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. You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. Some funds like Battery Ventures have bucked the trend by raising $750 million. Others will, too.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

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

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Along these lines, we are starting to hear serverless more and more from the Fortune 500 and see this trend reflected in the sales pipeline at iopipe which has gone from mostly startups to larger companies. On the seed side, we are seeing more firms focus on smaller and more concentrated portfolios instead of a spray and pray mentality.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

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). The reason I like deer-hunting businesses is that from my own experiences, I can see a clear path to bring in sales profitably. You charge a high enough (i.e. And that’s ok.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

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). The reason I like deer-hunting businesses is that from my own experiences, I can see a clear path to bring in sales profitably. You charge a high enough (i.e. And that’s ok.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

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

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

Having just moved to Austin from Boston, she thought adding African car sales could help, maybe thinking Africans looking for used cars can use it to find car deals. So I have embraced it fully, and though we are still in the early stages (seed stage), it’s the hardest thing I have ever done yet it’s the most fulfilling thing to me.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

I was reminded of this recently during a Twitter conversation I had recently with my friend Mike Volpe at Lola Travel , who executed this playbook masterfully several times. The main benefits of this strategy is mainly around closing sales. See his tweet below, but the entire thread is worth a read.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#. A round investor implies they are the “first institutional money in the deal.&# GRP Partners is stage agnostic. Why does vintage matter to you? And know that raising new VC funds right now is incredibly hard.

Venture Capital 269

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? How could they fit into your team? How do they view the world? Across any of these things, you want a concrete answer in the room.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 8, 2017

With ecommerce and marketplace companies those milestones relate to sales and unit economics and are easily demonstrable. natural language processing enables conversational interfaces). conversational interfaces to FAQ databases can improve customer service). To do that they must pass valuation milestones.

Artificial Inteligence 78

Artificial Inteligence eCommerce Early Stage Algorithm 78

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. A good CEO is likely a sales person by nature.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

” The theory is that the number of seed stage Series A deals led by venture capital firms is decreasing, meaning that it will be difficult for startups to raise a new round of financing. At the maturity date, there is a risk that investors may demand repayment.

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Perhaps you know a Marketer, a Developer or Sales Manager that could fill a gap in one of the startups you back. 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. What could be improved?

Pre-Money Valuation 187

Pre-Money Valuation Seed Stage IP Deal Flow 187

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Many people agreed and added that even the best sales meetings are also discussions and not pitches. Pitch 1: I had an awesome young entrepreneur come in this week to talk about his seed stage business.

Seed Stage 288

Seed Stage Advertising Widget Video 288

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

This is just the next phase of AngelList’s evolution into a one-stop shop for seed-stage companies and their backers. It’s clear that AngelList wants to help bring much of the transactional conversations and introductions that happen at the early stage of hiring and fundraising via word of mouth or in meetings online.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Because of this learning, we counsel our seed companies when raising a Series A to run a full & synchronized process with a broad array of firm sizes, types, and shades to determine what profile will become believers… and the same recommendation is true for seed stage startups raising their first round of capital, institutional or not.

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143

View from Seed

JANUARY 8, 2015

So the question needs to be asked: Should seed-stage startups even blog in the first place? Think of it this way: Even in the seed stage, before most companies find product-market fit, they understand the problems they’re trying to solve. It’s simply about solving problems.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Audience Leadership 120

View from Seed

JULY 28, 2016

Whether you’re pre-launch and need to build some initial interest or your marketing and sales machine is humming and you need a steady flow of prospects, it’s often a landing page at the center of it all. Of course, it’d be nice to list some big numbers, but at the seed stage, that’s just not possible.

Startup 136

Startup Seed Stage Cofounder Aggregator 136

YoungUpstarts

JULY 29, 2013

Hero mentors” have exited their businesses through a trade sale or IPO, sometimes multiple times; they offer inspiration to your team and coaching on strategy and tactics. We spend tremendous energy recruiting between 100 and 200 angels and seed-stage investors who may invest in your business. They have first priority.

Asia 207

Asia Singapore Cofounder Incubator 207

View from Seed

JANUARY 15, 2015

Seed-stage startups lack a history of proof but offer plenty of promise. After all, there’s a long list of shortcomings that we’ve all experienced in these types of meetings: Talkative teammates monopolize the conversation. Preferably, write it from the point of view of output or tactics, not results. Conclusion.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Restful Email 120

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. and Path Intelligence.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

We selected this benchmark because it reflects the phase in which companies have proven product viability, achieved initial product/market fit, and are now expanding sales and growing more complex operations. In the old model of Israeli startups, many Israeli executive teams would hire a vice president of sales in the U.S.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review United States 20

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. This is true, although interest is generally paid in stock upon conversion. Convertible debt? Convertible equity?

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. 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

www.seriesseed.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Series Seed Financing Documents : 1 Reblog. You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. of the Series Seed IRA in it's current form looks not complete to me. My quest is to simplify financing for seed stage investments.

Finance 40

Finance Term Sheet Vesting LLC 40

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

” In off the record conversations, many angels have expressed the urgency of self-discipline. Lastly, seed-stage entrepreneurs who have pushed for the maximum valuation possible haven’t done themselves any favors. NCR, a retail technology company, has acquired Retalix, a point of sale provider, for $650 million.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

Sure, if you’re Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, you can dictate your terms, but last I checked, most of the entrepreneurs First Round and most of the seed stage firms back don’t have that same kind of track record. Unfortunately, that’s really not the case for most startups. Many, if not the majority, are first time CEOs.

Equity 104

Equity Term Sheet Seed Stage Angel Investor 104

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2020

"I really like that resilience word," Robert Rhinehart told me in our conversation about his new organization, The Corona Initiative. You can listen to our conversation on Apple , Google, or wherever you like to download podcasts. In addition, a complete transcript of our conversation follows the show resources below.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Software Review Finance Technology 68

Rob Go

JULY 18, 2019

I was reminded of this recently during a Twitter conversation I had recently with my friend Mike Volpe at Lola Travel , who executed this playbook masterfully several times. The main benefits of this strategy is mainly around closing sales. See his tweet below, but the entire thread is worth a read.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 48

K9 Ventures

MARCH 23, 2011

There has been a lot of noise in the Valley lately about how most seed stage deals are now being done as convertible notes. The typical fix for this problem is to put in a cap in the note for the pre-money price for conversion. What percent of the company should the note holder get on conversion? Why would you do that!?

Pre-Money Valuation 132

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Liquidation Preference 132

View from Seed

MARCH 10, 2015

Tamiz Ahmed is a former product manager at Bleacher Report, where he helped build the successful app for sports fans, Team Stream , prior to the company’s nine-figure sale to Turner. But in general, startups need to be great about having direct customer conversations. Ahmed is a former Googler and the current founder of Nani.

Mobile 120

Mobile San Francisco Curation Seed Stage 120

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers. There is nothing on sales.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I still think it’s best to take money from Dave when you’re also partnered with a more focused, hands-on seed-stage VC who brings different things to the table – like more ability to write larger checks in a downturn (for one) or solving a deep crisis that involves super hands-on involvement. So I thought, WTF?

Valuation 292

Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers. turn customer feedback into sales and relationships. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. SaaS Sales Team Compensation â?? Startups For Sale. support, knowledgebase tool for your site. SnapEngage â?? live chat integrates with your apps. Zendesk â??

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53