View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

The objection goes something like this: “yes, I can see rookie founders turning to you for a seed round. But won’t all good founders go to established firms that raise series A’s out of the gate?”. And quite a few founders make the choice to do YC first rather than raise a traditional seed or pre-seed round.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder. The post Pitch Deck Month: The “Where Are You Going?

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Sharing these pricing expectations early with potential lead investors fundamentally qualifies your conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner, or else it can reduce options to maximize your fundraise outcome. So What Should Founders Do?

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

Doing Reference Checks on VCs “Try to speak to at least one founder that the investor has worked with in a failed investment. The Seed VC Decision Tree “If the market is attractive and there just isn’t great founder/market fit, we will be open minded as well. This is not always easy to do. ” (Rob Go).

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs. What hasn’t changed is that our heart lies in working with founders to find product/market fit and to begin to grow. We will never take it for granted.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Sizing the ask incorrectly is one of the things I see founders get wrong most often, and it ends up having a meaningful impact to the fundraising process overall. Every fundraise process should start internally with the financing needs and goals that the business is looking to hit. A couple thoughts. Using a range can be helpful here.

Valuation 418

Valuation Founder Conversion Demand 418

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

of teams’ online pitch decks and recorded videos, as well as loved the dozens of second-round video conversations which we had with Founders working on quite compelling startups. Many of these Founders we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with if we hadn’t launched this program.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. In reality, a pre-seed is “an early round of financing that is designed to help a company achieve certain intermediate milestones PRIOR to the magic combination of strong PMF + meaningful traction.”. A Symptom, Not A Cause.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

Especially in the age of zoom pitching, founders can create a fairly wide top of the funnel, and talk to a large number of investors to find a good match for their round. In other words, by the time the term sheet is signed, everyone else in the syndicate is already known and have been talking to the founder already.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

View from Seed

MAY 21, 2020

So a lot of Founders can weave a tale of the promise of what could be created rather than what has been created. The reality is that when fundraising for a successive financing round along the seed stage continuum , all startups are graded on a curve based on the amount of time and capital which has gone into the company.

Seed Stage 274

Seed Stage Finance Lean Revenue 274

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

It’s often a good idea for founders to find a way to build something and get some early market validation before raising outside capital. Is there founder/market fit? How authentic is this idea to the founder’s experience? I’ll dig into this a bit further… Founder/Market Fit.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Unlike many other aspects of personal finance, student loan is incredibly complex. When I first met Will Sealy , co-founder and CEO of Summer , two things jumped out to me – his knowledge and his passion.

Portfolio 295

Portfolio Cofounder Government Finance 295

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

This bifurcation of seed syndicate roles affects how Founders should approach fundraising strategy. But a Founder’s best source of fundraising information is peer Founder/CEOs who have recently gone through a similar process. My partner Rob likes to talk about “ big rocks first.”

Syndicate 257

Syndicate Syndication Lead Investor Venture Capital 257

View from Seed

JUNE 21, 2019

So as a result, collectively we’ve been intimately involved with hundreds of startups and nearly a thousand financings (including follow-ons). On top of that, all four partners here spent meaningful time at other venture firms previously in our careers. We’ve seen it. Often a number of times.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage Finance Portfolio Partner 149

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Given the common challenges encountered by founders as they navigate through this hiring decision, I thought I’d outline some of my thoughts below that can hopefully serve as a simple framework when it comes to making the first Analytics hire at your startup. Analytics vs. Finance?—?what’s what’s the difference (and what do you need)?

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

During the course of a fundraise, founders are likely to encounter a few questions from VC’s that seem awkward or even a bit unfair. These are questions that usually don’t have anything to do with the business itself, but center around the dynamics of the round or maybe the motivations of the founders.

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Term Sheet Burn Rate Founder Partner 364

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 177

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 177

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. I can have a wider reach and a higher volume of 30 minute meetings with founders.”.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

View from Seed

AUGUST 16, 2019

Is a Founder raising a new round well in advance of cash-out date because she sees an opportunity to put more gas in the tank ahead of what current underlying business metrics would suggest (i.e. One of the most relevant scenarios that this fear vs. greed lens applies towards is insider-led financings.

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

View from Seed

JANUARY 30, 2020

But assuming success, a moment will come when a founder will have multiple funding options. Partnering with an investor and/or board member is very long term commitment, and I’m always surprised by how little diligence founders do prior to signing up for what could be a 10+ year collaboration. Raising money is super hard.

Due Diligence 195

Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet Finance 195

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 156

View from Seed

JUNE 24, 2020

After operating quietly for the past year, our portfolio company Jumbo made a couple big announcements yesterday, including the launch of Jumbo 2 as well as their $8M series A financing led by Balderton Capital.

Portfolio 227

Portfolio Internet Business Model Finance 227

View from Seed

MAY 31, 2019

Our investment team here frequently actively discusses what qualities make a founder a top.01% Another positive attribute of some founders which we’ve been discussing more recently is one’s ability to “defy gravity.” Gravity is a just given fact of our reality.

Valuation 149

Valuation Portfolio Metrics Founder 149

View from Seed

AUGUST 13, 2014

So to successfully raise a seed round of capital, founders should possess at least a basic understanding of the different types of angel investors they’ll encounter. It can also help founders better approach angels in the first place. Cons: Potentially not much value-add beyond initial financing round. The Grouped Angels.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been in a bull market with considerable froth in late stage financing activity and valuations. These growth rounds may be more dilutive than planned, but will still occur without punitive terms and allow founders, teams, and early investors to emerge with very successful outcomes at the very end.

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

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. It seemed like every other TechCrunch post was announcing a startups’s new seed financing round. Typically, one that is orthogonal to the Founders’ network that wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise.

Seed Stage 201

Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

View from Seed

MAY 3, 2022

I’ve had the privilege of joining Flyp’s Founders, James Kawas and Dani Arnaout , on their journey; my tenure on the company’s board started a year ago in leading their seed round of financing and will continue going forward.

Syndicate 156

Syndicate Syndication IPO Matching 156

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining [New Firm] as a Partner where I will continue to invest in great Founders across the industries I care about.”. “I Yes, there are intermittent points of feedback along the way, like valuation marks from subsequent rounds of financing. Bonus points if they’re a Founder of the firm.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. 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 ).

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

View from Seed

DECEMBER 7, 2017

It includes, but isn’t limited to, what is traditionally referred to as personal finance. In its first two decades, the internet brought significant change to many aspects of personal finance — particularly retail banking, retail brokerage and asset management, payments, and consumer lending. Financing Life’s Big Tickets.

Finance 185

Finance Distribution Seed Stage Government 185

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

So, rather than try and fill time unnecessarily and create a lengthy deck just because you’re “supposed to,” Rob — and we’d guess many other VCs as well — will often suggest that a founder create a simple one-sheeter that might start small and build over time. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. This staged approach is often much better for the founders as well.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

That may not seem like a big deal in the moment, but at the next financing round, the pro rata rights of all the prior investors may add up to a pretty big number, creating a fistfight for allocation. Being able to have high ownership at exit.

Dilution 136

Dilution Early Stage Business Model Founder 136

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Having a slide on key questions to refer back to demonstrates and signals that you as the Founder have critically thought about all aspects of your business, not just haphazardly created a top-level pitch deck. But the real significance of these figures is the exercise behind it.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166