Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

Mentors embrace the Techstars “Give First” philosophy by offering founders their time, advice, and connections. Guiding founders through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship creates a deep sense of contribution. AngelList syndicates helps enable seed stage investing at scale. And it’s fun.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 70

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

At the time David Cohen, the co-founder and CEO, was unhappy with how angel investing worked. He was dissatisfied with his experience and had a hypothesis around helping a group of companies get going, surrounding them with active mentors, and accelerating their early growth. For example, in 2006, we co-founded Techstars.

Cofounder 181

Cofounder Alaska Early Stage Curation 181

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 4, 2013

I’ve used it with founders of companies I’m looking at investing in, TechStars founders, and execs for early stage companies. He wrote it on Saturday so it’s got a delightful self-referential twist to it now that he’s a partner at A16Z.

Early Stage 142

Early Stage Community Founder Partner 142

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 6, 2013

Much progress has been made to ensure that those in Washington are hearing entrepreneurs’ concerns, but we still have a long way to go – especially with connecting politicians to those in the seed-stage technology sector.

America 151

America Washington Small Business Administration SBA 151

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 31, 2017

For an early stage investment, we only invest in our themes. Are the founders obsessed (not passionate, but obsessed) about what they are building? Do the founders want us to be investors in their company as much as we want to be investors in their company? <riff> We have a set of filters. Passion is easy to fake.

Differentiation 86

Differentiation Early Stage Founder Product 86

Feld Thoughts

JULY 12, 2016

If we fund an early stage startup company today and it’s hugely successful, it’ll be coming into its own in 2025. This is dangerous, especially for founders. Its founders sometimes give the impression of still being a bit shaken. Ponder that for a moment. I’ll be 60 in 2025.

Boston 70

Boston Cofounder Early Stage Founder 70

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 4, 2016

It’s dependent on the stage you are at, the size of your company, and the configuration of your investor base. Here’s an example from an email exchange I had this morning with the CEO of an early stage company that has growing revenue and a small team. Founder: 1. Founder: Thanks! 250K actual cash.

IPO 70

IPO Early Stage Finance Revenue 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 30, 2011

There are two founders and they’ve been talking to a VC they met several months ago. This soon to be ex-VC said something to the effect of “I can easily raise you money with a couple of phone calls, but I want to be a co-founder of the company and have an equal share of the business.&#. The answer was no and no.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Vesting Cofounder Angel Investor 162

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 19, 2013

From my perspective: “… Early stage board of directors should be focused on being an extension of the team, helping the entrepreneurs get out of the gate, and get the business up and running. You may like them and they might like you, but they have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders, not the founders.

Early Stage 143

Early Stage Limited Partner Global Finance 143

Feld Thoughts

JULY 11, 2015

In the article The biggest tech company founders from every state I win the callout for Arkansas. He’s most known for founding Foundry Group, a prominent venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investment, but also co-founded startup accelerator Techstars.”

Arkansas 70

Arkansas Kansas City Dallas Vietnam 70

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 15, 2016

I had lunch recently with a founder. Instead, there is no formal board, or no formalism around the board, so it’s just a free for all between the collection of early investors (angels and pre-seed/seed VCs) and the founders. Post seed boards tend to be founder and investor-centric.

Sales 70

Sales Seed Stage Early Stage Finance 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

In 2007, when we set out to raise our first Foundry Group fund, early stage tech VC was in the shitter. No one believed that you could make any money as an early stage VC and when we went out to raise our first fund, we heard over and over again that we were on a fools errand. But is wasn’t always this way.

LP 155

LP Advisory Board Venture Capital Early Stage 155

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2019

The first is from David Rubenstein (Carlyle Group co-founder – one of Blackstone’s competitors) in 2006. 2006 was still the pits for venture capital, although a number of legendary companies (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) were in their early phases of getting started. They began to worry that the market was overheating.

Private Equity 82

Private Equity Cofounder Equity Venture Capital 82

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 15, 2013

As a co-founder of TechStars , I’m a huge believer in the mentor-driven accelerator model. All four of us had been successful entrepreneurs and we decided to try TechStars as an experiment to help create more early stage start-ups in Boulder.

Government 168

Government United States Global Boston 168

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 16, 2015

The two organizations are stronger together because of the efficiencies gained from meeting in the middle of this journey: UP Global focuses on grassroots, community-led inspiration and getting founders started on their path, while Techstars helps to make that dream a reality by helping founders establish solid, sustainable and successful companies.

Global 70

Global Merger Community Early Stage 70

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

They were typically a couple of smart co-founders with a rough prototype who probably hadn’t even formed their company yet. This is a true testament to TechStars world class mentors; companies at all early stages can benefit from the intense and deep focus of mentorship.

Early Stage 132

Early Stage Cofounder Programming Networking 132

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 2, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR). I’ll include a handful of early stage investors (both VCs and angels) in this effort. TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West).

