Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. 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. What gives? Am I a hypocrite? They have a large-ish fund.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

Startups need to understand how to manage the seed money they receive from investors and VCs. A major reason for incorporating is to have the founders assign their IP to the company; it is far easier for a business to contract with a startup when the IP is owned by one entity. Board and Stockholder Votes. .

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

At this level, as a founder you feel SO CLOSE to profitability that many say, “I’m going to keep my costs really low this year to try and hit profitability. If you had huge customer growth but just didn’t focus on revenue that’s a different story. They both raised angel / seed money of $1.5

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search. When were done we followed your advice and got out of the building and started talking to potential users and customers.” He replied, “Well the customers are not acting like we predicted in our plan!

Business Model 329

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 329

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2018

by Melvin Wong , founder of Kodorra. This is why it is especially important for startup founders to seek help to guide them through the tedious and often perilous process of starting and growing a company. Founded in 2011 and based out of London, F6S is one of the world’s largest founders’ online communities with over 2.7

Incubator 127

Incubator South America San Francisco Chile 127

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. VCs don’t have the same net worth litmus test and great entrepreneurs have a ton of sources for seed money to get financed very early. Few people have it. You have kids, a mortgage, MBA debt? Not my problem.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Version One Ventures

JULY 22, 2014

More money is flowing in from a new crop of angels, newly wealthy from a number of tech IPOs. AngelList makes it easier for founders to reach angels and there are hundreds of accelerators and incubators to choose from. If not, revenue from your customers will be your best source of financing. Is your opportunity at least $100M?

Finance 167

Finance Seed Money Bootstrapping Angel Investor 167

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 30, 2018

by Adam Witty, Founder and CEO of Advantage | ForbesBooks. They’re discovering that telling their story, whether via a 280-word tweet, a 280-line speech or a 280-page book, may be the most effective way for them to connect with potential customers. With an effective story, your company lives in the minds of customers.

Seed Money 157

Seed Money Audience America Founder 157

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company? And they might give a premium if the team has been around a longer period of time, has built some hard-to-build proprietary technology or has some customer traction.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

At the same time, seed money is still abundant due to the proliferation of micro VC over the past few years. The challenge here is that founders – having an easy time raising their seed rounds and maybe Series A – can be lulled into thinking that each subsequent round will be just as easy.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Up and Running

MAY 12, 2015

Drawing on advice from our own Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and Josh Cochrane, our VP of Product Development, I’ve broken down a few of the different options for entrepreneurs looking for feedback on their pitch. The three who agreed to do it had some semblance of a relationship with the founders beforehand.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor Software Review Technical Cofounder Due Diligence 60

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

According to Devon Fanfair, co-founder of startup studio Devland , “building companies that demonstrate enterprise value is the best path for new builders because they generate revenue with very little investment. The world is so saturated with seed money right now that it’s easy to lose sight of what running a business is all about.

Startup 130

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 130

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 18, 2014

Founder.org founder Michael Baum. In Paris today at the World Founder Forum he announced the top 10 student team winners who split $1 million in seed money prizes. When you create a simple solution to a complex problem and put it in front of a customer, they often don’t believe you. They laughed at us.

Founder 60

Founder Entrepreneur North America Startup 60

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

According to Devon Fanfair, co-founder of startup studio Devland , “building companies that demonstrate enterprise value is the best path for new builders because they generate revenue with very little investment. The world is so saturated with seed money right now that it’s easy to lose sight of what running a business is all about.

Startup 78

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 78

Up and Running

MAY 30, 2018

My first company, Digital-Tutors , grew from a startup in my living room with $54 of my own seed money into a multi-million-dollar business with customers around the world. I was proud of the fact that we never used any outside investment money to grow the company. A leader’s winning formula.

Startup 107

Startup Seed Money Employee Conversion 107

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

You’d imagine that every founder was getting rich. Actually, positive outcomes for founders are quite rare. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. You have secret doubts about your co-founder. I didn’t want to disappoint my customers. It’s not. I know, right?

