K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

2) New market (less common form, examples are Lyft and eShares) and 3) New business model (least common, non-K9 portfolio examples are PriceLine and SolarCity). What led you to the venture capital world? MK : Initial investments are typically around $400,000 to $500,000, typically part of a Pre-Seed round of financing.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Early Stage Portfolio Software Engineering 48

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. The middle” consists of venture-backed companies that are neither early stage nor mature.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

Term-driving investor approach – An entrepreneur finds a lead (quasi-)institutional venture investor to price and set the structure/dynamics of the round, working together to bring in additional syndicate partners (either/both other funds and individual angels). There is some correlation here, but not complete alignment, to check size (i.e.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

VC Adventure

AUGUST 12, 2014

The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). But does this heuristic match reality? Based on their data, a full 65% of financings fail to return 1x capital. Actually no.

IRR 133

IRR Portfolio Distribution Venture Capital 133

The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

When I started in venture capital in the late 1990s VCs were regularly lambasted for taking long summer holidays and spending too much time on the golf course. Then from the mid 2000s, value add began moving beyond the partner to the firm as VCs began employing people who’s full time job was helping their portfolio.

Portfolio 84

Portfolio LP Venture Capital Partner 84

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

In that presentation, I said that Seed is not the first round of financing any more and that K9’s investments were mostly “pre-seed”. The Venture Capital industry as a whole does a terrible job of giving things the right name and so we end up keeping the same name, but changing the meaning out from under it. The Epilogue.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Get instrument rated, and trust the 6Cs of Cloud Finance (more.) Cloud accounting is all about matching revenue and costs to consumption…well, except for professional services! In regards to calculatimg the "Magic Number" - should the amount included as sales and marketing costs match the length of the sales cycle?

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Sales Cycle 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I got a job at a bank, and I worked in their corporate finance group. We had a finance group for all of the bank branches based in San Diego, and I wrote programs to download stuff from the mainframe so we could do analysis three days faster than they could send us the data. Comp sci in the 80s was terrible. Safety in numbers?

Cofounder 337

Cofounder Technical Cofounder San Diego Startup 337

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. The consensus is definitely negative, but one thing that has buoyed my optimism about the prospects for our portfolio is the number of new funds raised in London recently.

Marketing 60

Marketing Institutional Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 60

VC Adventure

AUGUST 12, 2014

The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). But does this heuristic match reality? Based on their data, a full 65% of financings fail to return 1x capital. Actually no.

IRR 122

IRR Portfolio Distribution Finance 122

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Even the best venture capital firms have a lot of failures and few successes. I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation. venture capital. what your rights are.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

V: Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC? 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. IV: Should your new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 29, 2011

You may decide that where you are now compared to where you'll be in three months isn't a good time, and that's fine, but let's not pretend that you're not a tech entrepreneur in the office of a venture capital firm. So, if you ping me with "I'm still working my big corporate finance job. Would you invest in it.

Technical Review 114

Technical Review Early Stage Due Diligence Venture Capital 114

www.kernelmag.com

MARCH 8, 2012

They tend to have a multitude of side projects, Github portfolios and hacking workshops on the go at once. So, while you’re slaving away on your customer development while keeping an eye out for your technical match, you could do worse than read Paul Graham’s 2007 essay, How not to die. Nic Brisbourne on venture capital.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Coder 43

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Examples are Hollywood for movies, Milan for fashion, New York for finance and today, Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurship. Venture Guiding Fund. In 2007 the Ministries of Science and Finance raised the stakes to get VC’s focused on funneling more VC money into growing startups – they set up a Venture Guiding Fund.

Programming 280

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 280

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 2, 2006

The time they spend with customers is usually limited to transactional core products sales, generating lower margins – The resource allocation is not always matching the opportunity (geography, customer segment, vertical.) – The rules of engagement for technical resources (solution or product specialists) are not clear.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review Europe Software 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Examples are Hollywood for movies, Milan for fashion, New York for finance and today, Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurship. Venture Guiding Fund. In 2007 the Ministries of Science and Finance raised the stakes to get VC’s focused on funneling more VC money into growing startups – they set up a Venture Guiding Fund.

