Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Between my experiences as a management consultant, as well as my product and marketing roles at multiple tech companies, I felt that I had enough operational experience to make that leap sooner than later. Additionally, I had already studied Economics and Finance during undergrad, making the academic part of an MBA seem a little redundant.

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

He says they are just as selective on seed investments as they are in later stage deals. Finally, I do want to mention that Mike was the founder of DogPatch Labs , which has facilities in Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. Venture Financings we Discussed. Founded 2007 in Boulder, CO. Competitors: Google.

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Austin Startup

AUGUST 30, 2018

Of these rounds, nearly every one was classified as a Series B or later-stage round, with the exception of a few debt and equity financing rounds. A trend towards larger, later-stage companies typically means investors are looking to take on less risk and invest in more established companies.

Austin 48

Austin Early Stage San Francisco Later Stage 48

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders?

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View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

And that product is a highly engaged seed-stage investment where we are usually the lead or co-lead in a round and will often take a board seat. I’d also question a founder who asks his or her investors to comment falsely on something — that puts the investor in an awkward spot.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

However, a perfectly acceptable—and perhaps even better—answer is that there are no investors other than the founders, and the plan is to bootstrap the company as long as possible. But you should beware of boards that are only the founders and their family and friends. Check out the personal finance topic by clicking here.

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. A pre-IPO board usually had two founders, two VCs and one “independent” member. Technology Cycles Measured in Years.

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 252

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Richard Witten , special advisor on entrepreneurship to the President of Columbia University ; and Kathryn Minshew , co-founder of the popular online career platform TheMuse.com both joined me in Sirius’ New York studio and shared their version of being knocked down and coming back stronger. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120

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

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 17, 2020

When speaking with founders and private growth investors, we hear countless references to “multiples paid” on current or near-term revenue; both obsess over this because a higher multiple translates to a higher valuation. But Wall Street expects Incredible Software Co. On a growth adjusted revenue multiple basis, Solid Software Co.

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Valuation Balance Sheet Cofounder Forecast 36

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

It seems like every day there is a new headline about an exceptional startup founder, investor, or corporate headquarters moving to Texas. The Innovation Center at Houston’s TMC (TMCx), co-located with Johnson and Johnson’s J-Labs, and the Center for Medical Device Innovation, drive medical innovation. Joe Lonsdale. Drew Houston.

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Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

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

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 11, 2020

My Blitzscaling co-author and friend Chris Yeh helped me record a Greymatter podcast episode where I share some of the great memories of and learnings from working with Jeff. Why do you call Jeff a co-founder of LinkedIn, even though he joined when the company was already five years old?

Cofounder 36

Cofounder Leadership Metrics Later Stage 36

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Wesabe taught us that social doesn't necessarily make managing finances online more appealing--and given Facebook's propensity to change privacy settings, I'm not sure a lot of people are going to want to manage their money on Facebook. Credit cards "just work" and peer to peer transactions just aren't big enough to bootstrap a network.

Technology 116

Technology Valuation Community Restful 116

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I’m super proud to announce that DataSift has just completed a $42 million financing round coming at the end of a year where its revenue grew several hundred percent year-over-year. We co-led the A-round with IA Ventures. Tim, my former co-founder and long-time colleague & friend who joined as global head of products.

Iran 358

Iran API San Francisco Nigeria 358

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. At Version One, we effectively act as a hotline: we strive to be the first investor that our founders call and often times, it is because we are the most responsive. Outside of formal check-ins (i.e.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

I’ve encountered many of the different ways boards can interact under different circumstances, whether it’s problem executives, problem investors, CEO misbehavior, financing issues, business crises and more. At this stage, you need a true founder who fervently believes they’re going to make the company successful. No, no, no.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

So the multiples paid by publics matter and when they drop, the late-stage markets drop, too. If you’re a B-round investor used to paying $50-100 million pre-money and you had a few years of later-stage investors paying $200 million+ 18 months after you invested you suddenly become less price sensitive. And so it goes.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

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. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

I’m speaking on a panel this afternoon on fundraising for minority founders at the Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project. Fundraising is always difficult for all founders; the median PE/VC fund sources and reviews 87 companies before investing in 1. This young, talented girl is given no chance of being the founder of the next Facebook.”. “I

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Venture Capital Advisory Board Greece Cofounder 60

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

They cover funding for small businesses from the initial funding stage to later stages of growth, and other areas in between. Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Tweet View Comments Sarah Lacy Feb 19, 2010 Pepperdine has a new study out that attempts to shed some light on the clubby, shadowy world of private finance. Paglia, Pepperdiine’s Denney Academic Chair and Associate Professor of Finance. Think Again. Not a big shock, but things don’t look pretty, especially in the venture capital world.

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

The founders were simply wrong about their assumptions about customer needs. It turns out the term “visionary founder” was usually a synonym for someone who was hallucinating. Founders Need to Run the Company Longer. So, almost like clockwork 20 th century startups fired the innovators/founders when they scaled.

Restful 227

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 227

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 30, 2016

I have been evangelizing to founders for years to be more thoughtful about how startups update investors and run board meetings so I would be pretty hypocritical if I wasn’t willing to try and be more effective myself. And of course we put a few portfolio companies on stage each year to present to us and inspire us.

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pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

But at a macro level, widespread failure this early is far less painful than if it came at later stages. “Founders don’t think their problems are due to trends. And in fact, overall trends are a second-order effect for founders.” Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93