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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. 15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Volatile, uncapped.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Hunter Walker

JULY 22, 2014

Hey founders, want to hear something incredibly frustrating about seed financing? Well, if you’re pre-product/market fit, over-optimizing for “hitting your numbers” can be a false positive if it creates an “up and to the right” graph that actually builds upon the wrong learnings, or masks leaky bucket of customer attrition.

Forecast 96

Forecast Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 96

View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

As the seed stage that atomized and series A rounds have become larger and more traction based, the paths to series A have changed. 500K in angel or pre-seed funding -> Raise a $2–3M institutional seed -> Raise an A. This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies.

Early Stage 214

Early Stage Dilution Valuation .Net 214

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Over the past few years, “pre-seed” as a distinct category has emerged within the early stage fundraising landscape. But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. In fact, they’ve been around even before the pre-seed term emerged prevalent to describe them.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm was definitely in the bucket of amazingly talented founders with a great product that hadn’t yet proved product/market fit. I have previously written why I don’t believe in the COO role at early-stage startups. I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

My partner Erik Rannala has had a similar experience, having worked as a VC at Harrison Metal before moving down to LA to co-found our seed stage venture firm. It’s probably not too controversial to say that the median level of sophistication of early stage entrepreneurs in Los Angeles is lower than that of Bay Area.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

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

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

So when I tell you what I’m seeing in venture financing these days if you disagree with me, it might just be that we’re touching different parts of the elephant. Haystack’s Semil Shah wrote up his POV on what this has all meant for the seed market and one point in particular caught my eye.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Familiar loops offered invaluable, pre-seeded confidence. You lose that online.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

The partners at NextView hold sessions more than once per week to push the participants’ thinking and actions to strive towards making significant advances finding true-product market fit. To Participating Founders : To avoid signaling issues, we intentionally will not lead the next round of financing.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

Over the past few years, convertible debt has emerged as a quick and inexpensive method for startup companies to raise money from angel investors and early stage venture funds. ” As a result, Ted introduced the Series Seed preferred stock documents as an alternative to convertible debt for early stage investments.

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage. Pre-Seed Investments. Seed Rounds.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

What’s the difference between an angel round and pre-seed round and why do I believe we’ll see more pre-seed rounds taking place in 2024? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

A few examples: In an up market, IRR values quick capital deployment. Whether we’re in a full correction or not has yet to reveal itself, but for the years leading up to 2022, the market for all things venture was extremely strong. Recycling hurts IRR. Some of those companies will be successful. Many will not. But not now.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

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. However, the bet that these investors are making is that it will be a winner takes all market.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

For investors who have come to the table with a history investing in publicly listed companies or the property market, it’s easy to think that backing startups is largely a “set and forget” strategy. Perhaps you know a Marketer, a Developer or Sales Manager that could fill a gap in one of the startups you back. What could be improved?

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. 2) The Bundled Expertise Syndicate. Now that would be interesting.

Syndicate 99

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 99

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

I strongly believe (at least for very early stage technology ventures) that you will get diminishing returns and arguably negative returns once you get past an initial threshold of team, product, market and financial diligence. I immediately jumped up and called "b t". Not exactly extensive diligence. 2 comments: barbara.

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

Hunter Walker

MARCH 8, 2014

If you’re graduating this spring and starting a career in tech, I’ve got one piece of advice: go work at a midstage startup (I’ll define that as B/C rounds of financing – eg Twilio, Stripe, Airbnb, Warby). Your Work Will Matter : Past the point of product market fit, but before large company ossification.

Liquidity Event 134

Liquidity Event Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 134

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Each quarter Cooley does a VC market update. Based on Cooley data for the quarter, how does your experience in the market compare? Based on Cooley data for the quarter, how does your experience in the market compare? It continues to be highly dependent on company, stage, and location. The interview with me follows.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

In my view the terminology being used for early stage investors by the press and the media is not as clear as it should be. I’ve talked about this on several occasions when I’ve been at conference and on panels, but I figured it would make sense to do a post explaining my taxonomy of the early-stage investing world.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Early Stage 125

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Was Paul Graham right in his “high resolution” financing post? ” And some seed stage investors told me, “I prefer not to fight over price now. In fact, most early investor work hard to help their startups get to the next level so it makes no sense for the angel investor and founders to be at odds.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

A few weeks ago, Manu Kumar wrote an excellent post detailing the current state of the seed financing landscape. One very common meme these days is that “seed is the new A.” Or maybe your market hasn’t quite developed as quickly as you’d hoped. Read it – it’s excellent.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

At the seed stage, no matter how much you know about an industry or a founder, you’re still taking a real bet. Homebrew: Venture capital is no longer as opaque as it was 10 years ago, but a lot of what gets shared is pro-VC content marketing more than the real day-to-day reality.

Venture Capital 85

Venture Capital San Francisco Portfolio Operations 85

Hunter Walker

APRIL 20, 2018

Like we do at the seed stage, USV almost always plays the role of “ lead investor.” A rushed financing makes it harder and can lead to miscalculations on both sides.” But asking myself Fred’s questions clarifies my own approach.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 48

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 12, 2015

This includes, but is not limited to money from China, India, Middle-East and also from “retail” investors (or otherwise unsophisticated investors who are attracted to a market simply because of the amount of press/media attention it gets). This means more noise in the system for seed stage investors.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Seed Stage LP Valuation 48

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

In addition to reporting on the progress of our funds and the exciting stuff happening with the portfolio, we shared some thoughts on the broader market environment for VC’s and venture backed technology companies. We started our discussion looking at our own market, but it turns out this is tied to VC market and broader capital markets too.

Later Stage 28

Later Stage Marketing Early Stage Ratchet 28

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

We need people at all stages of the funding lifecycle and not just VCs. We need venture debt, factoring companies and public markets. Industry change allows the entry of newer players at earlier stages – It doesn’t take as much money to launch a startup anymore. Now we can call you a seed-stage VC or a micro VC.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

And that product is a highly engaged seed-stage investment where we are usually the lead or co-lead in a round and will often take a board seat. The more the investor is comfortable with an entrepreneur and has deep conviction about the market opportunity and product approach, the earlier the investor is willing to invest.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120