David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

The CEO is ideally a successful serial entrepreneur who has taken a startup all the way to an exit. If you’re still interested, we meet; get to know one another; do mutual due diligence. Here’s How to Do Your Due Diligence First. This work is unpaid, as with any other startup at the pre-seed stage.

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They chose the name First Round Capital because they thought capital would be deployed most efficiently at smaller seed stage rounds considering the cost to build an internet business had come down drastically. The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

But with the massive growth of seed funds being raised and the huge value increase of prorata rights many more LPs have stepped in to take their VC (industry term is GP) position. What would you do as an LP fund if you backed a seed-stage GP who had a position in Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Angels / seed want their full prorata.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Diligence validates your gut to invest or (hopefully quickly) kills an opportunity that sounded reasonable but you just didn’t like. I’ve come to believe a much less cynical view of investment due diligence, that, especially at the seed stage, it’s is best when followed the 80–20 rule.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage Partner 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

After many years of working with angel investors seriously trying to find new ventures worthy of their hard-earned money, I find their frustration often exceeds that of entrepreneurs sincerely looking for financial help. They are not interested in research and development, or funding at the idea stage. Surprises during due diligence.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2010

If you are new to the startup space and angel investing, you probably don’t realize that some groups of angel investors charge entrepreneurs a fee to pitch to their groups. Entrepreneurs who expect to get a hit the first time (or first five times) they pitch their story cold are likely to be disappointed. Consider your startup stage.

Angel Groups 234

Angel Groups Entrepreneur Angel Investor Due Diligence 234

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2018

Most entrepreneurs need capital to develop and grow their businesses; every investor must responsibly invest their funds with an eye on returns. This means that investors must convince the best entrepreneurs to take their money. Seriously consider these seven tips before any deal reaches the negotiating stage.

Seed Stage 133

Seed Stage Due Diligence Cofounder New York 133

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. See Why Are Revenue-Based Investors Investing in Women & Diverse Entrepreneurs? Typically 1-3 months of due diligence.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

ATI has served the entrepreneur community for over twenty years and focuses on the IT, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience verticals. The Assistant Director will manage the deal flow process and lead our due diligence efforts to admit new members. ATI also works closely with MobileMondayAustin and Semantic Web Austin.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Intellectual Property Incubator Due Diligence 70

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

. “Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator. It is how angel rounds come together.&#.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an Angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. But due diligence and paperwork take time, and can change everything. However, there is no set pattern of terms an entrepreneur might be able to anticipate from either.

Term Sheet 223

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 223

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. But due diligence and paperwork take time, and can change everything. However, there is no set pattern of terms an entrepreneur might be able to anticipate from an angel, either.

Term Sheet 227

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 227

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

If you are new to the startup space and Angel investing, you probably don’t realize that some groups of Angel investors charge entrepreneurs a fee to pitch to their groups. Entrepreneurs who expect to get a hit the first time (or first five times) they pitch their story cold are likely to be disappointed. Consider your startup stage.

Angel Groups 237

Angel Groups Angel Investor Due Diligence Seed Stage 237

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are stuck in the idea stage, and only a few have the discipline and the insight to move on to the execution phase. In fact, as an angel investor, I find that many of the questions in the due-diligence process give me real insight into the maturity of a startup.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Seed Stage Angel Investor Entrepreneur 120

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. Due diligence and paperwork take time, and can change everything. However, there is no set pattern of terms an entrepreneur might be able to anticipate from either.

Term Sheet 158

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 158

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

Most new entrepreneurs assume that great investors will find their startups based on the compelling solution the founders have created. Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to optimize their investment strategies early, based on time and dollar costs, as well as odds of success. There are just too many scams.

Cost 120

Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West). My general opinion is that anything that makes the financing process faster and easier or otherwise educates entrepreneurs is a good thing. (A I suspect that this seems reasonable if there is basically no due diligence due to the early stage of the companies. (By

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Genuine VC

JULY 26, 2010

One or two players decide (sometimes rather quickly) to make a seed-stage investment in a new startup, and as a round comes together they invite in a number of their Micro VC and angel cohorts. Playing nicely in syndicates is not reliable due diligence, period. What’s the reasoning for all of this chummy behavior?

Syndicate 128

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence Seed Stage 128

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

With plenty of resources available for entrepreneurs about how to craft an effective pitch deck for raising seed-stage capital from VCs, often what’s left out are some of the tactical components of an initial meeting. It can also help the entrepreneur better decide when and how to address mid-stream questions.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Seed Stage 308

Rob Go

JULY 17, 2014

NextView Ventures II is $40M, twice the size of our first fund, and we continue to be exclusively focused on seed-stage companies pursuing internet-enabled innovation. As former operators and product-oriented entrepreneurs, Dave, Lee, and I tend to think of our firm as a startup company and our approach to investing as our product.

