View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

This includes things like: Making intros to portfolio companies that are potential customers. In a way, customer intros are always good, so this could also be done earlier in the process. Talking to your customers. A couple thoughts come out of this.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

View from Seed

JUNE 23, 2022

Automating their end-to-end eCommerce operations (from managing inventory to order fulfillment to customer service). RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? Creating storefronts for influencers that also connect to their social commerce platforms (e.g. And your least?

DC 156

DC Cambodia eCommerce Social Media 156

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Hopefully, by bringing on strong partners early, you will get great advice and support to minimize your overall dilution down the road. They find weak pre-seed investors or angels who are almost predatory in their early stage pricing and add no value. Experienced founders: Consumer.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

When Jay joined our team back in 2014, we were the first early-stage VC in Boston to have a dedicated head of platform and one of the first handful in the country to do so. Internally to our portfolio, platform means developing “products” to help our portfolio companies get from zero to one on their most critical seed stage priorities.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

When Jay joined our team back in 2014, we were the first early-stage VC in Boston to have a dedicated head of platform and one of the first handful in the country to do so. Internally to our portfolio, platform means developing “products” to help our portfolio companies get from zero to one on their most critical seed stage priorities.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage Portfolio 120

View from Seed

JULY 13, 2022

RH: Who are your customers? CN: Subscription businesses, b uy now pay laters, a ny business that transacts on a recurring basis with the customers. RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? And your least?

Early Stage 156

Early Stage Cofounder San Francisco Philadelphia 156

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

But cannabis retailers have their own unique set of needs in facilitating customer transactions, both managing online and offline interactions, as well as ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements of this ever-evolving new category. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 234

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 234

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2022

Stelios has a compelling vision for nudgem that allows ecommerce merchants to gather data across the entire user journey and unify those data points to build enriched customer profiles for robust personalization.” RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder?

eCommerce 156

eCommerce Greece Early Stage SMS 156

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

But cannabis retailers have their own unique set of needs in facilitating customer transactions, both managing online and offline interactions, as well as ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements of this ever-evolving new category. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 202

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 202

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

But cannabis retailers have their own unique set of needs in facilitating customer transactions, both managing online and offline interactions, as well as ensuring compliance with the regulatory requirements of this ever-evolving new category. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 156

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

Getting more customers. Is this something that will be used every single day by a target set of customers? For this reason, we’ve partnered with Guild members who have experience across different kinds of customers, business models, and distribution channels. Building a great product. Not running out of money. by Tapjoy).

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

This is for the early-stage companies — the entrepreneurs with great ideas and tireless work ethics who feel like they’ve emailed half of the country’s news outlets with nothing but the rare “thanks, but not interested” reply to show for it. The irony hurts. And don’t pitch a Boston newspaper on your San Francisco startup. Pitch late.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

We have a bias towards very early stage investing for a bunch of reasons, but it’s not easy. It’s often a good idea for founders to find a way to build something and get some early market validation before raising outside capital. I think this stage, more than others, is very dependent on the individual investor.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

On the heels of our research on HBS entrepreneurs , NextView’s Dimitri Dadiomov (HBS ’15) interviewed several top founders on the early stages of their companies. On Launching and Finding Early Traction. How did you find your first customers and hit important, early milestones?

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

View from Seed

MAY 24, 2019

Probably the weakest strategy as an early stage company is to try to be a “swiss army knife”. If they have a pretty big existing installed base of customers, those users are probably willing to live with a sub-par version of a feature for the convenience of not switching.

Early Stage 215

Early Stage Differentiation Product Founder 215

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 177

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 177

View from Seed

JULY 21, 2022

RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? EP: Getting to live in the mindset that everything is “figure-outable” has by far been my favorite part of being an early-stage founder. And your least?

Early Stage 156

Early Stage San Francisco Michigan Portfolio 156

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

But even well-prepared startups that have laid out strategies for scaling can find themselves scrambling in the face of a fast-growing customer base. Founders need to make sure the quality of the startup’s offerings remains high and provide adequate sales and service support for prospective customers and new users.

Metrics 120

Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

For most of my career, I’ve served startups and early-stage companies as an operating executive or advisor. At a startup, especially in the early stages, there’s always something to optimize, something to fix, and something to change and improve upon. When should founders hire one? Based on what criteria?

