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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Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

While a lot of the focus is on getting the initial ‘IN’, if the startup progressed to next level it’s important to keep everyone engaged on the conversation/ round. Any entrepreneur, especially if it’s my criteria, should be able to reach me. How to keep investors engaged following the initial pitch.

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Technical Review Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 166

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

“As a seed-stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction?” So, if you are going to pay up as a seed-stage investor, pay up for team. The observation here is that founders of great B2B companies more often than not have some demonstrable track record as operators or entrepreneurs.

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Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

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Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But my conversations in the private corridors on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is that many fund sizes will be smaller going forward. So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed. Others will, too.

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LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. Because this is all VCs do and if we intend to work with all of our fellow VCs and entrepreneurs when the rain ends and the sun shines again our reputations matter greatly. On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Flexible VC: Compensation-based.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. With the onset of COVID-19, we, along with the broader ecosystem of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, have been pushed to rapidly adapt, forge connections, and do our jobs remotely.

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Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

View from Seed

MAY 18, 2016

Here at NextView, we are strong proponents of creating a board at the seed stage. At the seed stage, we typically have three-person boards with two founders and one VC — though as companies grow at later stages, five-person boards and ultimately six- or seven-person boards become more common.

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Seed Stage Cofounder Later Stage Government 216

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 5, 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. But when you are having a real conversation with a real person, you always start by introducing yourself. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *.

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Seed Stage Engineer Restful Founder 218

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2018

Most entrepreneurs need capital to develop and grow their businesses; every investor must responsibly invest their funds with an eye on returns. This means that investors must convince the best entrepreneurs to take their money. Imagine having the tough conversation when things go wrong.

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Seed Stage Due Diligence Cofounder New York 114

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

This is probably the single-most important thing to me but as I mention here , it’s probably the number one area that entrepreneurs prepare the least for. Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). I can’t stress this one enough. And that’s ok.

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Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

This is probably the single-most important thing to me but as I mention here , it’s probably the number one area that entrepreneurs prepare the least for. Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). I can’t stress this one enough. And that’s ok.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. He provided our initial seed funding to launch the website publicly on May 5, 2003. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Read More ».

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Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Balanced growth vs. growth at all costs: No conversation about 2019 will be complete without considering the uncertain economic, financial and geopolitical environment in which we are currently living. On the seed side, we are seeing more firms focus on smaller and more concentrated portfolios instead of a spray and pray mentality.

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Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. And although the new conventional wisdom became that it’s best to avoid a larger firm’s seed investment dollars as it depresses the ability to raise a Series A, entrepreneurs (often wisely) did so anyway.

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Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

We at NextView Ventures invest exclusively in a startup’s seed-stage round , meaning that many if not most of our deals are made alongside individual angel investors. Doing so can help entrepreneurs not only secure funding in general but better recognize the pros and cons of taking money from certain types of individuals.

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View from Seed

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

But our conversations at NextView have always ended in excited chatter about the New York opportunity. And it was these conversations that I believe led to the team’s decision to add their own stubborn presence to stand up for seed-stage startups in NYC … me. 24% of all VC deals in NYC in ’15 were seed.

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Seed Stage New York New York City Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds. A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#.

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Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

It’s amazing how often people don’t get to that in the conversation. How do you position yourself as the latter if you’re a seed-stage startup founder? So the average entrepreneur’s biggest sell is to get a developer plugged into a different “internet of people” than Google can.

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Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

Austin Startup

JULY 29, 2018

It doesn’t make any sense to pitch a later stage, “growth” investor with your seed stage idea just like it doesn’t make much sense to pitch a new tech startup to an investor who only does oil & gas. It’s fun to meet new entrepreneurs and see what they are working on! VC’s are investing other people’s money?—?usually

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Angel Investor Technical Review Los Angeles Seed Stage 59

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. The NextView team enjoyed reviewing the literally hundreds and hundreds(!) The NextView Accelerator Doesn’t Operate in Strict Cohorts. .

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Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 29, 2020

You will make valuable connections with the country’s top tech entrepreneurs, innovators and investors. The top seed-stage tech and consumer startups in Texas. Hear from entrepreneurs who have raised the biggest funding rounds. Epic Office Hours Consider it speed dating with entrepreneurs. Why are we doing this?

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Texas San Antonio Global Dallas 97

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

I’ve come to believe a much less cynical view of investment due diligence, that, especially at the seed stage, it’s is best when followed the 80–20 rule. Diligence validates your gut to invest or (hopefully quickly) kills an opportunity that sounded reasonable but you just didn’t like.

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Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage Partner 120

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

Being expert in an area makes us better board members and hence better able to win deals with the best entrepreneurs. natural language processing enables conversational interfaces). conversational interfaces to FAQ databases can improve customer service). What capabilities do those techniques enable?

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Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

I find myself having similar conversations and really appreciate that you’ve written and shared this. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. [link] Dave Sandrowitz. Really insightful stuff. Read More ».

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Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

I sat across from Joanne and since the restaurant was noisy our table ended up having two separate conversations going. Joanne is awesome – if you don’t read her blog, you should start right now, especially if you are interested in NY entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs, food, and the thoughts of an amazing woman.

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Seed Stage Angel Investor Conversion Entrepreneur 133

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

But the reality is that “global warming” massively blunted the effects of winter and my prognosis for VC fundings of entrepreneurs in 2017–2018 is now very sunny indeed. In case you’re keeping score at home — that’s approximately the size of 65 US seed-stage funds managed by one company.

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Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

I don’t remember the exact conversation, but it went something like this: Me: I didn’t find three companies because my goal was to build a model that identifies more companies in a scalable way. At later stages, there’s more access to private data that they can benchmark against their own successful portfolio.

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Seed Stage Later Stage Algorithm API 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an Angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. It’s true that Angel investors typically do not present entrepreneurs with overly complicated deal structures, especially when compared to venture capitalists. Anti-dilution protection.

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Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 223

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

These help address a common question which we frequently receive from entrepreneurs about how to create startup pitch decks for this crucial financial milestone. For context, last year, based on questions from our existing portfolio, we launched two board deck templates for seed-stage startups.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Seed Capital Audience 120

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Entrepreneurs, business owners, senior managers at large corporations. Chances are if things are going good (or even not so good) those early stage startups you were so passionate about 12 or 18 months ago will be coming to the market again asking for more money. Plus, founders and entrepreneurs talk.

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Pre-Money Valuation Seed Stage IP Deal Flow 167

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

At the end of the day Kayak’s playing a key role in the online travel process, but it appears more of the revenue comes from filling top of the conversion funnel rather than the middle or bottom of it. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Distribution revenue is CPC and CPA. . Author howerl. Read More ».

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Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

techcrunch.com

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

There has been no shortage of controversy and criticism around the convertible note, a popular investing vehicle that’s used by seed stage and angel investors. The Founder Institute is a global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies. → Learn More.

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Equity San Francisco Technical Review Angel Investor 87

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

This one comes from personal experience, months into conversations and after reference checks (which went well) one particular VC decided he didn’t have commitment to the space. The bottom line is that being a seed stage founder is mostly a very thankless job. I fall into the latter category.

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Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Hearpreneur

MAY 4, 2019

What I’ve learned from my experiences as a four-time entrepreneur and an angel investor in more than thirty startups is that while it often looks as if world-altering business opportunities emerge by accident, they can, in fact, be discovered and scaled in a methodical way. Any advice you would give to entrepreneurs and business owners?

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Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur Venture Capital 66