work environment for knowledge workers brought on by the pandemic.

Chicago 136

Chicago Miami Cofounder B2B 136