Seed Stage 69

Seed Stage Early Stage Due Diligence Liquidity Event 69

Professor VC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

However, I have seen some blog posts posing the question about whether the same principles of valuing baseball players could be applied to entrepreneurs. I encourage entrepreneurs to give it a shot and let me know what you think. Labels: due diligence , early stage investing , moneyball , valuation. Steve Bennet.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review Early Stage San Jose Angel Investor 38

Rob Go

OCTOBER 21, 2013

I’ve been hearing a similar lament recently from founders of seed stage companies. It goes something like this: “I thought seed funds would be faster at getting to a decision than large funds. I’ve often heard entrepreneurs remark positively about the speed of great funds.

Seed Stage 53

Seed Stage Due Diligence Early Stage Syndicate 53

Rob Go

JULY 8, 2011

It’s always interesting to me to watch how entrepreneurs evaluate VC investors. In a world of highly competitive financings, entrepreneurs are sometimes presented with the “opportunity” to “get a deal done” quickly. All this can be addressed with a little bit of VC due diligence.

Due Diligence 31

Due Diligence Seed Stage Finance Portfolio 31

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2016

Clearly access to capital at this stage has been, and continues to be, critical to the success of the Colorado (and national) startup ecosystem. While there’s a lot of seed stage investing going on in Colorado and other markets, there are some clear challenges to how many angel investors are approaching the market.

Syndicate 48

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Colorado 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

So they set up seed programs that allowed for rapid decisions for $500k or less, often done as convertible debt for both speed and cost reasons. I told entrepreneurs that it was a bit of a Faustian bargain. I have spoken at length to one such entrepreneur who tells me that he hardly hears from his VC. I was an early cynic.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

View from Seed

MARCH 15, 2017

VC evaluation of seed-stage startups can seem arbitrary or imitative at times. So, the decision-making process at seed then seems neurotic – a tug-of-war without the rope to champion convictions while pressure testing business mechanics. Any seed stage company’s strategy is a constant work-in-progress.

Due Diligence 265

Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

A friend of mine just completed a very successful fundraise for an institutionally led seed-round of capital. As an entrepreneur, you’d be willing to spend a bit extra time getting those angels across the finish line, even if their $’s aren’t that big. I’ll talk about seed stage “traction” in another post.'

Term Sheet 73

Term Sheet Due Diligence Valuation Seed Stage 73

Rob Go

JULY 25, 2011

After raising this sort of round, it’s usually the first time an entrepreneur has to think about putting some structure of investor updates and communications. Do investor due diligence. Of our 13 portfolio companies, 10 had/have formal boards during the seed stage, and the rest had a more informal structure. .

Due Diligence 38

Due Diligence LP Seed Stage Portfolio 38

Rob Go

JANUARY 17, 2017

The VC pitches to the entrepreneur that despite the small dollars, they really like the opportunity and the entrepreneur will get nearly the same benefits of working with the VC as a typical deal. Few large VC firms pursue a seed strategy like this on a regular basis, but some do.

Due Diligence 28

Due Diligence Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 28

Rob Go

JANUARY 10, 2012

I think entrepreneurs that visit us the first time are a little confused when they open our door to see us huddled together. First, even though we have a fairly tight focus as a fund (internet enabled innovation, seed stage, select core geographies) we all have different areas that we are particularly excited about.

Due Diligence 46

Due Diligence Seed Stage Cofounder Deal Flow 46

Rob Go

MARCH 5, 2012

One area of fundraising that is not that straightforward is how to put together a syndicate of investors for your seed round. Although there have been an increase in the number of seed stage investors, seed rounds are still typically composed of at least a handful of different investors, who each have their own processes and incentives.

Syndicate 49

Syndicate Syndication Lead Investor Due Diligence 49

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

million and is established by negotiations between the entrepreneur and the angel investors. Working within a network of angel investors also expands the pool of expert resources and helps divide the work of screening companies and investment due diligence. Strength of Entrepreneur and Team. TARGETCOMPANY. 10% max.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2011

I'm a strong believer in having a board, even at a seed stage, to report to and set strategy with. Ask around for who the top entrepreneurs are and this is a name that always comes up--mostly because of the big name angel round they raised and the upward trajectory of the business they run. The Unicycle. Ashton Kutcher.

Technical Review 111

Technical Review Due Diligence Seed Stage Lean 111

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

At Top Tier, we have been continuously refining our database and analytics engine, and we use it and other software mentioned in this article to make better decisions, spot trends, and stay in front of targeted venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. We were keen to understand what resources VCs use to support their due diligence effort?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Seed stage investing is all about the team, so there may be something to this idea. For firms that dont have access to the most successful entrepreneurs, trying to predict an individual or individual teams success rate based on experience, personal attributes, intellect, etc. Steve Bennet. at 1:42 PM. Email This BlogThis!

San Jose 28

San Jose Silicon Valley Venture Capital Angel Investor 28

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Good VCs try to pass as quickly as possible once they decide on that outcome, in order to be respectful of an entrepreneur’s time. A commitment typically only comes after a full partnership pitch and meaningful business diligence completed. This is particularly true at the seed stage where NextView invests.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Due Diligence Seed Stage Seed Capital 120