View from Seed

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If startups should do things that “don’t scale,” then this podcast asks a simple question: What ARE those things? Past episodes include stories from founders of LinkedIn , DraftKings , General Assembly , Mattermark , Duck Duck Go , InsightSquared , and more. Raising seed capital. (In to learn more.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Early Stage Startup Channel 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Building a new startup hub Last week, I had a unique opportunity to spend some time in Boulder at the behest of TechStars. It was a great experience to see a relatively new startup hub in action - and thriving. Their model looks like a key ingredient in the startup brew there.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

View from Seed

DECEMBER 10, 2014

He is currently a second year student at Harvard Business School and will be focused on supporting the early-stage startup community in Boston and its schools. This is his first post to The View From Seed. There’s been a lot of discussion lately about startup fundraising by graduates of various business schools.

Boston 328

Boston Seed Stage San Francisco Startup 328

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. I get approached often by tech startups looking for their first outside funding. They come in lots of different flavors and stages of fundability. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. Without funding most tech startups will die.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2015

In the last six months, we’ve been asked and answered several key questions about seed-stage startups and raising seed capital. When we first launched this blog, we considered it a “physical” representation of our mission at NextView: Help founders give their companies the best possible start.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Seed Capital IPO Startup 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round. Fast forward to today and this is now an 8-figure ARR company, and the founder was successful with his seed round pitches in part by showing a product prototype and early progress on the customer development front.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

That in turn requires more capital. So while the infrastructure cost and startup costs may have declined, the operating costs have increased. Together this means that Seed stage companies need to run longer and at a higher expense structure, meaning they need to raise a lot more capital. Seed is the New A.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Rob Go

MAY 14, 2012

I can tell you that the surge of HBS students pursuing startups right now is at a new high. I also tend to be attracted to founders who do are also contrarian. But even still, the pace of new startups in the internet space is very high. Founders who are not contrarian but following the masses, 2.

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Seed Capital Early Stage PR 74

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. What stops a majority from moving ahead to the execution stage is funding. Most businesses – online or offline, need seed capital to get established and without access to these funds, launching a business can seem like an improbable dream. That does not have to be the case.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2014

I had witnessed a number of early-stage tech startups in LA raise seed capital from the Bay Area and relocate. Adam had a full time startup and then was doing consulting (he later raised a VC fund). We spent a lot of time together in her early days and I covered her early business activities here.

Early Stage 290

Early Stage Venture Capital Los Angeles Coder 290

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

Those employees and operators, who often have some book wealth now (or are running syndicates on AngelList or acting as a scout for another fund) can easily dump $50K-$100K into one of their ex-colleague’s new startups, or put this money into their friend’s new startup, or their friend’s new hot deal.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If you have conviction : invest and help the founder finish their round with good intros to other investors. There is a process the founder goes through, he or she collects interest, and then works on closing the round with their lawyers at a fixed time. For any startup selling an annual license, the deal may not get signed right away.

Seed Stage 76

Seed Stage Seed Capital Equity Europe 76

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. We pride ourselves on being early-stage (thus the name, Upfront) but in this case it’s as early as it gets. And could we then compete?”

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

Two-and-a-half months ago Einar Vollset and I announced TinySeed , the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers. Hundreds and hundreds of tweets, re-tweets, likes, Hacker News upvotes, email responses…it was immediately obvious that there is pent up demand for this kind of alternative early-stage startup funding.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. In a startup this is a mistake. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO. So be careful.

PR 319

PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. Startups die due to a variety of causes. In 2007, Paul Graham gave a variety of causes for startup death in How Not To Die. Distraction is fatal to startups.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

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

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Don’t make everyone a founder. Early Stage.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Business Plan Blog

JANUARY 7, 2014

With venture capital becoming more and more of a bygone dream for early-stage companies, many startups want to turn to angel funding to raise capital but don’t know where to start. That inherently means that angels and founders are perfectly aligned in today’s investment world. Startup Funding'

Search 55

Search Angel Investor Seed Capital Early Stage 55

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

When seeking equity investments, the source of capital is, for the most part, tied to the stage of capital being raised. You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. The five main stages include the following: 1. Pre-Seed Funding 2. Seed Funding 3.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Last week , we gave some attention to the “why” behind convertible note financing for early stage startups. Going back to Part I , recall that although a convertible note is technically a loan made to the startup, in practice these loans are rarely expected to be repaid. These deal terms are simple but significant.

