View from Seed

MAY 3, 2022

I’ve had the privilege of joining Flyp’s Founders, James Kawas and Dani Arnaout , on their journey; my tenure on the company’s board started a year ago in leading their seed round of financing and will continue going forward.

Syndicate 156

Syndicate Syndication IPO Matching 156

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Recently, we looked at our own portfolio at NextView Ventures to dig a little deeper on how startups actually raise that next round of financing. Startups with large, lifecycle VCs included in the seed round syndicate did not reach Series A faster than those who did not. More on these below.). There was no meaningful difference.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

View from Seed

AUGUST 16, 2019

One of the most relevant scenarios that this fear vs. greed lens applies towards is insider-led financings. That story is built brick by brick through subtle cues of amounts of insider participation, who issues a term sheet, structure of the financing, etc. Of course, true motivations cannot be entirely divined.

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 149

View from Seed

AUGUST 20, 2014

Series A Dynamics: This is a middle-of-the-road outcome in terms of optimizing your next round of financing. This tends to be more common on the East Coast where there is more of a history of firms buddying up with the intention of doing the next couple rounds of financing together. Their aggressiveness sends a signal to the market.

Startup 301

Startup Syndicate Syndication Boston 301

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

Our investment size may differ slightly from one company to the next, but it tends to be driven entirely by situation-specific factors (needs of the company, syndicate composition, anticipated reserves, etc) … and not based on our belief. How does the firm behave if you are knocking the cover off the ball?

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Sharing these pricing expectations early with potential lead investors fundamentally qualifies your conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner, or else it can reduce options to maximize your fundraise outcome.

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

A few weeks ago, Manu Kumar wrote an excellent post detailing the current state of the seed financing landscape. You may actually need to raise a few financing rounds just to get to a series A, so think about the syndicate you are constructing (will they be loyal to you?), Read it – it’s excellent.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2016

When we talk about seeds, we mean your first outside round of financing at the earliest stages of your business. In my prior post, I talked about the rise of the pre-seed and a more nuanced definition of a pre-seed based on milestones, not financing labels. This staged approach is often much better for the founders as well.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Finance Founder Syndicate 120