Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Foundry Group is best known for our investments in startups, but our vehicle currently investing in other venture funds, Foundry Group Next, is off to what we believe to be a great start and I wanted to share an update about it by talking about our new investment in a fund managed by Founder Collective. It starts with the people.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Unlike many other aspects of personal finance, student loan is incredibly complex. As a result, many student loan borrowers are struggling to manage a repayment process that’s largely setting them up for failure. The post Meet Summer: Our Portfolio Company Changing The Student Loan Landscape appeared first on NextView Ventures.

Portfolio 295

Portfolio Cofounder Government Finance 295

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

As your organization grows and you hire senior staff where you are no longer managing every employee directly the issue of how to manage people that are not your “direct&# reports arises. This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. Senior management feels undermined. Skipping is insidious.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

One or two of the best companies may continue to appreciate, but most of a VC’s portfolio has probably been realized, written off, or has maxed out its value. The longer the portfolio maintains the same value without distributing back cash, the worse the fund’s ultimate IRR. Most LPs are trying to manage some targeted asset allocation.

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

Obvious caveats to my POV here, most specifically: exposure is limited to largely the US/SiliconValley ecosystem, driven by our own portfolio, my friends and co-investors, the funds I’m a LP in, and our institutional LP relationships. ” That is, for the class of funds institutional LPs tend to back, on average, where was bottom?

Portfolio 99

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 99

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 195

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 195

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

—– Lean Innovation Management. Each horizon requires different focus, different management, different tools and different goals. Management in this Horizon 1 works by building repeatable and scalable processes, procedures, incentives and KPI’s to execute and measure the business model. A 50x speedup kind of fast.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

And my sense is the trend carries outside of our portfolio these days. Founders are building small, focused teams based on people they worked with previously and referrals from their networks. The individuals and team managers have more sway. What’s changed?

Technical Review 118

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 118

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

(Almost) everything you need to know (but are afraid to ask) before you wistfully ask a product manager to coffee so they will help you find a job. TL;DR Product management is a unique and poorly understood discipline, especially as it applies to software and other tech-related companies.

Management 85

Management Product Technical Review Software Review 85

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 20, 2020

insert founder number] of the founders dropped out of [insert Ivy League school]. Construction, utilities, transportation, retail, finance, insurance and real estate startups are industries that hit hardest on startups with an average failure rate among them of 40%. Most Startups Are Poorly Managed.

Sweat Equity 107

Sweat Equity Non-Compete Startup Azure 107

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Alternative Capital. “

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2014

I first met Andrew Stalbow , the founder & CEO of Seriously in August of 2013. On August 26th I had an equally effusive intro from Ynon Kreiz, also a friend, trusted source and also the CEO of portfolio company Maker Studios. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere. He hit me from two very trusted sources.

Technical Review 373

Technical Review North America Los Angeles Cofounder 373

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

Under this category, you have the angel investors who would invest their own money and Venture Capital or VC firms, who manage funds aimed towards specific startup sectors and stages. I have interacted with a lot of founders who funded their initial business expenses through credit cards. Debt investors. Inception stage.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

David Teten

MARCH 14, 2018

Managers of VC funds typically want to grow their business aggressively, just like the founders we back. Among the sites we have found most helpful with practical guides for founders: Biztree , First Search , Foundersuite , Goodwin Founders Workbench , Guides.co , Inc.com , and StartupRocket. .

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Cofounder 60

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 20, 2020

We wish we were the founders, experiencing this testosterone-fueled melodrama of success. It’s one of the main reasons startup founders often shy away from reasonable SEO pricing models, opting instead for the riskier, cheap, outsourced route or the DIY approach —which are both fraught with their own perils.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Non-Compete Startup Azure 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Rob Bailey is the CEO of DataSift. You should read it. It is really working.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

I would call their portfolio companies and ask how helpful or not they’ve been. It felt like there was a wavelength with management and somebody wasn’t on it. When you look at a deal so much of what you’re trying to understand are the skills, resiliency , work ethic, motivation and team dynamics of the founders.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 23, 2017

by Joe Duncan, founder of Duncan Capital LP. PC and mobile interfaces dynamically display portfolio valuations and exposures, along with system-generated investment recommendations tailored to a specific client’s financial goals and risk appetite. Morgan Stanley predicts that Robo Advisors will manage $6.5 Underwriting.

