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. The industry certainly has many flaws.

Venture Capital 36

Venture Capital Cofounder Silicon Valley Government 36

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid Hoffman ) and sometimes it’s in a space where I’ve invested (like mobility and city innovation with Bird’s Travis VanderZanden , one of our portfolio founders.) But Quibi has raised $1.4

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Los Angeles Silicon Valley Mobile Video 244

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

C-Corp largely because (i) VCs have historically favored C-Corps for nuanced tax and other reasons, and (ii) virtually all of the standardized legal infrastructure around startup finance and equity compensation assumes a C-Corp. However, times are changing. VCs are also growing more comfortable with LLCs.

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Delaware LLC Startup Silicon Valley 48

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

TL:DR : This post aims to recap significant changes in the venture capital industry over the past ten years, and then make some [biased] predictions as to major forces at play in the next five years. However, all three shifts are related and can be summed up simply as: Geeks are Taking Over Venture Capital.

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Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

Entrepreneurship continues to be a sexy topic for governments, with every country worth its salt trying to create its own tech hub, mimicking Silicon Valley. Sean Seton-Rogers of PROfounders Capital recently claimed that of the more than 3,500 business plans they had received, his London, U.K. The list goes on.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

As we all know, the last ten years has seen a near-total collapse of the innovation cost curve, thanks to the perfect storm of open-source, cloud infrastructure, and “free” global distribution via search, social and app stores. Those VCs were nearly all situated in Silicon Valley and most companies couldn’t get very far without going to them.

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Silicon Valley Cost Startup Boston 97

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

San Antonio has Geekdom with USAA and Port San Antonio with the Air Force Cyber Command; Houston has The Ion with Rice University, Microsoft and NASA and The Cannon distributed across the city; Dallas has Pegasus Park with UT Southwestern and Lyda Hill Philanthropies; and Austin has Capital Factory with the Army Futures Command.

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Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

Loading… Personal Finance. Personal Finance. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com. Theres a power struggle underway in Silicon Valley. » More. » More.

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Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

I was still unprepared; I had no idea that I also needed to learn about go-to-market strategy and distribution. Network strength is one of the reasons that people who want to build great software businesses have, and will continue to move to Silicon Valley. For example, MBA students take classes on accounting and finance.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

I was still unprepared; I had no idea that I also needed to learn about go-to-market strategy and distribution. Network strength is one of the reasons that people who want to build great software businesses have, and will continue to move to Silicon Valley. For example, MBA students take classes on accounting and finance.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Seed and Follow-on Financing – How do your finance it? At a glance, you can see how startup capital needs differ by markets, how distribution channels and demand creation activities differ by market, and even how VC’s assess risk and reward by market. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

I lovingly call him the curmudgeon of fintech – in this episode we go deep into how he is building a venture capital firm and practice, not just running a fund and how he views the world of fintech investing. One of the ones that really bothers me is how Venture Capitalists try and conflate what they do as being complicated.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

But, it wasn’t directionally wrong, looking at enormous multinational companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook which rose from the hallowed ground of Silicon Valley. Will the next company to raise $100M in financing just poach from decent seed-stage companies and pay triple the amount to lock up talent?

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San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.) Order Here. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

finance.fortune.cnn.com

AUGUST 21, 2012

Term Sheet The latest on private equity, M&A, deals and movements — from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. FORTUNE -- Its no secret that venture capitalists were hit hard by last decades dotcom bust, considering that median returns for 1998-2001 vintage funds are all underwater. Posted in: Venture Capital.

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Naming Term Sheet Private Equity Equity 49

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

Finally, and importantly, society is better off because Amazon makes the system for distributing books (and other products) vastly more productive, freeing up resources for other value-creating investments. The second is distribution —the ability to get product into the hands of customers. Plenty of headroom there!

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Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28

Lightspeed Venture Partners

DECEMBER 10, 2012

In the venture-backed startup world, there are a couple of types of firm that will lend to a startup, even a startup that is still losing money. Some banks, including Silicon Valley Bank and Comerica , specialize in funding startups and will lend against inventory, infrastructure or for general corporate purposes.

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Covenant Warrant Southern California Los Angeles 162

abovethecrowd.com

AUGUST 23, 2020

If you are looking past or through Covid — and why not, all of Wall Street is — the topic du jour in Silicon Valley is Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs. The traditional way of going public is systematically broken and is robbing Silicon Valley founders, employees, and investors of billions of dollars each year.

