View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

But the way the market values this early work can vary greatly. I’m often surprised by how much effort seed stage teams put into building an early product and how little credit that receives from investors. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

DECEMBER 10, 2014

He is currently a second year student at Harvard Business School and will be focused on supporting the early-stage startup community in Boston and its schools. This is his first post to The View From Seed. Harvard’s new master plan in Allston is to build an entire science and engineering campus … from scratch.

Boston 328

Boston Seed Stage San Francisco Startup 328

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. Early-stage: Cofounder with engineering/ product background from top-tier university or major technology company.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone. revenue / traction / setting up infrastructure / etc) This can set you apart, because the vast majority of businesses I see at the seed stage are just ideas with no action.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm We knew we had a valuable product that an acquiring company would gain greatly from and a world-class engineering and product team that would be valued by a buyer. I have previously written why I don’t believe in the COO role at early-stage startups.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Let’s start out with the basic functions of a tech company: 1) Engineering 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Business development 5) PR 6) Design 7) Product Management 8) HR 9) Operations 10) Finance Ok, that's just overwhelming. Getting people to join your company is a key goal of early PR. Ready to start simplifying?

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

andrewchen.co

AUGUST 20, 2012

How long will the “seed stage bubble” last? It’s never been easier to raise seed funding, and there’s warnings that we’re in the midst of a “seed stage bubble.” We @Mokriya (mokriya.com) have been helping these early stage startups innovate on Mobile platforms.

Seed Stage 51

Seed Stage Early Stage Mobile Seed Money 51

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Privacy engineering rules: We can’t go a week without a new data breach or privacy violation; Marriott, Google, Facebook and more. Seed funds back to basics in 2019: We highlighted the barbelling of VC in the year-end 2017 update and see this continuing in 2019. See a recent Business Insider article with more of my thoughts.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2016

Valuation is a nebulous topic amongst early stage startups, so I thought I’d really spell it out in detail. In short: Valuations for seed stage companies are fairly arbitrary and driven solely by supply and demand. Supply - amount of your round and Demand - investor demand.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

In December, AngelList , a service that matches early-stage startups with investors, debuted the ability to allow accredited investors to actually invest in startups on the platform with as little as $1,000. This is just the next phase of AngelList’s evolution into a one-stop shop for seed-stage companies and their backers.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focused LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. But what tools are they using themselves to automate their own processes?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Top engineering talent today has a bimodal distribution. And the hiring costs are higher.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Chances are if things are going good (or even not so good) those early stage startups you were so passionate about 12 or 18 months ago will be coming to the market again asking for more money. Do you have relationships with other investors at the next stage of the investment lifecycle? Plus, founders and entrepreneurs talk.

Pre-Money Valuation 187

Pre-Money Valuation Seed Stage IP Deal Flow 187

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. 20 hardware engineers getting together to form a Syndicate.

Syndicate 98

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 98

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

It's very hard for PLG to be the only or main motion with infrastructure products because it's not something one engineer will just test and buy. What should an early-stage startup founder focus on if they want to implement PLG? So for early-stage founders, those are the two scenarios where PLG might be a great fit.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Rob Go

MAY 18, 2014

The point of these are to: Take on topics that we often here as questions that are held specifically for early-stage companies in their first 12-24 months of life. It’s a form of marketing that we often hear a lot of questions about and can be effective for early stage companies. Interviewing and reference checking.

Early Stage 42

Early Stage Seed Stage Warrant Community 42

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Hearpreneur

MAY 4, 2019

Corporate innovation is failing at a DNA level because the Big to Bigger machine has been engineered to be incompatible with New to Big. That company didn’t have a monopoly on this problem; it was everywhere. It is literally at war with growth.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Founder Entrepreneur Venture Capital 66

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Thus, there is going to be a bit of tightening within the early stage VC space in India over the next couple of years. Gaming has proven to be the best monetization engine across mobile, especially in Asia where the gaming companies are absolutely dominating the space. Gaming and e-commerce are particularly hot right now.

