Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk. In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” Some people are too independent to be partner material. Neither partner needs to be managed.

Partner 140

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

I was driving home from the BIO conference in San Diego last month and had lots of time for a phone call with Dave, an ex student and now a founder who wanted to update me on his Customer Discovery progress. His inability to attract a co-founder who could code was a troubling sign. A Startup is Not Just About a Good Idea.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

The market was down considerably with public valuations down 53–79% across the four sectors we were reviewing (it is since down even further). ==> Aside, we also have a NEW LA-based partner I’m thrilled to announce: Nick Kim. To that end I’m really excited to share that Nick Kim has joined Upfront as a Partner based out of our LA offices.

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

As part of The Startup Magazine Founder Interview Series , we interviewed Maha and David Harper, wife and husband co-founders of Atlas Group London, a construction-tech startup that has digitized the building of healthcare facilities. Our customer engagement has been solid, as has our engagement with partners.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

Gust

APRIL 13, 2014

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. You may be too independent to be partner material. Level of integrity.

Partner 179

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 179

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. You may be too independent to be partner material.

Partner 240

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 240

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

A week ago I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ How to Select an Ideal Startup Co-Founder ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal business partner. You may be too independent to be partner material. Similar values and goals.

Partner 230

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 230

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2022

In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. If you think about it, you should realize that not everyone is ‘ideal partner material.’ Most of us learn that fact from other partner relationships, like dating and marriage. All decisions will be made jointly.”

Partner 351

Partner Cofounder Sweat Equity Startup 351

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Not only the bar for seed rounds has gotten higher (as less seed rounds get done) but also the founders prefer to build their company based on milestones.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 18, 2017

by Andrew Durlak, Co-Founder & VP of Operations at Scout RFP. If the entire business isn’t caught up on digital transformation, it makes it difficult (impossible, even) for finance leaders to engage in strategic leadership and optimize revenue opportunities by driving ROI from tech investments. Making the first move.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Finance Software Review Due Diligence 109

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Today, Mark Attanasio gets to flex his full range of expertise and interests as co-founder and Managing Partner of Hillcrest Merchant Partners, a Toronto-based merchant bank focused on early stage and mid market growth companies. One of the advisory areas Hillcrest Merchant Partners works in is electric metals.

Partner 104

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2021

As an entrepreneur mentor, my mission is to foster the attributes in you as a startup founder that I believe will lead to success. Idea people must surround themselves with people who build momentum and get things done, including production, marketing, finance, and sales. You set goals and targets, and build a plan from these.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Angel Investor Partner Software Developers 341

David Teten

MARCH 5, 2021

All of the 40 companies’ 92 founders were male. based founders, 35 were white* American; four were white immigrant/first generation, from France, Ukraine, Russia and Iran; and four were Indian immigrant/first generation. Of the 19 Western Europe/Israel-based founders, all were white. Of the 43 U.S.-based

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 78

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

by Kenneth Coats, founder of eKnowID. If you don’t perform a background check on your potential partner before doing business with him, you’re setting yourself up to get duped. Just like launching a new product, hiring a partner requires protecting your business against potential risk and failure. Knowing What to Look For.

Technical Review 197

Technical Review Partner Due Diligence Bankruptcy 197

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 11, 2020

by Shaun Djie, Co-Founder & COO of Digix. Amidst the outbreak, governments across the region, such as Singapore have been promoting the use of digital finance as a means to minimise physical contact and stamp the spread of the virus, channelling more monetary support for the growth of e-payments and digital financial solutions.

Asia 290

Asia Technical Review Technology Singapore 290

View from Seed

APRIL 14, 2020

VCs are always founder focused no matter the market environment. But in a FOMO world, more investors are willing to take a chance on a founder that they don’t know, but seems to match some of the heuristics of other high quality founders. This gets really challenging if it remains difficult to meet in person or to travel.

Early Stage 374

Early Stage Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence 374

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2019

As an advisor to business owners, and an occasional angel investor, my job is to separate the actual challenges from the common misconceptions that distract many promising entrepreneurs while building the leadership team required for your solution, marketing, and finance success. Partner with experts who share the risk.

