Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. The founder drives the culture.

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Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

In a world of pre-seeds , seeds, seed extensions, super-seeds , and more, figuring out the right amount to raise for a startup’s seed round can seem like a moving target. Conventional VC wisdom says entrepreneurs should raise 18 months of runway. The post How Much Seed Capital Should You Actually Raise?

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Seed Capital Seed Stage Demand Finance 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

by Anish Sebastian and Juan Pablo Segura, co-founders of Babyscripts. Of course, a certain amount of initial capital without financial performance is absolutely necessary to get a business off the ground, especially in regulated industries. For start-ups in hot markets, the problem also manifests itself in fundraising.

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Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

7 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in VC Pitches and How to Fix Them “Different partners in a VC firm are different. Entrepreneurs should know their audience, and most importantly, how savvy it is about the company’s particular market segment.” Magic Graph: How Much Seed Capital Should You Raise?

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Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

View from Seed

MARCH 26, 2015

In the last year or so, the debate over the definitions of seed versus pre-seed capital (sometimes called genesis rounds) has exploded. Much digital ink has been spilled about what dollar amount constitutes a pre-seed and how that might affect a startup’s ability to go raise a “normal” seed round from institutional investors.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Institutional Investors Venture Capital Partner 120

View from Seed

MAY 14, 2019

A number of blog posts recently have mentioned this, but we seem to be experiencing a rise in repeat founders starting new businesses and raising seed capital. We’re also seeing a wave of folks who were not founders, but were star players among the first 25 folks at a unicorn company also starting new companies.

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Founder Agile Cofounder Seed Capital 256

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder.

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Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. Lower-Than-Market Value.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Now Boston’s largest regular tech conference, every few months it draws hundreds of attendees from the entrepreneurial ecosystem – including founders, software engineers, startup executives, and investors. Seed capital is more readily available, including of course through NextView Ventures. The origins of WebInno are humble.

Boston 100

Boston Cofounder Seed Capital Software Engineering 100

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Now, then, is one of the most opportune times of year to fundraise for Seed (and later) rounds of capital. As a result, for Founders, the next couple months until Thanksgiving becomes a fundraising season of sorts. First up: The Road to Raising Seed Capital: Crucial Steps to Know.

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Seed Capital Startup Channel Partner 153

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see obstacles and why hubris is an entrepreneur’s worst enemy, were two topics of discussion on my SiriusXM radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere. Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see obstacles and why hubris is an entrepreneur’s worst enemy, were two topics of discussion on my SiriusXM radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere. Ajay Kshatriya , co-founder and CEO of Biota Technology , which applies DNA sequencing technology to the energy industry.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 1, 2015

The NextView podcast Traction explores the clever, creative, and atypical things entrepreneurs do to make initial progress against the odds. Past episodes include stories from founders of LinkedIn , DraftKings , General Assembly , Mattermark , Duck Duck Go , InsightSquared , and more. Raising seed capital. (In

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Early Stage Startup Channel 120

The Next Web

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Dries Buytaert is the co-founder and CTO and Acquia , a venture-backed software company that offers products and services for open source content management system Drupal. While entrepreneurship and startups have spread tremendously in Europe, a lot of aspiring young entrepreneurs leave Europe for the United States.

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Europe Government Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 149

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Five years ago, as the mania around seed fundings was accelerating, Founders were very eager to announce their seed round to the world. And seed VCs, especially as new firms were being established, were eager to encourage their portfolio startups to plant that flag in the ground publicly. Always be fundraising.

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Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

View from Seed

DECEMBER 10, 2014

This is his first post to The View From Seed. Chief among them was an initial study done by EverTrue founder and CEO — and Harvard Business School grad — Brent Grinna. And done well, local seed capital can be the catalyst for the new Harvard engineering campus in Allston. Boston’s talent pool is unparalleled.

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Boston Seed Stage San Francisco Startup 328

Rob Go

MAY 14, 2012

I also tend to be attracted to founders who do are also contrarian. But it’s much easier to identify authentic entrepreneurs going after non-obvious opportunities. And on balance, I think those types of businesses have a deeper technical component, and tend to lend themselves a bit more to founders that are more experienced.

