Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2014

A good place to start looking is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is a lifeline for high-tech startups. A more general approach is to check out Grants.gov , which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 federal grant programs. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk.

Seed Money 242

Seed Money SBIR Dilution Government 242

Gust

MAY 11, 2014

A good place to start looking is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is a lifeline for high-tech startups. A more general approach is to check out Grants.gov , which is a searchable directory of more than 1,000 federal grant programs. To the investors, it means less dilution and lower overall risk.

Seed Money 164

Seed Money SBIR Dilution Government 164

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

Chris Dixon provided some commentary on Twitter that he believes I missed “the most important point about fund size.&# He’s specifically referring to his point of view that entrepreneurs shouldn’t take seed money from “big VC’s&# (he defines them as > $100 million). Let me explain: 1.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. So they set up seed programs that allowed for rapid decisions for $500k or less, often done as convertible debt for both speed and cost reasons.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

You need three things to create a successful startup: to start withgood people, to make something customers actually want, and to spendas little money as possible. The woman in charge of sales was so tenacious that I used to feelsorry for potential customers on the phone with her. Paul Erdos wasparticularly good at this.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

It wasnt because they werent accredited investors that I didntask my parents for seed money, though. When we were starting Viaweb,I didnt know about the concept of an accredited investor, anddidnt stop to think about the value of investors connections.The reason I didnt take money from my parents was that I didntwant them to lose it.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76