Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

When Chad Pytel introduced me to Bryan Helmkamp , CEO/Co-founder of Code Climate , I knew that I had to pay attention. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, a consulting firm that makes web + mobile apps for early-stage startups. Joining us in the syndicate are Lerer Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Fuel Capital.

Software Review 191

Software Review Chad Ruby PHP 191

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Jack Tankersley, a long time mentor of mine, co-founder of Centennial Funds, and co-founder of Meritage Funds, wrote me a very long response. So contrary to the piece, it wasn’t VC were good at early stage technology, it was that they had newfound capital and a big exit window. CIVC. $ 250,000. CIVC. $ 200,000.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Time will tell.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 21, 2014

2014 will be a formative year for new business owners and early-stage entrepreneurs. For current founders, in our hyper-pressurized worlds of being incubated, accelerated, and constantly switching modes between pitching and executing, how do we successfully navigate the labyrinth to success? There is no time like the present.

Entrepreneur 210

Entrepreneur Startup Balance Sheet Non-Compete 210

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

Managers of VC funds typically want to grow their business aggressively, just like the founders we back. Among the sites we have found most helpful with practical guides for founders: Biztree , First Search , Foundersuite , Goodwin Founders Workbench , Guides.co , Inc.com , and StartupRocket. .

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

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

AUGUST 13, 2014

So to successfully raise a seed round of capital, founders should possess at least a basic understanding of the different types of angel investors they’ll encounter. It can also help founders better approach angels in the first place. The Previous-Colleague Angel. The Financial Angel. The “Sport Fisherman” Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

On the positive side for a founder, directly stating a high valuation expectation up front can anchor the negotiations to a higher level, assuming that an investor takes the leap of faith to invest. After angels, larger venture firms are probably next in terms of how variable they are when reacting to seed pricing asks by founders.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. Many of these Founders we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with if we hadn’t launched this program.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

View from Seed

AUGUST 16, 2019

Is a Founder raising a new round well in advance of cash-out date because she sees an opportunity to put more gas in the tank ahead of what current underlying business metrics would suggest (i.e. One of the questions which we often ask out loud at NextView is if a person or firm is motivated by “fear or greed?”

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. One way to measure that is to imagine the theoretical $500-$1mm angel round that a founder is looking to raise. You get, if you’re lucky, a Powerpoint and some financials once a quarter. So what’s the point?

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Yet, knowing this distinction is important.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Rob Go

APRIL 19, 2017

Recently, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with a number of the new early-stage investors in Boston. As more early-stage investors emerge in Boston, some folks have asked me whether I feel any discomfort around the many new “competitors” on the scene. There are a lot of new folks in the space.

Early Stage 34

Early Stage Boston Artificial Inteligence Term Sheet 34

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Seed investors are aplenty and of course they need downstream money to fuel their early-stage bets. I told my friend that I felt that in 2014 too many new VCs feel the pressure to chase deals, to be a part of syndicates with other brand names and to pounce on top of every startup whose numbers are trending up quickly.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Many assume it was a cakewalk, based on the success LinkedIn has enjoyed over time and the current stature of our founder/CEO Reid Hoffman (now Chairman). I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. But keep in mind at this point Reid’s a first-time CEO.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Hunter Walker

JULY 19, 2017

The format differs but let’s generally describe Scouts as, individuals using money fully or partially fronted by another VC fund to make investments in early stage companies with hopes of giving the sponsoring fund an advantage in leading a larger round for the startup later on. Are you a Scout? Is that possible?

Founder 69

Founder Silicon Valley Cap Table LP 69

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

” A great line uttered at dinner last night by one of the senior GPs at one of the best early stage funds. One question that’s been on my mind since we started Homebrew in early 2013 was whether seed venture would end up being multigenerational or not. Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash.

LP 92

LP Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 92

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. At Foundry Group, we learned a lot by running our own FG Angels syndicate. And it’s fun.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 70

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. The middle” consists of venture-backed companies that are neither early stage nor mature. What about the middle?

