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 114

San Francisco Forecast Early Stage Term Sheet 114

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

It was a “disappearing text app” where the founders told me that they named the company because the idea came from how Tiger Woods got caught cheating on his wife because all of his mistresses had evidence that he cheated because they saved text messages from him. I hear tons of ideas for early-stage apps. I didn’t do that.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

For early stage VC ‘s, Syndication is the process of sharing investments with other potential co-investors. The classic scenario is when a VC has a signed term sheet to lead a round, but has left room open for another meaningful investor. The old process of syndication inevitably took several weeks in the past.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Using NextView as an example, since we both seek to lead the seed round and only lead during this round, I’ve seen this trend manifest in one of two ways: In a priced round, the entrepreneur will often share their valuation ask (or a stated floor) for the pre-money valuation of their company much sooner in the process.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. Investors previously prone to onsite visits and amassed airline miles, now grapple with how to form relationships and build confidence without having met teams in person. Zoom calls have taken the place of in-person meetings.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. But I’d suggest at the end of that they “re-pitch” their lead investor(s).

Founder 96

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Almost seven years ago, I wrote a post about the difference between a “no” answer and a “no yet” when pitching early-stage VCs. Parsing Seed & Early-Stage VCs. In this environment, founders have to start parsing the seed VC landscape with a finer lens to find the ones that may be appropriate for their startup.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Differentiation Lead Investor 120

Hippoland

APRIL 9, 2017

3) You act cagey about information Early stage investors understand that there is a lot of work to do in an early stage startup. What looks really bad is when founders try to be evasive about their answers. But these are the primary ones I’ve seen in my interactions with founders. But that’s ok.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Early Stage Software Review Naming 48

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

There are ways to do this politely and even if your investors don’t answer as directly as you may like – there is at least something that can be read into this. If you have mostly angels or don’t feel your existing investor can support you without new capital from the outside then you might want a smaller burn rate.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. In December, AngelList , a service that matches early-stage startups with investors, debuted the ability to allow accredited investors to actually invest in startups on the platform with as little as $1,000.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2022

I love working with great people and as a venture capitalist, am fortunate the number of founders I’m impressed by far exceeds our investment capacity. Here’s an example of a founder that I’ve known for a while who recently raised a seed round with different firms than ours. The needs of the lead investor for ownership?

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Founder Acquisition Startup 89

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve also presented at a range of industry conferences on how institutional investors can use professional networks for research , origination , market research , and value creation. Our founders realized that investors needed to learn interactively, on-demand, on very specific topics, and in an atmosphere of trust.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The same can be said of startups and their founders, in the sense that so many things can go wrong in the building of a company to an exit, that success almost seems to be a statistical anomaly [more on how bees fly ]. See, it happens to investors too, not just founders.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

With that in mind, let’s look at an illustration of these trends below, which demonstrates what’s been happening to early-stage financing rounds over the last 15 years or so. Series A investors invested quite early, often before product/market fit. FWIW, that is not how we operate.).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Hunter Walker

JUNE 14, 2019

The six who didn’t go out for a Series A either (a) shutdown/acquihired prior to this milestone [founder disagreement; lack of product traction], (b) exited due to an early M&A opportunity or (c) in one case, is currently an ongoing concern that hasn’t needed to raise additional capital. Why do I raise this distinction?

LP 100

LP Early Stage Lead Investor Founder 100

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Very shortly after I joined, Greg Gretsch (now my partner at Jackson Square Ventures) co-led oDesk’s Series A along with Venky Ganesan (partner at Menlo Ventures and lead investor in Rev.com). Back in 2004 - 2010, he would routinely send me early stage companies to check out as part of his diligence process.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Pre-money ($8m) + investment ($2m) = Post-money ($10m) and the investors now own 20% of your company $2m / $10m. In the old days there usually weren’t convertible notes on early-stage deals and there weren’t party rounds with 20 angels or 6 seed funds. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages?

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I know that some founders feel uncomfortable with this as though they might somehow be sharing something so confidential that it ultimately hurts you. Many VCs will have a distribution curve where they’ll do a small number of early-stage deals (say $1.5–3 Why shouldn’t most founders just name a price? After all?—?we

Valuation 324

Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

OnlyOnce

APRIL 27, 2021

The conversation with your co-founder about only one founder/executive on the board. You already have 100% of the mindshare and ambassadorship your co-founder has to offer. The conversation with an existing VC about leaving the board to make room for new investors or an independent. and “How come my vote doesn’t count?”

