Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. Examples of some leaders in this space include Mike Maples in Silicon Valley and David S. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. Rose in NYC, who each make up to ten investments a year of up to $250,000.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. A question I get from time to time is “Can I ever expect any backing from my bank for a great opportunity?”

Silicon Valley 406

Silicon Valley Equity Startup Finance 406

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

Recently I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. Early-stage startup. Every startup is early-stage to someone.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

Scalable Startup

MARCH 10, 2014

I’ve worked and lived in Silicon Valley off and on for over 30 years (really!) >> Drive the hills between Silicon Valley and the coast, go to the Half Moon Bay for dinner on the pier. >> If you do some of the above, I guarantee your trip to Silicon Valley will be much better.

Silicon Valley 22

Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder Cofounder Early Stage 22

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. when to build out our offices in Silicon Valley, New York & Los Angeles. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

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. Are you beating up every Silicon Valley VC that didn’t do Facebook or Google or Uber early? I simply couldn’t see it. I should have.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

The best and most consistent funds in Silicon Valley (e.g. But my conversations in the private corridors on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is that many fund sizes will be smaller going forward. There is also True Ventures that does early stage, seed investments. Others will, too. That’s OK.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. The process of raising money in Asia is very different from raising money in Silicon Valley and, frankly, it’s not nearly as easy. This is even true for the Asian arms of Silicon Valley VCs.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

The key reason for the explosion in capital flowing into the industry, and therefore the large increase in practitioners, had nothing to do with 1970’s performance, early stage investing, or technology. Some were Silicon Valley early stage companies, such as Apple, Quantum, and Masstor Systems.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

” Sean is somebody widely respected in Silicon Valley (although he now lives in SoCal) for having helped many early-stage companies go through major growth periods by quantitatively testing features with audiences to help diagnose what led to growth.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue. Great quote.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. million post-money valuation with no revenue. It was early 2000.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan. Order Here.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

billion in early funding. Dozens of outreach programs across the military now offer quick revenue to early-stage companies. Yet, for every newly minted success like Palantir or Anduril , thousands of companies struggle to find follow-on opportunities after receiving early innovation contracts.

Artificial Inteligence 326

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 326

Hippoland

JULY 6, 2018

From that perspective, things have been mostly rosy in the Silicon Valley for startups! except for 2008-2009, which is another story) But, I think we’re in trouble, Silicon Valley. I think we are *on our way down* as an early stage startup hub unless we start to fix some of our problems around here.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley San Francisco Portugal Ireland 48

Hippoland

JULY 6, 2018

From that perspective, things have been mostly rosy in the Silicon Valley for startups! except for 2008-2009, which is another story) But, I think we’re in trouble, Silicon Valley. I think we are *on our way down* as an early stage startup hub unless we start to fix some of our problems around here.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley San Francisco Portugal Ireland 48

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2017

Hurricane Irma had a major negative revenue impact on one whose fall book of business was mostly in Florida. We just closed out in 2017 our 10-year early-stage venture fund started in 2000. I believe the famous Ron Conway made about 300 investments in his Silicon Valley angel fund in the late 90’s, and his one big win was?—?Google.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Atlanta Software Review Early Stage 48

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

The smart home business is still in the very early stages in India, and it will take some time before Evolutech ramps up. As you know, we have already announced two partnerships with MAD Incubator in Malaysia and the IAN Incubator in India , and have several other such relationships in the pilot stage.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Reading the articles and the comments is probably worth it, but I personally think that the NY Times is overstating the advantage of being in Silicon Valley with a couple of exceptions. Of course, thats probably even more true in Silicon Valley. Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing. Then Liana Thompson pitched Trendy Loot , a very early stage deal site for low-end jewelry.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

And while there is a narrative that most LPs only want to invest in the long-standing Silicon Valley brands that have existed for the past 40 years, there is evidence that many LPs understand that it is possible for new entrants in our industry to stake out grounds of differentiation.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

I thought I’d revisit it and share the story… First, you have to rewind mentally to early 2003. Silicon Valley is still emerging from the tech bubble and massive downturn of late 2000-2002. You can sometimes attract capital from farther away but typically harder to do at early stage. link] dazhi chen.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

That is to say, they’d want to be able to control costs and revenues at a high level. million early-stage raise that involved pitching to over a dozen PE firms, which took months to negotiate. Background: Recording Excellence , an online music mixing startup, closed a small PE early-stage funding round a few years ago.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one. #Web Web #Development #Digital #Strategy #Art| tomnora.com.

Silicon Valley 25

Silicon Valley Hawaii Angel Investor IPO 25

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I have been working on getting a startup to revenue for a while, and while this is my 4th iteration and I have not yet succeeded, I’ve been learning new things every time. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Your blog post has provided a lot of useful insights for me which I’ve been implementing.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

are much softer and much, much harder to measure (or believe) in a very early stage startup. These two numbers have direct impact on revenue and financial health. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. We’ll talk about how to reduce risk in each type of market in the next post. Order Here.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

If you’ve already soft launched, have a product available, are telling the world about your awesome company but don’t have revenue/user growth, you’re probably in the red zone. At this stage you’re essentially selling yourself and your cofounders. Pre-launch funding is pretty common in Silicon Valley, but that’s a unique case.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one. Contact me at. #Web #Development #Digital #Strategy #Art| tomnora.com.

Silicon Valley 20

Silicon Valley Hawaii Angel Investor IPO 20

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 26, 2020

Here are three pieces of advice that are tossed around Silicon Valley as if they are gospel, but they are really Startup Myths. I don’t know exactly when it happened but at some point, Silicon Valley became obsessed with the word billion. Myth #1: Build a Billion Dollar Company.

Finance 205

Finance Silicon Valley Valuation Startup 205

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 18, 2013

from catching up with Silicon Valley and New York as a stronger startup region. The strongest impact on improving this situation is Silicon Valley and Seattle companies – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and others are making enormous investments in building So Cal as a software town. This imbalance keeps L.A.

Software Developers 22

Software Developers Software Development PHP Silicon Valley 22

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

Below, we talk to Glen Mello , Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s accelerator team in Boston. 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. Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate , a grill accessory with which Brad has built a year-to-date revenue of $400,000. Its mission is to help a million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond, build $1 trillion in sustainable global GDP, and create 10 million jobs. GrillGrate.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

Most of those industries are fee-based and are competing on revenue growth. Scott pointed to B-round SaaS valuations in excess of $100 million in $15m+ financing rounds with companies with very limited proof of customer traction or revenue. He said that a16z prefers to invest earlier stage in these types of businesses.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

I still wanted K9 to be the first institutional money in a company and work with “frighteningly early-stage” companies. As the check size increases, investors tend to look for more traction, established revenue models, proven unit-economics, and other metrics that were previously associated with later stage companies.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48