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A VC’s take on the Season 5 premier of Sharktank

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Despite having over 500k downloads and making $450k in revenue over the last 21 months, he had only $185k left in the bank, which meant that he would be out of business in 90 days if he didn’t raise more money. pre money valuation and planned to use the money to market the app. pre money valuation).

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The Silliness Of Recapping Seed Rounds

Feld Thoughts

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. Here’s the scenario.

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ProfessorVC: Touched by an Angel

Professor VC

One of my comments was that we would likely see more institutionalization of angel groups and syndication of deals among groups. Again, I see nothing wrong with this, although entrepreneurs often prefer convertible debt as it defers the valuation discussion and leaves the Series A price for the venture firm to set.

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How to Fund a Startup

www.paulgraham.com

Startups valuations aresupposed to rise over time. So if youre going to sell cheap stockto eminent angels, do it early, when its natural for the companyto have a low valuation. Some angel investors join together in syndicates. Whatkind of anti-dilution protection do they want? In Boston thebiggest is the CommonAngels.

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How to Be an Angel Investor

www.paulgraham.com

Mechanics Angel investors often syndicate deals, which means they join togetherto invest on the same terms. In a syndicate there is usually a"lead" investor who negotiates the terms with the startup. Dont feel like you have to join a syndicate, though. The valuation determines how much stock you get. Dilution is normal.

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Time is the Enemy of All Deals

Both Sides of the Table

We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. million at a $15 million pre-money valuation. But we weren’t optimizing for dilution – we were building a $1 billion+ company and we wanted the runway to succeed. Yes, this was stupid.