Asia 123

Asia Silicon Valley India China 123

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

At seed-stage startups, especially companies with well-networked founders and investors, finding applicants who can do a job on paper is not overly difficult. Adam Brod , VP of Technology and Engineering, BookBub. If it’s a seed-stage hire, you should already know the person. Built in Boston.).

Founder 120

Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

Ben's Blog

APRIL 7, 2021

For states with state income taxes, creating state/local level Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) rules to incent company development and early-stage investing would help too. Private capital Seed, or very early-stage startup capital, is inherently local. Federal government The U.S.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Non-Compete San Francisco Government 36

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. Step 2: The Seed round – you raise $1-$3M (in some cases even $2-5M). Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. So VCs spent a couple of years experimenting with earlier-stage investing, which is OK. The Explosion in Early-Stage Innovation. There are also others.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2020

I love running experiments on my own, and I'm really excited about, I don't really like the term "bio-hacking," but there's a lot of fun and educational biology and chemistry experiments you can do at home like I did some polymer synthesis and some basic yeast genetic engineering. Before that, I was an electronics engineer.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Software Review Finance Technology 68

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

While all of these factors are true to an extent, the truth of the matter is that the reduced costs of hardware and software are easily offset by the expense of engineers and experienced business people. Nearly all of your costs will be headcount, primarily in the engineering department. million in venture financing. “The

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

4 ] Seed Funding Firms Seed firms are like angels in that they invest relatively smallamounts at early stages, but like VCs in that theyre companiesthat do it as a business, rather than individuals making occasionalinvestments on the side. Angels and even VC firms occasionally do this, but they alsoinvest at later stages.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

You make elaborate plans for a product, hire a team of engineers to develop it (people who do this tend to use the term "engineer" for hackers), and then find after a year that youve spent two milliondollars to develop something no one wants. Usually you get seed money from individual rich people called"angels."

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

Let’s face it, the rules for getting a startup funded at the seed stage aren’t very clear. Note: When I say “seed stage startup,” I’m specifically referring to software/app startups that are eitherpre-product or early product. TVR: The traditional way of raising seed funding. The New Way , called Traction.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Startup Venture Capital 100

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Second-level thinking : when I first started reading this, I felt this was kind of obvious and almost reminded me of how engineers think through things. It should be clear from the first element that the process has to begin with investors who are unusually perceptive, unconventional, iconoclastic or early. Worth reading on Page 1.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Portfolio 48

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

The conference will also feature a Technology Showcase, an inaugural demonstration of five very early stage technology companies that is designed to feature the next generation of innovation from the region and further VCIR’s legacy of entrepreneurial mentorship.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Colorado Mezzanine Wyoming 52

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Mashable Mashable reached out to angels, seed stage investors and VC firm partners and asked them to share their wisdom with the rest of us. and Path Intelligence.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Twenty Companies Ranging From Seed Stage to Mezzanine Will Showcase Next Generation Technologies from Various Industries at the 27 th Annual VCIR Winter 2010 Conference. As an active member of the telecommunications and Internet community, Caruso will address the attendees about the virtues of starting a company in the Rocky Mountains.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Colorado Mezzanine Wyoming 52

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . Thirty-four VC firms in OpenVC call themselves “early-stage” Yet, 30% of those don’t actually invest in pre-revenue startups. No ideas or prototypes.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

techcrunch.com

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012

There has been no shortage of controversy and criticism around the convertible note, a popular investing vehicle that’s used by seed stage and angel investors. Ressi estimates that the debt note now accounts for over 50% of all angel and early stage deals. → Learn More. Crunchboard.

Equity 87

Equity San Francisco Technical Review Angel Investor 87

VC Cafe

JULY 8, 2012

Angellist Talent - Whether you are browsing for startups or talent, with 23,971 startups, AngelList is one of the most active communities for early stage founders. From “napkin” (seed stage) to profitable startups, this site will give you a good set of options. link] - a free job board for startups.

Cofounder 149

Cofounder Founder Startup Seed Stage 149

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

Recently in speaking with an engineering manager candidate who had been working at later stage/public companies, we got to discussing compensation. You’re a senior engineer joining early, and get 1% (remember I believe in giving early team members meaningful upside ). And I’ll tell you that during our call.

Salary 56

Salary Burn Rate Dilution Equity 56