Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. So we have five themes – Digital Life and Distribution are the other two.”. Distribution. I owe ya’ a 20 minute call (or in person next time I’m in San Diego). was starting.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 18, 2019

Amongst all the hustle, several women entrepreneurs have made their mark in the business industry. of venture capital investment in 2018. Another reason that makes it difficult for women to gather adequate funds is more than 89% of investors are male in the Venture Capital World, who often overlook women entrepreneurs.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Founder Cofounder United States 101

Feld Thoughts

JULY 15, 2013

Two of his latest articles talk about entrepreneurial density and venture capital. The Connection Between Venture Capital and Diverse, Dense Communities. For a long time I’ve suggested that an interesting measure of entrepreneurial density would be ((entrepreneurs + employees of startups) / total population).

Venture Capital 164

Venture Capital San Francisco Silicon Valley San Jose 164

www.geekwire.com

JULY 10, 2012

VENTURE CAPITAL. ENTREPRENEURS. You are here: Home / Startups / Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. But Seattle entrepreneur Aaron Roberts, a former engineer… Read More.

Venture Capital 42

Venture Capital Seattle Cofounder Software Engineering 42

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

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. We detail below the major categories of VC: VENTURE CAPITAL TYPOLOGY. FLEXIBLE VC VS. OTHER VENTURE CAPITAL MODELS.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. Distribution. How do you distribute your product or service? Common choices include manufacturing in-house, outsourcing, off-the-shelf parts.

Business Model 256

Business Model Distribution Viral Green 256

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006). I don’t plan to write the authoritative venture capital blog, just some anecdotes.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet Viral San Diego 274

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Feld Thoughts

JULY 28, 2014

The SBIC was instrumental in the creation of the venture capital business. If you want to see a fun quote on it, read A History of Silicon Valley which quotes: “ …many venture capital pioneers think the SBIC program did little to advance the art and practice of venture investing.

SBIC 142

SBIC Venture Capital Colorado SBA 142

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

A nonprofit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some nonprofit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Angel Investor 132

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 132

David Teten

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Paul Bianco, CEO of Graphite Financial *, says, “Entrepreneurs are characteristically optimistic by nature, and often present their board best-case-scenario budgets and projections. I encourage entrepreneurs to correct course with a re-forecast early and often. Entrepreneur Jeff Magnusson provides a sample agile budgeting workbook.

Agile 60

Agile Management Forecast Wisconsin 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. Yesterday I had lunch with a really interesting and capable serial entrepreneur who is raising his A round. Many serial entrepreneurs who have been burned would use something less kind than quotes. The topic of &# strategic&# investors came up.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2021

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. If the entrepreneur wants total control of their own venture, with no one looking over their shoulder, they should work within the limits of their own resources, a process called bootstrapping.

Term Sheet 433

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Startup 433

David Teten

JULY 12, 2012

Reach out to websites that profile entrepreneurs. For example, Mo.com interviews entrepreneurs from all industries to learn about small business experience and strategies. Under 30 CEO and Young Entrepreneur profile younger CEOs, while Mixergy allows entrepreneurs to share their experiences at part of an online business education.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital PR Technical Review Startup 122

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

These topics were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). And before he was an entrepreneur, when he was at a foundry, things were going really well, and he was promoted to foreman.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2013

A non-profit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some non-profit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Equity 207

Equity Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy 207

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 17, 2019

It’s become fashionable among some entrepreneurs, and even some venture capitalists, to badmouth the venture capital industry. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, venture capital is the worst method for financing scaling startups except for all the others. All seven raised venture capital.

Venture Capital 36

Venture Capital Cofounder Silicon Valley Government 36

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 9, 2021

These include: Venture capital. One of the most popular choices for startup entrepreneurs is working with a venture capitalist (VC). VCs tend to have a lot of available capital, making them an ideal choice if you’re looking for a big injection of cash – though they broker smaller deals as well. Crowdfunding.