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Seed Capital Early Stage PR 74

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Provide some sort of seed capital to their founders. Take a small amount of equity (usually ~6%) and overall have terms that are favorable to entrepreneurs. Have a strong management team who are typically proven entrepreneurs. Take no less than 5 and no more than 12 companies at a time.

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Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Once a startup has raised seed capital, plenty of theories and advice exist on how to successfully raise a Series A. Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ).

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Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an Angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. It’s true that Angel investors typically do not present entrepreneurs with overly complicated deal structures, especially when compared to venture capitalists. Outline multiple tranches.

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Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 223

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 11, 2021

Which leads us to the fundamental difference between, say, a small self-funded online therapy practice and one that has taken millions of dollars in seed capital: the latter can acquire a larger number of patients much faster using investment dollars for both customer acquisition and to subsidize the economics of serving those clients.

Startup 124

Startup Venture Capital Seed Capital Software 124

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

To begin with, it is important to understand some basic facts about the world of entrepreneurial finance: There are many more entrepreneurs than there are investors, with the result that only one company out of every 400 that seeks venture funding actually receives it. This will almost always be the best approach to an investor.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 13, 2013

Other investors in this financing round include SPRING Seeds Capital , Clearbridge BSA and Lu Yoh Chie of Biosensors International , and existing shareholder BioVeda.

Singapore 228

Singapore Intellectual Property United States Cofounder 228

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Another thing I noticed was that I was now referring companies that I had invested in at a “pre-seed” (capitalization intentional) stage over to folks who would previously be considered my peer venture funds doing Seed-stage investments. Seed is the New A. The seed round has ballooned. Implications for Founders.

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Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

YoungUpstarts

MAY 3, 2015

muru - D will be hosting a roadshow in six Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore, and selected startups will receive S$40,000 in seed capital, space in muru - D Singapore’s central business district office and as well as introductions to world-class mentors, coaches and investors.

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Singapore Asia Charlotte Silicon Valley 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. It’s true that angel investors typically do not present entrepreneurs with overly complicated deal structures, especially when compared to venture capitalists. Outline multiple tranches.

Term Sheet 227

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 227

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

In the past four years since we’ve been investing together at NextView, 70%+ of those companies in our portfolio which have made attempts at raising full-fledged multi-million dollar Series A after their Seed round have been able to successfully do so (with another additional cohort raising new capital subsequent to seed but not bona fide Series A).

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com. Most businesses – online or offline, need seed capital to get established and without access to these funds, launching a business can seem like an improbable dream. Unless your business idea is to launch an oil rig, you do not need huge capital investments.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2018

It’s a world that doesn’t fit our seed-focused model and fund strategy. Outside of life-sciences, we’ve noticed something interesting emerging: There is a huge dearth of seed capital for health care services and software-driven health-tech companies.

Vertical 120

Vertical Stealth Portfolio Seed Capital 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

One of the best and most positive movements proliferating around the tech community is what Product Hunt founder and CEO Ryan Hoover calls “building in public.” We want to create the go-to hub for entrepreneurs and startup teams going from zero to one in absolutely anything important. – Why raise seed vs jump to Series A?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Seed Capital Syndicate Syndication 120

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 15, 2013

Rohan Mathew and Joe Shure, founders of The Intersect Fund. “It became clear that although many of these low-income entrepreneurs have quality business ideas and a lot of motivation, they often lack the business knowledge and seed capital they to get the most out of their enterprises,” they add.

New Jersey 140

New Jersey Small Business Seed Capital Cofounder 140

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Raising Seed Capital. Most startup founders do not have enough capital to launch their companies and need to raise money at some point. Since investment in a startup is risky and most people are reluctant to contribute funds, startup entrepreneurs can use different ways to make funding from FFF look less risky.

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Entrepreneurs sometimes assume an initial agreement with an angel is a commitment, so they start spending before any money is received. It’s true that angel investors typically do not present entrepreneurs with overly complicated deal structures, especially when compared to venture capitalists. Outline multiple tranches.

Term Sheet 158

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 158

Gust

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

The program offers seed capital, office space, and "most importantly - that magical ingredient of 'smart-community' with mentors and other entrepreneurs." Participants will receive £5,000 per founder (to a maximum of three founders) for which Springboard will accept 6% of founder shares. Sponsor.

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Early Stage Programming Seed Capital Incubator 113