View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

Seed stage companies will mostly face questions around the team and market. For me, it looks something like this: The first layer of diligence happens when an investor is early in their process, but intrigued. If you are an early stage company, this is particularly sensitive, so good investors tend to do this late in a process.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Here’s my take: 1. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

VC Cafe

JULY 5, 2010

-based Angel capital with early stage technology companies in Israel, and do so in a way that substantially mitigates the risk of seed stage investing. Essentially, investors are receiving equal shares of 10 Israeli seed stage start-ups for relatively small capital.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage 106

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. 15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. 50x more Internet users (2.4 On the surface the narratives have been. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

Out of hundreds of applications, we selected six pre-seed stage teams building companies shaping a brighter collective future by combining software and creativity to drive change in the lives of everyday people — their businesses include everything from empowering local main street businesses to making automobile insurance more accessible.

Seed Stage 285

Seed Stage Programming Finance B2B 285

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

View from Seed

APRIL 20, 2020

As we have discussed elsewhere, the world of early stage investing is shifting from FOMO ( F ear O f M issing O ut) to FOLD (Fear Of Looking Dumb). Starting today, we will begin accepting our first cohort of startups into the program: WHO : Pre-Seed & Seed stage startups located anywhere focused on the U.S.

B2B 436

B2B Seed Stage B2C Programming 436

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

A typical VC thesis: “we invest in tech startups in Europe at an early stage” However, our experience shows that in many cases: . Thirty-four VC firms in OpenVC call themselves “early-stage” Yet, 30% of those don’t actually invest in pre-revenue startups. 2) Business model-defined funds.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. is the leading consumer internet company with Terry Semel as CEO. One partnership was clearly very divided and a vocal minority of GPs thought consumer internet companies were a massive waste of time and money.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

The Internet sector dominated for the first time in the past decade and saw a large increase of investment, attracting $482 million or 23% of total capital raised by high-tech companies (115 total investments), compared to $222 million or 18% raised in 2010, and $147 million or 13% raised in 2009. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48

Technical Review 111

Technical Review IPO Seed Stage 111

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

And while the internet created both tremendous reward and tremendous investment carnage leading up to and after the 2000 tech bubble, it’s created long run disruption of broad sectors of media, advertising, business software & computing, and retail commerce and VCs that missed this shift have faced real struggles. Read More ».

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

My partner Erik Rannala has had a similar experience, having worked as a VC at Harrison Metal before moving down to LA to co-found our seed stage venture firm. It’s probably not too controversial to say that the median level of sophistication of early stage entrepreneurs in Los Angeles is lower than that of Bay Area.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have a very public seed stage investment policy and awe.sm I have previously written why I don’t believe in the COO role at early-stage startups. And watching Jonathan to continue to build on the product vision that started 4 years ago from his desire to fix a large part of the Internet’s inefficiencies.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Cofounder Analytics Founder 303

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

A fund size of $25 – $100 million in normally an “early stage&# fund that is likely to do seed investments and/or smaller A round investments. A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

In general, I’m a big fan of convertible notes or convertible securities for seed stage founders. In reality, at such an early stage, it almost doesn’t make sense to do a priced round, because you don’t know what the fundraising landscape will be apriori. This happens more than you can imagine.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

. “Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

Internet-connected computing is an innovation wave on par with a few historical developments of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Conventional wisdom has it that the internet is towards the end of this cycle — and many VCs are on the hunt for the next platform, whether it be blockchain, or AI, or synthetic biology, or what have you.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

The Internet sector dominated for the first time in the past decade and saw a large increase of investment, attracting $482 million or 23% of total capital raised by high-tech companies (115 total investments), compared to $222 million or 18% raised in 2010, and $147 million or 13% raised in 2009. Mid and later stage companies attracted $1.48

Technical Review 60

Technical Review IPO Seed Stage 60

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

David Cohen is the founder and Managing Partner of Techstars, the #1 ranked internet startup accelerator in the world. As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. But, he also has great advice on growth strategies for early-stage companies.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

View from Seed

OCTOBER 18, 2017

We believe that the internet is a super-technology, and are most excited about the second-order effects that this super-technology will have on everyday life for everyday people. How Can Seed-Stage Startups Become Ubiquitous or Habitual? Of course, the holy grail for any company is to be both ubiquitous and habitual.

