VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

” – Marc Andreessen In the book “ Super Founders “, author Ali Tamaseb, studied 200 Unicorns, aka startups valued at over $1 billion, started between 2005 to 2018. The 7 Traits of “Super Founders” 1. They are able to stay focused on their goals, even in the face of adversity.

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Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation 88

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

As an early stage investor in the world of gaming and metaverse technology at Remagine Ventures, I find these companies have the potential to set the agenda, become the potential platforms for developers building in this space and future acquirers/consolidators of startups building the next generation of the Internet. Here we go!

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IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

This is a guest post by my Startup Owner’s Manual co-author Bob Dorf. While statistics are weak on startup success rates, the worst one I’ve seen suggests that 2 in 1000 venture backed startups will ever achieve $100-million or more in valuation. Can every startup skyrocket like Facebook or Square or Google?

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Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 332

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2013

One of the challenges for investing in startups has always been the lack of an established way for founders and investors to actually measure and decide on the valuation of the startup concerned. ” Ideaspotting investment pre-money valuation valuation Worthworm'

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Web Technical Review Angel Investor 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find.

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Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. How do you know you have it?

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Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. Of course, unlike cars there is no direct comparison across each startup so these are just some general guidelines to try and even the information field.

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Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it.

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Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In case you haven’t noticed it, the rapid evolution of do-it-yourself (DIY) facilities for developers, including 3-D printers, SketchUp and makerspaces such as TechShop , have scaled down the cost of prototypes and hardware design by an order of magnitude. Provides networking with cofounders and strategic partners.

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

The email continued, &# The problem I’m working on is that many founders are either making uninformed decisions or inefficiently learning the new skills they need. The solution I’m exploring is a just in time learning methodology that accelerates founders’ learning curve by aggregating relevant content, peers and mentors.&#.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. And of course we help with business development introductions and with fund raising events. The administrative work we actually do at board meetings?

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Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Two developments have changed the face of startup investing in the UK in recent years. The first development is increased capital efficiency. The second development is SEIS and EIS. Both of these schemes use the tax code to make it more attractive for high-net-worth individuals to invest in startups.

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Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5%

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

As a testament to the growing power of “the creator economy,” visual content creation app development startup Lightricks has secured an impressive $130 million investment round, at a valuation of $1.8 Startup Journey. Funding Details. It’s safe to say Lightricks meet all of these criteria down to a tee. .

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Private Equity Developer Venture Capital Merger 142

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

That’s why I recommend that they find a co-founder who loves business challenges, including marketing and finance. If you consider yourself a technologist, you probably believe and may be propagating one of the following myths: The first priority for funding should be to develop the technology.

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Technical Review Intellectual Property Cofounder Bootstrapping 120

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 22, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) voice generation startup ElevenLabs has secured an $80 million Series B funding round, minting them as the UK’s newest unicorn. The latest funding brings ElevenLabs’ total raised to $101 million and values the company at over $1 billion after it received a $100 million valuation in June. Who are ElevenLabs?

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Artificial Inteligence Poland Cofounder Startup 85

Berkonomics

JANUARY 28, 2021

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. Why fight about valuation, or disappoint the founder at the outset?

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Early Stage Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 62

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. What is it, and how should founders think about it? As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. You’ll also see some startups use it as an additional cushion.

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Fifty years later another Harvard professor, Clayton Christensen, developed his theory of disruptive innovation, which actually described how creative destruction worked. Perhaps that’s because where established companies might see risks or threats, startups see opportunity. We legalized robbing the corporate treasury.

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Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit. Time will tell.

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Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 31, 2013

That’s what ReadWrite predicted would be the hottest of hot startups in 2013 and, for the most part, we were right. The Pebble smartwatch had its humble origins on the crowdfunding platform and so did the top startup on our list, Ouya. Startups abounded in every sector. Or it could be the next Facebook. Time will tell.

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Startup Cofounder San Francisco Software Review 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Funding challenges and other issues founders face in the early days of starting up were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Will Zell , co-founder and CEO of Nikola Labs wireless power company.

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Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. 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). Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future.

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company. There is nothing wrong with using a SAFE or a convertible note in a startup if you know its implications.

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Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

VC Cafe

JULY 4, 2022

The WSJ confirmed what we already know: Q2 venture capital investments declined both in size and in valuation. billion valuation, according to the WSJ, down from $45.6 Narrative violation: VC investment in EMEA startups reached an all-time high in the first half of 2022. Declining investment: U.S. VC funds invested about $47.5

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Venture Capital Valuation Private Equity LP 167

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business. The Mind of the Founder. So as a startup CEO you constantly have to suspend disbelief. The mind of a founder is wired differently than most people.

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Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? Did I mention it only took the founder a month? International and non-Valley startup communities are developing at a rapid pace. There is no fork.

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Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. During a presentation at Startup School at Stanford University earlier today, the prolific investor discussed the state of startup funding with a packed auditorium of students and entrepreneurs.

Angel Investor 84

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 84

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. During a presentation at Startup School at Stanford University earlier today, the prolific investor discussed the state of startup funding with a packed auditorium of students and entrepreneurs.

Angel Investor 83

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 83

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Small Business and Startups: 5 DIY Things To Do For Your Brand! How To Choose A Market For Your Startup Or Small Business – [link]. crowdSPRING Blog – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 5, 2014

Meeting new founders while collaborating, recruiting, analyzing, doing whatever it takes, to help our current founders build strong companies. ” That means the founders are currently fundraising and we are at some stage of mutually getting to know each other. Doing what excites me and gives energy.

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Software Review Balance Sheet Cofounder Technical Review 103

Berkonomics

JULY 10, 2014

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up premoney valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. Why fight about valuation, or disappoint the founder at the outset?

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Valuation Cofounder Founder Revenue 71

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Entrepreneur Homepage Startups Starting a Business Home How-To Guides Startup Basics Business Ideas Business Planning Startup Financing Success Stories Home-Based Business Starting a Business Play Video How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business (Video). Startup Basics Does College Matter for Entrepreneurs?

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Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

BeyondVC

JANUARY 5, 2022

We are truly to our founders, limited partners, co-investors, and friends for another year of growth and learning. boldstart kicked off 2021 by announcing the closing of $230M of funds, $155M fund V and $75M opportunities ii, to continue supporting developer first & SaaS founders from Day 1 to scale( ).

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Stealth Cofounder SQL Open Source 78

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 5, 2019

by Dan Abatte, co-founder of 81-c. Are you fresh out of Y Combinator with $1 million in funding at a $10 million valuation? The VC industry is large enough to prop up scores of well-funded tech startups that might otherwise never exist. Making it” is relative. You must be the man (or woman)! Their competitors are boring.

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Valuation Cofounder Metrics SEC 162

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

by Tom Larkin, cofounder and CEO of Social Rebate. Focus on developing your idea. Investors like to see an entrepreneur that has developed expertise in one area, not competence in many. In today’s fast-paced startup scene, new players are entering and exiting constantly. Be realistic about your valuation.

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Cofounder Elevator Pitch Early Stage Valuation 154

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

For Startups And Winning SEC Approval, AngelList Opens Up Investment Platform To More Companies. In December, AngelList , a service that matches early-stage startups with investors, debuted the ability to allow accredited investors to actually invest in startups on the platform with as little as $1,000. Enterprise. Smartphones.

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SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61