Bandwidth 246

Bandwidth Software Review Salary Angel Investor 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2015

As an advisor to startups, I often get asked what to look for in an ideal co-founder or business partner. After some reflection, I now realize these attributes are necessary but not sufficient to be an ideal business partner. This means every entrepreneur needs partners who are smarter than they are in complementary domains.

Partner 120

Partner Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 120

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Blue Future Partners, a venture capital fund of funds, recently interviewed me on ESG in venture capital. – Forte has developed an innovative structure to finance vocational reskilling at no cost to individuals or governments. Starship was launched by the co-founders of Skype. Goldman Sachs bought Clarity for ~$100m. .

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Remember that investors will not appreciate a business plan that features exorbitant salaries of the founders. Rustam Gilfanov is an IT company co-founder, IT businessman and international investor. In 2006, Rustam Gilfanov, together with his partners, opened an international outsourcing IT company in Kyiv.

Business Plan 263

Business Plan Ukraine Cofounder Startup 263

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

Investors love the idea of backing second-time founders, especially if they have had success in their last company. etc… In addition, first-time founders I speak to often talk about how much they have learned and how they resolve to do things differently and better the next time. Is there a sophomore slump to avoid?

Founder 159

Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Almost no financings, many VCs and tech startups cratered for the second time in less than a decade following the dot com bursting. I had realized that I didn’t have it within me to be as good of a player as many of them did but I had the skills to help as mentor, coach, friend, sparing partner and patient capital provider.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Arif Bhalwani is the co-founder and CEO of Third Eye Capital (TEC) in Toronto, Canada. TEC is one of Canada’s largest and most experienced private credit firms, specializing in providing asset-based capital solutions to companies that are underserved or overlooked by traditional sources of financing, primarily banks.

Technical Review 133

Technical Review Due Diligence Bankruptcy Intellectual Property 133

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? 2018 also had the fewest number of angel-led financing rounds since before 2010. John Borchers, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Decathlon Capital, claims to be the largest revenue-based financing investor in the US. Absolutely not.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 27, 2014

It was a company whose product I believed in and whose founder I liked, but a firm lobbed in a term sheet at a price 33% higher than what I had offered using a very light agreement meant for a much earlier stage company. Then, I read about the idiotic comments made by a co-founder of Rap Genius. Perhaps we all should. No, probably not.

Term Sheet 143

Term Sheet Founder Cofounder Software Review 143

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on women or underrepresented founders. Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use.

Revenue 60

Revenue Cofounder Founder Venture Capital 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. I left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. I remember.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

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

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.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

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?”. Our response was that this might happen. This is because the market actually has changed.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Many of the start-ups my various angel funds have financed died a slow death , not because of poor concept but because of poor execution, wasting fixed overhead and draining the financial resources from the company coffers. And we were able to secure that investment along with a partner from that firm joining our board.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 118

Up and Running

JUNE 29, 2015

You don’t have to do everything yourself—a partner can be an asset to your business. For this reason, you might consider working with a business partner. But, how can you find and cultivate a business partner relationship like that? Here are several places to find the perfect partner for your business.

Partner 60

Partner Cofounder Networking Founder 60

The Next Web

JANUARY 30, 2014

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. In many cases, these entrepreneurs are on the hunt for co-founders to help them build their businesses. Social media channels can surprisingly lead you to potential partners as well.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Chicago 136

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

It is a type of financing that investors can provide to startups and small businesses which are believed to have the potential for success in the long term. A venture capital term sheet is a “non-binding listing of preliminary terms for venture capital financing”. What is Venture Capital Funding? Understand VC Term Sheets.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Security 144

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? You might like to think that a bunch of savvy venture capitalists saw a market niche for raising smaller funds or perhaps there was a generational shift where disgruntled junior partners spun out of bigger firms to start their own gigs.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

View from Seed

MARCH 1, 2016

The same metaphor is true for modern, “legacy” businesses — most businesses that exist today have co-evolved against one another in a careful dance of suppliers, distributors, competitors, and partners. This data and execution framing technique isn’t limited to financings. Trying to recruit a co-founder or key-employee?

Founder 120

Founder Technical Review Cofounder Non-Compete 120