Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2017

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. The “venture capital” model is the only option they know, where they feel they get no mercy, giving up equity and control. Block out sufficient time on your calendar for raising capital.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Accredited Investor Due Diligence Equity 220

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. However, not all firms are venture capital firms. One of the most common ways of investing in a startup is by leveraging the expertise of a venture capital firm. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments.

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Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

But this is becoming less true today, as more and more entrepreneurs find their way across the U.S. Increasingly, these metro areas are regularly appearing in rankings of the best cities in the United States for startups and entrepreneurs. That’s exceptional startup growth that other cities will find tough to match.

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United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Based on the best evidence I can find, the genesis of this trend and the advantages come from several evolutionary changes in the startup investment industry, and some innovations driven by the recession several years ago and the recent pandemic: Venture capital funds are regaining momentum.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Myth #1: Venture capital is a growing opportunity for funding businesses. Actually, venture capital financing is very rare. I’ll explain this more later, but assume that only a very few high-growth companies with high-power management teams are venture opportunities. Venture capital. You should.

SBA 161

SBA Venture Capital Angel Investor Technical Review 161

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 257

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Most entrepreneurs have found by now one or more of the many popular crowdfunding sites , and have the name and contact information for at least one of the big venture capital firms. Here are eight key insights that will help you find a productive match: Angels want equity ownership, not causes. Marty Zwilling.

Search 317

Search Accredited Investor Angel Investor Venture Capital 317

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Your product and company vision needs to match your appetite for funding. And know that just because a venture failed doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. He stressed that your product and company vision needs to match your appetite for funding: One thing that we learned very early on was, have a plan for fund-raising. …

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

The Startup Magazine

MAY 16, 2018

Lifograph CEO Dea Wilson is a serial entrepreneur and Managing Director at the Silicon Valley Incubator. connections, matching people and companies based on their needs, skills, interests and real-life relationships. The Wiki of People is a free people search engine with 500K profiles and 1.2M

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Silicon Valley Wiki Technical Review Seattle 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Beyond these believers, you need to match your credentials and interests with the multitude of public, academic and government organizations that proclaim to foster research and early development, to satisfy the long-term needs of the people or organizations they support. They believe in you above all else. Commercial product prototypes.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2023

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

Angel Investor 246

Angel Investor Stealth Bootstrapping Early Stage 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Based on the best evidence I can find, the genesis of this trend and the advantages come from several evolutionary changes in the startup investment industry, and some innovations driven by the recession several years ago: Venture capital funds are still regaining momentum.

Angel Investor 314

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs.

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Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Feld Thoughts

JULY 12, 2014

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post Your Words Should Match Your Actions. It was a generic rant that resulted from me watching a couple of VCs blow up their reputations with entrepreneurs I know because of how they treated them. Entrepreneur: Thread below is 2+ years old, but resulted from VC asking me similar questions.

Matching 177

Matching Venture Capital Reputation PR 177

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

Stealth 434

Stealth Startup Angel Investor Bootstrapping 434

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Beyond these believers, you need to match your credentials and interests with the multitude of public, academic and government organizations that proclaim to foster research and early development, to satisfy the long-term needs of the people or organizations they support. They believe in you above all else. Commercial product prototypes.

Early Stage 412

Early Stage Angel Investor Incubator Government 412

David Teten

JUNE 25, 2012

I’m looking for an entrepreneur to start a company to provide this product, or a development shop which wants to bid on this project. As payment to me for generating this idea, I’ll just ask for complimentary lifetime licenses for all ff Venture Capital employees. b) ff Venture Capital might invest in a startup to do this.

Developer 144

Developer Venture Capital Startup Valuation 144

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. If results don’t match what they have been told, all bets are off.

Technical Review 237

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 237

Up and Running

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Kiva is a non-profit organization that partners with microfinance institutions (Kiva’s “field partners”) in third-world countries to offer small loans to budding entrepreneurs. EarlyShares is a pretty sophisticated fundraising platform looking to compete with traditional venture capital firms.

