Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

In the technology world there are a few websites that most startups track to keep up with the latest financings, acquisitions, product announcements and gossip: BusinessInsider, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, etc. Specifically we talked about Slide having gotten a $550 million valuation before being sold to Google for $182 million.

Seed Stage 232

Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

Gust

DECEMBER 13, 2011

I’ve recently taken a look at seed stage funding by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors over the past five years. For VCs, I chose to look at all seed stage VC deals (from MoneyTree©) as well as those in five of the most active regions in the country. All Seed-VC. million in seed stage deals in 2010.

Seed Stage 162

Seed Stage Southern California San Diego Silicon Valley 162

Hunter Walker

JUNE 9, 2023

My friends at Weekend Fund recently put out a round-up newsletter of some investor responses to the question “ Do Valuations Matter? They view valuation as an important guardrail in evaluating an investment opportunity. Like NEA, Homebrew takes an ownership-driven approach to investing.

Valuation 69

Valuation Seed Stage Portfolio Framework 69

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

This is a fresh $100M fund with the same high-conviction, hands-on seed strategy that we’ve been pursuing since the start of NextView over 10 years ago. 100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

If people are funding the business, they should get a premium because at the end of the day, cash funding founders are acting no different than a seed stage investor. So, let’s say that one founder puts in $100,000 in seed capital, that could be worth 20 percent of a seed stage company’s valuation.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Over the past five years, we’ve witnessed an Atomization of the Seed Stage. Early fundraising is no longer a one-and-done fundraise of a single round of Seed capital subsequently followed by a Series A 12–18 months later. Effective) post-money valuation. Seed stage startups are now graded on a curve.

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

From those founders, we are aware that FC takes their mission “to be the most aligned fund to founders at the seed stage” very seriously. In general, these investments were rarely competitive at the time of their first financing. FC’s portfolio is made up exclusively of seed stage investments at seed valuations.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Hunter Walker

JUNE 22, 2014

I was excited to recently see YC President Sam Altman evangelize for adding an investor or outside Director to a seed stage startup. With larger seed financings these days, your next investors are expecting more polished companies come A Round.

Seed Stage 93

Seed Stage Early Stage Metrics Startup 93

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

Do I think we are in a valuation bubble? I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

So when I tell you what I’m seeing in venture financing these days if you disagree with me, it might just be that we’re touching different parts of the elephant. Haystack’s Semil Shah wrote up his POV on what this has all meant for the seed market and one point in particular caught my eye.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

” If you invested at $8m pre-money and put $2m in (thus you own 20% of a company at a $10m post-money valuation) and if you put another $2m into a round at a $40m valuation raising $10m ($50m post) you end up with half your money at $8m pre and half at $40m pre thus your average price goes up dramatically. Thus begins the dance.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Seed is the New A.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

Dharmesh Shah had a great post up last week about the lessons learned from raising a mezzanine round of financing. When you compromise on terms in the early stages, you will have to pay the price in the later stages. In contrast, valuation always has room to move up.

Finance 128

Finance Mezzanine Valuation Seed Stage 128

www.seriesseed.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Series Seed Financing Documents Blog. « About the Series Seed Documents | Main. Series Seed Financing Documents. Please note, these are the latest versions of the Series Seed Documents.    Series Seed COI (v 2.0). Series Seed IRA (v 2.0). .  SeriesSeed.com.

Finance 40

Finance Term Sheet Vesting LLC 40

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Yes, via conversion rights at a valuation cap. Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Flexible VC: Compensation-based.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. It seems as though it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the blogosphere, but we see first-hand as entrepreneurs we’re investing in at NextView Ventures work through building their seed round syndicates, it really is a tough issue.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

What’s the difference between an angel round and pre-seed round and why do I believe we’ll see more pre-seed rounds taking place in 2024? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Seed is about showing initial product market fit.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

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. .” A convertible note financing is not a loan in the conventional sense. Convertible debt?

Finance 134

Finance Convertible Security Equity Seed Stage 134

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

How many of those valuations will hold remains to be seen, but that kind of market clearly advantaged funds that deployed capital very quickly. But there’s a lot of work for these companies (and many, many like them across the venture landscape) to grow into their paper valuations. A lot changes in that period of time. Many will not.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

View from Seed

JUNE 10, 2020

Our brand promise is that we will work with all accelerator companies to shape the underlying business, craft the fundraising pitch, and make introductions for new downstream investors until the company is subsequently financed. NextView Won’t Lead the Next Round in Accelerator Participants, But Will Always Follow-On in That Round.

Cofounder 177

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Alabama 177

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

One of the questions I get, more often than not, is what is the appropriate valuation of my business. This is typically in conjunction with an upcoming financing or pending takeover offer. multiple interested investors competing for the deal, and driving up your valuation in the process). Your stage of development.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. billion across 2,288 deals in Q3, with deal count exceeding Q2’s at nearly every stage. . Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos saw a once $9 billion valuation dissolve into 12 felony fraud charges.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Feld Thoughts

JULY 19, 2018

In addition to our own funds, we are investors in a number of other early-stage VC funds as part of our Foundry Group Next strategy. “Historically, the $10 million valuation mark has been somewhat of a ceiling for seed stage startups. All the experienced finance people I know talk regularly about cycles.

Early Stage 105

Early Stage Seed Stage Valuation Finance 105

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. Investors want to know the critical thinking behind the inputs and value-drivers of the business, and how that results in the outputs on the critical metrics and finances.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

And it’s not just that VCs cut their investment pace but they also indicated overwhelmingly that valuations of investments had dropped with 76% of all VCs surveyed suggesting 2016 had lower valuations than 2015. So if funding from VCs slowed, valuations dropped and burn rates were slashed, WTF happened to winter again?

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2012

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Seat on the board. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 223

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 223

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

In the next post, I’ll talk about how we think about pre-seeds at NextView. It’s become increasingly common for startups to raise several seed rounds, and this has led to a bifurcation in the seed stage between what are known as “pre-seed” (or “genesis”) and institutional seed rounds.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Seat on the board. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 227

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 227

Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2014

While I get why a late stage investor would ask the question when the valuation is in the $250 million range, I really don’t understand why a seed investor would ask this question when the valuation is in the $5m range. So, let’s zone this in on an early stage discussion. I don’t think so.

Later Stage 195

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Seed Stage 195

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. Valuation caps can come into play in settings other than seed-stage convertible note financing rounds. by February 2006).

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

This post is intended to be a dynamic document, and I will attempt to update it from time to time with new questions that may arise or as financing trends evolve. And I sincerely hope that this post does a good job of addressing what Pre-Seed really is. Q: Define Pre-Seed? Q: What amount of financing is considered Pre-Seed?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

These firms can provide various services, including financing and business advice. Pre-Seed Investments. Investing in a startup at the pre-seed stage is a great way to get in early on to the next big thing. A standard financial tool used in early-stage startups is a convertible loan note.

Venture Capital 52

Venture Capital Early Stage Liquidity Event SEC 52

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2011

When a company is at its earliest seed stage, the terms tend to be the least complex. As the company grows and the second or third group of investors comes in, the terms of each subsequent financing grow in size, scope, and the number of lawyers’ fingerprints on them. Seat on the board. Anti-dilution protection.

Term Sheet 158

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 158

Haystack

APRIL 10, 2018

Earlier today, the folks from Afore Capital hosted their inaugural “Pre-Seed Summit” in San Francisco. About 150 people showed up, a healthy mix of founders, seed-stage investors and big fund VCs, and a bunch of LPs of various sizes. OK, so microVC funds and smaller pre-seed financings could really be a thing.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage San Francisco Ratchet Silicon Valley 60