Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

As an early stage investor in the world of gaming and metaverse technology at Remagine Ventures, I find these companies have the potential to set the agenda, become the potential platforms for developers building in this space and future acquirers/consolidators of startups building the next generation of the Internet.

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

. $100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs. We believe that this fund is the perfect size for us to be the best possible partners to early-stage entrepreneurs today.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. What’s critical for entrepreneurs to understand is that valuations for startups do not increase at a linear rate; they increase geometrically based on achieving the right milestones. It’s part art, part science.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Provides networking with cofounders and strategic partners. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival.

Technical Cofounder 153

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Wiki Cofounder 153

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

We are in a bubble (with so many private $1bn+ valuations). Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. Where are we today? ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating. There’s a reason why I refer to early-stage VC funding as vulture capital, and to be honest it’s pretty accurate. Money in Exchange for Control. Focus on Product Development First.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Network with potential cofounders and strategic partners. Here are some key positives from an entrepreneur perspective: Shorten the time and cost from idea to prototype.

Startup 397

Startup Cofounder Incubator Early Stage 397

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

I hear tons of ideas for early-stage apps. 12m on a $60m for an early-stage business is a not a bet that most LA firms could or would take. My job as a VC isn’t to beat myself up or any other partner up for the one deal we didn’t do. I simply couldn’t see it. I should have.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2012

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Partner with distributor or beneficiary.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 257

ReadWriteStart

JULY 15, 2020

New talk of capital efficiency is gratifying, but there was another lesson from pre-COVID-19 valuation struggles. Venture capitalists and early-stage investors have told all of us, founders are critical to a startup’s valuation. Remember Morality Impacts Valuation appeared first on ReadWrite. Morality matters.

Valuation 91

Valuation South Carolina San Jose Balance Sheet 91

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. The key messages: “This is not a time to panic. Take look at the data by Crunchbase.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Many Asian entrepreneurs tell me that they want to raise funds from Silicon Valley firms because they perceive the valuations to be higher. But the problem with this is that most VCs in the Valley, especially early stage ones, only like to invest in companies that are within driving distance from their offices.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. LPs See The Over-Valuations and Don’t Like It. The Biggest Area of Concern is Late Stage Investments.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Make sure your plan answers every relevant question that you could possibly imagine from your business partners, spouse, and potential investors. Don’t expect them to believe your $100M revenue projection, if you are still waiting for the first revenue dollar. Get a real customer and real revenue. Only real results count.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2011

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Partner with distributor or beneficiary.

Technical Review 233

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 233

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. I don’t totally agree with that view.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 4, 2014

the ecommerce companies or software companies that we invest in) and you have a $1m revenue run rate and 20%+ month-on month growth you will generally be in good shape. Companies with greater revenues and stronger growth are able to raise bigger rounds at higher valuations. For Forward Partners that means an exit of £100m+.

Revenue 146

Revenue eCommerce Affiliate Valuation 146

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

forward revenue in February 2016 (the low), they appreciated by 6% each month for the following six months. In other words, any correction in public valuations happened quickly and has now stabilized. From Series A and onwards, fundraising takes longer and valuations are typically below the expectations and benchmarks of 2015.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

There were massive late stage rounds because all the big funds wanted companies which already had traction. Low supply of companies with traction drove the valuations and deal sizes up. Seed stage was super tough. Valuations are rising to match. The risk here is what I refer to as the curse of over-capitalization.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Partner with distributor or beneficiary.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

My experience with early valuations by founders for friends… I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. It is most often a win-win for both you and the strategic partner.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 10, 2020

See below for a good description of what we like to see in deals at Forward Partners and what makes us different from other VCs. An interview with Nic Brisbourne, Forward Partners. I think we differ a little from the rest of the industry, though, particularly with our focus on early stage companies.

Partner 68

Partner Early Stage Portfolio Metrics 68

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

In another we decended into a debate about our 5 year forecasts (I built the models so fielded most of these questions), and it became clear they probably weren’t the best fit for our Series A round (this group is no longer in the early-stage VC business). It was a pretty good valuation for the time. It was a $4.7M

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

To do that you have to show how your market is big enough (a multi-billion dollar market) to support that kind of valuation. Many entrepreneurs waste time talking to investors who are at the wrong stage, sector or tribe. Myth #3: Take the Highest Valuation You Can Get. Valuation is a touchy subject for most entrepreneurs.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Use good judgment, talk to your co-founders/investors/lawyers, and partner with a bank that values transparency and relationships such as SVB.]. Especially in the early stages, so much about the company may change in how they think about product or go-to-market — and change multiple times — before raising an institutional round.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

Just don’t quit your day job before your new company is producing revenue. After bootstrapping, friends and family are the most common funding sources for early-stage startups. Use this approach before you have a real valuation, a real product, or any real customers. Partner with beneficiary company.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? In smaller funds, ticket sizes tend to be lower, so pre-seed is the only stage where micro funds are able to secure their minimum equity targets. Lower valuations and follow on valuation sensitivity – fundraising is a recurring event in the life of a startup.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232