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. But, also by definition, that just can’t be the case.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Ron Conway , of SV Angels, and Reid Hoffman , LinkedIn's founder, are names often mentioned in this category. Yet, knowing this distinction is important. A micro venture capital firm.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Finance Early Stage Startup 120

David Teten

JANUARY 11, 2020

We market to four populations: High-potential founders. High-potential prospective employees of portfolio companies. Executives of large companies which may acquire or become clients of our portfolio companies. Kevin has written over 620 syndicated columns). Crunchbase. This is hosted by NFX. I welcome suggestions.

Social Media 60

Social Media Technical Review Media Private Equity 60

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 19, 2020

Software has been eating venture funds by simplifying syndicates, managing SPVs, and even traditional fund management. What rolling funds do not address is traditional portfolio construction that requires a thoughtful capital deployment strategy. How much capital are you reserving for follow on financings?”

Syndicate 88

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Portfolio 88

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

On the heels of the announcement we made last month about our Series B financing , we are now announcing the launch of a new program called Bolster Prime and a new venture capital fund called Bolster Ventures. In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

As a founder, it feels like a long time, but it’s really a blip on the radar in the scheme of things. This is why I’ve made a habit of profiling our portfolio quantitatively and why we write summaries announcing pretty much all of our new investments. So, here is our annual quantitative summary of our portfolio.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

Our investment size may differ slightly from one company to the next, but it tends to be driven entirely by situation-specific factors (needs of the company, syndicate composition, anticipated reserves, etc) … and not based on our belief. How does the firm behave if you are knocking the cover off the ball?

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 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

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 25, 2015

.”) But at the end of 2013, when the JOBS Act became official and AngelList created Syndicates, we decided to understand the phenomenon better by participating in it. ” I strongly agree with this, although I have one nuance. It’s hard to be absolutely correct at the beginning of the journey.

Syndicate 70

Syndicate Syndication Limited Partner Finance 70

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

However, in private markets, there is more room to optimize across all 11 steps of the investing process: firm management , marketing, fundraising , origination , manage relationships, due diligence, negotiation, monitoring, portfolio acceleration , reporting, and. 3) Raise capital. They read reviews of the products of target investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Some founders are able to skip an institutional seed round and go straight to a multi-million dollar A-round where a larger VC puts in the lion’s share of the capital. As I’ve blogged about in the past, there are positives and negatives to this strategy, but it is a viable option to some founders. Skipping Straight to A.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

It seems like every day there is a new headline about an exceptional startup founder, investor, or corporate headquarters moving to Texas. Today, startup founders focus on the fundamental challenges of our time with energy, life sciences and industrial technologies dominating Houston’s tech scene. Joe Lonsdale. Drew Houston.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

VC Adventure

AUGUST 10, 2010

At the end of his post Brad lists out the companies in the Foundry portfolio that started as seed investments ( AdMeld , Gnip , Lijit , Mandlebrot , Next Big Sound , Standing Cloud , and Trada ). To be clear, while there is a small group of us that are Trada founders, the idea of Trada is completely Niel’s.

Syndicate 74

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence SEM 74

VC Adventure

JULY 23, 2013

I just tweeted about an unfortunate email exchange I just had with a company founder, but 140 characters isn’t enough to really do the matter justice. All these years I’ve financed my business with SBA and bank loans. I strongly believe in the “ no a s ” rule and try to live my life by it.

SBA 117

SBA Syndicate Syndication Email 117

Professor VC

JULY 25, 2013

I''m a strong believer in fairness (although my daughters may not agree) and investors and entrepreneurs working together as a team to create something valuable to all stakeholders (customers, employees, founders, investors). AngelList (which I remain a big fan) also recently launched a syndicate program.

Term Sheet 46

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 46

Rob Go

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 28

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 28

VC Adventure

JULY 23, 2013

I just tweeted about an unfortunate email exchange I just had with a company founder, but 140 characters isn’t enough to really do the matter justice. All these years I’ve financed my business with SBA and bank loans. I strongly believe in the “ no a s ” rule and try to live my life by it.

SBA 48

SBA Syndicate Syndication Email 48

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

I really liked Jason Lemkin’s “ Do You Have a Weak Investor Syndicate ” blog post from earlier in the summer. Instead I want to focus on Jason’s discussion of bridges and pro rata, because it’s an area which is dynamic in every deal and often misunderstood by founders. Go read it and then come back here….

Cap Table 95

Cap Table Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 95

Austin Startup

AUGUST 1, 2017

TL;DR: In a market that has historically idolized huge, splashy financings and exits, an increasing number of entrepreneurs are realizing that everyone else’s definition of success — particularly among certain large VCs — isn’t necessarily aligned with their own. Most individual VCs can only support about 7–10 companies at a time.

Liquidation Preference 48

Liquidation Preference Common Stock Valuation Silicon Valley 48

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. At Version One, we effectively act as a hotline: we strive to be the first investor that our founders call and often times, it is because we are the most responsive. What are the experiences of other founders in the investor’s portfolio?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60