Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 7, 2010

That is debt financing that converts into equity at the Series A valuation once the price for that is set. (I Our discussion today was largely around her financing strategy, and one of the key milestones that I probed her on was: What does it take to get a validated customer? Sub-$2 million pre-money, it is better to bootstrap.

Valuation 119

Valuation Silicon Valley Pre-Money Valuation Bootstrapping 119

Up and Running

JULY 25, 2016

Of all the television shows that center around businesses, none feel closer to reality than HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” While this is a great arrangement for Erlich and his modest finances, it’s a terrible idea for Big Head, and probably for most business partnerships. Image via HBO. Violating non-disclosure agreements.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property NDA 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 28, 2011

This week, I've had several meetings with venture funds, incubators, corporate accelerators and other significant players in the startup eco-system. One theme seems to come up over and again, especially from geographies outside Silicon Valley: lack of a reliable pipeline of deals.

Incubator 128

Incubator Silicon Valley Malaysia Entrepreneur 128

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

I call it drip-financing. Most entrepreneurs have no choice but to avail of this sort of financing along with the mentoring and the contacts that could come with it (doesn't always come along, though). In 1M/1M, our preferred financing strategy is customers. Because customer financing equals revenue, not equity.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

I will work with him on his inventory financing strategy. In addition, we are offering entrepreneurs access to investors and customers through our recently launched our 1M/1M Incubation Radar series. All three of today's roundtable companies will soon be featured on Incubation Radar. JCLABoutique.com.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Zendesk is heavily financed by Benchmark and Charles River and has 10,000 customers. You can read more about Freshdesk on the 1M/1M Incubation Radar today. You can also read more about Bizosys on the 1M/1M Incubation Radar today. The company already has paying customers and a validated business model.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

A Crowded Space

SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

Incubators and accelerators are breeding grounds of hype - they put lists of companies out there and have a demo day to display their wares. This can lead to lots of hype among investors and very rapid financings where VCs are forced to “act quickly” and provide term sheets in less than 48 hours. Let’s talk about how to do that.

San Diego 60

San Diego Software Review San Francisco Silicon Valley 60

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2013

It recently announced the results of its incubator program – and the results look promising. Of the ten startups in the inaugural 2012 class, four have raised follow-on funding to date, and one even reached the break-even point and expanded to Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 231

Silicon Valley Europe Venture Capital Incubator 231

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Sequoia has financed them. In addition, we are offering entrepreneurs access to investors and customers through our recently launched our 1M/1M Incubation Radar series. All three of today's roundtable companies will soon be featured on Incubation Radar. Anyway, those are just a few blue sky ideas for you to go after.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

The discussion today was around Social Media financing and go-to-market strategy. Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Parallel6 is already clocking over $1 million in revenue and is looking to enhance its customer acquisition and also raise some financing. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. Statisco Economic Analytics.

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

My company, Imprint Energy, was part of Plug and Play’s accelerator in Silicon Valley. In particular, use your accelerator to help you set up your accounting and finances. It’s important to understand the difference between an accelerator and an incubator. – Ben Lang , EpicLaunch. Do Your Due Diligence.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Chile Startup Due Diligence 60

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 7, 2011

At this week's One Million by One Million roundtable, we announced a very important partnership with MAD Incubator, Malaysia for entrepreneurship development in the region. This is our first major partnership with an incubator whereby MAD will adopt the 1M/1M methodology to foster Silicon Valley-style technopreneurship in Malaysia.

Malaysia 114

Malaysia Incubator Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Several funds and firms are participating in this investment including Rincon Ventures , Idealab ( Bill Gross built the original incubator and there will be active support from Allen Morgan ), Baroda Ventures , GRP Partners , David Cohen (founder of TechStars ), David Tisch (founder of TechStars NY ), DLA Piper and Stubbs Alderton.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Incubator Startup 287

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I recently wrote a blog post that I believe is worth pointing out in the context of the strategy roundtables: VCs, Angels, Incubators, Accelerators - What Are You Doing With Your Rejects? That means that less than 1% of the entrepreneurs who apply succeed in getting financed. His firm invests in four. That's a 0.21% hit rate.

Incubator 116

Incubator Silicon Valley Idaho Entrepreneur 116

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

note: apologies in advance for the west coast bias; i’m in silicon valley). YC is a VC fund that looks and operates like a guild of geeks , and hardly looks anything like a traditional fund comprised of VC partners with MBAs or finance degrees. They are operators, through and through.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. Inside the zones were Torch Technology Business Incubators with startups licensed by the local governments. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Lessons Learned.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

Diego Basch

MARCH 14, 2013

I prefer investing in health, transportation, education, and (under some very specific circumstances) finance. I’ve been around Silicon Valley for a while so I’m connected to many engineers and investors whom I deeply respect. I recently attended a Demo Day for a well-known incubator. Some lawyers, even.

