Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining [New Firm] as a Partner where I will continue to invest in great Founders across the industries I care about.”. “I So why is there so much turnover in Venture Capital? Bonus points if they’re a Founder of the firm. “I have exciting personal news.”. Track record.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

David Teten

MAY 20, 2016

My colleague Sebastian Soler, software engineer at ff Venture Capital, is leading the launch of a new Meetup with me. Founders/C-suite executives at technology companies primarily focused on working with investors in private markets. I asked him to write a guest post: Hi! who use tech solutions in their day-to-day process.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Cap Table Venture Capital 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” Getting Exits / Driving LP Returns: This was always the knock on me. 5 years ago. ” Yup.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. “Why do founders want to take the VCs’ money? After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! Growth, again.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

What hasn’t changed is that our heart lies in working with founders to find product/market fit and to begin to grow. We are also pleased that we have been one of the few firms that have had zero turnover among the founders, have been able to expand and level-up our partnership, and have enjoyed almost no organizational drama.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 5, 2018

And, while founder/market fit is a newer concept, it turns out to be just as important. Recently, Beezer Clarkson at Saphirre Ventures wrote a post titled Raising A Fund? 9 Questions That Help Get You To GP/LP Fit. In it, Beezer goes through, in depth, the top questions she recommends you ask an LP to determine GP/LP fit.

LP 87

LP Portfolio Management Founder 87

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Consumers pulled their money out of these risky investments, but when LPs make commitments to VC funds they make 10-year, legally binding commitments. So as of 2008 total LP commitments were still at nearly $250 billion. I was at dinner with a large LP and mentioned that I had heard the industry would shrink by 50%.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

The number of these groups that did “direct” investments in venture capital used to be relatively small. But with the massive growth of seed funds being raised and the huge value increase of prorata rights many more LPs have stepped in to take their VC (industry term is GP) position. And there’s always a but.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

David Teten

JANUARY 23, 2021

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. For ideas, see How Executives Can Work from Home with Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. For example, one LP told me she prefers customized emails from fund principals, as opposed to a bulk-mailed quarterly update.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review 78

VC Cafe

JULY 4, 2022

What’s happening in the venture capital world? The WSJ confirmed what we already know: Q2 venture capital investments declined both in size and in valuation. Venture Capital Feels the Stock Market’s Pain, Wall Street Journal. For example, Klarna is rumoured to be raising $650M in fresh capital at $6.5

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Valuation Private Equity LP 167

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. This followed the firms founder Don Valentine handing leadership early to Mike Moritz and Doug Leone who then entrusted Jim Goetz. And so it goes.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” I had a chance to discuss AngelList Syndicates with Naval at Michael Kim’s Cendana LP/VC conference on a panel with Naval, Roger Ehrenberg (IA Ventures) and Mike Brown, Jr.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

thebarefootvc

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

”, almost exactly 2 years ago to this day at Bloomberg LP’s headquarters in NYC as part of Social Media Week. If this acquisition, cited as the largest venture backed exit ever, doesn’t change that view, I’m not sure what will. He worked at Yahoo, where he met his co-founder.

India 107

India North America Ukraine Silicon Valley 107

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

You run X amount of capital and Y percentage of that is allocated to venture capital. Rather than see LP interactions as a chore or a burden, new fund managers should see this as an opportunity to extend the community around their fund. LPs could represent meaningful co-investors on deals and great mentors to founders.

Limited Partner 60

Limited Partner Venture Capital Partner LP 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

It’s hard enough to get a job at a venture capital or private equity firm; it’s even more complex to join as a Partner. These are many of the steps I went through when I joined HOF Capital. These are many of the steps I went through when I joined HOF Capital. We believe the best founders and companies are polarizing.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Partner 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital LP Valuation Later Stage 363

Austin Startup

AUGUST 10, 2017

We were roommates at the time and launched two different companies out of a kind-of dumpy apartment: We both went on to raise millions in venture capital and build meaningful businesses in interesting spaces. has about ~40 employees and has raised $9M in venture capital. But we never lost the finance bug. Factom, Inc.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Austin 48

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 21, 2023

Earlier this week, I held the annual meeting for K9 Ventures. As I mentioned in the meeting, I am grateful to the K9 Founders for allowing me to be along for the ride in the companies, and I am also thankful to the K9 LPs for allowing me to do what I love to do: build companies.

