View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

But in the grand scheme of things, 10 years is a blip, and one that had a continuous bull market in tech. Like a number of funds of our era, early fundraising was not terribly easy. Today, multiple rounds are often raised, due to the atomization of the seed space. In some ways, this feels like an eternity.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Over time Venture firms realized that the partners in the firms needs a variety of skills: People skills (ability to recognize patterns of success in individuals and teams). we do not even try to train new partners.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 333

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. In an early stage start I believe it’s the CEO’s job to manage these functions. They don’t know the details of the deals.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Every announcement – whether it was a funding round, exit or layoffs – was analyzed within the context that the tech bubble has definitely burst or that we’re still in the bubble. At the same time, seed money is still abundant due to the proliferation of micro VC over the past few years. So, what really happened in 2016?

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. But the biggest changes in our industry have been driven by technical changes themselves to which we are just observers and fortunate beneficiaries. and hasn’t abated.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

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. VC will shrink. Oh yes it will.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Our categorization is not a technical one. Additionally, Flexible VC can accommodate all types of companies, not just asset-lite, tech-enabled companies.”. His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog. Of the Inc.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

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

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. Reviewing financial & operational performance. Mentorship. Experience.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. In 2019 we partnered with several revenue-based lending providers, effectively creating a marketplace. “. Investment Criteria: B2B SaaS or tech-enabled services with proven, recurring contracts.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

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.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

Professor VC

JANUARY 27, 2011

How Much Diligence is Due.Or Ive addressed the due diligence question in previous posts, but this came up again in a debate we were having at a recent meeting of the Sand Hill Angels. And in order to increase our groups returns, one of our goals should be to get more people and man hours involved in the diligence process.

Technical Review 31

Technical Review Due Diligence Silicon Valley San Jose 31

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

My initial desire to blog came from something that’s always been my approach to investing – I’m a nerd and I love to play with the technology and part of my approach has really been to understand things both at a user level and at a reasonably deep tentacle level. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My Is that when it became big?

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2012

I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. For example, if your startup is building a high-tech software product, a dream team of advisors would be a former CEO or high-level exec in another software company, a former software marketing executive, and a former financial executive.

Advisory Board 239

Advisory Board Technical Review Startup Software Review 239

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2016

How much you raise determines valuation I know it sounds crazy but at the earliest stages of a company your valuation often is determined by how much money you raise. There is a general guideline of how much investors want to own in order to invest in your company and the norm is 15–30% with the most common range 20–25% per early stage round.

Pre-Money Valuation 292

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Early Stage Startup 292

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. Thus begins the dance.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

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. Incorporation.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2011

I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. For example, if your startup is building a high-tech software product, a dream team of advisors would be a former CEO or high-level exec in another software company, a former software marketing executive, and a former financial executive.

Advisory Board 239

Advisory Board Technical Review Software Review Startup 239

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

AngelList 101 : As you know, AngelList is a platform where angels can invest in semi-screened tech deals. It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. lack of traction, lack of downstream financing availability. founder fighting.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

Over the last two and a half years the National Science Foundation I-Corps has taught over 300 teams of scientists how to commercialize their technology and how to fail less, increasing their odds for commercial success. identify financing vehicles before you need them. identify financing vehicles before you need them.

Lean 273

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 273

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Demonstrate your team’s unique unfair competitive advantage, whether it is technology, stellar management team, or key partnerships. Be prepared for due diligence. It’s critical that the data you present is verifiable, since any serious investor will conduct extensive due diligence. Concept vs. reality.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Gust

JULY 15, 2012

I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. For example, if your startup is building a high-tech software product, a dream team of advisors would be a former CEO or high-level exec in another software company, a former software marketing executive, and a former financial executive.

Advisory Board 178

Advisory Board Technical Review Startup Software Review 178

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

At the time, LA and Santa Clara were both the epicenter of the technology industry due to the significant overlap between the aerospace/military industry (Los Angeles) and the computing business (Silicon Valley). Given our backgrounds, we often get asked about what makes the tech scene in Los Angeles different from that in the Valley.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

My Partners at HOF Capital are younger than I am, which means that we have a half-century horizon for the franchise we are building. – Build out low-cost force multipliers such as scouts , Advisors, Entrepreneurs in Residence, Venture Partners, and so on. So we think about scaling a lot.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

Austin Startup

MARCH 4, 2019

Meet the Locals Here are the most active early stage investors in town that you should meet while you’re here and do deals with. It’s a robust ecosystem so I’m only listing the ones we’ve done the most deals with here but Capital Factory is the most active early stage investor in Texas so this is a good sampling.

Silicon Valley 50

Silicon Valley Technical Review Texas Venture Capital 50

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly Then came blogs.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

When I met my now-wife, I realized that any technology that can find me a spouse is a killer app. But in business, you want a lot of partners. I’d argue that the same type of technologies that have revolutionized dating can revolutionize our industry. . That’s why 40 million Americans use online dating sites. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

We are in the midst of two great disruptions to American business: the internet’s ongoing disruption of most traditional industries: finance, healthcare, retail, finance, fashion, etc. VCAP© applicants will be reviewed in a series of screenings conducted by the Marathon VCAP© selection committee, HBSAANY, and NAIC board members.

Venture Capital 154

Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Gen Z is mobile and tech/savvy, frugal, concerned about social and environmental issues, and less focused on brand prestige than previous generations. A mentor or partner who can share their power of experience. Traits and skills to look for: Find a mentor or partner with direct experience with startups. The right attitude.

Hiring 77

Hiring Technical Review Small Business Forecast 77

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2010

I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. For example, if your startup is building a high-tech software product, a dream team of advisors would be a former CEO or high-level exec in another software company, a former software marketing executive, and a former financial executive.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Technical Review Software Review Early Stage 125

Mucker Lab

MAY 28, 2020

This post originally appeared in TechCrunch back in 2015, written by our co-founder and managing partner Erik Rannala. Compass.co, a benchmarking and research service, analyzed 3,200 internet startups and found that 74 percent “fail due to premature scaling.” More and more investors have begun to shun high burn rates.

Startup 78

Startup Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Review 78

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. So if you’re casually reading and don’t really care about angel financing – abort now! That’s OK.

Silicon Valley 291

Silicon Valley Ireland Technical Review Valuation 291