View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston. 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.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 17, 2015

These days most startups need only a fraction of that to launch – our idea stage partners get to significant traction within a year on a £250k investment – which means there isn’t much money to hire a team and the founders have to cover a lot more of the bases themselves.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

This is also what I advise entrepreneurs when discussing dilution and valuation — think of the bigger picture and the end game of what you are looking to build — and who will help you get there.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Examples of some leaders in this space include Ron Conway in Silicon Valley and Brian Cohen , chairman of the New York Angels, who each may have over 500 startups in their portfolio. This can cause early investor dilution, lower ultimate returns or leave the startup stranded.

Angel Investor 260

Angel Investor Silicon Valley Startup Portfolio 260

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Benefits: Non-dilutive, flexible credit offerings that fit SMB or enterprise SaaS. Additionally, portfolio companies are able to access competitive and often non-dilutive financing by monetizing an unavoidable expense that is being paid to its current processors, thus yielding a mutual benefit for both parties. over next 12 months.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). A rounds back then seemed to be anywhere from $2-3 million (LA or NYC) or up to $5 million in Silicon Valley. $5

Cap Table 399

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Finance 399

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

You can get cash without diluting your ownership in the company. In 1M/1M, I teach the EJ Methodology which is based on my Entrepreneur Journeys research, and emphasize bootstrapping, idea validation, and crisp positioning as some of the core principles of building strong fundamentals in early stage ventures.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

Some days in Silicon Valley it feels like there are more investors than there are entrepreneurs. Founders typically get their equity in a company once — at the time of founding and then get diluted with each subsequent round of financing. This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

Some days in Silicon Valley it feels like there are more investors than there are entrepreneurs. Founders typically get their equity in a company once — at the time of founding and then get diluted with each subsequent round of financing. This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

So embedded is this conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley that it feels like heresy to even question it. Conventional wisdom says that you gain far more in working as a team than you lose by diluted by half before you start. I wrote about many of the early-stage startup mistakes here.

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Venture Chronicles

MAY 26, 2010

Back in March, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz wrote a post called The Case For The Fat Startup, where he outlined some of the reasons why a fledging company might want to consider taking a large amount of funding — a strategy that contrasts with the ‘lean startup’ model that has become common in Silicon Valley.

Lean 40

Lean Early Stage Valuation Startup 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

Pro-rata rights are designed to protect investors from being diluted in future rounds of financing, which is an important way for VCs to protect the investments they make early that turn out to be super successful. Of course every firm breaks its rules to get into a deal, but they put pressure on you by saying that they can’t.

Entrepreneur 310

Entrepreneur Dilution Finance Silicon Valley 310

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Brentwood Associates [Silicon Valley] –> Founded in the early 70s and focused primarily on VC, Brentwood had big wins in both IT like Wellfleet Communications (big chunk of what eventually became Nortel) and WebTV (part of Microsoft) and healthcare (various businesses that make up a big chunk of what is now Medtronic and Baxter).

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

So if a VC wants to work with really talented early-stage entrepreneurs there are times where they have to be willing to seed fund them in order to be in the deal. They said that they didn’t want the extra money or dilution. A very well known early stage fund used to have a rule that they didn’t do follow ons.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

In 2019 and 2020, we saw hundreds of millions of dollars in non-dilutive funding go to Texas startups, most of which had never worked with the government before. The second wave of companies were mainly concentrated in Silicon Valley, and coincided with the rise of platforms (Google, Facebook, etc.)

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

SAFEs and Notes are optimized for speed and simplicity, with a cost of future uncertainty and dilution. Convertible notes/SAFEs are usually executed around times of maximal uncertainty for a company; the very early stages. They have their downsides, which are discussed in some of the above links.

Valuation 48

Valuation Dilution Silicon Valley Seed Stage 48

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). A-rounds back then seemed to be anywhere from $2-3 million (LA or NYC) or up to $5 million in Silicon Valley. $5

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Nearly every major Silicon Valley venture-capital firm has now invested in a B Corp ; maybe you will be one of them! I’m now researching non-dilutive funding for Action Tank , a startup I’m gestating to “Make America Functional Again”. Non-Dilutive Financing: Everything You Need to Know. Congratulations!

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

The Next Web

JANUARY 24, 2014

Think of Stanford and Sandhill road in Silicon Valley, Route 128 in Boston or IIT in Bangalore India. It could be an urban area where several startups settle (think Silicon Alley in London) or a grass roots organization like the famous ‘ home-brew computer club ‘ or even a hipster coffee place like Berlin’s Oberholz cafe.

