View from Seed

MAY 31, 2023

For example, a 2009 study conducted by Paul Gompers and David Scharfstein, “Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship”, found that failed founders have the same chances of success¹ as novice founders, but prior success does increase the odds of future success. I reached out to a dozen founders using the criteria of: 1.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Cofounder Term Sheet Founder 156

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

This also appears as a guest post at Fortune’s Term Sheet. Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Version One Ventures

JULY 20, 2017

million seed round, we’re looking back at our journey with founders Mike Murchison and David Hariri. Intrigued, Boris reached out to Mike Murchison and learned that he and his co-founder David Hariri were building a social network to help others solves problems online. .

Artificial Inteligence 150

Artificial Inteligence Silicon Valley Stealth Term Sheet 150

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2021

Any software, hardware, or CPG startup in Texas with a female founder or co-founder can apply to participate. Female Founders! One will walk away with a $100,000 cash investment and a fast-track into Capital Factory. Who Can Apply? Apply now to be one of five teams selected to pitch. million Series A round.

San Antonio 107

San Antonio Dallas Houston Founder 107

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Introduction This post originally appeared in the “ Ask the Attorney ” column I am writing for VentureBeat ; it is part of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets. The Investors’ Right to Walk VC Term Sheets Are Non-Binding. VC Term Sheets Are Conditional.

Term Sheet 76

Term Sheet Due Diligence Liquidation Preference Redemption 76

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 5, 2014

Managing short-term tactical outcomes with longer term relationship cultivation. Meeting new founders while collaborating, recruiting, analyzing, doing whatever it takes, to help our current founders build strong companies. Doing what excites me and gives energy. 1) Evaluate New Opportunities. .”

Software Review 102

Software Review Balance Sheet Cofounder Technical Review 102

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2017

The Walker Rule calls for diversity and inclusion in interviewing and hiring of startup co-founders, CEO, senior team, management, staff, board of directors and advisors. This is similar to something we did at Austin Ventures to encourage startups to make a donation to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas.

Austin 54

Austin Angel Investor Startup Term Sheet 54

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

One founder/startup will walk away with a $100,000 investment that day! Any tech or consumer startup with a Black founder can apply to pitch at our Black in Tech Summit. Submit your application Who can apply? Apply now to be one of five teams selected to pitch.

Houston 84

Houston Dallas Term Sheet Texas 84

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

One founder/startup will walk away with a $100,000 investment that day! Any tech or consumer startup with a Black founder can apply to pitch at our Black in Tech Summit. Submit your application Who can apply? Apply now to be one of five teams selected to pitch.

Houston 84

Houston Dallas Term Sheet Texas 84

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

I am reminded of this problem every time my firm does a financing where a note went before us but more specifically I was reminded by this great post by Brad Feld to talk about the pre-money vs. post-money conversion issue. If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

K9 Ventures

APRIL 14, 2020

My inclination was that “this is a team of scrappy founders, and I like how they think.”. Several months ago I was having a conversation with my friend and former co-worker @ HiHello, Leith Abdulla , about how I am frustrated with Slack and want a tool that removes the friction for communication with the remote team.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Venture Capital Guerilla India 127

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 17, 2020

In our conversation, we talked about the history and difficulties of school nutrition before the pandemic, scaling a company while having a young family, what's changed at Revolution Foods since March, and how investors and partners have supported and helped expand the company. Here's my conversation with the founders of Revolution Foods.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Security Founder Entrepreneur 60

OnlyOnce

APRIL 27, 2021

Here are four tough conversations you may have to have along the way, with some suggestions on how to navigate them. All of these conversations need to come with a point of view of why independence and diversity matters to your company, a lot of empathy, and appreciation for the value the person brings to the table.

Vesting 48

Vesting Cofounder Startup Term Sheet 48

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. What are some of the unique benefits and constraints from the point of view of a founder? . However, founders shouldn’t take money from corporate VCs because of an exit expectation. New York Times’ timeSpace is a good example.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. But what about once you have a term sheet? I’ve had to have hard conversations with entrepreneurs when things aren’t going well.

Term Sheet 298

Term Sheet Venture Capital Stealth Cofounder 298

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

Gina Mancuso , Founder and CEO of LoveThatFit. Now, we’re focusing early conversations intently on our strategy for winning and our progress thus far, which gives investors a clearer picture of who we are and where we’re headed.” Avichal Garg , Co-Founder and CEO of Spool. Justin Beck , Co-Founder and CEO of PerBlue.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Startup San Francisco Silicon Valley 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 26, 2011

But none of that is enough to get me to recommend this new book , co-authored with Jason Mendelson. And reading a term sheet has all the entertainment value of watching dried paint get even drier. For example, the right way to think about a term sheet is as a negotiation over just two things: economics and control.

