YoungUpstarts

JUNE 20, 2019

Over the years, the Truss team has worked with several early-stage startups, and noticed a consistency in inter-series problems (regardless of the industry). Specifically, there are five challenges that emerging business typically put on the backburner between funding rounds: Seed to Series A: Customer Testing.

Technical Cofounder 113

Technical Cofounder Burn Rate Seed Stage Cofounder 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.” You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process.

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

It’s very different with a $1 million seed round. Believe me, I raised that $1 million seed round in 2009 and we never would have made it at these prices. These two costs suck up a lot of the money in an early stage company. For all of 2015, for all classes, it was $57.75. Expect to see a lot of below-market subletting.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup Valuation 120

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

tldr: instead of choosing between in-person or remote, your seed stage company (or team) should be more hybrid, tied to the type/phase of project going on. Experienced leadership, well-funded, and hiring in engineering, product and operations. Highlighted Homebrew Portfolio Jobs.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Seed Stage Startup Software 146

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 31, 2023

HW: I’m always surprised when someone considering ‘joining a startup’ has put a lot of thought into industry/vertical but not into stage of company. For example, in many ways seed stage companies across different industries are more similar than two companies within the same vertical but one new and one more mature.

Employee 113

Employee Startup Vertical Leadership 113

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

An easy way to think about it is that value over time doesn’t go up and to the right in a straight line like this: Instead, it’s more of a stair step like this: So, what are the value inflection points that create the stair steps, and how does one think about it at the earliest stages? These might include: Bring on a technical co-founder.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. There is also True Ventures that does early stage, seed investments. This is producing a “boomlet&# or a bubble in early-stage investing. I have written more in depth on this topic in the past. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

“As a seed-stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction?” When you are thinking about joining an early stage company, how should you be evaluating the risk of the overall company? How should you be weighing the presence of a great founding team versus early signs of traction?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2015

” So it’s no wonder that one aspect of an early-stage startup’s existence can be perpetually up for debate: their graphic design. These all serve as doorways to different but important audiences that a founder needs to impress, ranging from investors to target customers or users to potential new hires.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Design Startup Early Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.” You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process.

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

But the way the market values this early work can vary greatly. I’m often surprised by how much effort seed stage teams put into building an early product and how little credit that receives from investors. And the ultimate uncertainties for a seed stage company are around talent and customer demand.

Seed Stage 180

Seed Stage Bootstrapping Demand Early Stage 180

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

I recently chatted with Saurya about how he approaches hiring engineers at Google and what founders can learn. We hire generalists because the company wants to be able to dissolve one division one day if it’s not working, and then move those same people into something else that’s new or already working.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm ” So Reid set out to hire a CEO. I saw it first hand.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

In many instances, you raise an institutional round to either fulfill a product strategy or go-to-market strategy or you’re increasing sales and marketing hires, so you have better visibility into what needs to happen in the next six, 12, 18 months. NVV: Let’s talk about the seed stage specifically.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Implications for Founders.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

This was my time at a Wall Street firm that had hired me after I applied for their Junior Stockbroker position, a little while after I graduated from college. So I have embraced it fully, and though we are still in the early stages (seed stage), it’s the hardest thing I have ever done yet it’s the most fulfilling thing to me.

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Who should you hire? When you’ve got two people on the team and you’re going super lean in the early stages, usually your best bet is to have a customer experience person and a builder. Many startups outsource visual design work, and instead of hiring that designer, hire a second developer.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

View from Seed

MARCH 22, 2016

This is for the early-stage companies — the entrepreneurs with great ideas and tireless work ethics who feel like they’ve emailed half of the country’s news outlets with nothing but the rare “thanks, but not interested” reply to show for it. You have a new hire (if they’re not the CEO or CTO, reporters probably won’t care).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage San Francisco Startup CTO Hire 120

Hippoland

OCTOBER 9, 2016

If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone. revenue / traction / setting up infrastructure / etc) This can set you apart, because the vast majority of businesses I see at the seed stage are just ideas with no action.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage CTO Hire Email Later Stage 48

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.” You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process.

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Seed and early stage companies are in need of people who like hand-to-hand combat. Early stage companies need to be free of politics and that kind of ego. Usually, I’d hope that the head of product is actually the CEO or CTO, at least at the seed stage.

CTO Hire 61

CTO Hire Seed Stage Startup Early Stage 61

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

These companies have a long way to go until global dominance in many cases, but they are all growing, hiring, and strengthening the local community right now. This is true when it comes to early-stage funding, but also as it relates to support platforms being built by local firms to help Boston-based startups.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. He covers broad topics such as net neutrality, but also dives into the specifics of starting a company, touching on things like hiring and employee retention. Follow Paul on Twitter @paulg. Sam Altman.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

In 2019, we’ll be doubling down on this effort as we are hiring a GM for our CXO Advisory Board & Network ( job description here ). Seed funds back to basics in 2019: We highlighted the barbelling of VC in the year-end 2017 update and see this continuing in 2019.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Hiring costs are up dramatically The cost of hiring top quality talent in the bay area has gone up dramatically.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.” You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process.

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

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. This is just the next phase of AngelList’s evolution into a one-stop shop for seed-stage companies and their backers.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The final product works great, and all the early users love it.” You are now entering the rollout stage , with money required for marketing, hiring a full-time team, and a production process.

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). This is because excessive capital becomes toxic for an early stage company.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Different investors place different weights on the three elements but as a rule earlier stage investors place more emphasis on the team and later stage investors place more emphasis on the market. Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Chances are if things are going good (or even not so good) those early stage startups you were so passionate about 12 or 18 months ago will be coming to the market again asking for more money. Do you have relationships with other investors at the next stage of the investment lifecycle?

Pre-Money Valuation 187

Pre-Money Valuation Seed Stage IP Deal Flow 187

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation. This tech bubble is unfolding just like all the other bubbles before it.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

” And some seed stage investors told me, “I prefer not to fight over price now. You rarely find full ratchets in early-stage deals any more. Nobody I know accepts multiple liquidation preferences in early-stage deals. And every seed stage VC tells me they don’t ever even ask for them.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

What should an early-stage startup founder focus on if they want to implement PLG? But for early stage founders, I think there are two particular scenarios where PLG can be really helpful. So for early-stage founders, those are the two scenarios where PLG might be a great fit. That's the foundation.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78