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

View from Seed

JULY 22, 2020

Early stage companies often debate what they ought to be prioritizing in the early days. Early stage investors ask themselves a similar question. This may allow you to monetize your customers better by improving retention and increasing the ROI on your marketing spend. So here we go. Do you focus on team?

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Retention PR Founder 254

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 156

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2022

Our technology platform does not require the animal itself at any stage, is more sustainable, ethical, and the negative side effects of traditional animal agriculture are eliminated. . RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? And your least?

California 296

California Cofounder Germany Early Stage 296

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Every single pitch should, but unfortunately often don’t, contain specific, succinct details about WHO the customers/end-users are, WHAT problem is being solved, and HOW the company’s product/service accomplishes it. Mistake #1: Not clearly articulating the basics in the beginning of a pitch.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Seed Stage 308

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

they can range from customer acquisition, product engagement/stickiness, or business model. growth/revenue target) to get to the next stage/financing round. E.g. For an e-commerce company, anything that involves payments/its ability to charge customers could clear the threshold.

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

View from Seed

JUNE 21, 2022

We believe that Nuw represents a huge leap in this market by enabling a near frictionless peer-to-peer model that their early customers absolutely love!” RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? ” – Rob Go. Get to know the business.

Ireland 156

Ireland Europe Early Stage Founder 156

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2019

All early stage venture firms essentially look at some weighting of team, market, product, and traction. JDCC stands for “Jaw-Dropping customer value through a Competition-Crushing business model.”. Like other investors, we at NextView have a number of frameworks which we use to evaluate decisions on making new investments.

Boston 149

Boston B2B Early Stage Portfolio 149

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

The sales team was still figuring out who we should sell to and how, so they would call everybody in an effort to figure out how the sales process worked, who would close, and who would go on to become a happy customer. Is there a certain set of traits or even an ideal profile of a great early-stage startup marketer? .

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand. Although this seems obvious, you’d be surprised how many early stage companies immediately invest too much time and energy to build a product that doesn’t really prove anything.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

There is no sub-prime market in early-stage investing. The best way to help is (a) recruiting great team members and (b) finding customers that will actually close. Because of this, focus on startups that are either (a) going after something really, really big or (b) can get a lot of traction really, really quickly.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

There is no sub-prime market in early-stage investing. The best way to help is (a) recruiting great team members and (b) finding customers that will actually close. Because of this, focus on startups that are either (a) going after something really, really big or (b) can get a lot of traction really, really quickly.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 21, 2022

After graduation, I spent the next 9 years working at a bank, an early-stage b2b fintech startup, and a growth-stage mortgage startup. Most think of a fintech startup in terms of a funnel; a consumer enters the top and, through a mix of tech and human interaction, hopefully, makes their way to the bottom as a paying customer.

B2B 120

B2B Germany Stock Engineer 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

A team of great domain experts or very senior team members may struggle mightily when tasked with the early stage challenges of building and selling a disruptive product. Have a jaw dropping customer value proposition with a competition crushing business model. 10X Better, Faster, Cheaper / Monopoly Potential.

Seed Stage 254

Seed Stage Early Stage Founder Portfolio 254

View from Seed

JULY 26, 2022

RH: Who are your customers? RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? I’m going to let our customers dictate what that looks like from a product perspective – but that may include migrating into earlier or later stages of the human development lifecycle. . And your least?

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Later Stage Early Stage Founder 156

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Fuzzy Compass connects you directly to the travel influencers behind the world’s most popular travel blogs, websites, and Instagram accounts to plan customized trips. This is especially important early on when the business direction might pivot and you’re doing all you can to get your name out to investors and early customers.

Founder 120

Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Your company is likely both one step removed from many brand name B2B customers and a step removed from reporters and press that are excited to tell your story. In a competitive selection process, customers like the thought of buying from a company with positive momentum that everyone seems to be talking about it.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

View from Seed

DECEMBER 1, 2015

In our latest episode, Ben Einstein , Founder/Partner of BOLT , an early-stage VC investing in hardware startups, shares the stories of several connected devices and hardware companies and their tricks and challenges. Acquiring initial customers (including one “magic” number Ben proposes for a hardware startup to reach).

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Early Stage Startup Channel 120