Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Lindel joined Foundry Group as a partner to lead the fund investing activity of Foundry Group Next. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Founder Collective’s partners – David Frankel, Eric Paley, and Micah Rosenbloom – over the years on several companies. It starts with the people.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

It seemed like every other TechCrunch post was announcing a startups’s new seed financing round. Seed stage companies just aren’t announcing their rounds anymore. Inbound partners. But in my experience, it rarely fails that press coverage attracts the attention of a potential customer or possible new partner.

Seed Stage 201

Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2017

by Marek Danyluk, managing partner at Space Executive. Venture capital fundraising can be divided into three stages: seed, early stage, and later stage. According to the same report by KPMG, the median deal size is the largest for later-stage funding, at $26 million.

Venture Capital 196

Venture Capital Asia Artificial Inteligence Later Stage 196

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

Like many established finance & media companies, GLG knows that the tech startup sector is a growing part of the economy. We’re backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Silver Lake Partners, and individual investors like Ron Conway, among others. We’re not mainly for B2B companies or later stage companies or anything like that.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. He said that a16z prefers to invest earlier stage in these types of businesses. Either way it turned into a heated debate.

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This week’s guest was David Travers from Rustic Canyon Partners. VC Financings: 1. What I found strange about this funded was the fact that it was led by Summit Partners. Investors: Summit Partners (lead), Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, Gary Vaynerchuk. I keep meaning to get him drunk to spill the stories.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. 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.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

He was in a later-stage financing round and was talking with many investors. She had emailed with a partner at a big VC fund and he had passed the request to a junior associate. I was recently with an entrepreneur and talking with him about his fund raising process. link] Another entrepreneur was recently in my office.

Term Sheet 217

Term Sheet Later Stage Demand Email 217

Gust

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

How to finance a new seed-stage startup? ” Ressi in particular seems to be passionate about removing the “debt” component from convertible debt seed financing transactions. .” I won’t rehash all of the customary convertible note financing deal terms and points of negotiation here. (For

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 9, 2021

But I knew that there was a ton of work to be done to scale the business into multiple business lines, and that we would be better off with a CEO who was a grand master of organizational growth and had the product vision to serve as a later-stage co-founder. But for some companies the secret sauce might be engineering or finance.

Leadership 42

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Later Stage 42

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Analytics vs. Finance?—?what’s In reality, these two domains require quite different skill sets (more on this later). Finance is about reporting on historical performance and future planning through the lens of financial metrics. This is a bit of an oversimplification as there are many sub-disciplines within finance?—?accounting/controller,

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

I have served on the boards of several companies with just such VC talent at the table, partners in firms that made subsequent investments in companies where I either made early investments or led a group of fellow investors in early rounds of finance.

Covenant 97

Covenant Angel Investor Valuation Later Stage 97

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

.” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. They point to some widely known facts: financings & valuations are up massively over the past 7 years and non-VC money has entered the system.

LP 150

LP Valuation Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I spend hours thinking about the products, competitors, market opportunities, recruiting and financing of these businesses. I know investors who are great at this (including several of my partners) — but that’s not me. How else can I begin this multi-year journey if I’m not in love? I feel personally committed and engaged.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. 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.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. And some larger funds that specialize in later stage deals may have a partner or two who likes to invest at this stage. Is it for your technology? (In

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

If you’re one of these funds, it’s probably the right strategy in the nearterm, although I think greatest risk is that you’re ‘winning’ these deals but end up applying your later-stage POV to these early stage companies. 2) Larger Funds Buying Up Early to Outbid Other Funds Later.

Later Stage 95

Later Stage Valuation Semantic Institutional Investors 95

Austin Startup

AUGUST 30, 2018

Of these rounds, nearly every one was classified as a Series B or later-stage round, with the exception of a few debt and equity financing rounds. A trend towards larger, later-stage companies typically means investors are looking to take on less risk and invest in more established companies.