Programming 172

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 172

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

As part of these operating changes, make sure your heads of HR and finance recognize that they have entirely new jobs. Then walk them through why the changes you’re suggesting match that plan. They may have seen new ideas from other companies in their portfolio so be open to additional suggestions.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

” These are people with whom there is a likely match for your product or service. But the short answer is that the best intro is from a portfolio company of that VC or by other entrepreneurs whom that VC respects. So why would raising venture capital be any different. ” But focusing on too many is a mistake.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. You may happen to emphasize the right points that pique an investor’s interest, but you shouldn’t leave your financing up to chance. Steer into your investors’ objections.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

You have your general management meeting and in your general management meeting you talk about product development, about marketing and about finance. Another idea would be to say matching up. the sort of pain solution match-up process can work. I’m instantly out because those companies are horrible for venture capital.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

If you are an entrepreneur seeking funding, try our free Funding Recommendation Engine to identify a list of angels, venture capital and state grant programs that best match your business. Finances were just one part of the story. Check out the Brain’s Guide to Angel Investin g and the Brain’s Guide to Venture Capital.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

The number of those VCs who didn’t know our stage or who had some other part of their thesis that we didn’t match was also staggering. Explain conflict rationale A handful of really great VCs declined to invest in my company and they had the courtesy of telling me that they felt like Company X in their portfolio would be a conflict.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Business Plan Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

What You Need to Know About Obtaining Venture Funding. First and foremost, venture capital firms want to see an entrepreneur with passion and vision. Some venture capital firms will have narrow criteria for the types of companies that they invest in while other will adopt a more broad portfolio and invest across many sectors.

Intellectual Property 53

Intellectual Property Venture Capital Equity Business Plan 53

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I think how hard it is for me to be hands-on with a handful of portfolio companies. He was talking profusely about their portfolio company email lists and the knowledge that is shared. Some of their goals are to incorporate better matching and filtering for investors. Not intended that way, it was sincere. So I thought, WTF?

Valuation 292

Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

David Teten

APRIL 29, 2014

According to the National Venture Capital Association/Dow Jones VentureSource, the VC industry is dominated by men (89% of VC Partners), specifically white men (76% of the total). Despite all this, we are living on a different planet when it comes to which companies receive venture capital.

Venture Capital 114

Venture Capital Los Angeles Cofounder Technical Review 114

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

That wasn't a bubble bursting issue--that was a poor financing strategy issue of people getting caught with their pants down, hands in the cookie jar, and all the metaphors you can think of at once. In the late 90's, it wasn't surprising that companies with no revenue that were funded at 100 million dollar valuations didn't survive.

Later Stage 99

Later Stage Down Round Pre-Money Valuation Early Stage 99

VC Cafe

MARCH 20, 2011

Venture capital Rounds. million in its third financing round led by Pitango Venture Capital. Japan’s Softbank and current investors General Catalyst, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures also participated. Israeli venture capital news. Footbo raises $2.5 has raised $16.5

Venture Capital 87

Venture Capital Startup Denmark 87

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Kapor Capital’s expansive portfolio includes Bit.ly Qualcomm Ventures is invested in a number of startups including Livescribe, Obopay , Arieso and Zeebo. The firm’s portfolio includes the likes of Gist , Lijit , Brightleaf, Memeo, SimpleGeo , StockTwits and Zynga.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

I also was fortunate to gain a lot of insight on this topic from Don Charlton, Founder/CEO, TheResumator *, a ffVC portfolio company. Their odds of a successful match went up accordingly. That said, minority founders have three unique challenges, which I’ve listed below in order of when a founder hits the hurdle.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Advisory Board Greece Cofounder 60

www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

According to Graham, Google Ventures, a venture-capital firm backed by the tech giant, has systematically been offering to make seed investments in recent Y Combinator graduates, but only on substantially more favorable terms than other investors received. Our portfolio speaks for itself.". Clusterstock. Your Money.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54