View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Although Ginny is new to the team, she has many connections to the NextView family, as she started her career at our portfolio company Shareaholic , and worked closely with both Jay Acunzo (our first head of platform) and Joe Chernov (the VP of Marketing at our portfolio company Insight Squared ). Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Although Ginny is new to the team, she has many connections to the NextView family, as she started her career at our portfolio company Shareaholic , and worked closely with both Jay Acunzo (our first head of platform) and Joe Chernov (the VP of Marketing at our portfolio company Insight Squared ). Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Whether an entrepreneur is raising a smaller (pre-)seed round entirely from individuals or she has a seed-stage or larger VC firm involved in (leading) the seed syndicate, it’s somewhere between necessary and optimal to have multiple individual angel investors involved. First and foremost, angels can provide capital.

Angel Investor 332

Angel Investor Boston Seed Stage Syndicate 332

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Today, we are excited to re-release an updated Hitchhiker’s Guide to Boston Tech ! I wanted to point out a couple things in the updated guide, but the general theme is that we are simply seeing more, bigger, and better things happening here in Boston. Thought leadership originating in Boston. To name a few: 1.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. Startup IPO Market: A Fickle Mistress. The IPO market, she is a fickle mistress. In the first half of 2011, the IPO markets were looking strong for VC-backed companies. Bad economic news in some countries and gloominess across the globe continues to weigh upon all financial markets.

IPO 100

IPO Marketing Silicon Valley Private Equity 100

Agile VC

DECEMBER 13, 2011

My partners and I would be thrilled to support this founder in general, but we don’t have enough conviction about the market opportunity he and his co-founders are pursuing to proceed with an investment. In NextView’s case that’s seed stage internet and software companies. Author howerl. Read More ».

Seed Stage 185

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 185

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. This is his first post to The View From Seed. Boston’s talent pool is unparalleled. He’ll work with NextView through his final semester at HBS.

Boston 328

Boston Seed Stage San Francisco Startup 328

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

One of our recent investments, offered by Founder Collective (FC) – an eight-year-old manager with offices in Boston and San Francisco – is an excellent example of what we look for when we invest in funds offered by other managers. FC’s portfolio is made up exclusively of seed stage investments at seed valuations.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Although we had a busy summer, I was fortunate enough to take a bit of time off as well, and to step back for a moment and reflect on Nextview’s strategy and market position going forward. . 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

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

Chad Laurans is the CEO of SimpliSafe, a large and growing tech company located in the Boston area. Today, we discuss how Chad built an Internet of Things-like product before that phrase existed, before the hype helps your marketing or fundraising, and before anyone was thinking about the connected home.

Chad 190

Chad Seed Stage Boston Startup 190

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston. Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

This is for the early-stage companies — the entrepreneurs with great ideas and tireless work ethics who feel like they’ve emailed half of the country’s news outlets with nothing but the rare “thanks, but not interested” reply to show for it. And don’t pitch a Boston newspaper on your San Francisco startup. The irony hurts. Pitch late.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Although Ginny is new to the team, she has many connections to the NextView family, as she started her career at our portfolio company Shareaholic , and worked closely with both Jay Acunzo (our first head of platform) and Joe Chernov (the VP of Marketing at our portfolio company Insight Squared ). Establishing an excellent early team.

Seed Stage 28

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 28

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Last week ZipCar began trading and has a market cap of about $1 billion. Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

Groupon’s become a juggernaut in the immense local marketing space. 3) Groupon’s Business is Like An ATM: Groupon is currently unprofitable on a GAAP basis thanks to acquisition related expenses in 2010 as well as ongoing marketing spend to acquire customers. But even in Boston & Chicago it remains above $20.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

There may be many fewer series A investors in your home market than elsewhere. The quality, network, or experience of your local investors is likely fairly different from those in other markets. The risk tolerance or expected pricing of investors in your home market may be markedly different from investors in other markets.

San Francisco 244

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 244

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

The market size for online advertising, e-commerce, and web premium services are 1/10th to 1/3rd the size they are today. To give you a sense, for 2002 the entire US online ad market was $6B and had shrunk year over year (it was $25B+ for 2010). We’re a how-to site and community for small business on marketing. .

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Editor’s Note: NextView recently kicked off a Boston-based workshop series on technical interviewing with Google. Do they understand what the product is for and who the market is? How do you position yourself as the latter if you’re a seed-stage startup founder? office, right in the heart of MIT.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Jason does an excellent job explaining the math behind more complex subscription forecasting, but also touches on topics like marketing and company culture. As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. Follow Jason on Twitter @ASmartBear.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

Agile VC

OCTOBER 27, 2011

InsightSquared is tackling business intelligence software (hardly a sexy market) with an incredibly sexy product that incorporates Facebook style timelines and other features. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. RentJuice is doing much the same in real estate software.

Software 100

Software B2B Silicon Valley Acquisition 100

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

This initial wave of applicants resulted in the selection of six initial Accelerator participants – female & male founders at startups hailing from the Bay Area to Miami to Alabama to Boston, ranging from b2b SaaS offerings to consumer services… all transforming people’s everyday lives.