Austin 48

Austin Early Stage San Francisco Later Stage 48

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Between my experiences as a management consultant, as well as my product and marketing roles at multiple tech companies, I felt that I had enough operational experience to make that leap sooner than later. Additionally, I had already studied Economics and Finance during undergrad, making the academic part of an MBA seem a little redundant.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

trillion, it is by far the largest of its sort in the world and financed projects that in other settings may not have passed investment criteria screens. [3]. Second, the Board can usually avoid a public vote or referendum by leasing to a new partner, something politicians fear. Some attribute the lag to the uniqueness of the U.S.

Private Equity 129

Private Equity New York City Chicago Investment Bankers 129

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

So, the bar will be different for each investor, and for very early stage fundraising, the goal is to find true believers more than convincing skeptics. (My My partner Lee tackles this question of trying to recognize traction in the second half of this podcast interview. Second, that you’re the team to do it.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Together this means that Seed stage companies need to run longer and at a higher expense structure, meaning they need to raise a lot more capital. A re-jiggering of deal stages and sizes had begun in 2013. Moving up stream is a natural evolution of a venture fund, especially as you get more money and more partners.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

You might start with a partner in the meeting or it might be a principal or associate. Sometimes engagement at the later stages seems to go dry. It doesn’t have to be a partner?—?every This is the exception, rather than the rule. How Do You Know if a VC is Engaged? It should be obvious to you. Plan accordingly.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

There’s been a lot of talk recently about what will happen to startup financing in 2016, including here on this blog. A lot of them are focused on Series A investing and favour the ecommerce and marketplace sectors that Forward Partners focuses on.

Marketing 60

Marketing Institutional Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 60

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. 2) The Bundled Expertise Syndicate.

Syndicate 98

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 98

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he’s responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. Learning everything you can about VC first is important for that reason, but also to ensure it’s the right form of financing for your business.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Up and Running

JANUARY 30, 2014

My partner is a full-time developer and math teacher, and I’m an engineer. Accelerators focus on early-stage startups, while incubators are geared toward later-stage startups. Some accelerators have themes or focus on certain business sectors such as education, healthcare, or finance. Accelators.

Incubator 105

Incubator New York City Venture Capital Startup 105

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

In October, we held our annual Limited Partners meeting at NextView. But, looking further downstream, the later stage funding landscape has been incredibly robust. Both late stage VCs as well as non-traditional investors are searching for growth anywhere they can find it in the capital markets. This has started to unfold.

Later Stage 28

Later Stage Marketing Early Stage Ratchet 28

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Mid-stage is when you are now selling reality and are often too early to show that you will be a large, long term successful business. If you want hints, my partner Jason and I wrote 200 pages of them in our book Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer or Your Venture Capitalist * (*unless they are from Cooley…). Decide to do it.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Private Equity Early Stage Valuation 70

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Attracting a VC investment means finding a partner in a VC firm who is willing to champion your opportunity before his partnership and then represent his firm with a seat on the board once the investment is made. In a number of cases, these VC partners have made the difference between success and failure or at least growth vs. stagnation.

Covenant 59

Covenant Angel Investor Valuation Later Stage 59

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. VI: Revenue-based financing: The next step for private equity and early-stage investment. This is a summary of: Revenue-Based financing: State of the Industry 2020. His work on VC and small communities can be found at greatercolorado.vc/blog.

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

They are still individual investors, they invest on a full-time basis as professionals, but they have funds with Limited Partners. The limited partners may themselves run the gamut from individuals, family offices, venture capital funds to institutional LPs. They have 4-10 partners who are investing on their behalf. Super Angel.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Early Stage 125

View from Seed

APRIL 7, 2015

Rather than go down this road, my partner David Beisel likes to caveat the occasional feedback by saying, “But that’s just my perspective from the cheap seats.” Even later stage VCs will push to meet founders much earlier than seems appropriate for their sweet spot. ” Ignorant advice.

Early Stage 120

Early Stage Founder Later Stage Engineer 120

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

These are all potential customers and strategic partners for startups. In order for Frisco to achieve its full vision to be a destination city for VC’s, we have to be part of a larger, statewide network to support our partners and entrepreneur support organizations to help advance our collective and common goals.”

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90