View from Seed

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

I sent a tweet out last week that elicited quite a few responses from both founders and investors: seed funds that don’t invest pre-traction =. — First – there are a lot of seed investors out there that don’t actually want to invest in seed. For very well known founders, a series A can happen well before traction.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cofounder Retention Founder 331

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue 136

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $170 million. 2010 Net Income: $8 million.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

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? NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically. Traction and revenue? Today, we wanted to share some basics of another source of capital: venture debt.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

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. A) Pre-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

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.

North America 156

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). Any success (growth, revenue, or profits) we have will follow from that.

Design 330

Design Product Cofounder Boston 330

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

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Of the last 15 investments we’ve made, 8 have been pre-product or pre-seed style rounds.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

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 ). However, large, lifecycle VCs who invest in a seed round seem to correlate to an increase the size of the Series A raised by a given startup.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

As a VC, I’m interested in working with companies with large-scale revenue potential, and that’s the company we envision. See Should you co-found a company with your friend? My role will depend on team composition, but most likely, your team has the great majority of equity and I’m a non-employee cofounder. . A nonprofit?

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

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). Yes… he was a very successful PayPal exec and previously co-founder & VP Product of SocialNet. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

Even for those who don’t care to dive into the numbers, it’s worth a quick glance because co-founder/CEO Andrew Mason wrote a letter which forms the preamble of the full document. How They Make Money: Groupon keeps a share of the coupon value (typically 40-50%) as its net revenue (1). 2010 Gross Profit: $280M.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

AUGUST 19, 2021

Elizabeth Yin is the co-founder and General Partner of a venture capital firm that, and I quote from their website, invests in “hilariously early startups” Hustle Fund typically invests $25,000 as a starting point into startups that have yet to show any revenues.

Founder 98

Founder Partner Venture Capital Cofounder 98

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

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.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 29, 2013

by Meng Weng Wong, co-founder and social engineer at JFDI Asia. But they’ll sit up and pay attention when you talk about the customers and revenues of the business. Some founders stay at hostels. We spend tremendous energy recruiting between 100 and 200 angels and seed-stage investors who may invest in your business.

Asia 207

Asia Singapore Cofounder Incubator 207

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Note: This post also published at NextView’s blog for seed stage companies The View From Seed. A population of founders, employees, investors, advisors, and others all aligned in trying to build large disruptive businesses is naturally prone to lofty, even over-the-top language. How can we put things into context?

Cofounder 188

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 188

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. 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. Want the next TripAdvisor or Wayfair?

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 188

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 188

Hunter Walker

APRIL 11, 2015

Board Meetings are a great way to finish the week when the founders are describing a provocative discussion of the future. Matt Faustman, UpCounsel’s cofounder/CEO, was highlighting interesting behavior by their customers over time. Board Meetings are great ways to finish the week. Wait, let me revise that.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Cofounder Forecast Revenue 48

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

When a startup doesn’t match the stage where a particular investor focuses, founders may get a response along the lines of “This is interesting to us, but come back once you get from X phase to Y phase” That could be from seed stage to a larger Series A financing need, or to progress from pre-product to post-revenue.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

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

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

When Homebrew launched two years ago, Satya and I knew that smart hardware was going to be important to our Bottom Up Economy thesis but also that neither of us yet had meaningful experience working alongside the best hardware entrepreneurs at the seed stage where we invest. Then Make Investments. Write Lead Checks 2014-15.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Cofounder Incubator Leadership 48

Hippoland

JUNE 26, 2016

Check out my side project Hustleathon , which helps founders get over their fear of rejection. I’m a seed investor – what would I expect? If you are super duper early and don’t have meaningful revenue, show me what you’ve learned by testing the market. If you’re a post-seed company, I also want to see your data over time.

Email 91

Email Seed Stage Cofounder Demand 91

Agile VC

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Objective Logistics has created a game layer on top of very sophisticated scheduling algorithms which increase revenue, save time, and improve customer and staff satisfaction. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. We’re psyched to help in whatever small ways we can.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 100

Agile VC

JANUARY 21, 2015

Note: This post also published at NextView’s blog for seed stage companies The View From Seed. A population of founders, employees, investors, advisors, and others all aligned in trying to build large disruptive businesses is naturally prone to lofty, even over-the-top language. How can we put things into context?

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Seed Stage Employee PR 100

Hippoland

JULY 19, 2016

For most companies, growing your revenue (or user base for consumer apps) while you’re fundraising is incredibly important, especially since the typical raise will span over a couple of months (in a good case scenario). However, for seed stage companies that have small teams, this is incredibly difficult.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Cofounder Acquisition Early Stage 48

View from Seed

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 120

Agile VC

JUNE 17, 2015

We were a profitable company at that point with nearly $200M annualized revenue, one of the first tech companies to IPO after the dot-com bubble. We’re hearing more about people new to startups asking their seed stage company how many months of severance is included in their package.

Startup 100

Startup Cofounder Seed Stage IPO 100

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

David Cohen

JULY 28, 2013

He ended up not only being interested, but actually becoming a cofounder. I’m not saying this is better or worse than how seed funding happens in the US, but it does seem to cause more UK entrepreneurs to self-fund, bootstrap, focus on revenue earlier than might be natural–or simply decide to pursue their business in the US.

Seed Stage 62

Seed Stage New York Cofounder Bootstrapping 62

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

As a founder, it feels like a long time, but it’s really a blip on the radar in the scheme of things. Actually, growth equity firms I find are best at this, because they have very specific financial criteria that they look for, such as ranges for revenue, ebitda, growth, etc. We focus on investing in seed stage companies.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

Jeff Hilimire

AUGUST 30, 2013

and The Coca-Cola Co., By providing very early — or seed-stage — capital, Cummings hopes to give the B2C startups the breathing room to achieve financial milestones that would make them more palatable to investors higher up the food chain. “If attract graphic design, animation and digital media talent to the city.

Atlanta 77

Atlanta B2C Georgia Los Angeles 77

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I would point readers to Martin Kleppmann’s useful blog post with graphs illustrating the effects of a valuation cap on entrepreneurs, seed investors and later-round (typically VC) investors. Valuation caps can come into play in settings other than seed-stage convertible note financing rounds.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

But outcome-differentiation is probably lacking – people who use Mailchimp use it to increase revenue by selling more products / services via their emails. So, for a VC, it’s not good enough to have a winner “only return 10x” even though that would be a phenomenal outcome for a founder or even an angel.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

Rob Go

OCTOBER 22, 2012

From an exit standpoint, this means companies that could generates $100M+ in revenue and be worth over $1B in value. Many venture capitalists have been founders or investors in very big companies and have made lots of money themselves. This is motivated by a bunch of things. The first and most important, is probably fund math.

Seed Stage 52

Seed Stage Cofounder Venture Capital Valuation 52