Cofounder 178

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 178

View from Seed

JANUARY 10, 2022

In that same original blog post, we also outlined the unfortunate phenomenon that occurs when the market collapses: capital tends to flow towards founders with established VC relationships and away from folks who may be equally talented but are several steps removed from investor networks. Jambb: Boston, Massachusetts . Who you are.

San Diego 156

San Diego San Francisco Alabama Valuation 156

View from Seed

APRIL 28, 2015

At NextView, we hold regular team offsites to step back and think about how we do everything from invest in seed-stage companies to create better platform initiatives in support of the Boston and New York startup ecosystems. Is this a market I want to have an investment in? Is there strong founder-market fit?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage New York 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Instead, if you’re a seed-stage startup taking that first step in anything (and at the seed stage, you’re going from zero to one in everything), it’d be great to have a place to go for support, inspiration, and practical resources to make the process easier and clearer. – Why raise seed vs jump to Series A?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Seed Capital Syndicate Syndication 120

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

I had done door to door marketing, neighborhood window replacement appointment setting, street sign-ups, etc. Having just moved to Austin from Boston, she thought adding African car sales could help, maybe thinking Africans looking for used cars can use it to find car deals. Okay,” I thought. Maybe there’s something here.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Geography: 18 of the 23 are in Boston or New York. Some of our most interesting companies have originated in places like Estonia (GrabCAD), Croatia (Farmeron) and Omaha (SkyVu), although all have either moved or have a significant presence in a major tech hub like SF, Boston, or NY.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Portfolio 50

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

Editor’s note: Local tech media company BostInno (a division of the American City Business Journals) hosts an annual Boston State of Innovation conference. I was recently asked to sit on panel with my fellow VC peers and some top entrepreneurs from the Boston tech community.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 7, 2017

The scope of digital tech for work and money, in terms of addressable markets, is almost mind-boggling. and life insurance segments, you see a $2T (yes, trillion) annual market where nearly all transactions occur offline. Though even there, you’ve seen startups like Clover Health , Oscar , Devoted Health , and others grow rapidly.)

Finance 185

Finance Distribution Seed Stage Government 185

Genuine VC

JANUARY 17, 2011

” First and foremost, we are dedicated seed-stage investors focused on investments in internet-enabled startups. And given dynamics in the digital media space, we think that (especially along the Boston to New York corridor) there is a market need for a funding source like ours for early stage entrepreneurs.

Seed Stage 125

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage New York 125

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 2, 2011

FounderFuel is backed by the team behind Montreal Startup and Real Ventures (a $50 million seed-stage fund). FounderFuel will launch with a $2 million committment, with Ian Jeffrey, former VP at Tiny Pictures and Director of Marketing at Shutterfly at the helm as General Manager.

Programming 118

Programming North America New York City Silicon Valley 118

Genuine VC

JANUARY 23, 2012

And along the way we’ve met with or observed a larger number of seed-stage startups attempting to start them. Brute force a mini-market and expand. Rather than create a broad market at the outset, another approach is to concentrate deeply to create very specific marketplace liquidity and branch out from there.

Engineer 201

Engineer Vertical Portfolio Seed Stage 201

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2015

Marketing and user acquisition advice for those in hot, competitive markets. To get all episodes of Traction as soon as they’re live, plus other resources and advice for seed-stage startups, subscribe to the View From Seed and follow @NextViewVC. Tactics for fundraising when being met with some resistance.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Startup Acquisition 120

Genuine VC

MAY 5, 2015

Today, I’m thrilled to publicly announce NextView’s Talent Exchange, a program helping both top talent and NextView-backed startups connect with each other more easily, beginning with Boston companies (which make up just over half our portfolio). Below, I’ll quickly explain the genesis of this initiative and share a few more key details.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Startup Boston Seed Stage 100

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2015

Marketing and user acquisition advice for those in hot, competitive markets. To get all episodes of Traction as soon as they’re live, plus other resources and advice for seed-stage startups, subscribe to the View From Seed and follow @NextViewVC. Tactics for fundraising when being met with some resistance.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Acquisition Analytics 120

View from Seed

JULY 9, 2015

It’s a common question that every VC fields from founders — and founders field from other founders, and marketers field from founders, and PR people field from founders. And given my marketing background (Google, Dailybreak Media, HubSpot), I often get this question directly: When should startups announce seed funding? .

Startup 120

Startup PR Cofounder Stealth 120

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

Their firsthand knowledge of creating new businesses and new markets seemed quite relevant to successfully investing in other entrepreneurs working to do the same. Deductions like this are problematic because early-stage venture investing does not happen in an efficient market. Let’s take a look at the actual data. (If

Angel Investor 152

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 152

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

There’s lot of anecdotal evidence for this: Seed stage investors (including NextView and many of our peers) are seeing more startups progress from seed to Series A stage in 6-9 months rather than 12-18. Multi-billion dollar valuations for late stage startups like Dropbox, et al. Read More ».

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113