Technical Review 154

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Software Review IPO 154

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 21, 2013

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the unsung hero of many start-ups: the other founder. A lot has been written about the founder/CEO and her growth and evolution as a company grows. Larry Page is the other founder. The other founder usually begins with a particular range of responsibilities that comliment the founder.

Cofounder 45

Cofounder Founder Part-Time VPE Portfolio 45

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

It’s why I often advise angel investors to be careful about assuming that being an angel investor is a profitable exercise unless you have the ability to have a wide-enough portfolio to have a few companies doing extraordinarily well plus deep enough pockets to follow your winners. Thus begins the dance.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

This article highlights their advice on issues ranging from financing to patent trolls: While startups may believe lawyers are too costly, working with one early on avoids potentially serious problems later. ” The Cost of Financing. In a Series A financing, companies must pay the investors’ lawyers as well as their own.

Convertible Security 100

Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Rolodex/deal flow (deal sourcing/ability to make connections for the portfolio). an executive who had startup “operating experience” rarely a startup founder/CEO. We want to find someone who has a lot of consumer internet product experience as either product manager, founder, VP Product, etc.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

Matt was the co-founder/CEO of Return Path. The founders of each company talked and, in between efforts to decimate the other, agreed it might be worth merging to survive. It’s a follow-up to his previous book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business. I’ve been working with Matt since 2000.

Fractional CTO 70

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 70

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

2017 was another year of growing, learning, investing and partnering with amazing founders. Once again, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work with so many amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, and other collaborators to bring the boldstart family together. 2017 Recap. 2 exits including yhat (sold to Alteryx?

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2013

In addition, as part of the program, I’ll be making my first public presentation of our research study on VC portfolio operations value creation. The group is about 22 people; managing directors, partners and COO’s of major investments firms in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia. More details.

Tunisia 114

Tunisia Libya Algeria Mauritania 114

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

But the world you lead will be much different from the one your professors knew or your predecessors managed. Yet in the face of all this change, traditional firms continue to embrace a management ethos that values efficiency over innovation. To manage these employees companies create metrics to control, measure and reward execution.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Our years of product management experience taught us that often the best insights can come from your customers. In our case customers = founders, and supporting the ones we’ve backed is our firm’s #1 priority. Here at Homebrew , we’re pretty into the idea of constant improvement.

Founder 92

Founder Stealth Portfolio Early Stage 92

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. The majority had dedicated more time to guiding the portfolio companies through the pandemic.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 3, 2015

In 1994 Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said, “retail banks are dinosaurs, they can be bypassed,” in a Newsweek interview. These include making deposits, transferring funds, paying bills and managing stock portfolios. by Jake Dacillo, Marketing Director, Balboa Capital. Small Business Loan Overview.

Small Business 100

Small Business Technical Review Technology United States 100

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

They''re new to the gig, super excited about all its potential, and getting out there selling founders hope for that one big gamechanging deal. That''s really all I have to give to the founders I back. In 5 minutes, I could call my nana, answer some e-mail or help a portfolio company with some intros. You''ve met them before.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Venture Capital Finance Chicago 126

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

Although we were studying finance, we were always more interested in tech. Before graduating, I decided to forgo the finance path and instead dove into engineering and later sales and product management roles at VersaSuite (health IT) in Austin. But we never lost the finance bug. We were infatuated with tech. Factom, Inc.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Founder Dialogues : Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event that has featured Boston’s BEST founders. OnStartups: One of the largest online startup communities founded by HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah. Boston Hardware Startup Meetup – Meetup organized by the founders of BOLT.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Justyn Howard, founder of Sprout Social has a blog post that he’s written about his experiences of migrating from scrappy tools to more efficient ones (i.e. Once a company has raised $2-3 million dollars I often advise them to get an office manager. Another area where founders sometimes spend too much time is accounting.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

This can set up a perfect storm if early-stage companies don’t manage their expectations and reality properly. Mattermark (a portfolio company) looked at the matriculation rates for a class of startups. Likewise, early-stage investors may not appreciate just how much follow-on support their portfolio companies will need.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

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 Domain Angel.

Angel Investor 334

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 334