Vertical 166

Vertical Seed Stage Viral Portfolio 166

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

We at NextView Ventures invest exclusively in a startup’s seed-stage round , meaning that many if not most of our deals are made alongside individual angel investors. Investors in this category are usually operating executives who have spent their entire careers in a specific industry vertical, like internet travel, for example.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

How about Jana , which brings internet access to the developing world and boasts 30 million global users? 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. Want businesses with massive reach and international presence?

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

View from Seed

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Takeaway 3: Identify your team’s current learning style (especially among any existing tech talent or leaders, but also more generally across your early-stage team). In terms of interest in your product: If this person is an early hire, they need some product vision to go along with a desire to build.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Engineer Software Review Founder 120

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Apple finally decides to spend its cash hoard on buying internet companies instead of just on building cool campuses (RIP Cupertino Village and Fantasia? ). Huge funding gap appears for seed stage companies as seed stage VC firms look for series A traction and accelerators look for seed stage traction.

Seed Stage 84

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 84

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

allthingsd.com

JULY 16, 2012

In the largest sector, Internet, median deal size increased at every stage of funding for the first time ever, CB Insights said. Venture capitalists were particularly aggressive on early-stage investments in the second quarter. The growth wasn’t driven by the outsized impact of a few large deals. Tricia Duryee.

Venture Capital 71

Venture Capital Technical Review RSS Charlotte 71

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 24, 2013

The big news in my corner of the world is that after nine good years I’ve left DFJ Esprit to join Forward Internet Group where I will be Managing Partner at Forward Investment Partners (FIP), responsible for early stage investments and Forward Labs. With Labs we will be able to fill those gaps.

Partner 111

Partner Seed Stage Early Stage Portfolio 111

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

If you are in the very early stages with your company and there are no major reasons (e.g. Jeff Clavier, Seed stage investor in 90+ consumer internet startups, said: We all have a different approach to non Silicon Valley opportunities. R&D in your home country, HQ in US with the CEO moving over).

Silicon Valley 104

Silicon Valley Startup Seed Stage Delaware 104

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

VC’s accelerate investments in “internet of things” except sometime in Q4, wake up and realize it’s no different than “consumer electronics” – and that we still need to innovate around the manufacturing infrastructure, distribution economics, and consumer liability of the consumer goods business to really make this a venture fundable category.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. Congratulations!

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Up and Running

MARCH 16, 2016

Madrona focuses its efforts on funding early-stage companies, especially ones that they determine to have the potential to innovate and disrupt markets. e.ventures: e.ventures is a global venture capital firm that backs internet and software founders. They invest from seed to growth with flexibility in ownership and amounts.

Southern California 60

Southern California Silicon Valley Venture Capital Early Stage 60

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 257

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2023

Think intimate practice pitch sessions featuring real-time feedback from the NextView team and the broader early-stage investment community. Pre-Seed & Seed stage startup teams who could benefit from capital and engaged, hands-on mentorship from the NextView partnership & extended advisor network.

Programming 156

Programming Sacramento San Francisco Founder 156

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

” I don’t know for sure if this is true, but I have the impression that early stage VC’s as a whole have gotten more accessible than probably any time in the past. We are pretty explicit that we are a dedicated seed stage fund focused on internet-enabled businesses.

Portfolio 67

Portfolio Social Media Seed Stage Email 67

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 26, 2014

We are a bit like an accelerator programme, a bit like an incubator and a bit like a straight early stage fund, yet we are also different to all of these things in crucial ways. We invest in 1-2 companies per quarter that join us for a year long programme, and we invest in late-seed stage companies too.

eCommerce 98

eCommerce Partner Incubator Early Stage 98