Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2018

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Cram Down 148

Cram Down Angel Investor Equity Dividend 148

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2014

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Founder 254

Founder Cram Down Angel Investor Equity 254

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I was excited to see that GLG (formerly Gerson Lehrman Group), the industry leader, is now offering a professional network service geared to the needs of the startup community: GLG Share. Like many established finance & media companies, GLG knows that the tech startup sector is a growing part of the economy.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

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. VCs who understood the ubiquity, pervasiveness and ultimate profitability of these startups doubled-down on their investments.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Tie payments to your product or service revenue. Loans are a safer option than equity.

Cram Down 120

Cram Down Angel Investor Equity Dividend 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

It’s among the most-asked questions on startup forums, and an issue we’re dealing with right now at WPEngine as we bring on new employees: How do you decide how much equity (shares) to give a new employee or partner? Hard to know, but an important question for a bootstrap startup to answer! What about $Y/mo?&#

Equity 276

Equity Salary Hiring Institutional Investors 276

VC Cafe

APRIL 8, 2010

Q lipso, an Israeli startup funded by JVP (see previous VC Cafe post ), has announced the acquisition of the assets of Veoh , a user generated video site, on the virge of its declaration of bankruptcy. Several other Israeli startups operate in the same space, inclduing Oovoo, Seetoo and Watchitoo.

Bankruptcy 74

Bankruptcy Early Stage Merger Institutional Investors 74

David Teten

APRIL 7, 2017

This is the debut of an annual series of summits focused on sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, family offices, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs interested in technology-driven entrepreneurship and with ties to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Apply for the Startup Showcase here: [link].

New York 60

New York Africa Cofounder Egypt 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

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. Early Stage Investment (Series A & B) 4. Pre-Seed Funding 2. Seed Funding 3.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Excel and Google simply aren’t going to cut it if you expect to build a high quality institutional investor base.”. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

Amidst the mass of new initiatives, new firms, new strategies, etc that constantly pop up in the early stage investing landscape, it’s helpful to have a clear articulation of what VC’s are focused on and how they see the world. Introduced by a co-investor: 5. Stage: Pre Product: 12. This isn’t a quota.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

As a quick review, most startups begin life as corporations with a single class of equity securities, referred to as Common Stock , issued to founders, employees, and outside service providers. Options and warrants, when issued, are also typically exercisable for shares of Common Stock.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 21, 2014

17 core investments have been made, I’d say our investment model was, and continues to be, consistent with the type of firm we want to build but if you’re not constantly evaluating how to get better and serve entrepreneurs, you won’t last very long in the early stage venture business.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 102

Ben's Blog

MAY 24, 2021

Small” IPOs — companies with less than $50m in annual revenue at the time of IPO – have declined from more than 50% of all IPOs in the 1980-2000 timeframe to about 25% of IPOs from 2001-2016; Companies are staying private much longer — the median time to IPO from founding hovered around 6.5

SEC 36

SEC Accredited Investor IPO Technical Review 36

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

I have been involved in startups since I graduated from college in 1996. My background with entrepreneurialism is this is my sixth startup. My name is John Bates. I’m the CEO of Executive Speaking Success and I’m a long-time entrepreneur. This is really an exciting panel to be a part of. Bates: Fantastic. Thank you Sabrina.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95