Seed Stage 80

Seed Stage LP Early Stage Founder 80

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 26, 2013

LPs, the investors in VC funds, have a difficult job to do, largely because they have to work with poor quality data and only a small fraction of VCs deliver the returns that make them worth investing in. Discipline also helps to keeps a venture fund’s loss ratio low which is important as they are ultimately stewards of LP investment funding.”

LP 154

LP Venture Capital Portfolio Reputation 154

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

In addition to being an incredibly supportive investor in us from the beginning, this LP has become an extremely close friend. As I was walking home after dinner, I thought about the person who had introduced us to this LP. The wonderful dinner last night with the LP Fred introduced me to reminded me of this.

LP 155

LP Advisory Board Venture Capital Early Stage 155

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. We surveyed 73 LP firms to get their views on the market. “This is the year the tortoise may gain on the hare.” How do I know?

LP 150

LP Valuation Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 150

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Having a better overall portfolio of venture capital by adding funds into the mix. One way to measure that is to imagine the theoretical $500-$1mm angel round that a founder is looking to raise.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Lastly, we will continue our goal to be the most value-add investor for our portfolio founders as they push to create category-leading companies. As competitive as venture capital often seems, we are incredibly humbled by the amount of support and love we have gotten over the years from our community.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley North America San Francisco LP 127

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Rolf Winkler wrote a piece in the WSJ about A16Z’s returns in which he says they “lag behind Sequoia, Benchmark and Founders Fund.” Scott Kupor of A16Z responded with a comprehensive overview of valuation methodology in a post that while accurate feels more targeted at sophisticated Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in funds.

LP 264

LP Jordan Cofounder Limited Partner 264

Haystack

JUNE 1, 2018

From afar, in today’s environment of 500+ seed funds, SV Angel is held up as one of the canonical examples for its success at getting into superstar breakout companies (from Google all the way to Coinbase) and for its dogged pursuit of helping their founders. Yet for many, it didn’t come as a surprise.

LP 116

LP Global Social Media Portfolio 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

“I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” But as an LP you can’t count on that any more than VCs can. The goal of an LP is to get into the top decile. In 2000 our industry had more than $100 billion in LP money.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . 3) Raise capital. We are also seeing technology evaluation as an increasingly important part of LP operational due diligence. They read reviews of the products of target investments.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Haystack

APRIL 27, 2018

. ” — Micah Rosenbloom of Founder Collective, April 2018. Looking back on this, in a way, it’s silly; yet, for seed-stage investors and the founders we back, getting companies from seed to Series A is a really important milestone, a milestone I’ve likened to getting into the graduate school of one’s choice.

Naming 60

Naming Venture Capital Seed Stage Cap Table 60

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders? V: Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Most firms still have founders involved and they live fund to fund the way startups live customer to customer. I've been extremely fortunate to work at two of the best venture capital firms in the country--Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital.

LP 112

LP New York City New York Chad 112

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 12, 2015

I define #PeakVC as the point in time when the maximum amount of $$s are entering the Venture Capital industry. There are simply too many LPs stuffing the VC goose! That is because the venture capital industry operates in cycles. That increases the overall money supply coming in to venture.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Seed Stage LP Valuation 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. One of the points I tried to make is that as venture capital investors as an industry we seem to have a healthy disdain for public market investors. This will be seen as a watershed moment in the wake-up call and rationalization of our industry.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “ Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” And Greg has had the most influence on Upfront Ventures’ strategy since he joined. ” Numero uno. I was nowhere to be found.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Early Stage LP Partner 150

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. But should they? Optionality.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 14, 2017

K9’s last fund, K9 Ventures II, L.P., It was a conscious decision to maintain the fund size at the same level, despite both market pressure (larger rounds at earlier stages) and demand pressure (lots of LP money entering the stage) to raise a larger fund. Founders have a vision of what the world will be like in the future.

Technology 96

Technology LP San Francisco Portfolio 96