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IPO Silicon Valley Warrant Matching 118

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 23, 2014

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley, and Berlin’s hip coffee shops to East London’s Silicon Roundabout , the world is well versed in the global innovation boom towns. Perhaps its no longer as surprising, but with 5,000 startups the Silicon Wadi (‘Valley’ in Hebrew) of the Mediterranean is certainly worth a mention.

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North Carolina Technical Review Cyprus Raleigh 168

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

What’s the concept of all of this that you’re talking about and then in financing? I just thought it was a good question to set the context of lean planning and when somebody should use it, because so many of our webinar attendees are in the process of getting financing. What distribution, are we using gems or are we a web?

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Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Financing, that is.I One truth of start-up financing is that it generally takes twice as long and twice as much money to accomplish your milestones. Most companies dont come close to their rose colored financial models prepared when going out for Series A financing. ProfessorVC.

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San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup, popularized this strategy for web applications. If you’re working closely with partners who are helping you distribute your product, it’s especially important to make sure they understand who you are, how you speak, and who you serve. venture capital.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing. You can register for the next roundtable here.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities - $500 million to $1 billion. So, please note the TAM Analysis is a vitally important aspect of building any financing strategy. Raymond is wondering why he cannot attract financing. You can register for the next roundtable here.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

I've been in venture now twice. I was in Boston, working for the first time in venture capital as an analyst for this guy who was incredible and an amazing mentor. In a place where there are many, many venture capital firms, he couldn't think of a single female general partner. What's the message?

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Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

This is the second of three posts about the rise of “risk capital” and how it came to be associated with what became Silicon Valley. ———————– The First Valley IPO’s Silicon Valley first caught the eyes of east coast investors in the late 1950’s when the valleys first three IPO’s happened: Varian in 1956, Hewlett Packard in 1957, and Ampex in 1958.

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Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 125

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

Today, Europe and Israel have generated 23 public companies worth $231B and private cloud financing reached c. The $900M of SaaS VC funding in 2015 now represents less than Europe's largest financing round, with Celonis raising $1B in June this year. Private cloud companies in the US, Europe and Israel have raised a whopping $78B YTD.

Global 62

Global Europe Software Review 62

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

If there’s one video 1st time founders should watch to understand VC financing it’s this one – [link]. “So many folks in the venture capital business are sheep that just want to follow the herd. Don’t let Silicon Valley fool you—millenials are the least entrepreneurial generation | Quartz – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 90

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

proving that this “consumer purchase” is, in fact, a journey not a one-time use) Our leadership and vision earned marquee partnerships and champions in both the public & private sectors from the United Way of Central Texas, Partners in Parenting, Promise Venture Studio, IDEO and more! He then called me “a real bone-crusher of a founder”.

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Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

VC Adventure

APRIL 16, 2020

This is a positive step, and more like it, which will allow broader distribution of funds available, need to be taken. It’s about rebuilding the infrastructure of community finance and taking advantage of all the assets and conduits we have to help small businesses. billion venture capital firm in Boulder, Colorado.

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Small Business SBA United States America 110

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We had a special edition of This Week in Venture Capital this week shooting out of the Next New Networks offices in New York. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital. We discussed NY vs. Silicon Valley and NY vs. Boston. We also discussed having distributed teams (e.g. Read more: MediaWeek.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Btw, the definition of each startup financing stage has changed in the last decade. These elements of the business model– revenue (pricing, pricing strategy), distribution channel, How to Get/Keep/Grow customers, Key Activities, Resources and Costs – are other, critical parts your start up needs to understand and have in place.

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Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Often times those involve trading within a venture capital portfolio or between two venture firms portfolios. But what about the case where both companies are well capitalized and doing well? CPF's major venture backer is Kleiner Perkins, who coincidentally, is also the majority equity holder in Kilowatt.

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Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs. We had a great private chat last week in my office about “how to be effective when using AngelList.&# As the company began to grow, brand confusion became an undeniable issue.

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Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Are Israeli companies on the verge of developing a repeatable playbook to scale their companies and become market leaders, not just acquisition fodder for the Silicon Valley giants? They spend more time on strategy, go-to-market, business development, and financing. But is all of that changing? We think so.

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Cofounder Technical Review United States 20