Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs. But the strangest thing about the decline in the seed stage only happened in the seed stage.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Phone Etiquette: Assess active listening skills and relationship-building abilities during phone conversations. Additionally, exploring competitors and partners on LinkedIn provides avenues to connect with potential candidates. Crucial metrics involve meaningful conversations initiated and meetings scheduled per day, week, and month.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market. Due diligence may seem like a drag, but partnering with an investor is a serious commitment, and you want to make sure that whoever you work with has built real conviction about you and your company. Having conversations with your existing investors.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. All were backed based on the sole criteria that they had the potential to make my limited partners a lot of money. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder.

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital Portfolio Cofounder Seed Stage 164

Agile VC

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I recently was having one of these conversations with an entrepreneur I’ve known for a couple years. In NextView’s case that’s seed stage internet and software companies. My partners and I at NextView know we’ll be wrong a decent chunk of the time, especially as seed stage investors.

Seed Stage 185

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 185

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.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

just having a sparring partner with a vested interest in your success can be useful. As per the chart above, I highly recommend keeping a founder dominated board at the seed stage. Whether the seed investor gets a permanent seat or a temporary seat will largely depend on: The size check they wrote (If it’s a $1.5m

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

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

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5%

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

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. Market Value.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 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. My partner Rob has previously written some thoughts on how to approach that conversation. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 22, 2012

I recently engaged in a conversation (over a few days) about the need for a seed stage company to have a board member other than the founder. One final thought – what about the VC’s fiduciary duties to its own investors (called limited partners). Might be kind of lonely, but completely legal.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Preferred Stock Founder Angel Investor 82

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. Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners spoke to this initial slow down: “ We couldn’t do anything until we understood the new normal.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We had another solid year filled with learning, growth, laughter, and new projects and partners. Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. Welcome to our annual boldstart recap and enterprise predictions letter. First check to Series B?—?congrats

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class. We’ve also become very adept at partnering with seed funds.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

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.

Seed Stage 216

Seed Stage Cofounder Later Stage Government 216

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

And funds also have investments from the partners of the firm. For example, my firm, GRP Partners, has a $200 million fund that was closed in March 2009 and we have 4 investment partners. A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 26, 2014

One of the exciting things about Forward Partners is that we’re blazing a trail in the investment world. We invest in 1-2 companies per quarter that join us for a year long programme, and we invest in late-seed stage companies too. I like that about us.

eCommerce 98

eCommerce Partner Incubator Early Stage 98

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 16, 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. Overall, at this point in the pitch, there should be a bit of a flip in the nature of the conversation. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *.

Seed Stage 192

Seed Stage Metrics PR Leadership 192

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. But the emphasis of our program is the direct one-on-one interaction with NextView partners to help push the company forward.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

He provided our initial seed funding to launch the website publicly on May 5, 2003. Not long after the product launch we began the initial conversations with VCs for a Series A round. We three partners are working hard. Great to see you had such a good partner to start with. That one didn’t end terribly well.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

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. For example, offer to intro the partner to one customer?—?fit Notably, it is a change in the typical rhythm of a day.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage Partner 120

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. It seems as though it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the blogosphere, but we see first-hand as entrepreneurs we’re investing in at NextView Ventures work through building their seed round syndicates, it really is a tough issue.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Haystack

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

And this week, the company announced it had raised a super-sized $20M Series A financing co-led by Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners and also Goldman Sachs. When I began investing in 2013, the Series A rounds were quite fast and furious after the seed rounds. The round was completed last fall, but announced this week.).

Seed Stage 106

Seed Stage Retention Finance Conversion 106

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

I had met Brendan that past Spring when I had just left Insight Data Science and he was at Greylock Partners. 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. Boris: So did you build it?

Seed Stage 127

Seed Stage Later Stage Algorithm API 127

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. Led by Oak Investment Partners with participation by General Catalyst, Sequoia, & Accel and others. Series D Preferred.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

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. AngelList also partnered with SecondMarket to create an investment vehicle for these investments. 2011 Holiday. Gift Guide.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 21, 2016

We’re all happy in the Forward Partners office this morning because one of our partner companies has just sent an update showing they’ve been growing at 30% per week for the last fourteen weeks. But it got me thinking about the trade off between short term clarity and long term upside in seed stage investing.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Venture Capital eCommerce Partner 60

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

For context, last year, based on questions from our existing portfolio, we launched two board deck templates for seed-stage startups. If we’re designing a great early-stage startup pitch from the ground up, what would that look like? So, we hope these two deck resources can address both issues.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Seed Capital Audience 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

In case you’re keeping score at home — that’s approximately the size of 65 US seed-stage funds managed by one company. Those two investments represent the equivalent of another 32 US seed-stage funds just in two deals. WeWork raised $690 million from Chinese investors, NextVR $80 million and Meta AR $50 million.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Ben's Blog

JANUARY 31, 2012

As founding CEO, I remember being quite excited to meet our financial backers and talk about how we could partner to build a great company. That excitement took a sharp downhill turn when one of the top partners said to me, in front of my co-founders, “When are you going to get a real CEO?”. That question tortured me for months.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Portfolio Cofounder Partner 78

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 9, 2023

A recap of the conversation is listed below, as well as the full webinar recording. Monitoring Tools for Brand Mentions Google Alerts: A free tool that allows you to set up alerts for mentions of your name, your partner's name, your brand, and even competitors. It's excellent for tracking mentions and opportunities for links.

SEO 78

SEO PR Reputation Engineer 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Pitch 1: I had an awesome young entrepreneur come in this week to talk about his seed stage business. He wasn’t really ready to raise VC but wanted to meet me early in his process and wanted some help thinking through potential angel or seed stage investors. It was a 1-on-1 meeting between the two of us.

Seed Stage 288

Seed Stage Advertising Widget Video 288

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

My partners and I at NextView talk a lot about how fundraising is about finding the true believers rather than convincing the skeptics. It’s not until you have had a broad array of conversations are you able to tease out the profile of (and subsequently specific) firm(s) which will be attracted to your company.

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143