Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. I talked about this in my social proof post where I gave some suggestions about how to get the early guys off of the fence. Photo credit: D. rings true to me.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups. Early-stage startup. Every startup is early-stage to someone. For a startup founder, this stage is when the “big idea” has become a passion for him, but he hasn’t written anything down yet.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Should Early Stage Startups Move to Austin because of Capital? Tim O’Reilly, Founder at O’Reilly Media and promoter of open source and Web 2.0 Money is like gasoline during a road trip.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Texas 48

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?

Founder 159

Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

founders, marketers, investors?—?and Trust, which today has announced a $9 million financing (Upfront is an investor), is a platform designed to help make the most of marketing investment by providing both analytics and a community of likeminded executives to share what’s working, and what’s not, across platforms.

Founder 424

Founder Product Cofounder Acquisition 424

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. I don’t think VCs care as much about co-founders & economics as people think. Final startup grind from msuster. For the wrong reasons.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

The objection goes something like this: “yes, I can see rookie founders turning to you for a seed round. But won’t all good founders go to established firms that raise series A’s out of the gate?”. And quite a few founders make the choice to do YC first rather than raise a traditional seed or pre-seed round.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As part of The Startup Magazine Female Founder Series, we interviewed Ms. I wanted to be able to select clients that are a good fit and can benefit from my finance, IT and international experience. As you have a history of building early stage companies, what is the most important thing you tell startup founders?

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 84

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? 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. .

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

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.

Early Stage 111

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 111

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? And this era ushered in by Amazon changed everything from the age of founders to the skill sets required to the structure of the VC industry and even to the layout of cities (yes, I would proclaim that boldly that Amazon AWS affected city development).

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As part of The Startup Magazine Female Founder Series, we interviewed Ms. I wanted to be able to select clients that are a good fit and can benefit from my finance, IT and international experience. As you have a history of building early stage companies, what is the most important thing you tell startup founders?

Technical Review 67

Technical Review Founder Due Diligence Early Stage 67

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups. Early-stage startup. Every startup is early-stage to someone. For a startup founder, this stage is when the “big idea” has become a passion for him, but he hasn’t written anything down yet.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

Eric Friedman

JULY 19, 2019

Many early stage investors look for financial models for 3+ years from founders to make an investment. Like most posts, this request/conversation has come up enough to turn it into my thoughts + the best resources I have to help founders. In fact, for early stage companies you are usually wildly wrong.

Early Stage 114

Early Stage Startup Framework Revenue 114

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 28, 2018

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” Founder: “$250k / month.” Founder: “Um. Why are you raising so much?”

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Dilution 247

Feld Thoughts

JULY 19, 2018

In addition to our own funds, we are investors in a number of other early-stage VC funds as part of our Foundry Group Next strategy. “Historically, the $10 million valuation mark has been somewhat of a ceiling for seed stage startups. In this six month period, the need for an experienced founder vanished.

Early Stage 105

Early Stage Seed Stage Valuation Finance 105

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

It is a type of financing that investors can provide to startups and small businesses which are believed to have the potential for success in the long term. Each firm can also focus on a particular stage of investment, from seed and early-stage funding all the way through to Series C and beyond.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Security 144

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

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

On the heels of our research on HBS entrepreneurs , NextView’s Dimitri Dadiomov (HBS ’15) interviewed several top founders on the early stages of their companies. On Launching and Finding Early Traction. Anthemos Georgiades , Co-Founder and CEO, Zumper (Real-time home and apartment rental platform; $8.2

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups, the hard part for entrepreneurs is figuring out what it takes to play. Early-stage startup. Every startup is early-stage to someone. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2022

Develop a founders agreement. A founders’ agreement is a legal contract defining and governing the relationship between cofounders. Its importance is to outline founders’ rights, responsibilities, ownership, and roles. The whole point is to avoid business disputes that may come up between the founders.

Small Business 167

Small Business Intellectual Property Cofounder Software Review 167

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

If you are building a startup, you’ll find no shortage of people who are willing to give you advice, particularly when it comes to raising financing. For some entrepreneurs, raising financing can seem like a full time job, particularly in these trying times. Unfortunately, much of this advice is wrong. Well not, wrong exactly.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

These usually play a role in the very early stage of your business, primarily pre-revenue. I have interacted with a lot of founders who funded their initial business expenses through credit cards. If you are facing any problem you can always check out this: Business Loan vs. Equity Financing. Inception stage.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

YoungUpstarts

MAY 27, 2019

by Christopher Grey, co-founder and COO of CapLinked. Often young founders don’t think about basic concepts like unit economics, which is selling something for more than what it costs to make. Inexperienced founders often overestimate their own importance and don’t appreciate the importance of the team they build around them.

Cofounder 170

Cofounder Private Equity Software Review Equity 170

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. But I have seen equally bad behavior from super early stage investors. As always a balanced perspective is in order.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Early-stage Venture Capital firms grow their partnerships in different ways, some hire: partners from other firms. an executive who had startup “operating experience” rarely a startup founder/CEO.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2017

To outside investors, the future of early stage and startup companies can be murky. Many of these companies are pre-revenue and in the cash burn stage as they try to establish their technology and market. When investors believe in the founders, products, or ideas they will provide companies with funding.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Forecast Early Stage Term Sheet 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

. $100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs. We believe that this fund is the perfect size for us to be the best possible partners to early-stage entrepreneurs today.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 22, 2013

Crowdfunding, the new in-thing in micro-financing that’s taken the world by storm thanks to the likes of Kickstarter , takes a twist with new crowdfunding site CrowdIt. We think the business networking possibilities alone can transform crowdfunding into a true economic engine that is ready to jumpstart new enterprises of all kinds.”.

Networking 228

Networking Missouri Early Stage Cofounder 228

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? A well-organized library of best practices for founders in your vertical, which you can share as appropriate. I have developed a founder curriculum on my blog. – What are your fundraising goals? AskAnything.VC

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2019

As a startup founder with a fledgling business, the goal is to reduce/eliminate as many risk variables as possible in order to give your young startup an unimpeded runway to fly to new heights. You should never leave the office at the end of any day or week without having all finances reconciled with the proper supporting documentation.

Burn Rate 176

Burn Rate Startup Lean Early Stage 176

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Most healthy businesses need business financing at some point. Startups have to deal with starting costs and ongoing businesses have to finance growth and working capital. Financing options depend on what kind of business you have. Don’t waste your time looking for the wrong kind of financing. You should.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161