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.

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Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Knowing these will help a founder position her pitch to get investors’ attention. Founders need to keep their eye on the prize — not just the next funding round. Business Model.

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Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. of venture capital deals.

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Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

ReadWriteStart

MAY 22, 2023

According to Rolf Illenberger, co-founder of VRdirect, a virtual reality platform in Munich, none of the big European tech companies are currently relevant to the future of the Metaverse. Talent retention is one of the biggest challenges facing Europe’s Metaverse industry.

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View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

An easy way to think about it is that value over time doesn’t go up and to the right in a straight line like this: Instead, it’s more of a stair step like this: So, what are the value inflection points that create the stair steps, and how does one think about it at the earliest stages? These might include: Bring on a technical co-founder.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

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Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

The Next Web

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There aren’t a tonne of funds focused on seed-stage funding worldwide, but we can add a new one to the list today. SparkLabs , the company behind the accelerator program in Korea , is expanding its scope with its first seed-stage fund that will “help great startups go global.”. Asia Entrepreneur Insider News sparklabs'

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View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. Zoom calls have taken the place of in-person meetings.

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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.

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Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Some disgruntled younger partners left in the mid-90s… two co-founded Benchmark Capital (Bruce Dunlevie & Andy Rachleff). But eventually some disgruntled younger partners left and two started August Capital (Dave Marquardt & John Johnson) and one co-founded Benchmark (Bob Kagle). But it’s not quite that simple.

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Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

At NextView, for instance, one of our more popular posts centers on atypical seed rounds to know. What is it, and how should founders think about it? Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.].

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

At the seed stage and as companies scale, helping the founders I work with identify and reach their goals, personally and professionally, gives me energy and purpose. I made over a dozen angel investments and a few investments in VC funds as an LP, expanding my focus to new geographies, sectors, and stages.

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North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Josh Porter is the founder of What to Wear Daily , a service that helps you prepare for your day. He is best-known as the creator of 52 Weeks of UX and was also head of UX at HubSpot, by way of being co-founder of Performable (acquired in 2011). You Found a Problem to Solve. Great … But Now What?

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Design Product Cofounder Boston 330

VC Cafe

JULY 8, 2012

So how do you go about finding co-founders and early members of your startup? VC Cafe took a look at the most promising sources for finding co-founders, both in the “real world” and online. . From “napkin” (seed stage) to profitable startups, this site will give you a good set of options.

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Cofounder Founder Startup Seed Stage 149

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. To that point, we are most excited when our founders are able to go from slide deck to product-market fit and Series A and beyond. We are truly grateful for your support. First check to Series A?—?congrats

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Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

For those following this blog and the seed market over the past decade, you may have noticed that every year, we see increases across the board — more investors, newer funds, and funds that get larger. Much has been written about the fact that traditional seed stage funds have grown in size and dollars under management.

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VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2021

VC Cafe: What’s the best advice or practical tips you have for founders with regards to marketing and branding at seed stage? This can be really hard for early stage startups, but it means the difference between being good or being great. And running fast as an early stage start-up is so important.

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Marketing Early Stage Seed Stage 179

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

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). I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

This is the home of Jason Cohen, software startup founder, bootstrapper, investor, and mentor. His blog is full of personal stories, gentle advice, and guidance that will be useful to any startup founder. David Cohen is the founder and Managing Partner of Techstars, the #1 ranked internet startup accelerator in the world.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. Many of these Founders we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with if we hadn’t launched this program.

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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. Now it’s time to set the stage with the early traction you have. Seed stage VCs are realistic about how much traction a very raw company might have.

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Hunter Walker

MAY 19, 2014

It was easier to just discuss privately with other investors, but Jason Calacanis tweeted this morning about VCs trying to take entire seed rounds , and so, here it goes. And it hasn’t been a special situation such as the founder as an EIR at said fund, or having been previously backed by that fund at earlier company.

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View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Although you still hear stories of investors that require founders to move to SF, it’s more likely these days that investors see a winning business outside of the Bay Area as a positive, given the costs and competitive pressure in that local market. How should a founder go about it? But doing this takes extra work.

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San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

Hearpreneur

MAY 4, 2019

It starts with a pilot, with often is pretty small: just one or two teams of co-founders dedicated to growth opportunity areas for six months or so. Our Studio allows us to build stand-alone companies on behalf of our partners when there are regulatory or channel conflicts that make it hard for them to build something themselves.

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Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur Venture Capital 66

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld, co-authors of “ Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist “ So, you’ve got a brilliant idea and you’re ready to launch a company. For example, assume you are a seed-stage company that needs $500,000 but you go out looking for $1 million.

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence 100

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds.

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Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Rob Go

MARCH 2, 2013

Every now and then, I get a big reminder of just how helpful it is for entrepreneurs to have co-founders. Of course, having the wrong co-founders is really damaging. Also, there are many successful founders who have done great without a meaningful co-founder. Couple examples.

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Cofounder Seed Stage Early Stage Partner 66

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

Many of us in the seed stage ecosystem have noticed a shift in the way seed rounds are coming together. Historically, seed rounds were syndicated among several different firms. Today, we are seeing less syndication of seed rounds and sharper elbows among many of the funds in the market.

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Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

On the show, we’ll explore and share the stories of all the creative, unusual, and clever ways that entrepreneurs find early results. We’ll talk to founders as well as executives, investors, and journalists, all of whom did something smart or sneaky or downright brilliant to go from zero to one in an important area of their business.

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Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

For this reason, we’re excited to announce that we have closed on NextView’s $50M third fund, with a mission to champion founders who are redesigning the Everyday Economy. . In apparel, companies like Dia&Co and ThredUp haven’t just made shopping easier, they’ve changed access to apparel and what people actually wear each day.

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Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

One was the result of a cofounder breakup. When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. As Jason wrote : .

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Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

This is true when it comes to early-stage funding, but also as it relates to support platforms being built by local firms to help Boston-based startups. We also saw the emergence of new early-stage and growth-stage VC firms created by veterans of other Series A and B firms looking to disrupt the traditional venture model.

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Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

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. Investors included Founders Fund, 500 Startups and Marc Cuban. → Learn More. Wednesday, April 24th, 2013.

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SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

This post was co-authored with Omri Stern and originally appeared in Harvard Business Review. The founders have started companies before. More recently, Israeli founders are themselves moving to the U.S. So how early should the founders pack their bags and ship out to the U.S.? American VCs are critical.

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Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West). Co-sale rights.

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Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The same can be said of startups and their founders, in the sense that so many things can go wrong in the building of a company to an exit, that success almost seems to be a statistical anomaly [more on how bees fly ]. Previously ‘Competitive’ Seed Funds and Multistage Funds : Up by 100%.

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Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Mashable Mashable reached out to angels, seed stage investors and VC firm partners and asked them to share their wisdom with the rest of us. and Path Intelligence.

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Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80