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Agile VC

DECEMBER 19, 2013

If ROI and asset allocation are the sole objective for an angel investor, then they may be best served investing in late stage startups via secondary markets or investing in a VC fund (if they have access to high quality funds) rather than trying to find and pick a bunch of early-stage startups to invest in.

Angel Investor 265

Angel Investor Early Stage Syndicate Syndication 265

View from Seed

OCTOBER 16, 2019

On the more organic side is when the founder and investor have a pre-existing relationship. Maybe you’ve backed the founder before, or have just known and shown mutual respect for each other for months or years. When seed investing was less mature, there was a high degree of deal trading among early stage investors.

Deal Flow 45

Deal Flow Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 45

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

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 1, 2015

The co-founders are Greg Gottesman, Geoff Entress, Mike Galgon, and Ben Gilbert. Greg is a co-founder of Madrona and long-time VC. Mike was the co-founder of aQuantive which was acquired by Microsoft for $6.2 Mike was the co-founder of aQuantive which was acquired by Microsoft for $6.2

Seattle 70

Seattle San Francisco Angel Investor Syndicate 70

Haystack

DECEMBER 27, 2018

It’s not popular to admit, but I believe there’s really no way for very early-stage investors to control what deals they ultimately see. The associations with the founders and the logos of the companies stick around, for better or worse.

Portfolio 118

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Flash 118

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

When I put all of this together, what I see is: In the Bay Area, the seed stage is getting squeezed from all sides during this summer solstice of. 4/ Orthogonal Competition – I recently tweeted about a new breed of early-stage technology investor that has its roots in public equities (hedge funds, long/short, etc.)

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 1, 2018

by Rachel Strella, founder of Strella Social Media. Explore content syndication opportunities to expand the reach of your blog posts. Even in the early stages of business ownership, reconsider trying to tackle every aspect of starting and running the company yourself.

Social Media 133

Social Media Syndicate Syndication SEO 133

Rob Go

JANUARY 27, 2014

Many of them for the better, as there has been a great surge in great talent going after big ideas and greater access to capital at the early stages. In the early stages, entrepreneurs have historically known who all their investors are. The first were people who know the founder really well, and believe in them.

Syndicate 73

Syndicate Syndication Early Stage Cap Table 73

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

Our investment size may differ slightly from one company to the next, but it tends to be driven entirely by situation-specific factors (needs of the company, syndicate composition, anticipated reserves, etc) … and not based on our belief.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

Feld Thoughts

JULY 30, 2015

We are early stage investors – if you’ve raised more than $3 million you are too late for us. We are syndication agnostic – we’ll invest with other VCs or invest by ourselves. Our late stage fund gave us flexibility to invest more money in our later stage companies.

Minneapolis 70

Minneapolis Phoenix Portland Syndicate 70

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

When you compromise on terms in the early stages, you will have to pay the price in the later stages. As a seed stage investor here at NextView seeing our companies progress down fundraising paths, I think it’s extremely important to highlight that terms in early rounds do set precedent for terms going forward.

Finance 128

Finance Mezzanine Valuation Seed Stage 128

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon. I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

The cliff notes behind the idea is that what used to be considered a series A is now actually a seed round because… Capital efficiency allows founders to get further with less. Some funds (and angels) are explicitly trying to invest before seed rounds, which suggests there is a stage before seed. Where do I send the check?”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Startups in NextView’s portfolio frequently receive inbound interest from other VC investors who are intrigued about what they’re doing, and I often talk with other early-stage entrepreneurs how to approach similar situations. If you start receiving inbound interest from VCs within the first couple months (or even weeks!)

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 10, 2010

In this case neither Niel (nor I) had any interest in creating a traditional syndicate to fund the company. 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.

Syndicate 120

Syndicate Syndication Angel Financing Finance 120