YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

At this stage, the idea is pitched mainly to family and friends. It is here that the groundwork is laid and the business model developed. A business plan is drawn up to attract investors and partners. At this stage, the founder mainly raises funding from their sources or family and friends. 3) Company formation.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 143

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I thought I’d write a post about how to talk about valuation at a startup and give you some sense of what might be on the mind of the person considering funding you. It’s not uncommon for a VC to ask you how much capital you’ve raised and what the post-money valuation was on your last round. is to start with just the data.

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. That never would have happened 10 years ago.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. Leadership brand development. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.”

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

As an early stage investor in the world of gaming and metaverse technology at Remagine Ventures, I find these companies have the potential to set the agenda, become the potential platforms for developers building in this space and future acquirers/consolidators of startups building the next generation of the Internet.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions. As lifecycle investment partners, they have become weighted down with portfolios still recovering from the economic downturn. Super angels sometimes drive up valuations.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. There’s a reason why I refer to early-stage VC funding as vulture capital, and to be honest it’s pretty accurate. Focus on Product Development First.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In case you haven’t noticed it, the rapid evolution of do-it-yourself (DIY) facilities for developers, including 3-D printers, SketchUp and makerspaces such as TechShop , have scaled down the cost of prototypes and hardware design by an order of magnitude. Provides networking with cofounders and strategic partners.

Technical Cofounder 153

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). 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. Where are we today? ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m and hasn’t abated.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Today they released the first Startup Genome Report — a 67 page in-depth analysis on what makes early-stage Internet startups successful. longer to reach scale stage compared to a founding team of 2 and they are 2.3x

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Network with potential cofounders and strategic partners.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

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. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

New talk of capital efficiency is gratifying, but there was another lesson from pre-COVID-19 valuation struggles. Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation. Morality matters. These investors also tell you the founder’s role cuts both ways.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Many Asian entrepreneurs tell me that they want to raise funds from Silicon Valley firms because they perceive the valuations to be higher. But the problem with this is that most VCs in the Valley, especially early stage ones, only like to invest in companies that are within driving distance from their offices.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Partner with distributor or beneficiary. Friends and family.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

They have too many highly paid partners, fat fees, an aging corporate infrastructure and difficulty raising money from institutions. As lifecycle investment partners, they have become weighted down with portfolios still recovering from the economic downturn. Super angels sometimes drive up valuations.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. The program provides entrepreneurs the resources and mentoring they need to build their companies and develop their skills. The program provides entrepreneurs the resources and mentoring they need to build their companies and develop their skills.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies. My experience is that YC partners tend to encourage founders to hold off on taking more money shortly after getting into YC, arguing that their value will increase significantly in just a few months. The Pre-seed to Pre-traction A.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. These lost startups land higher valuations, have larger teams, outsource more product development and spend more money on customer acquisition than their peers.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Partner with distributor or beneficiary. Friends and family.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. 9) Accelerate portfolio company value.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . Another critical design consideration is your tech stack. 9) Accelerate portfolio company value.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

MARCH 28, 2012

The company teams they work with are usually highly motivated entrepreneurs trying to engage in extensive product and customer development efforts for a product they don’t typically have a full vision of, for a customer whose needs are opaque, and for a use case which is ambiguous.

Portfolio 144

Portfolio Private Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 144

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Valuations are out of control” is the mantra of others. Yes, VC / Startup Funding is up Massively If you look at how much VC firms have raised from Limited Partners (LPs) over the past 2 decades you’ll see that we’ve returned to a level that we haven’t seen since 1999. We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

Kent Bennett from Bessemer Venture Partners spoke to this initial slow down: “ We couldn’t do anything until we understood the new normal. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos saw a once $9 billion valuation dissolve into 12 felony fraud charges.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Do you work as a civil engineer on water projects and have great access to wealthy project developers? Make sure these people understand the nature of early-stage angel investing. And just like with VC’s – it is as much the partner your working wit as the group more broadly. How much do they like to invest?

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Fred Wilson has been a venture investor and director in Return Path since 2000, first with Flatiron Partners and then with Union Square Ventures. If you’re fortunate enough to have built a really strong early stage company, you will find yourself in the position of being able to pick from a number of potential venture investors.

Valuation 133

Valuation Term Sheet B2C Security 133

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

In other words, any correction in public valuations happened quickly and has now stabilized. From Series A and onwards, fundraising takes longer and valuations are typically below the expectations and benchmarks of 2015. This can set up a perfect storm if early-stage companies don’t manage their expectations and reality properly.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

In another we decended into a debate about our 5 year forecasts (I built the models so fielded most of these questions), and it became clear they probably weren’t the best fit for our Series A round (this group is no longer in the early-stage VC business). It was a pretty good valuation for the time. It was a $4.7M

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

See below for a good description of what we like to see in deals at Forward Partners and what makes us different from other VCs. An interview with Nic Brisbourne, Forward Partners. I think we differ a little from the rest of the industry, though, particularly with our focus on early stage companies.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Partner with distributor or beneficiary. Friends and family.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

There were massive late stage rounds because all the big funds wanted companies which already had traction. Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. Seed stage was super tough. As it happens almost every few years there was a new normal developing. Valuations are rising to match.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Up and Running

JUNE 14, 2017

Some believe in the all-in approach to product development: build an advanced app. Early stage idea validation can be accomplished without building an application. An entrepreneur can quantitatively test potential buyers’ real intentions and develop a genuine understanding their needs before building out the product (app).

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Distribution Redemption Demand 96

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

When you're getting started, sweat equity is often a critical component of your negotiating leverage with co-founders, early stage employees and others who aren't paid market wages to help you grow your business. Market value doesn't equal the sum of sweat equity invested by you and your partners.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Related sources include local business development agencies. Partner with beneficiary company. Friends and family.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149