View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

I suspect that the 18-month rule originated because that’s the approximate average time it takes for startups to reach an important value-inflection milestone. Yet the next round of capital is going to be based on what was accomplished, certainly not by how much time elapsed. Startups are hard. Don’t raise as much.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Seed Stage Demand Finance 120

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

Free Template for Great Startup Pitch Decks, Direct from VCs. How to Sell Your Startup’s “Secret” Master Plan at the Seed Stage “Articulating and selling your long run vision is important, but trying to convince those that are deeply skeptical about it is simply a mutual waste of time.”

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals. Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2021

Not only are they trying to get their inspired endeavor up and running, but they also are struggling to acquire the much-needed capital to actually successfully fund the startup. By taking the time to carefully vet each lender, and by being creative in how they approach securing their capital, these unique hardships can be mitigated.

Security 92

Security Finance Angel Investor Incubator 92

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

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. Raising Angel Capital. Individual investors who provide financial funding to startups are called ‘Angel Investors.’ Bridge notes/loans are an example of convertible debt.

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 12, 2016

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. Most of these businesses that have their turnover in billions today were started on a capital of less than $1000. That does not have to be the case however.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup Seed Capital 100

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

When seeking equity investments, the source of capital is, for the most part, tied to the stage of capital being raised. You see, equity capital is raised in stages or rounds. Pre-Seed Funding 2. Seed Funding 3. The five main stages include the following: 1. Series C, D, etc.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raising seed capital is a tricky business. I get approached often by tech startups looking for their first outside funding. Most are making major mistakes in their approach when seeking capital. This article is based on my experiences and the typical mistakes I see every week in startup land. Capital = Growth.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2013

It is a high net-worth individual who invests his or her own money directly into promising startup businesses in return for mostly equity share of the company. This guide will walk you through the process of obtaining seed capital for your startup. Strategies for finding the angels best fit for your startup.

Angel Groups 40

Angel Groups Angel Investor Software Review Accredited Investor 40

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

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. For more on working with startup lawyers, see Mark Suster’s classic post, How To Work With Lawyers At A Startup.). Knowledge is power.

Finance 178

Finance Term Sheet Preferred Stock Bridge Financing 178

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Some are major contributors to their startup communities. As with everything new that grows quickly, it’s a chaotic system with lots of innovation, creative destruction, and rapid change and learning that – if done well – is a great example of the power of the Lean Startup approach to entrepreneurship.

Global 179

Global Networking United States Seed Money 179

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. Like the U.S.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

The Startup Lawyer

OCTOBER 9, 2010

But this morning I read a Dallas Business Journal article that I found amusing: A new accelerator is planning to invest $200,000 and provide up to 45,000 square feet of office space to about 10 mobile app startups in exchange for 15-20% equity in each startup. (a) a) That’s $20,000 per startup for a 15%-20% equity stake.

Dallas 91

Dallas Seed Capital Incubator Post-Money Valuation 91

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Because of both lean startup principles and a thriving community of pay-it-forward individuals, we can all now build a little, learn a little, and then repeat. We want to create the go-to hub for entrepreneurs and startup teams going from zero to one in absolutely anything important. A look at actual startups’ funnels).

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Seed Capital Syndicate Syndication 120

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

Most of the rounds I participate in today are priced equity rounds. The equity round process bakes this in, and helps every participant to know what they’re raising or holding at any given point, dissuading the company from taking on additional capital without some burden. Payment may be delayed.

Seed Stage 76

Seed Stage Seed Capital Equity Europe 76

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? Convertible equity? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. .” Convertible debt? It doesn’t bear interest or require repayment upon maturity.

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Define equity type. The first capital a young company receives usually takes the form of common stock, the same class of shares the founders hold. You can end up becoming very frustrated with the investors, or cause the venture to fail if you run out of seed capital before the angel round can be completed. Marty Zwilling.

Term Sheet 227

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

Define equity type. The first capital a young company receives usually takes the form of common stock, the same class of shares the founders hold. You can end up becoming very frustrated with the investors, or cause the venture to fail if you run out of seed capital before the angel round can be completed.

