Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Focus on talent and people growth.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Now comes the reality check.

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Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Today, Mark Attanasio gets to flex his full range of expertise and interests as co-founder and Managing Partner of Hillcrest Merchant Partners, a Toronto-based merchant bank focused on early stage and mid market growth companies. I think that young entrepreneurs today are particularly enthusiastic.

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Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 113

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Entrepreneurs can now achieve an awful lot with very little money. We see this all the time at Forward Partners where we invest right from the idea stage and most of the companies get a first version of their product live for less than £30k (that generally includes founder salaries and time spent doing customer research).

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Early Stage Development Team Review Technical Review Software Review 119

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

What To Look For When Reference Checking Polarizing Entrepreneurs There are certain words I don’t want to hear when doing backchannel references on a startup CEO. Or those special little bombs of a phrase like “enjoys playing founder more than being one” and “tells a good story but no follow-through.” Sketchy would be one.

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Technical Cofounder Founder Cofounder .Net 101

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

On Monday, Kevin Baxpehler and I hosted the UK Israel Business investor delegation to Tel Aviv, and today I spent the morning with the 8200 EISP startup delegation to London where I was joined by Kirsten Connell (Cylon Lab, Managing Director) Simon Menashy (MMC Ventures, General Partner). Here they are in no particular order.

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Founder Technical Review Early Stage 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Supportive co-founder and executive positions. Member of the Advisory Board. Manage customer service.

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Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage Angel investors. Supportive co-founder and executive positions. boomers entrepreneurs gen-x gen-y startups'

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Entrepreneur Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Focus on talent and people growth.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

Investors love the idea of backing second-time founders, especially if they have had success in their last company. etc… In addition, first-time founders I speak to often talk about how much they have learned and how they resolve to do things differently and better the next time. Is there a sophomore slump to avoid?

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Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

NZ Entrepreneur

AUGUST 4, 2021

Byron van Vugt from NZ Growth Capital Partners explains. That’s why it’s important for founders to understand that the clearer you can articulate the opportunity and its potential risks – and proposed mitigations – the better equipped investors will be to assess your business as a viable investment. We’ll invest in that.

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Technical Review Software Review Founder Due Diligence 61

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

by Ash Rust , founder and managing partner of Sterling Road. Money is constantly on the mind of any entrepreneur: how to raise it, where to invest it, and how to make more of it. Given that mindset, it’s only natural that most entrepreneurs jump at the first chance they get to secure early-stage startup funding.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. In many cases, one founder has started earlier and brings an important completed piece of work to the table, and that can have great value. Pre-existing intellectual property.

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Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 13, 2017

It can be difficult for an entrepreneur to accept that he is at fault for any of the above; yet many still consider that it is ok to “fail fast, fail often” provided one learns from one’s mistakes on the path to success. Vision/Focus: I encourage any entrepreneur to think big, but not at the expense of asking himself several key questions.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

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Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. That’s why I’m proud to announce today that HealthDataInsights (founded by Victor Chaltiel), where GRP Partners was a 30% owner, has been acquired for $400 million. These are industries in which our partners have focused for the past 15-20 years.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

Amongst the most often asked questions I get from founders is, “How much money should I raise?” Reflexively founders want to raise as much money as they can because they figure it will give them more resources, better chances of competing and a longer runways before they have to do the often painful job of asking, yet again, for money.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

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. This requires arriving at the office a few minutes early which, surprisingly, doesn’t consistently happen.

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Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Seed Stage 308

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

If you’re a startup founder, you’re probably looking at Google in some way, maybe in terms of partnership or acquisition, but maybe some level of suspicion and fear. A relationship with Google can take many forms, which I will detail in this post as a guide for founders exploring their relationship with big tech.

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Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 14, 2022

The life of an entrepreneur can be exciting and filled with ups and downs. While certain aspects of setting up a startup can be exhilarating, especially in the early stages of the business, there are also plenty of bumps along the road, big and small. It is what separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest.

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Startup Early Stage Naming Public Relations 142

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1 That includes us.

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VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

Anecdotally, one founder complained to me that this has shorten his runway by 30%. Several discussions on social media have founders asking if they should hedge their FOREX risk. Plenty of fresh powder in the market across stages. This is even before serial entrepreneur Liad Agmon joins as partner.

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Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 7, 2020

As part of our ongoing Female Founders series , The Startup Magazine asked Terry Foudray, CEO and co-founder of IoT solutions provider, RUMBLE, for her views on the continued digitization of our physical world. Fortunately, even in this early stage, the IoT is maturing. Founder and CEO, RUMBLE. TERRI FOUDRAY.

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Founder Technical Review Advisory Board Cofounder 86

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. I always encourage young entrepreneurs now to flip burgers for as long as they can. This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. We raised just $500k.

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Founder Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 299

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

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Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

Relationships are the key to survival and success for entrepreneurs, and first impressions usually turn into lasting impressions. As an advisor to many early-stage entrepreneurs, I caution them to always be prepared for that chance meeting with a famous investor, a potential partner or an industry guru.

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Due Diligence Founder Angel Investor Affiliate 321

The Next Web

JANUARY 26, 2014

As an early stage startup, there are a lot of risk factors to face before you will find success. It was only after a few months when we decided to pivot and came to a conclusion that an accelerator program is sometimes an invaluable platform for an early stage company which resident outside of its target market.

Programming 162

Programming Early Stage Founder Technical Cofounder 162

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 28, 2023

Many of the talented entrepreneurs and engineers who left India to study and work in the US and Canada, are now coming back to India and building incredible companies. It’s still in the very early stages there, but there is definitely an enthusiastic community to build on. Please reach out. See you in 2024!

Technical Review 73

Technical Review India Canada Early Stage 73

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. I’m reading letters (public and private) every day from relentless entrepreneurs who have been forced to make some of the hardest decisions of their lives as they fight to keep their companies going.

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Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

VC Cafe

MARCH 4, 2024

Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia ( source ) Michael Eisenberg, co-founder of Aleph, an Israeli venture firm, said in a recent post: “What is the elevator pitch for investing in Israel for the next decade? credit rating forecast dropped in November, and since then the S&P 500 index has jumped by 15%.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital 78

techcrunch.com

AUGUST 12, 2012

Zachary Bogue And Matt Ocko Launch Data Collective, An Early Stage Fund For Big Data Startups. Data Collective has already made 46 investments from its first fund, which it calls “comparable with other seed and early stage funds” (Ocko and Bogue wouldn’t reveal fund size.). Headphones. CrunchBase.

Early Stage 70

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

View from Seed

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.

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North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Though RBI will displace some traditional equity VC, its much bigger impact will be to expand the pool of capital available for early-stage entrepreneurs. . However, only recently have early-stage companies started to use this model at any scale. . So what is Revenue Based Investing?

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