David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. Her work included heading Nokia’s location-based services business and app portfolio for emerging markets, which she built from a back-of-a-napkin idea to a 100-person organization with over 10 million users.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. Two: the founders – are they curious, do they love to learn, and ask lots of questions?

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Lightspeed Venture Partners

APRIL 12, 2016

Since then, as a team, we’ve been fortunate enough to invest behind the vision of the founders of some tremendous consumer companies across messaging, social media, e-commerce, Internet of Things, marketplaces and gaming. His full time job is CEO of Cheddar , the OTT video company he founded, and where Lightspeed is the lead investor.

Technical Cofounder 60

Technical Cofounder Cofounder SCRUM Committed Capital 60

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

Jeff Clavier was the first tech investor I ever met; he was introduced to me years ago by some hip engineers in a bar as "one of the few cool VCs." Clavier began his presentation at the beginning of a company's lifecycle, asking how many co-founders a startup ought to have. Are all co-founders equal, Clavier asked?

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The same can be said of startups and their founders, in the sense that so many things can go wrong in the building of a company to an exit, that success almost seems to be a statistical anomaly [more on how bees fly ]. There’s also many wonderful angel/operators and smaller supporting funds with large portfolio strategies.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2022

I love working with great people and as a venture capitalist, am fortunate the number of founders I’m impressed by far exceeds our investment capacity. Here’s an example of a founder that I’ve known for a while who recently raised a seed round with different firms than ours. The needs of the lead investor for ownership?

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Founder Acquisition Startup 89

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

The number of seed investors has increased in the last 5 years and the median startup now raises multiple chunks of seed stage capital before raising a “Series A” round. In this environment, founders have to start parsing the seed VC landscape with a finer lens to find the ones that may be appropriate for their startup.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Differentiation Lead Investor 120

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 1, 2021

As part of The Startup Magazine Founder Interview Series , we interviewed Maha and David Harper, wife and husband co-founders of Atlas Group London, a construction-tech startup that has digitized the building of healthcare facilities. ICAS® can then be scaled up across the customer’s portfolio bringing enterprise-wide benefits.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Founder Saudi Arabia Cofounder 110

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

Sakti3 Founder Sastry to Step Down From U-M. Co-Founder and CEO, Wetpaint. Founder, DEKA Research and Development Corporation. So Coats and Kienzle set up Correlation to be a co-investor, not take board seats, and invest quickly—making it easier for lead investors and companies to quickly put a round together.

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

Rob Go

JANUARY 9, 2012

A year ago, I wrote a post detailing some tidbits about our portfolio. I believe that the best way to understand an investor is to meet the founders that they work with. Second best is to understand their portfolio. So here is an unscientific cut of our portfolio and some commentary below. Repeat Entrepreneur: 6.

Portfolio 46

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 46

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Whichis good news for founders: theyll get to keep more of the company. In the future, angel rounds will less often be for specific amountsor have a lead investor. forstartups was to find one angel to act as the lead investor. forstartups was to find one angel to act as the lead investor.

Startup 93

Startup Valuation Non-Compete Deal Flow 93

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

Luckily we had a number of large paying clients that allowed us to sustain ourselves with a little extra cash from the founders and my fund. We launched an initial prototype, landed a few customers, and brought in Mission Ventures as a new lead investor for the restart of the company.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Open Source Architecture Database 109

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

Luckily we had a number of large paying clients that allowed us to sustain ourselves with a little extra cash from the founders and my fund. We launched an initial prototype, landed a few customers, and brought in Mission Ventures as a new lead investor for the restart of the company.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Architecture Open Source Database 109

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.

Term Sheet 332

Term Sheet Due Diligence Campaign Sales 332

Hunter Walker

APRIL 20, 2018

Like we do at the seed stage, USV almost always plays the role of “ lead investor.” ” And later: “The truth about these situations is a few seed investors will massively over deliver and the rest will massively disappoint.” But it often is not.”

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 48

www.readwriteweb.com

MARCH 7, 2011

Chris McCann is the co-founder of StartupDigest , the members-only guide to the tech startup world. Theres now a heated discussion in the investor class about AngelList. Most indices are cap-weighted - more in line with a concentrated portfolio (i.e. The startups and investors can do the round however they like.

Technical Review 50

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Angel Investor 50

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

For example, “VC will serve as the lead investor up to $400,000; Company would source balance of the round up to $600,000 (so round size would be up to $1,000,000 in the aggregate).”. At the early stage, the founding team often has lots of “interest” lined up waiting for a lead.

Term Sheet 71

Term Sheet Aggregator Lead Investor Early Stage 71

David Teten

JULY 12, 2017

When I meet with other VCs, family offices, and other institutional investors, the most common question I get is: “What are the highest-potential companies in your portfolio which are raising now?” They are comfortable with others taking the lead. . If I can reduce a portfolio company’s time burden, I create value for them.

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

You don’t often hear a founder speak so candidly about this (especially before the final chapter is written) so it’s worth a listen. . We were co-lead investors in Grove’s seed round and actually doubled down in an intermediate round prior to this challenging series A process. There are three that come to mind immediately.