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

A company raises $1m of seed money from angels in a convertible note with a $6m cap. Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. ” They are running out of money.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. At the beginning, it’s important to do things that don’t scale, especially when it comes to customer acquisition. As Paul Graham said , “startups take off because the founders make them take off.

Guerilla 158

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 158

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. And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. Ideally you want between two and four founders.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Kodorra

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

This is why it is especially important for startup founders to seek help to guide them through the tedious and often perilous process of starting and growing a company. With hundreds of incubation and acceleration programs listed on the site, a startup founder can easily find the best program to apply for.

Incubator 40

Incubator Programming San Francisco Chile 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

By John Williams Fast Company magazine recently reported that PayPal founder Paul Thiel is giving away $100,000 to twenty-four young men and women to finance startup businesses. But when your only capital is your hard-earned seed money, every penny that goes out will be scrutinized painfully. Customer service is free.

Sweat Equity 231

Sweat Equity Startup Angel Investor Seed Money 231

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 16, 2018

On the other hand, some founders *literally* aren't fundraising. You think you're getting this big fat check compared to the seed money you raised, but they're actually doing something more like dipping their toes in the water. A lot of founders worry about information sharing. It's less signal than you think.

Due Diligence 74

Due Diligence Early Stage Term Sheet Vesting 74

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. At the beginning, it’s important to do things that don’t scale, especially when it comes to customer acquisition. As Paul Graham said , “startups take off because the founders make them take off.

Guerilla 91

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 91

www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Enter you email address and zip code to set up customized email alerts. Top Startup Advisor Paul Graham Just Warned Against Taking Googles Money. Google Ventures has made more than 100 seed investments, Maris said, including some past and present Y Combinator companies, and is making one to two new ones a week. Document Center.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

“I wouldn’t expect anyone except seed investors to complain about it,” Graham says. “Founders don’t think their problems are due to trends. And in fact, overall trends are a second-order effect for founders.” Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily. Sarah Lacy.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. Custom work doesnt scale.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

TL;DR: Using a “tiered” valuation cap structure in a convertible note or SAFE can provide flexibility that bridges the gap between (i) what founders expect their company to be worth in the near future, and (ii) what investors are comfortable accepting now. Background Reading: The best seed round structure is the one that closes.

Valuation 48

Valuation Dilution Silicon Valley Seed Stage 48

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). You raised angel money.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

You’d imagine that every founder was getting rich. Actually, positive outcomes for founders are quite rare. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum.

Monaco 122

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 122

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Every model has a happy outcome when a founder is trying to convince himself or herself, a team, an investor, or even a spouse that the venture ahead is a good idea. million customers. If the founders aren’t drawing market salaries, then true profitability may be overstated. million is a far more complex task.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 23, 2018

They can’t rely on existing markets or customer awareness to help generate interest. Customers can be reluctant to try something they don’t understand or they haven’t seen before. While it’s true that you sometimes need to spend money to make money, the amount of money you need to spend is where things get murkier.

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Startup Seattle Social Media 69

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

The idea has value, but the implementation and design model you follow (customer feedback loop) is where the traction will come from. link] What’s the right amount of seed money to raise? Dividing equity between founders » Home. Finding cofounders is a biggy, and because 99.9% blog comments powered by Disqus.

Stealth 68

Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

www.paulgraham.com

AUGUST 1, 2008

In the last batch of startups we funded, we had several founders who said theyd thought of applying before, but werent sure and got jobs instead. This is a problem for founders, because it makes raising money take longer and cost more in legal fees. Founders and investors have different attitudes to risk.

Web 54

Web Startup Silicon Valley Technical Review 54

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 16, 2016

William Bygrave, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College, cautioned in an article for The Wall Street Journal: What we really don’t want to do is literally spend a year or more essentially writing a business plan without knowing we have actual customers. Myth #2: You need a lot of money to start.

Washington 48

Washington Incubator Cofounder Angel Investor 48

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

For most companies, this means top-line revenue, but in some cases it’s more about numbers of active users or number of customers. You might do unscalable, hacky things to get customers. Some founders are able to do this, but most end up struggling, or doing it way too late.

Product 28

Product Seed Stage Seed Money Metrics 28