Angel Investor 117

Angel Investor Equity Small Business Administration Venture Capital 117

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

A non-profit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some non-profit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Angel Investor 218

Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy Equity 218

Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2011

The resources required to start a company vary significantly , depending on the type of company and growth rate anticipated by the entrepreneur. An experienced software engineer, for example, can develop a new mobile app with his or her own resources and market the product on the web with very little capital. Venture Capital. $20

Angel Investor 179

Angel Investor Venture Capital Valuation Software Engineering 179

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2011

A non-profit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some non-profit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Angel Investor 238

Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy Equity 238

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 219

Silicon Valley Technical Review IPO Venture Capital 219

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,&# some mythical 2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Widget Revenue 309

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

As the venture capital industry has evolved, more and more seed investors are passing on traditionally “seed stage” startups because there isn’t enough traction. We see innovation becoming more broadly distributed over time, and outlier companies being built in more and more places. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

After all, entrepreneurs can do many good things, not least to create wealth and employment, pay taxes and help the balance of trade through exports. Sean Seton-Rogers of PROfounders Capital recently claimed that of the more than 3,500 business plans they had received, his London, U.K. Surely we can do better? The list goes on.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2015

A non-profit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some non-profit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Equity Technical Review Exit Strategy 120

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

As an entrepreneur himself, founding and operating printed circuit board factories in Taiwan, my father was debating between two places to immigrate to and build his next new venture: Los Angeles (“The Valley” aka San Fernando Valley) and Santa Clara (“Silicon Valley”).

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

I’ve been fortunate enough to be on both sides of the table, as an entrepreneur and a VC, and I’ve observed that most investors look for the same things I do when deciding whether to invest in a company. The market for our product was global, and we had unique advantages in terms of our product and how we distributed it to customers.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 106

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 8, 2013

I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". Few firms persist.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Early Stage Portfolio Private Equity 167

thebarefootvc

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The combination of mobile technology, sensors, robotics, and data analytics will create businesses that can empower billions of people around the world through decentralized and distributed networks where the “middlemen” are no longer required.

Kenya 109

Kenya Africa United States Global 109

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

As the venture capital space matures, I see a similar pattern emerging. In many ways, the beer market of the 90’s is like the venture market today. The elite top-tier firms have a sustainable competitive advantage with both entrepreneurs (and LPs alike) given brand, a vast network, and self-reinforcing success.

Seed Stage 191

Seed Stage Belgium Differentiation LP 191

Agile VC

OCTOBER 23, 2012

The same is not true for venture capital of course, since the underlying startups VCs invest in aren’t publicly selling their equity. Startup outcomes are a power law distribution rather than a standard distribution. But the median investment is almost certainly a middling return if not a modest loss.

LP 176

LP Accredited Investor Carried Interest Portfolio 176

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2009

It may seem full of legal definitions and terms but my two takeaways are: 1) Entrepreneurs need to know about these legal options, 2) Consulting an intellectual property attorney is a good move even before you get funded. Copyright gives you the right to prevent others from copying, distributing or making derivatives of your work.

Intellectual Property 216

Intellectual Property IP Software Review Non-disclosure Agreement 216

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for. The first step was to recruit a new management team.

Silicon Valley 147

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2010

A non-profit organization is generally defined as an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Some non-profit entrepreneurs think they can skip the whole plan, rather than just the sections on valuation, equity offered, and exit strategy.

Angel Investor 143

Angel Investor Technical Review Exit Strategy Equity 143

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

The naïve entrepreneur thinks he can relax, after he finally cashes the check from a professional investor, but in reality that’s when the work and the pressure starts. Angel and venture capital investors rarely just give you the cash, and stand back to wait for you to spend it the way you want. Do it with your eyes open.

Advisory Board 241

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Venture Capital Angel Investor 241

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

I like the guy because he’s credited with coining the word entrepreneur. According to Schumpter, capitalism is an evolutionary process where new industries and new companies continually emerge to knock out the old. As the venture capital business has come roaring back in the last 5 years, startups are awash in available capital.

Private Equity 326

Private Equity Metrics China Business Model 326