San Francisco 55

San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley Seed Stage 55

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

Silicon Valley’s pay-it-forward culture means that others will help when you’re starting up. Looking to create their accelerator/incubator, Wayne and seven other founders rented a Silicon Valley house together one summer. Their first product aims to make meetings more productive.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Carolina Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

For a more elaborate explanation of the deal, please read my blog post 1M/1M: Alternative Financing For Startups Using A Sales Channel Partner. Also, an Incubation Radar profile on CrowdEngineering explains more about this very, very cool company doing crowdsourced customer support. The business is already profitable with $2.9

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

identify financing vehicles before you need them. Incubators are designed for teams with an idea. Other incubators and accelerators in the health tech space include Health WildCatters in Dallas, RockHealth in Silicon Valley, Iron Yard in North Carolina, HealthBox Accelerator, Athena Health MDP in Boston and others.

San Diego 261

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 261

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. This is another big week for us at Bolster. What about the middle?

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

Recently I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups , which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 21, 2013

We’ll cover topics including: The Finance Chain : How VCs, angels, crowdfunding models, and all the rest fit together. Startup Kitchens : Transformative accelerators, incubators, and mentorship programs. And you may have seen that the New York Times recently dubbed Boulder “ Silicon Valley for Ad Agencies.”.

Colorado 136

Colorado Denver Silicon Valley Startup 136

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

VC Financings: 1. Wildfire was one of the darlings of the fbFund incubator program. You also might enjoy hearing him talk about his background – including the fact that he was actually the executive assistant for Condoleezza Rice during one of the more historic and controversial periods of time in recent history!

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

Loading… Personal Finance. Personal Finance. Theres a power struggle underway in Silicon Valley. But Andreessens approach is also exposing a rift in Silicon Valley, where a group of young and relatively untested entrepreneurs have maintained control over their rapidly growing companies. » More.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. Inside the zones were Torch Technology Business Incubators with startups licensed by the local governments. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Lessons Learned.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 17, 2017

He’s spent the last four years in Silicon Valley out of uniform continuing that work. We’d add a new category, Horizon 0, which kills ideas that are not viable or feasible (something that Silicon Valley is tremendously efficient at doing). These Horizons also apply to government agencies and other large organizations.

Community 212

Community Silicon Valley Technical Review Incubator 212

David Teten

JANUARY 28, 2019

Everyone wanted to work in finance. Or Yale could develop a legaltech incubation program and to help improve lawyers’ productivity, a profession whose primary tech tool is Microsoft Word. Incubate non-Yalies. It’s important moving forward that they expand their reach to other regions (particularly Silicon Valley).

Affiliate 60

Affiliate Connecticut Programming Community 60

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

The ways of doing business across the Pacific are very different than in Silicon Valley, and the quality and breadth of VCs out here vary widely across different countries. It is the most mature VC market in Asia by far, which in many ways, also makes it the most similar to the Silicon Valley in terms of process.

Asia 123

Asia Silicon Valley India China 123

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

Finance and budgeting. Silicon Valley melting pot. More and more I believe that the CTO office needs to not only create options, but incubate (in partnership with Business Development and others) businesses that exploit technical breakthroughs. Business Essays, Blogs, and Musings. Metrics for cyclical businesses.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Torch has four major parts: Innovation Clusters , Technology Business Incubators (TBIs), Seed Funding (Innofund) and Venture Guiding Fund. Examples are Hollywood for movies, Milan for fashion, New York for finance and today, Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurship. It has become China’s Silicon Valley.

Programming 278

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 278

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

The last blogger in Silicon Valley. My partner in Menlo Incubator , Gary Kremen , and I had a recent debate on which one of us hates convertible debt more. This will also serve as a good pointer for all the entrepreneurs who ask why I am not interested in their company led convertible note financing round. ProfessorVC.

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

UT Austin is home to the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), the longest-standing technology incubator in the country, which has had an economic impact of over $3 billion in Texas with a focus on deep tech such as healthcare, sustainability, and clean energy. After more than eight years?—?they’ve

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

All this, could, potentially, be done without external financing. And along the way, if necessary and appropriate, she can raise financing with a vastly more validated business. At this point, financing discussions are premature and are likely not to yield success. Recordings of previous roundtables are all available here.

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Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117