Founder 153

Founder Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio 153

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

But every so often another founder also sits on the board. If that’s the case, it’s essential that that founder and the CEO have a very tight relationship and coordinate closely to avoid allowing members of the organization to use that alternate channel to the board to get around the CEO’s decisions. Maybe it’s an economic challenge.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

ithacaVC

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

If you are advising startup founders, I strongly suggest having them read all 4 of the posts to get the lay of the startup valuation land. A founder is about to raise their first round and asking me how to value their company. [1]. In a world where only the 1000x companies make back portfolios, this is really important. [2]

Valuation 69

Valuation Startup Down Round Early Stage 69

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. Just a few pointers.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

They also want to help founders and want their products and services to exist. So, if you’ve been a successful internet founder or have launched great web/mobile products, most founders would love to have you in a round even if your check size is small. Be founder driven. Investment Strategy. Just a few pointers.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

You were a VP at a company that sold for $200 million making the founder very wealthy. That founder wasn’t one of your angels. They don’t mind being the lead investor on deals that they seeded. Their entrepreneurs are evangelical about how great it is to be part of True’s portfolio. is now a VC.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Rob Go

AUGUST 9, 2016

But relatively little has been written about actually selecting the “right” investor. When VC’s evaluate a founder or team, they rely heavily on references in their due diligence. Entrepreneurs are typically only choosing one lead investor and board member per round. But often, it is not.

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Due Diligence Lead Investor Portfolio 28

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

These funds would regularly share deal flow with one another and could share the work in supporting founders and helping to push the company forward. This post will try to describe why this is happening and what repercussions are for founders and investors. Is This is Good or Bad for Founders?

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Howard Lindzon is Co-Founder and CEO of StockTwits, a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information. Michael was the lead research analyst for the IPOs of Internet companies like UUNET, Yahoo! Christopher Ahlberg is the CEO and Co-founder of Recorded Future.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Last night at the NY Tech Meetup, John Britton of our portfolio company Twilio showed how it is done. Before I get into the details for founders, let me talk about options-hungry employees. While I agree that many VCs are crummy seed investors, I think there are some that are excellent seed investors. Dying at 70?

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

And What This Means For Founders. In some ways it’s ALWAYS to an investor’s benefit to suggest a potential new investment wouldn’t be competitive to an existing portfolio company, and it’s ALWAYS to the current portfolio company’s benefit to suggest it might be. Why do I care about how investors at other firms get paid?

Early Stage 114

Early Stage Cofounder Vertical Portfolio 114

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 3, 2021

I’m active on X number of portfolio companies and meet with them at Y intervals, meaning that I should have Z portfolio company meetings per week. I baked in time to connect with my one other full-time employee as well as time for follow-ups from the portfolio company meetings I was taking.

Management 120

Management Portfolio LP Social Media 120

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Similarly, my research on venture capital portfolio operations found that Portfolio Operator VCs such as Andreesen Horowitz , First Round Capital , ff Venture Capital , and Google Ventures are hiring unusually large teams and structuring them in traditional pyramids. Notes: Only for IT & related sectors.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

One of the things we frequently discuss with founders is how to interpret and manage their dialogue with VCs when raising capital. We’ve written before on how to research partners , how to pitch the right investor at a given firm, and how to raise seed capital , generally speaking. The ultimate reference is through a portfolio founder.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Due Diligence Seed Stage Seed Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was hanging out the other day with my buddy Jody Sherman, founder & CEO of EcoMom. I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I think how hard it is for me to be hands-on with a handful of portfolio companies. So I thought, WTF?

Valuation 292

Valuation Deal Flow Lead Investor Cofounder 292

Professor VC

JANUARY 20, 2009

Ill share a few points about how we were successful, but most of the credit goes to Benjamin Wayne , founder and CEO of Fliqz, a passionate, strategic and tactical executive. This brought in a new set of prospective investors and required a lower investment from the lead investor as our existing investors were committed and on board.

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Silicon Valley San Jose Bootstrapping 28

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Note: If you’re a founder, stop reading this post now. If you build a good company, investors will hunt you down. As an investor you have to believe in a future that will be different because of what you are investing in. If you don’t, no amount of reading this stuff will help you get funded.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Portfolio 48

Austin Startup

JUNE 4, 2017

Mark Cuban leads $1.5 Enough people have asked me about exactly what process I followed and what the experience was like that I thought it might help other founders if I shared what I learned and exactly how I attacked it here. Lead Investor : The person or firm who defines the terms of the round. page went live.

Austin 54

Austin Institutional Investors Angel Groups Deal Flow 54

The Startup Lawyer

JANUARY 6, 2011

Founder and Partner at AOL Ventures , a few weeks ago. We also tend to focus on repeat entrepreneurs but are not opposed to funding first time founders who have significant domain expertise. Do you look at portfolio companies as future acquisition targets? I had the chance to chat with Mike Brown Jr., Not really.

Early Stage 58

Early Stage LP Later Stage Balance Sheet 58