Genuine VC

JANUARY 10, 2012

I recently received a email from an entrepreneur who I know with a genuine question about terms of his financing: " How do you guys at NextView feel about one of our investors holding super pro - rata rights for the next round?" This scenario presents a number of troubling incentives.

Term Sheet 131

Term Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Dilution 131

Genuine VC

JULY 30, 2012

Sharing these expectations early in potential lead investor discussions fundamentally qualifies the conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner or reducing options to maximize a financing process outcome.

Valuation 136

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Syndicate 136

Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

There are essentially two distinct basic strategies for startup entrepreneurs to raise a seed round of capital: Subscription approach – An entrepreneur sets a structure (usually a convertible note) and recruits individual angel investors who subscribe to the round, all without a term-driving lead investor.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

We’ve observed it repeatedly in our portfolio as Founder/CEOs seek additional rounds of financing: the engaged skeptics just never quite get there, but the entrepreneurs who cast the nets wide enough find someone who believes. I’ve seen both outcomes in a prolonged “believer” search.

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. They will have the ability to “see” the opportunity that the startup is going after unlike anyone else, save the entrepreneur because they inherently get the space.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 128

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Like a lot of students, I went into business school a decade ago with a set plan to start a company coming straight after graduation in co-founding an internet startup (… again ). MBAs are notorious for sheep-herding towards a particular category of startups (recently, daily deals and online new e-retailing).

Cofounder 256

Cofounder Portfolio Venture Capital Reputation 256

Genuine VC

MAY 1, 2014

In the intervening years while I pursued a career investing in startups rather than creating them, Josh continued as an entrepreneur starting a handful of companies including early social networking site Sconex, successfully sold to Alloy Media. Series A financing. Back in those Web 1.0 Today BookBub is announcing its $3.8M

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Social Network 118

Genuine VC

JANUARY 13, 2014

The idea is that a couple of highly-qualified VC conversations will follow the 80/20 rule of a “good enough” financing in a relatively short amount period without taking the time of an extended process to truly optimize the funding outcome. But joining an accelerator is only one path towards running an effective fundraising process.

Term Sheet 206

Term Sheet Venture Capital Valuation Portfolio 206

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. Instead, startups are now empowered to create focused services which benefit a small niche audience. Happy New Year and welcome to 2013.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Genuine VC

MARCH 4, 2013

With all of our seed stage investments here at NextView, we both look at the market opportunity as well as the team behind the startup. Today Triple Lift announced their $2M seed round financing. We at NextView Ventures are happy to join co-investors True Ventures, iNovia, and the rest of the syndicate.

Seed Stage 124

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 124

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Meanwhile, Eric Horndahl and Brian Waldman had been germinating a startup idea to address this consumer home renovation problem for a while now. Seed round of financing led by NextView Ventures , where I will be joining the Board of Directors. Today Renoviso is announcing their $1.4M

Syndicate 100

Syndicate Syndication Lead Generation Acquisition 100

Genuine VC

MAY 18, 2011

Jason Gracilieri is what we’d call a prototypical “ Tom Brady entrepreneur ”: he’s seen the playbook as an essential team-member of a successful startup (in this case as Co-Founder of Sconex which was sold to Alloy Media ) and is now ready to assume the helm.

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Boston Angel Investor Founder 118

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

Evaluating a startup as a prospective employee is tough, especially when you compare to VCs. Plus, VCs often will have met the Founder/CEOs of many of a particular startup’s competitors, so they’ll have an even richer understand of the market landscape. On one hand, of course, you’re joining a startup for the upside.

Startup 146

Startup Burn Rate Technical Review Down Round 146

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

After the crash at the end of the last decade, web startups clamped down to focus on their core value proposition and were forced out of necessity for survival to hone their revenue models. But for the typical web startup, thinking about a business from the mindset not of “how do we get big fast?” is a progression in thinking.

Distribution 103

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 103

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

After the crash at the end of the last decade, web startups clamped down to focus on their core value proposition and were forced out of necessity for survival to hone their revenue models. But for the typical web startup, thinking about a business from the mindset not of “how do we get big fast?” is a progression in thinking.

Distribution 100

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 100

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. We enter meetings with entrepreneurs not looking for reasons to say no, but rather with the hope of hearing a story which is truly exciting.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 167

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. We enter meetings with entrepreneurs not looking for reasons to say no, but rather with the hope of hearing a story which is truly exciting.

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 103

Genuine VC

MARCH 18, 2014

Fairly often entrepreneurs will pitch investing in their seed-stage company, and it starts sounding great… interesting market… great team… notable early traction… until we arrive at the financials + fundraising slide and the projections state that this round of Seed financing is planned to be their last.

Seed Stage 202

Seed Stage Dividend Finance Portfolio 202

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. Even the most elementary venture capitalist has the privilege of serving on boards of a number of startups. REALITY: Larger VCs in seed rounds do indeed alter dynamics of future financings, but not always for the worse.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244