Antidilution 148

Antidilution Term Sheet Silicon Valley Widget 148

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 27, 2011

The post “ What I learned from raising venture capital ” by Gabriel Weinberg , the founder of DuckDuckGo is one of them. Choosing your VC essentially as choosing a co-founder. They will be there long term, have significant equity and help making strategic decisions. Make a concerted effort to meet them.

Venture Capital 109

Venture Capital Term Sheet Angel Investor Due Diligence 109

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

" 8 Questions to Ask When Interviewing at a Startup - Instigator Blog , June 18, 2010 Job interviews are meant to be conversations. One of the highlights of my trip was a startup dinner which included Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals. It shows a lack of interest. Now I have. Productivity.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 23, 2015

” I was told this several times about becoming a parent but the same can be true about the life of a founder. They don’t give me bonus credit for spending time with our founders daily, weekly, monthly. Overdeliver on the promises we made to founders we backed. #3 “The days are long but the years are short.”

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Term Sheet Metrics .Net 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

If you and all the people around your startup (co-founders, advisors, existing investors) feel strongly that the company A) could benefit from additional equity capital at this time and B) you’ve accomplished value accretive milestones since your last round of funding, then it might make sense to talk with potential new investors.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

Dan is the co-founder of Standard Treasury, a Y Combinator backed company. He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. Eric Friedman: This is a great segue to something I was thinking about in preparation for this conversation. On Sushi and VC. Everything we do.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 6 weeks’ later he didn’t have other term sheets.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Most incubators take common stock and sit “side-by-side&# with the founders, but some may want some (weak) preferred stock and/or dilution protection.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. During that conversation, we talked about some of my favorite philosophers and how I’ve applied their ideas to my own career.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. During that conversation, we talked about some of my favorite philosophers and how I’ve applied their ideas to my own career.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Rob Go

JUNE 1, 2016

A fancy firm puts down a term sheet to invest $40M in the new company. The company gets a term sheet for another $50M. Where I think funds do start having hard conversations around follow-ons is when they need to lead inside rounds or protect themselves in down rounds. Let’s say they do another $10M.

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Portfolio Valuation Warrant 28

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If they say yes you get a term sheet and once this is signed it is usually 3-6 weeks until your legal docs get signed and you’re funded. It can be a good strategy to bring just the CEO because 1-on-1 rapport is easier to build but if you have equally strong co-founders bring them. Who should attend the meeting?

Non-disclosure Agreement 340

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Cofounder Term Sheet 340

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Later that evening you review the term sheet from Blue Shirt. Reading on, the term sheet states, “The $8 million pre-money valuation includes an option pool equal to 20% of the post-financing fully diluted capitalization.&# Do you mean the shares go to the founders? Or we can just do 10% standard terms.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Both Sides of the Table , July 22, 2010 An updated Digital Trends presentation - Jeff Hilimire , June 2, 2010 I do what I hate - Jessica Mah , January 7, 2010 Startup Equity Allocation - charliecrystle.com , January 11, 2010 When good investment decisions end up backing more women CEOs: Conversation with Cameron Lester at Azure Capital.

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

www.quicksprout.com

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Although I have made a decent amount of investments, I don’t consider myself an “angel investor” because I don’t search for companies to invest in, I don’t lead financing rounds, and I don’t know how to read term sheets. About Neil Patel Neil Patel is the co-founder of 2 Internet companies: Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics.

Elevator Pitch 60

Elevator Pitch Revenue Entrepreneur SEO 60

management.fortune.cnn.com

AUGUST 7, 2012

In the course of conducting research of entrepreneurs across the globe, my co-authors and I found that most exceptional leaders tend to balance their convictions with a healthy dose of humility. Most founders hit a wall or at least speed bump when they are looking to grow their company without making some tradeoffs in culture or vision.

Entrepreneur 54

Entrepreneur Technical Review Iran Term Sheet 54

www.gabrielweinberg.com

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Your VC is essentially buying in as a co-founder. Would you chose a co-founder that sucks? They're going to be with me long-term. They have a significant equity stake and other significant terms. Like a great co-founder, they can also help me in strategic ways at the right time. Use AngelList.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Term Sheet Cofounder Partner 90

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

.” Hackernews list of “Tools of the Trade” for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers. WSGR Term Sheet Generator. Orrick, Herrington Term Sheet Generator.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53