Finance 133

Finance Term Sheet Angel Investor Early Stage 133

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

When we were last with Dick and Jane on Finance Fridays, our fearless entrepreneurs were figuring out how to split up their founders equity and account for an investment from Jane. Feeling overwhelmed, Dick emailed his friend Josh, the CEO of an early-stage startup in Boulder, to see how they figured out all of this stuff.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 26, 2011

The investments by the founders created two transactions. This is one of the reasons that Dick and Jane chose to use QuickBooks, even at this very early stage, as it guarantees that their books will conform to double entry accounting. Next week we will introduce the Cap Table, and show how it changes when adding a co-founder.

Balance Sheet 128

Balance Sheet Cofounder Cap Table Delaware 128

Feld Thoughts

JULY 30, 2015

We are early stage investors – if you’ve raised more than $3 million you are too late for us. And we couldn’t do any of this without the founders we get to work with. We are thematic investors , an approach we pioneered with a few other firms that today is trendy (and often mislabeled).

Minneapolis 70

Minneapolis Phoenix Portland Syndicate 70

Feld Thoughts

JULY 26, 2010

There is a lot more transparency than there ever has been, the structural dynamics of early stage investing are moving around a lot, and entrepreneurs have more clarity on their choices, ways to figure out who is good and who is bad, and ways to get access to great choices than ever before.

Angel Investor 122

Angel Investor Early Stage Seed Stage Cofounder 122

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 6, 2011

We are looking for a total of 30 Boulder-based early-stage companies to participate as we are going to try to accomodate 30 students from around Colorado in the first year.

Colorado 138

Colorado Startup Early Stage Matching 138

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve experienced four retrades – two early stage, one growth, and one late stage – and I’ve heard of a number of others. From 2010 forward, the entire VC market shifted into a mode that many describe as “founder friendly.” The retrades have begun.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet Reputation Valuation Acquisition 70

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 10, 2010

The terms on the Series A and B were straightforward as Niel Robertson, the founder/CEO of Trada is a sophisticated entrepreneur (Trada is his third company) so he had no patience (nor did we) for silly, complex early stage terms. Recently Google Ventures led the a $5.75m “Series C&# round.

Syndicate 120

Syndicate Syndication Angel Financing Finance 120

Feld Thoughts

MAY 3, 2018

Yesterday, we announced our investment in Golden Ventures III , a Toronto-based early stage fund. Every time I’ve gone to Toronto, Matt has hosted me for something and introduced me to a bunch of founders. Last week, I wrote a post talking about why Canada Is Going To Be The Next, Great, Entrepreneurial Tech Country.

Canada 19

Canada Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 19

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2015

The entity getting screwed on this term are the founders, who now have a greater liquidation preference hanging over their heads than the dollars invested by the angels. And, while I care a lot about my entry point as an early stage investor, I’ve learned not to optimize for a small amount in the context of a pricing negotiation.

Liquidation Preference 70

Liquidation Preference Cap Table Angel Investor Post-Money Valuation 70

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Single founders can sign up, but co-founders are encouraged to attend together. It’s a great way to get your product or brand in front of lots of early-stage entrepreneurs and great mentors from Boulder. If you’d like to: Attend NEXT, head over to NEXT Boulder to get your tickets, or contact me at boulder@swnext.co

Startup 130

Startup Vesting Cofounder Lean 130

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2020

The Foundry Network , as we’ve been calling it, encompasses founders, CEOs, executives, general partners of our underlying venture capital fund investments, limited partners (our investors as well as other investors in the funds we have investments in), and other members of our ecosystem. And please help us get the word out!

Networking 176

Networking Hiring North America Venture Capital 176

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

But instead of adding it on to the note or doing an equity round with a price, which could still be an early stage price but below the cap, they make the argument that since the company couldn’t raise a round, the company is worthless. So the new investment gets 60%, the founders get 39.9%, and the $1m of seed money gets 0.1%.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 11, 2013

Two of the three had founder/CTOs. I’m noticing this more and more in the different apps I use, especially at the early stage. When I realize in one part of the app that I can do something with one action, but in the other it takes four, there’s a problem. They each have a strong design / UI person.

Early Stage 188

Early Stage Engineer SEO Design 188

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 5, 2016

of investments with a female co-founder: > 20%. These founders are active members of our portfolio and our goal is to be helpful to them any way we can, given time constraints. However, it’s a very early stage portfolio that will take a very long time to mature.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Angel Investor Portfolio 70

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 6, 2012

This is true at early stages but also true at later stages. Naval Ravikant, the co-founder of AngelList, also has a thoughtful comment on Hunter’s post , although I disagree with some of it. We describe Foundry Group ‘s behavior as “syndication agnostic.”

Syndicate 136

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Angel Investor 136

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Today’s #GivingThanks is to David Cohen , one of the founders and co-CEO of Techstars. In fact, early stage investing in general is in the dog house for many investors, both angels and VCs, as they are still remembering the pain from the collapse of the Internet bubble. I met David on one of my random days in 2006.

Angel Investor 70

Angel Investor Cofounder Denver Angel Groups 70