Vesting 48

Vesting Cofounder Startup Term Sheet 48

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

His tweet reads: New weak investor move. If you have conviction : invest and help the founder finish their round with good intros to other investors. Yes, sure, some of them are “rolling” closes where the investor who commits signs a document (usually a SAFE note) and then wires around that time.

Seed Stage 76

Seed Stage Seed Capital Equity Europe 76

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 15, 2016

I had lunch recently with a founder. Whenever a new investor showed up, they wanted – and got – a board seat.” 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.

Sales 70

Sales Seed Stage Early Stage Finance 70

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

For example, “VC will serve as the lead investor up to $400,000; Company would source balance of the round up to $600,000 (so round size would be up to $1,000,000 in the aggregate).”. At the early stage, the founding team often has lots of “interest” lined up waiting for a lead. I hear this often.

Term Sheet 71

Term Sheet Aggregator Lead Investor Early Stage 71

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Regarding structure, the first deal is a rolling round with committed lead investors. The second is a tranched deal, which is always a bad compromise for founders. In an early stage deal, you check the numbers to avoid getting exploited, but you make your decision based on the investors. Looks good.

Term Sheet 31

Term Sheet Dilution Participating Preferred B2C 31

Hunter Walker

APRIL 20, 2018

Like we do at the seed stage, USV almost always plays the role of “ lead investor.” ” And later: “The truth about these situations is a few seed investors will massively over deliver and the rest will massively disappoint.” But it often is not.”

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 48

Rob Go

AUGUST 29, 2016

When I first started out as a VC nearly 9 years ago, most early stage company valuations were expressed as pre-money valuations. Founders also had to do a little math on the new option pool to really understand what their ownership would be post investment, since it was typically taken out of the company pre-money.

Post-Money Valuation 52

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Term Sheet 52

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

So if a VC wants to work with really talented early-stage entrepreneurs there are times where they have to be willing to seed fund them in order to be in the deal. A very well known early stage fund used to have a rule that they didn’t do follow ons. That founder wasn’t one of your angels. is now a VC.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Regarding structure, the first deal is a rolling round with committed lead investors. The second is a tranched deal, which is always a bad compromise for founders. In an early stage deal, you check the numbers to avoid getting exploited, but you make your decision based on the investors. Looks good.

Term Sheet 20

Term Sheet Dilution Participating Preferred B2C 20

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

But every so often another founder also sits on the board. If that’s the case, it’s essential that that founder and the CEO have a very tight relationship and coordinate closely to avoid allowing members of the organization to use that alternate channel to the board to get around the CEO’s decisions. Maybe it’s an economic challenge.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

ithacaVC

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

If you are advising startup founders, I strongly suggest having them read all 4 of the posts to get the lay of the startup valuation land. A founder is about to raise their first round and asking me how to value their company. [1]. A founder is about to raise their first round and asking me how to value their company. [1].

Valuation 69

Valuation Startup Down Round Early Stage 69

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. It’s just that he’s a “super seed&# investor in a firm, Founder Collective , that I really respect (and with whom I’ve done two deals and hope to do a third) and I’m a partner in a venture capital firm, GRP Partners.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

It had a good mix of viewpoints with east ( James Geshwiler, Common Angels ) and west coast (yours truly) angels, early stage venture capitalist ( Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group ), and a couple of attorneys ( Dan Hansen and Mario Rosati ). I am an active angel investor and on the board of Sand Hill Angels. Steve Bennet.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

StoredIQ , a leading provider of Intelligent Information Management solutions for eDiscovery, records and compliance management, today announced that it has closed $10 million in new investment financing and expanded its management team in preparation for accelerated growth. CrunchBase Information. S3 Ventures.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. Remember the power law.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. Remember the power law.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

Rob Go

JANUARY 9, 2012

I believe that the best way to understand an investor is to meet the founders that they work with. Founders: We invest behind founders from a variety of backgrounds. Broadly speaking, they break down something like this: First Time Founder: 6. Source Type: How we meet founders. Introduced by co-investor: 3.

Portfolio 46

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 46

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

The second reason is that investors want to know that YOU believe in your own startup…and the best way for you to demonstrate that is to show that you have personally put your own money where your mouth is. Your goal in all this is to try to find a lead investor. He or she will be your primary champion, and often mentor.

Software Review 164

Software Review Term Sheet Technical Review Angel Investor 164