Term Sheet 223

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

Austin Startup

APRIL 28, 2019

Mitch Marchand, founder of Vybe Software, working at Sputnik ATX accelerator in Austin, TX First off, and full disclosure, I operate an accelerator program (Sputnik ATX) and have strong opinions on this subject as a participant in the “helping startups” market. Giving up equity for a desk is a sub-optimal business decision.

Incubator 50

Incubator Equity Programming Cloud 50

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

Those employees and operators, who often have some book wealth now (or are running syndicates on AngelList or acting as a scout for another fund) can easily dump $50K-$100K into one of their ex-colleague’s new startups, or put this money into their friend’s new startup, or their friend’s new hot deal.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. Like the U.S.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

How To Allocate Friends & Family Startup Capital. The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. Startup Funding' Market Validation.

Intellectual Property 55

Intellectual Property Advisory Board Startup Seed Capital 55

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The most important principle of startup fundraising that every entrepreneur needs to know is: raise enough capital to achieve a set of milestones that will allow the company to attract the next round of investment. Below are the milestones that you will need to achieve in order to attract seed investment from Angels: Business Plan.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. Startups die due to a variety of causes. In 2007, Paul Graham gave a variety of causes for startup death in How Not To Die. Distraction is fatal to startups.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

When we were last with Dick and Jane on Finance Fridays, our fearless entrepreneurs were figuring out how to split up their founders equity and account for an investment from Jane. Feeling overwhelmed, Dick emailed his friend Josh, the CEO of an early-stage startup in Boulder, to see how they figured out all of this stuff.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

Business Plan Blog

JANUARY 2, 2014

While startups are still limited by the types of investors they can take money from (i.e. wealthy, verified investors), the lifting of the ban on general solicitation has allowed investors to publicly advertise that they are raising capital, be it on their blog, Twitter, Facebook, or crowdfunding site such as AngelList.

Angel Groups 51

Angel Groups Accredited Investor Angel Investor Due Diligence 51

Gust

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Last week , we gave some attention to the “why” behind convertible note financing for early stage startups. Going back to Part I , recall that although a convertible note is technically a loan made to the startup, in practice these loans are rarely expected to be repaid. These deal terms are simple but significant.

Finance 79

Finance Preferred Stock Term Sheet Early Stage 79

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

An entrepreneur starts a company in classic " bootstrap " fashion - with a combination of sweat equity and their own financial resources. The typical wisdom regarding the appropriate financing course for a new company goes as follows: 1.

Angel Investor 112

Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

Haystack

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

4/ The Big Winners: Cylance raised around ~$280M in financing, with large equity stakeholders being Khosla Ventures, Fairhaven, and Blackstone. 1/ A Pre-Seed Reminder: According to Crunchbase, PlanGrid was founded and went through Y Combinator in 2012. The company only raised a bit over $1M as seed capital.

Acquisition 62

Acquisition Artificial Inteligence Balance Sheet Cofounder 62

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Furthermore, a startup works differently than a large corporation.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

Two-and-a-half months ago Einar Vollset and I announced TinySeed , the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers. Hundreds and hundreds of tweets, re-tweets, likes, Hacker News upvotes, email responses…it was immediately obvious that there is pent up demand for this kind of alternative early-stage startup funding.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

Nevertheless, if you share too much in your funding process or meet too many VCs expect a certain amount of your ideas to spread around the startup community. The following was available: “I kept hearing about startups that raised VC funding, but which hadn’t filed Form Ds (nor issued a press release). They also avoid Reg D.

Stealth 285

Stealth SEC Advertising Accredited Investor 285

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2015

Today he is the founder of M34 Capital , a seed capital fund that focuses on early-stage projects being spun out of academic and corporate research labs. government accelerator that takes no equity. What is M34 Capital? Listen to my entire interview with Errol: If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Government 120

Government Channel Lean Southern California 120

www.thestartup.eu

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home RSS About Contact Advertise Partners How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Posted by Stefano Bernardi On June - 21 - 2010 It’s a known fact that seed capital is very scarce in Italy. Share 17 Responses to “How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. TheStartup.eu Meet Tipsandtrip.

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping Italy Sweat Equity Europe 49