Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? What startup stage do they typically invest in? How many of their founders are still with their company? Will they tailor your vesting to your contribution as a founder? Lean Startups ?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

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 recommended that the founder politely cancel the call because we had other great firms actually taking meetings. “If This isn’t rude?—?it’s

Term Sheet 217

Term Sheet Later Stage Demand Email 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

This is part of a series of advice for founders who need to raise money from venture capitalists. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. I always tell founders … “An investors job is to deploy capital and make a return. This is where most founders err. To be clear?—?your

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But the larger funds usually have lower returns because they are often investing bigger dollars at later stages with less risk and therefore lower returns. As you can see in this Cambridge Associates data, early-stage investing beat later stage investing in returns in 70% of the past 30 years. Yeah, true.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

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. The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

My particular POV is that piggy rounds, just like party rounds, are risky choices for most founders (and have my own obvious bias in this statement). Four months later, wanted to update the “piggy round” hypothesis with some additional data around large fund motivations. How This Impacts Homebrew.

Later Stage 95

Later Stage Valuation Semantic Institutional Investors 95

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 24, 2016

If you’re slightly later stage it might be 5–6 hours. It ought to lay out the key issues, provide 3 options per issue and state which one management is leaning toward. The mistake most founders make is sending out last-minute board packs. I would think a 2–3 hour meeting with 2–3 topics ought to do.

Metrics 196

Metrics Strategic Investors Later Stage Management 196

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

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Richard Witten , special advisor on entrepreneurship to the President of Columbia University ; and Kathryn Minshew , co-founder of the popular online career platform TheMuse.com both joined me in Sirius’ New York studio and shared their version of being knocked down and coming back stronger. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120

Rob Go

OCTOBER 2, 2012

We were in many ways, the lean-start of venture capital funds. Not only did my partners and I not pay ourselves for over a year, but we deployed our own capital into a handful of companies that we ultimately sold to the fund at cost (despite some increases in valuation). By the way, I wasn’t wearing a suit like the guy in the painting.

New York 61

New York Boston Valuation Later Stage 61

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

Many people have reached out sharing knowing and kind words about our journey and choice to wind down our venture, as well as their appreciation for my choice to pull back the curtain on what is statistically a common road for many founders. It details a landscape founders like me are excited to sink their teeth into? Of course not!

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Some have done earlier-stage deals and done well. Others have chased earlier-stage but lack the skills or relationships to do this effectively. Some have moved into later stage investments in an effort to “put logos on their websites.&# These trends have put pressure on traditional VCs. There are also others.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Who are the partners? These sources are a lot more forgiving of iterations and pivots than later-stage venture-capital funds. In a Lean Startup , the goal is to preserve your cash until you find a repeatable and scalable business model. How do the fund and the partners make money? And what are its costs?

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 334

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Who are the partners? These sources are a lot more forgiving of iterations and pivots than later-stage venture-capital funds. In a Lean Startup , the goal is to preserve your cash until you find a repeatable and scalable business model. How do the fund and the partners make money? And what are its costs?

Venture Capital 226

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 226

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?).

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

But at a macro level, widespread failure this early is far less painful than if it came at later stages. “Founders don’t think their problems are due to trends. And in fact, overall trends are a second-order effect for founders.” Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93