Finance 79

Finance Preferred Stock Term Sheet Early Stage 79

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. Convertible debt? Convertible equity? As of August 2010, Paul Graham famously proclaimed , “Convertible notes have won.

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

The Startup Lawyer

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Whenever a startup considers paying a “finder&# for successful investor introductions, I have the same type of conversation with the founders that goes something like this: – Startup : “Finder&# knows a lot of investors and he’ll introduce us if we pay him [6]% of all capital raised through the introductions.

Finder 72

Finder Private Placement SEC Seed Capital 72

thebarefootvc

JULY 10, 2010

Of particular importance to the startup world is the StartUp Visa act: Earlier this year, Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar introduced legislation to create a new visa for those who intend to form U.S.-based based start-ups.

Startup 45

Startup Incubator Seed Capital Venture Capital 45

Austin Startup

APRIL 23, 2010

The company was founded with seed capital from Austin Ventures. The amount of capital committed is described as “in the low millions,&# and the only reason it is that substantial is because the company acquired some intellectual property from other companies (including FiveRuns) to help accelerate the development of the product.

Intellectual Property 79

Intellectual Property Austin Early Stage Agile 79

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2015

My guests on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Errol Arkilic , former program director for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps), now founder of M34 Capital. Venk Shukla , president TiE Silicon Valley and general partner, Monta Vista Capital. What is M34 Capital?

Government 120

Government Channel Southern California Lean 120

Campus Entrepreneurship

MARCH 8, 2012

tech accelerator known as The Fort is debuting its inaugural class of startups today. The organization grew out the efforts from early stage VC firm Fortify Ventures LLC, also known as Fortify.vc (that’s its URL, too), which had previously invested in nearly dozen D.C.-area area startups off the ground. Mayor Vicent Gray.

Arlington 39

Arlington Seed Capital DC Cofounder 39

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Next Wednesday we’ll have Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners, a New York / LA early-stage venture capital fund. Nevertheless, if you share too much in your funding process or meet too many VCs expect a certain amount of your ideas to spread around the startup community. This is unintentional and inevitable.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

A sophisticated angel investor understands how the startup game is played and the role that he plays. If you’re an entrepreneur looking for seed capital, but don’t know any sophisticated angel investors, you need to hustle and build relationships in order to get “warm” introductions. When will I get my first dividend check?”,

Preferred Stock 45

Preferred Stock Angel Investor Entrepreneur Common Stock 45

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Small Business and Startups: 5 Tips For Keeping the Books – crowdspring.co/1f1zOfD. A special report from The Economist on Tech Startups. 1dhwOrm. – crowdspring.co/1fkwYB1.

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind. 189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind. Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. I love startups. Here’s my high-level approach for startups. No, I have many ideas.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

———– One of my ex students came out to the ranch to give me an update on his startup. It all starts with understanding what a startup is. What’s a Startup? Just as a reminder, a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Why small amounts?

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

———– One of my ex students came out to the ranch to give me an update on his startup. It all starts with understanding what a startup is. What’s a Startup? Just as a reminder, a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Why small amounts?

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 225

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

One of the things we frequently discuss with founders is how to interpret and manage their dialogue with VCs when raising capital. We’ve written before on how to research partners , how to pitch the right investor at a given firm, and how to raise seed capital , generally speaking.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Due Diligence Seed Stage Seed Capital 120

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Startup accelerators are popping up around the world at a rapid pace. Jed Christansen’s Seed-DB site links to over 120 but there are many more not listed there that service a wide range of geographies and industries. I am the co-founder of Sydney, Australia-based PushStart , an accelerator that follows this model.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Australia Cofounder San Francisco 118