Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

None of that can compare with being the CEO of a startup facing a rapidly diminishing bank account, your best engineer quitting, working until 10pm and rushing to the airport and catching a redeye for a “ Hail Mary ” close of a customer, with your board demanding you do it faster. venture/operating partners to get them into new industries.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? The reality is that as a result of two major trends the costs of starting a technology startup went down massively.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

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 110

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2012

Every startup faces a myriad of challenges that are well beyond the scope of any founder, so you need a few guiding lights to illuminate the road ahead. I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. Once your company is past the startup stage, you do need a board of directors.

Advisory Board 239

Advisory Board Technical Review Startup Software Review 239

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

by Rizwan Virk, author of “ Startup Myths and Models: What You Won’t Learn in Business School “. 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. My first institutional financing came from people who were in the “MIT” network.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

Many companies need venture capital funding, including startups. 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. A venture capital term sheet is a “non-binding listing of preliminary terms for venture capital financing”.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Security 144

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

But 1) many of the best companies were created by rookie founders and 2) there are legitimate reasons why an experienced founder who could raise a large series A might choose a right-sized seed for better alignment, optionality, and early support. Today, multiple rounds are often raised, due to the atomization of the seed space.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2011

Every startup faces a myriad of challenges that are well beyond the scope of any founder, so you need a few guiding lights to illuminate the road ahead. I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. Once your company is past the startup stage, you do need a board of directors.

Advisory Board 239

Advisory Board Technical Review Software Review Startup 239

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing. CEO’s run things.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. This question gets to the heart of what bank financing is and isn't supposed to accomplish. Money from other sources.

Silicon Valley 406

Silicon Valley Equity Startup Finance 406

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. Experience.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2016

Think of a tech startup the same way. Startup stardom is the new American Dream. Fifty percent of all startups flame out after four years. Speaking intelligently about your company’s current (and future) performance means regular check-ins with your finances. Ideally, tech startup founders stay on till the very end.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Burn Rate IP Intellectual Property 124

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

Finance is a new, early-stage, New York-based VC focused on East Coast companies. s founder is David Teten , previously a Partner with HOF Capital and ff Venture Capital and a serial fintech entrepreneur with 2 exits. Company overview. The firm particularly has interest in fintech, edtech, and salestech.

New York 60

New York Venture Capital Technical Review Due Diligence 60

Gust

JULY 15, 2012

Every startup faces a myriad of challenges that are well beyond the scope of any founder, so you need a few guiding lights to illuminate the road ahead. I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. Potential to meet new partners, customers, and friends. Let’s talk specifics.

Advisory Board 178

Advisory Board Technical Review Startup Software Review 178

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2023

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. This question gets to the heart of what bank financing is and isn't supposed to accomplish. Money from other sources.

Equity 303

Equity Silicon Valley Finance Early Stage 303

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

The reasons are fairly obvious: It’s easy to reference them and understand their track record; they’ve made a ton of mistakes already that they have hopefully learned from and are unlikely to make again; they are probably more adept at raising and managing capital, which reduces financing risk down the road, etc.

Founder 159

Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

YoungUpstarts

MAY 27, 2019

Inexperienced people are misled when it comes to startup funding and what is needed to begin and grow a business. Even some very well funded startups tend to ignore this. This is an especially dangerous pitfall for early stage startups and new entrepreneurs. Raising funds does not equal success.

Cofounder 170

Cofounder Private Equity Software Review Equity 170

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2022

Investment bank Drake Star Partners published a report on the gaming investment and M&A activity in the first half of 2022. Private financing market continued to see strong deal activity with $3.6B in total financings in Q2, surpassing Q1 total through 169 deals. How many people play games in 2022? Over 3 billion.

Forecast 190

Forecast IP Mobile Acquisition 190

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Like a teenager with a million-dollar allowance and an identity crisis, a startup with too much capital and no product-market fit will become capable of making larger mistakes. As an investor, I root for startups.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2019

If followed, we believe it can help startup teams navigate the critical early stages of development – and avoid joining a majority of early stage companies that end up on the entrepreneurial scrap heap. Read on to discover why successfully traversing the Traction Gap is critical to early stage companies.

Cleveland 217

Cleveland Early Stage Framework Startup 217

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. Capacity Capital, Greater Colorado Venture Fund, Indie.VC, Reformation Partners, UP Fund, Versatile VC. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5% return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2018

As we put the final touches on Lean Startup Conference 2018 , I wanted to take a moment to share more about some of the panels, workshops, and events. Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Greylock Partners will be talking about “blitzscaling” with his co-author Chris Yeh, and Stanford Professor Bob Sutton.

Lean 103

Lean Las Vegas Cofounder Startup 103

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups. I got a job at a bank, and I worked in their corporate finance group. You didn’t join startups then.

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. This article highlights their advice on issues ranging from financing to patent trolls: While startups may believe lawyers are too costly, working with one early on avoids potentially serious problems later. ” The Cost of Financing.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

After seeing the process work so well for scientists and engineers in the NSF, we hypothesized that we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently. identify financing vehicles before you need them. identify financing vehicles before you need them.

Lean 271

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 271

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? Dan Kozikowski, Partner and Head of Platform, First Mark Capital , said to me, “Firms should match services to the stage-specific needs of companies. This is an open-ended query and the most important question.).

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

Needless to say, I have a fair amount of startup event experience. You''ll get an entrepreneur who has raised one and only one round of financing in his or her entire life--all from relatively unsophisticated individuals, giving fundraising advice. I probably do some kind of speaking event at least every other week. Skip a month.

Venture Capital 140

Venture Capital Cap Table Startup Early Stage 140

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

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? Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. Of course we can’t.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Austin Startup

JULY 6, 2018

Background Reading: Why startups need signals. See: Startup Accelerator Anti-Dilution Provisions; The Fine Print. Some accelerators will require you to “make room” for them in future financings up to a certain amount. The same goes for a health tech startup entering an accelerator full of consumer or B2B startups.

Dilution 48

Dilution Startup Technical Review Equity 48

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Editor’s note: At a recent team meeting at NextView, we looked at the high number of startups we invested in which were pre-product at the time. We have a bias towards very early stage investing for a bunch of reasons, but it’s not easy. I think this stage, more than others, is very dependent on the individual investor.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 2, 2021

Nevertheless, many of them face numerous challenges at the beginning of their journey, including startup funding. Thankfully, there are several avenues entrepreneurs can that can help them find the much-needed startup funding. You can sign up to Angels Partners today and connect with 40,000+ investors. Personal savings.

Due Diligence 124

Due Diligence Startup Finance Early Stage 124

ReadWriteStart

MAY 22, 2023

Historically, European startups have lagged behind the US and Asia regarding nurturing unicorns. Europe has also lagged behind the US in venture to finance. Jake Stott, chief executive of Web3 and metaverse ad agency Hype, is optimistic that the European fintech industry may see payment providers in this space.

Finland 187

Finland Europe Estonia Silicon Valley 187

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288