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

OCTOBER 11, 2022

At the seed stage and as companies scale, helping the founders I work with identify and reach their goals, personally and professionally, gives me energy and purpose. I made over a dozen angel investments and a few investments in VC funds as an LP, expanding my focus to new geographies, sectors, and stages.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). The answer is likely a mix of both.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *. Now it’s time to set the stage with the early traction you have.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). The answer is likely a mix of both.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

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

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). The rest, as they say, is history. It was a $4.7M Author howerl.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

andrewchen.co

AUGUST 20, 2012

How long will the “seed stage bubble” last? It’s never been easier to raise seed funding, and there’s warnings that we’re in the midst of a “seed stage bubble.” And Android, and the rest of the smartphone industry). Thanks, and enjoy! Andrew. -->. Like this post?

Seed Stage 51

Seed Stage Early Stage Mobile Seed Money 51

Hippoland

JULY 24, 2016

Valuation is a nebulous topic amongst early stage startups, so I thought I’d really spell it out in detail. In short: Valuations for seed stage companies are fairly arbitrary and driven solely by supply and demand. Supply - amount of your round and Demand - investor demand.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Valuation Vertical Demand 48

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

If you join an unknown start-up right out of college and that start-up becomes Google, the opportunities that follow for the rest of your career will likely be significantly better than if you’d started out at a less consequential company. But inequitable access to seed-stage capital is a pervasive structural issue.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review America Government Silicon Valley 28

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

This is the first of several blog posts discussing pre-seed rounds. To ensure you receive the rest, subscribe here. In this post, I want to answer the question, “What are pre-seed rounds?” In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

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. Pros: Industry-insider who serves as a validator for the rest of the investment syndicate, extremely helpful advice and network connections. The Financial Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

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

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Both early- and late-stage startup valuations are currently elevated. For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). The answer is likely a mix of both.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. We’re prepared to take the risk and redeploy. .

Founder 96

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Top tier VC quietly creeps back into consumer internet (social, e-commerce) but continue to give lip service to enterprise software as to keep the rest of the venture capitalist herd guessing. 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

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

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Top tier VC quietly creeps back into consumer internet (social, e-commerce) but continue to give lip service to enterprise software as to keep the rest of the venture capitalist herd guessing. 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 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

That approach may work for an entrepreneur who just sold a successful business for a huge profit, but it doesn’t work for the rest of us who are not proven successes yet, or don’t even have a business yet. They are not interested in research and development, or funding at the idea stage. Solution development undefined or incomplete.

Due Diligence 120

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 120

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

K9 Ventures

MAY 31, 2012

Seed Round: the Hope Round. At the concept/seed stage, there isn’t a lot of concrete “stuff” (where stuff is a highly technical term) that early stage investors can look at to evaluate a company. The rest is hope. You hope that this founder/founding team will be able to figure things out.

Hockey Stick 112

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Framework Early Stage 112

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 7, 2017

We’ve already written about why a good Board can be of help to even a seed stage venture , but now a few years into Homebrew, there’s an interesting side effect — you get to a five person Board faster, which eases the addition of an outside Director. So, I think this is suboptimal and handicaps the founders.

Seed Stage 95

Seed Stage Early Stage Founder Restful 95

Hunter Walker

MARCH 8, 2014

If you’re lucky enough to get a few hundred thousand dollars in your bank account within a few years of graduation, you may approach the rest of your career differently. Now you might think it’s strange that a VC who runs a seed stage fund is telling new grads to join larger startups.

Liquidity Event 134

Liquidity Event Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 134

Feld Thoughts

MAY 8, 2012

Yesterday I sent emails out passing on participating in two seed rounds for companies I really like. They had lots of investors trying to invest and each company was competitive with two other seed stage companies we’ve seen in the past 30 days. Finally, we believe strongly in active engagement as a seed investor.

Seed Stage 138

Seed Stage LP Warrant Syndicate 138

K9 Ventures

MAY 31, 2012

Seed Round: the Hope Round. At the concept/seed stage, there isn’t a lot of concrete “stuff” (where stuff is a highly technical term) that early stage investors can look at to evaluate a company. The rest is hope. You hope that this founder/founding team will be able to figure things out.

Hockey Stick 101

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Framework Early Stage 101

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

It continues to be highly dependent on company, stage, and location. At the early stages, raising the first $2m tends to be straightforward in most geographies that have meaningful startup communities. Most importantly from my frame of reference, the amount of activity at the early and seed stage seems to be extremely robust.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

Hunter Walker

APRIL 20, 2018

Like we do at the seed stage, USV almost always plays the role of “ lead investor.” ” And later: “The truth about these situations is a few seed investors will massively over deliver and the rest will massively disappoint.” But asking myself Fred’s questions clarifies my own approach.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 48

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 15, 2016

In pre-seed and seed stage companies, there’s been a trend against having board of directors. As a result, especially for early stage and high growth companies, I think the CEO and founders should be deliberate about the board configuration. In the past few years there have been some interesting changes.

Sales 70

Sales Seed Stage Early Stage Finance 70

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Stage and Sector Focus: In 16/23 companies, we were part of the first outside round of capital. In the rest, we were part of the first “institutional round” We have not participated in any seed extensions or full-blown series A investments as our first check into a company. So that 23 is right on pace.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Portfolio 50

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 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 128

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

At the seed stage, no matter how much you know about an industry or a founder, you’re still taking a real bet. We all spend more time talking about our wins than our losses, but the reality of early stage investing is that many of our portfolio companies don’t become runaway successes.

Venture Capital 85

Venture Capital San Francisco Portfolio Operations 85

A Crowded Space

MAY 18, 2017

Dave and Matt make a compelling case for diversification, especially at the very early seed stage. It rests on a pure mathematical model of picking stocks. We invest at a bit later stage than a seed fund as well, but it’s still very early stage with median valuations around 10M-12M pre.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Portfolio Venture Capital Valuation 60

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Thus, there is going to be a bit of tightening within the early stage VC space in India over the next couple of years. Because Southeast Asia and India are so far behind the rest of the world in e-commerce, this is also a budding area with massive potential. There are a ton of seed-stage financing options available here.

Asia 123

Asia Silicon Valley India China 123

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. If you have good experience then the VC will be leaning forward for the rest of the presentation.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 13, 2010

“Reality is, at the seed stage, most rocketships look more like the cardboard variety you’d make as a kid than something NASA developed. I was reminded of all this this when I read a blog post by one of my favorite thinkers on the VC market, Bryce Roberts, who talked about “ unfundable companies.&#.

Turkey 302

Turkey Differentiation IP Technical Review 302

Rob Go

MARCH 2, 2013

But for the most part, I tend to agree that the best performing early stage teams are led by at least two or three founders who are meaningful co-owners with complimentary skill sets. Second, having co-founders allows for rests in between sprints. I notice this quite a lot with seed stage companies.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Seed Stage Early Stage Partner 66

The Next Web

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There aren’t a tonne of funds focused on seed-stage funding worldwide, but we can add a new one to the list today. SparkLabs , the company behind the accelerator program in Korea , is expanding its scope with its first seed-stage fund that will “help great startups go global.”. Asia Entrepreneur Insider News sparklabs'

Seed Stage 139

Seed Stage Asia Silicon Valley 139