Netherlands 143

Netherlands Technical Review Stock Silicon Valley 143

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

The last blogger in Silicon Valley. I was on a panel earlier this week with several other investors from Angel Groups in the Valley. The panel was a typical Silicon Valley shmoozefest hosted at a law firm with about 75+ attendees. ProfessorVC. Thursday, January 17, 2008. Touched by an Angel.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28

www.startupnorth.ca

OCTOBER 23, 2010

But for every founder, there is an early employee that takes near equal risks in joining an early-stage company. Table 1: Options Grants in Silicon Valley for Series A from VentureHacks The numbers from VentureHacks are guidelines. I would love to hear your thoughts on being a founder or an early employee.

Employee 41

Employee Founder Salary Equity 41

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

We networked to him through three sources – one of my [Harvard Business School] professors who knew him well, a Silicon Valley CEO friend of Michael’s who knew him, and a Fortune 500 CEO with whom Michael was friendly.

Preferred Stock 45

Preferred Stock Angel Investor Entrepreneur Common Stock 45

Pascal's View

JANUARY 28, 2010

The most important startup centers are Silicon Valley, metropolitan Boston, Seattle and Austin and, increasingly, northern Virginia. Among the reasons for the differences of approach to managing CEO change among venture investors is that early-stage players often forge a strong personal, as well as business relationship, with the CEO.

Management 53

Management Silicon Valley Virginia Seattle 53

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Ironically, Carreyou is not a Silicon Valley-focused reporter, and the success of the piece served as a wake-up call for other journalists who may have been struck by Unicorn fever. The typical Silicon Valley term sheet does not include such terms. It will also minimize future dilution. ” Go public.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

The last blogger in Silicon Valley. While my ownership stake in the company has been diluted through these financings (and the merger with uControl), my carried interest (paper value of my equity) has been going up with each increase in valuation. ProfessorVC. Monday, June 20, 2011. How much is enough? Financing, that is.I

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

When it comes to early stage investing – it’s all gut. Does it make sense to spend this time speaking about your early stage start-up when your product has not even entered Alpha testing? Typically its way more important to build product, and pull in early users to give you that feedback vs. speaking about it.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? How much equity do early employees typically get? link] 8/12/15.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 17, 2021

All of these early-stage companies, you’re taking a risk on a bet; a bet of a future market, a bet on what demand will look like, a bet on how this will evolve. But not to try to dilute your own thesis, your own theory of the game, your own way of saying, “This is the magic that we’re providing to our customers, to our ecosystem.”

Cofounder 69

Cofounder Differentiation Search Advertising 69

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 17, 2021

All of these early-stage companies, you’re taking a risk on a bet; a bet of a future market, a bet on what demand will look like, a bet on how this will evolve. But not to try to dilute your own thesis, your own theory of the game, your own way of saying, “This is the magic that we’re providing to our customers, to our ecosystem.”

Cofounder 69

Cofounder Differentiation Search Advertising 69

Austin Startup

AUGUST 1, 2017

While I work with a few companies in Silicon Valley, the vast majority of my clients are either in Austin or ecosystems that look much more like Austin than SV; “second tier” tech communities. And Silicon Valley produces, and likely will continue to produce, the lion share of those. It certainly provides more variety.

Liquidation Preference 48

Liquidation Preference Common Stock Valuation Silicon Valley 48

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Musk was the early winner taking the CEO role (for a brief period) in the merged company and the largest equity stake as well. Not surprisingly, the merger was highly dilutive, particularly to Confinity/PayPal shareholders. I was a Limited Partner in Angel Investors II (Ron Conway's angel fund) that was an investor in Confinity.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Small Business Force

OCTOBER 22, 2017

That includes startups, raising capital to help launch them past proof of concept; or early-stage companies needing capital to scale their business, or more mature businesses, raising capital for a major growth initiative. startup, early stage, mature company) no matter what kind of capital you’re trying to raise (e.g.,

Entrepreneur 25

Entrepreneur Angel Investor Valuation Investment Bankers 25

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Dilution is normal. They cant dilute you without diluting themselves justas much. And they wont dilute themselves unless they end up net ahead. So its your choicewhether you get diluted. [ Theres no real answer.There is no rational way to value an early stage startup. How much does an angel invest?

Angel Investor 63

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Dilution 63

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

And today, we have a group of early adopter premium members who are making good use of the program. I have learnt a great deal being based in the heart of Silicon Valley for the last 15 years, and having access to its inner circle. No, you do not need to come to Silicon Valley to learn entrepreneurship.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

A few years ago I was having dinner with a friend of mine who works for one of the biggest known Silicon Valley firms. He was grateful since I stuck with my first company, BuildOnline, well beyond when others would have (since I had taken great dilution during the dot com burst.). Large early stage rounds. •

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur Warrant Silicon Valley Early Stage 321

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

We’re building a True SaaS company in Boise, Idaho, not in Silicon Valley or not in New York. The pro is that it’s cheap capital and it’s not diluted. My name is John Bates. I’m the CEO of Executive Speaking Success and I’m a long-time entrepreneur. You have to invest in your company to grow.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95