Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company?

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2018

by Melvin Wong , founder of Kodorra. This is why it is especially important for startup founders to seek help to guide them through the tedious and often perilous process of starting and growing a company. Both startup incubators and accelerates can provide valuable assistance in the growth and development of an early-stage business.

Incubator 118

Incubator South America San Francisco Chile 118

Gust

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Assuming the company is able to make effective use of the seed money to greatly increase the value of the enterprise, all of that value therefore accrues to the founder, rather than the investor. That is a swing of 15x from the investor’s point of view!

Valuation 150

Valuation Founder Seed Money Common Stock 150

YoungUpstarts

JULY 22, 2017

Success as an entrepreneur takes a lot more than an idea, a dab of seed money and, as they say, a wing and a prayer. I essentially left when the family chose to close Lakeview’s operations after the founder passed away and turn it into a trust for their future. He’s spent over 20 years nurturing them all. The end result?

Founder 100

Founder United States Canada Seed Money 100

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

The world of startups is a bit like a gold rush right now: there’s lots of money to be made, almost no rules regarding who will make or lose it, and only a few will actually see a sustained profit at the end of the day. The world is so saturated with seed money right now that it’s easy to lose sight of what running a business is all about.

Startup 130

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 130

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

The world of startups is a bit like a gold rush right now: there’s lots of money to be made, almost no rules regarding who will make or lose it, and only a few will actually see a sustained profit at the end of the day. The world is so saturated with seed money right now that it’s easy to lose sight of what running a business is all about.

Startup 78

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 78

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. Being swamped with funding is a problem that most early stage companies would love to have. As Paul Graham said , “startups take off because the founders make them take off.

Guerilla 158

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 158

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 16, 2018

On the other hand, some founders *literally* aren't fundraising. First, in the early stages, there's a lot more information that can be gleaned about you than we can know for sure about the success of your company. Company success is a function of resources--people and money, neither of which you have much of.

Due Diligence 74

Due Diligence Early Stage Term Sheet Vesting 74

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Not FU money, but “feed the family&# money. I raised $500k in seed money to start the company.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Kodorra

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

This is why it is especially important for startup founders to seek help to guide them through the tedious and often perilous process of starting and growing a company. Both startup incubators and accelerates can provide valuable assistance in the growth and development of an early-stage business.

Incubator 40

Incubator Programming San Francisco Chile 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

Chris Dixon provided some commentary on Twitter that he believes I missed “the most important point about fund size.&# He’s specifically referring to his point of view that entrepreneurs shouldn’t take seed money from “big VC’s&# (he defines them as > $100 million). You raised angel money.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. Firms like Baseline, Felicis, ff Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle, HomeBrew, IA Ventures, K9, Lowercase, NextView, Resolute, Rincon, Crosscut and the countless other great firms we all now know didn’t exist.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2010

Since then Mike his built his career by investing in early-stage companies (seed or series A), which is remarkable given that Polaris Ventures is a $1 billion fund. So how is Mike able to do this at a time where others have warned against taking seed money from VC funds? Total raised: $17.0mm.

San Francisco 230

San Francisco Los Angeles Cofounder SMS 230

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. Being swamped with funding is a problem that most early stage companies would love to have. As Paul Graham said , “startups take off because the founders make them take off.

Guerilla 91

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 91

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Great points, though your bio does read “Personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including … a handful of other startups that are still in stealth mode!” link] What’s the right amount of seed money to raise? Dividing equity between founders » Home. link] Bruce Colwin.

Stealth 68

Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

TL;DR: Using a “tiered” valuation cap structure in a convertible note or SAFE can provide flexibility that bridges the gap between (i) what founders expect their company to be worth in the near future, and (ii) what investors are comfortable accepting now. Background Reading: The best seed round structure is the one that closes.

Valuation 48

Valuation Dilution Silicon Valley Seed Stage 48

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

I’ve written about it myself (Is VC Seed Funding Dead?) and (Is There Really a Signaling Problem with VC Seed Funding?). There is a structural reason that VCs are investing at early stages, 2. If we invest the follow-on money comes from our non-seed fund (e.g. Short summary of my posts: 1.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Partner Warrant 298

Austin Startup

APRIL 23, 2010

There is a common complaint heard from local entrepreneurs that AV doesn’t invest in early stage companies anymore. Suaad Sait has joined the team, the former founder and CEO of Reachforce, and previously an executive with Pervasive, Motive, Ventix, and Dazel. But the financial markets have definitely raised the bar.

Intellectual Property 79

Intellectual Property Austin Early Stage Agile 79

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 23, 2015

in seed money instead of $1.5M You should target 18 to 24 months of runway post Series Seed." That''s a huge jump, not only in terms of how much a founder will attempt to bite off and chew, but also in price. You''re ending up at a post-money valuation of $10mm versus $5mm. Yay, participation trophies!

Post-Money Valuation 60

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Seed Money 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have. No need to name names.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. I think they definitely qualify as a VC and not a seed fund.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

Rob Go

JANUARY 20, 2015

There were a number of interesting articles published over the last week in response to Mattermark and CB Insight’s data around early stage financing activity. As a team, we’ve been thinking about what has been going on in the seed market in recent years. Third: The definition and dynamics of seed rounds have changed.

Early Stage 28

Early Stage Seed Stage Finance Seed Money 28

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

Very proven repeat founders can usually get away with early proof points even with limited top-line growth, but most teams will feel like they are approaching investors from a weak position if the headline numbers don’t pop. The early stage of a business is when everything is a blank canvas and you have maximum agility.

Product 28

Product Seed Stage Seed Money Metrics 28

Rob Go

MARCH 20, 2013

What can founders do in advance to make the trough as shallow as possible? . If you are in the pre-product launch stage and want to ask random people what they think of your idea or product, don’t say “hi, I”m the founder of XYC company, can you tell me what you think of this product?”. Rob Go] This is a great question!

Bootstrapping 46

Bootstrapping Finance Dividend Vesting 46

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. Few startups get it quite right.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. A lot ofwould-be startup founders think the key to the whole process is theinitial idea, and from that point all you have to do is execute.Venture capitalists know better. Ideally you want between two and four founders.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

A company raises $1m of seed money from angels in a convertible note with a $6m cap. Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. But in this cycle, I hadn’t seen it in a seed round.

Recapitalization 70

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

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. Why was it ok for you to have no talent but a great idea and label yourself a co-founder of a company but advise against it for anyone else? Living expense money 2.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, the influential advisor to dozens of startups like Dropbox and Airbnb , sent his entrepreneurs an email Wednesday afternoon cautioning them against taking "lowball offers"—in particular, he said, from Google Ventures. This Chart Shows Why VCs Are Willing To Give Hyped Startups Absurd Valuations.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

But wherever you stand on that, there’s one very real consequence of this explosion in seed funding: There has not been a corresponding explosion in investors willing to lead the next round, the so-called Series A. This time around, there has been an explosion at the early stages, and the very late pre-IPO growth stages.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93