Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. The founder drives the culture.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Seed stage VCs are realistic about how much traction a very raw company might have. At NextView we invest across the spectrum of seed stage companies so roughly 1/3rd of the companies we invest in are pre-product, roughly 1/3rd are post-product but pre-revenue, and perhaps 1/3rd have some very early revenue.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

View from Seed

MAY 14, 2019

A number of blog posts recently have mentioned this, but we seem to be experiencing a rise in repeat founders starting new businesses and raising seed capital. We’re also seeing a wave of folks who were not founders, but were star players among the first 25 folks at a unicorn company also starting new companies.

Founder 256

Founder Agile Cofounder Seed Capital 256

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. In their quest for sustainable growth, the elusive dream for most first time founders is that first funding. High growth startup companies need seed money to get things going.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ). They are: 1.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. Most businesses – online or offline, need seed capital to get established and without access to these funds, launching a business can seem like an improbable dream. Unless your business idea is to launch an oil rig, you do not need huge capital investments.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

And in seeing that process unfold numerous times, I’ve picked up that there are really four main distinct playbooks which a Founder/CEO can run in the subsequent 12-18 months following a Seed round in preparation for the next round of financing. The four winning strategies for startups to go from Seed to A are: Build Scale/Momentum.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

” Bill Gross, who is one of the Godfathers of the Internet, once told me, “ If you don’t design a product that is 10x better than the competition then you’ll never build anything truly big or amazing.” After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Ajay Kshatriya. Steven Cohn.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry. Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Ajay Kshatriya. Steven Cohn.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Provide early seed capital, and be the ones to make those introductions. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Instead, focus on getting them ready for that stage.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

The rounds were conducted from 2008 to 2010, starting from seed capital. After CB Insights’ investigation yielded such an alarming figure of failure, the company decided to compile more than 100 post mortem letters from different startup founders to discover the reason for the failures. That the product is not friendly.

Venture Capital 77

Venture Capital Cofounder Finance United States 77

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 12, 2018

Over 500 tech executives, startup founders, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs came together for an unforgettable day of in-depth discussions, workshops and a $200,000 surprise. On Monday, October 1?—?the the first day of Austin Startup Week ?—?more The Summit also included a 90-minute #IAmRemarkable workshop?

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Texas Dallas Seed Capital 48

The Next Web

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Dries Buytaert is the co-founder and CTO and Acquia , a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for open source content management system Drupal. Access to capital continues to be a challenge in Europe. Large companies also provide an important ‘exit strategy’ for startups.

Europe 149

Europe Government Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 149

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. Below are the milestones that you will need to achieve in order to attract seed investment from Angels: Business Plan.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. and I thought if we brought the community together for common purpose we could create more of a sense of community to help new entrepreneurs get funded, assemble teams, raise profiles and help with biz dev, product, etc.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. A fair amount of your FFF funding will likely go towards product development. Founding Team, Key Hires, Advisory Board.

Intellectual Property 55

Intellectual Property Advisory Board Startup Seed Capital 55

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Seed to Series A.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 31, 2013

You may have the next Steve Jobs as your co-founder, but it is important that every team member is completely dedicated and delivering. It shows that they are just as passionate as you about the company and are confident that your product will succeed. Do I need to bring my product or demo? Want To Learn More?

Angel Investor 51

Angel Investor Cofounder Distribution Seed Capital 51

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

So I recently re-shared a 2019 blog post where I’d basically advised founders who’ve raised seed capital to worry less about “how will I raise the next round” and more about “how will I execute my plan?” Have they definitely de-risked every part of their business? Not a chance. HW: All fair points.

Founder 124

Founder Cofounder Metrics Technical Review 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

StackOverflow – We both have a love fest for Joel Spolsky who also co-founded Fog Creek Software. Arnie Gullov-Singh (ex-EVP of product, technology and operations for MySpace) also joined as CEO, as Sean Rad will assume the role of President. Swipely – Blippy competitor founded by TellMe founder, Angus Davis, in Fall 2009.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Building Product 2. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. Would it be a good idea clubbing all the other products / services under 1 venture, because some of them are totally unrelated.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

The company spends the $1m building and launching their first product. The product gets a lot better. The new money comes in at a pre-money valuation of $100, but includes a complete refresh of founder equity to 40% of the company. So the new investment gets 60%, the founders get 39.9%, and the $1m of seed money gets 0.1%.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

At their heart, seed accelerators are defined length programs (usually 3 months) where early stage startups are provided seed capital, mentorship, co-working space (though not always) and other services in the hope of removing the barriers to startup success… or failure.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Australia Cofounder San Francisco 118

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.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

In the startup world, one POTAJ that’s easy and worthwhile to defend is the need to focus on building great products and innovative technology instead of trying to over-sell lousy solutions. ” Founders must address distribution in their pitches both overtly and succinctly. You can find those here. ). Accidental VC'

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

And to today, when its major product is simply innovation. the wave of semiconductor startups in the 1960’s/70’s, the emergence of Venture Capital as a professional industry, the personal computer revolution in 1980’s, the rise of the Internet in the 1990’s and finally. Today startups build products differently.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. A little piece of advice for future founders: find something that turns revenue quick, profitable and cash flow positive quick and forget about fantasy businesses that take a decade to turn profitable like twitter!

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2019

It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, where setting goals presents a fresh opportunity to achieve different objectives. I want to help the best brands around the world find their voice so that their target audience can find them quickly when in need of their products or services.

Papua New Guinea 66

Papua New Guinea Hawaii Advisory Board Churn Rate 66