View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. No good investor would want the founder/CEO of a company to have insufficient ownership by the series A, and every founder I know is sensitive to taking too much dilution.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

It turns out capital is not a weapon, especially in the early stages of building a business, and even experienced founders who can raise huge sums often realize this and right-size their asks. And yes, a seed fund may have a tougher time holding on to their ownership down the road, and thus get diluted down. But guess what?

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies. The challenge with pre-seed rounds is that pricing will sometimes be pretty dilutive. So your net dilution may end up worse and you may miss out on working with a really hands-on pre-seed partner early in your company’s life.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round. NVV: Is there any dilution? As an aside, it’s probably more important if there’s a significant hardware component to the product.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

JULY 15, 2020

Some early stage businesses may even be able to get to CFBE fairly quickly. Mid-stage portfolios can be more acutely impacted if many companies have fat cost structures and were investing heavily in growth that is not materializing. Other companies are great businesses, but are effectively encountering a dilution event.

Portfolio 215

Portfolio IRR Dilution Distribution 215

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

When I started out in VC, there was a strong consensus around early stage investors that the “right” level of ownership was 20%. Fast forward 12 years or so and I’m seeing early stage funds exhibit some of the same dynamics around ownership. Pretty much every firm was targeting at least 20% ownership.

Dilution 136

Dilution Early Stage Business Model Founder 136

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Seed investors are being compensated for the risk because later-stage investors are paying higher prices, and diluting early-stage investors less.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319