Kenya 119

Kenya Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review 119

Scott Edward Walker

JULY 20, 2011

Introduction I’ve been doing deals as a corporate lawyer for 17+ years, and there are certain fundamental mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs make over and over again. It is critical that entrepreneurs understand this dynamic. Accordingly, I thought it would be helpful to share three basic tips in connection with doing deals.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Liquidation Preference Option Pool Entrepreneur 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. If results don’t match what they have been told, all bets are off. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 225

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Private Equity 225

David Teten

JUNE 25, 2012

I’m looking for an entrepreneur to start a company to provide this product, or a development shop which wants to bid on this project. As payment to me for generating this idea, I’ll just ask for complimentary lifetime licenses for all ff Venture Capital employees. b) ff Venture Capital might invest in a startup to do this.

Developer 114

Developer Venture Capital Startup Valuation 114

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 8, 2013

I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". Few firms persist.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Early Stage Portfolio Private Equity 167

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 20, 2020

It’s one of the reasons sites like Fortune, Entrepreneur, Inc and Forbes spend a large majority of their content creation time filled with stories of startups, new companies and “the next big thing.” All while the majority of the economy is driven greatly by boring industries often owned by private equity, not venture capital.

Sweat Equity 107

Sweat Equity Non-Compete Startup Azure 107

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 1, 2007 Entreprenuer Network Great post by Ben Kuo - The Importance of the “Network&# to Entrepreneurs - the informal connections between people in the technology industry here who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next level.

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Technical Cofounder Networking Southern California Los Angeles 150

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

The plan describes the execution strategy for addressing these “knowns.&# In the early days of venture capital, investors and entrepreneurs were familiar with the format of business plans from large company and adopted it for startups. They’re a match for the “How to write a business plan” classes that are offered.

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Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 312

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 12, 2015

Rather than looking at the funding landscape as a zero-sum game, with one model rising up at the expense of another, it’s best viewed more as a continuum, with investors across the spectrum matching up with companies at the right stage of development or maturity.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Early Stage Matching Partner 60

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

I’ve been writing checks for 8 years, and was lucky to get my start in the industry with the team at Spark Capital where I was able to witness some amazing early investments as part of that team. As I start my second 10 years in venture capital, I want to both reflect on some recent learnings that have changed the way I approach the business.

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Early Stage Florida Deal Flow Venture Capital 120

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

How else can you explain this headline matching a story about a professional social network still trying to explore revenues raising $17mm on an $80mm valuation? The other entrepreneur quoted in the story is from a guy pitching a Pinterest clone. The venture process just takes time--many rounds take three months to close, if not more.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 114

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 6, 2013

New startup entrepreneurs who are looking to raise capital may well take a look at Funding 101 , a free educational resource on fundraising launched by business investor network Startups.Co. “The truth is that fundraising is hard,” says Schroter. ”

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Angel Investor Venture Capital Entrepreneur Cofounder 157

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Often you can't tell if something like a search engine or matching algorithm is really going to have better results until you use it. Yet most of the newly minted entrepreneurs I've met think their job is nearly done when they've found MVP - they think they can go build a pitch off their early MVP and raise money!

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Algorithm Metrics Viral Venture Capital 264

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

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). Different types of investors tend to specialize in capitalizing on businesses at different stages.

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

SiliconHills

JANUARY 19, 2020

BuildGroup, an Austin-based venture capital firm founded in 2015 which raised a $330 million fund, launched an analytics platform for investors and startup founders last week. It’s called Open.Exchange focused on matching investors with the best startups, and vice versa, said Jim Curry, head of BuildGroup Data Services. “We

Venture Capital 80

Venture Capital Austin Entrepreneur Analytics 80

Scott Edward Walker

AUGUST 25, 2011

Introduction I’ve been doing deals as a corporate lawyer for 17+ years, and there are certain fundamental mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs make over and over again. Accordingly, you will need to determine whether it’s a good match by addressing certain key questions, such as: Can this person be counted-on and trusted?

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Term Sheet Los Angeles Entrepreneur 63

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. I’ve been to similar events with First Round Capital and True Ventures. Entrepreneurs always walk away with new relationships, knowledge, deal discussions and enthusiasm.

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PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279