Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

As Techstars continues to selectively expand into new geographies and industry verticals, our mentors are important as ever. The AngelList funds will give mentors and alumni early investment access while providing companies with additional early stage capital.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 70

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

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. 2) The Bundled Expertise Syndicate. 3) The Alternate Liquidity Syndicate.

Syndicate 98

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 98

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

As is the case in other countries with a relatively new, rapidly growing tech sector, e-commerce is Russia’s fastest growing vertical. Much of the slack at seed stage funding is taken up by the Russian state. Last year, the Government adopted important regulations covering anti-piracy and online payments.

Russia 140

Russia Europe Government Vertical 140

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

Hippoland

OCTOBER 16, 2016

In this post, I’m going to very *simplistically* dive into some high level categories and talk about how early stage investors consider each. These are some of the most important criteria to investing in seed-stage teams. Is the company already in the middle of overcoming regulatory hurdles? Really really fast.

Startup 48

Startup Vertical Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

View from Seed

OCTOBER 18, 2017

When describing the Everyday Economy, it is helpful to talk about some of the verticals that are seeing wholesale redesign and the opportunities within those verticals. We have blogged about a few of the verticals so far, including housing , food , entertainment , and others.

Vertical 166

Vertical Seed Stage Viral Portfolio 166

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. In the late summer / early fall of 2017, we were investing in companies that were quite early.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

Hippoland

JANUARY 23, 2018

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage. This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies. In the late summer / early fall of 2017, we were investing in companies that were quite early.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Convertible Security Seed Stage SEC 48

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Usually financial metrics are pretty sparse at early stages and investors have a hard time giving companies “credit” for steady, linear progress. For seed stage companies, typically, it’s about: Compelling founder(s). You need to show me that the “real” business model can work.

Business Model 65

Business Model Seed Stage Valuation Vertical 65

View from Seed

AUGUST 2, 2017

Others take bets on certain verticals or business models, such as marketplaces, SaaS, or enterprise technology. That said, we realize that the starting point for companies at the seed stage may be much narrower than a company’s ultimate ambitions. Early-stage investing is still the only thing we do.

Seed Stage 273

Seed Stage Portfolio Cofounder B2B 273

Hunter Walker

MAY 19, 2014

It was easier to just discuss privately with other investors, but Jason Calacanis tweeted this morning about VCs trying to take entire seed rounds , and so, here it goes. In order to go after them, they need to head earlier into seed. Why Are We Seeing More Piggy Rounds? (a) On the other hand, why would a founder jump at a Piggy Round?

Seed Stage 99

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Founder 99

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

Rob Go

AUGUST 21, 2013

One point he makes is that in even established vertical, new companies tend to rise on the back of new distribution channels. One reason he points to is “product/distribution fit” I think this is a really insightful comment, and a really great lens to think through the early stages of building a company and a product.

Distribution 48

Distribution Founder Product Seed Stage 48