Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Being tenacious without the mental flexibility to pivot based on market feedback is a disaster. So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. He and his partner told me about this new idea over the course of nearly a year. I finally called bullshit. Not my problem.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

YoungUpstarts

JULY 22, 2017

Success as an entrepreneur takes a lot more than an idea, a dab of seed money and, as they say, a wing and a prayer. I essentially left when the family chose to close Lakeview’s operations after the founder passed away and turn it into a trust for their future. I will say I needed to understand the labour market.

Founder 100

Founder United States Canada Seed Money 100

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

This has been an important year for us as a firm, as well as the market in general. There was a significant pull-back of the public markets in Q1. But what kind of impact has this had on the private markets? At the same time, seed money is still abundant due to the proliferation of micro VC over the past few years.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

YoungUpstarts

JULY 17, 2020

by Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-Founder of Babyscripts. Evaluate and redirect the flow of your marketing dollars — an ad on the subway may have been a good idea three months ago, but it’s not doing you any good now. As a startup, you are always adapting to meet changing needs and most likely have a lot of irons in the fire.

Startup 287

Startup Wisconsin Stock Options Dividend 287

Hippoland

AUGUST 17, 2016

A reader named Turner Dean recently asked me whether it’s better to raise seed money on convertible notes or straight-up equity. In general, I’m a big fan of convertible notes or convertible securities for seed stage founders. Just do a Google search. This should be basically free.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 30, 2018

by Adam Witty, Founder and CEO of Advantage | ForbesBooks. Smart entrepreneurs are rushing to humanize their websites, marketing outreach and presentations with inspirational stories of the creation, challenges and success of their companies. Storytelling is the hot trend in business communications. Share the glory. And no fake news.

Seed Money 157

Seed Money Audience America Founder 157

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

According to Devon Fanfair, co-founder of startup studio Devland , “building companies that demonstrate enterprise value is the best path for new builders because they generate revenue with very little investment. They will want to know that there is a product-market fit and that the product is experiencing actual growth.

Startup 130

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 130

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

In their quest for sustainable growth, the elusive dream for most first time founders is that first funding. High growth startup companies need seed money to get things going. This can either come from the founder(s) own bank account or from outside investors. Without funding most tech startups will die. high growth.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 7, 2017

Initially, you get funded by entrepreneur founders who want to develop a product, service, or solution which they think the market needs and demands. They are investors who provide you with all the resources you need, including seed money, physical space for your startup, advice, and connection with other investors in their network.

Private Equity 159

Private Equity Startup Incubator Social Network 159

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

According to Devon Fanfair, co-founder of startup studio Devland , “building companies that demonstrate enterprise value is the best path for new builders because they generate revenue with very little investment. They will want to know that there is a product-market fit and that the product is experiencing actual growth.

Startup 78

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 78

Up and Running

MAY 12, 2015

Drawing on advice from our own Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and Josh Cochrane, our VP of Product Development, I’ve broken down a few of the different options for entrepreneurs looking for feedback on their pitch. The three who agreed to do it had some semblance of a relationship with the founders beforehand.

Angel Investor 60

Angel Investor Software Review Technical Cofounder Due Diligence 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

If a company has reached a level of success, has been around for a few years and you believe the company has potential to break out into a much bigger company then you should let the founders take money off of the table. Not FU money, but “feed the family&# money. It’s that simple. I believe this is wrong.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. However, as an investor watching my portfolio companies and other start-ups in the market, I can see how large rounds negatively impact the culture of budding business.

Guerilla 158

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 158

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 13, 2014

By Paul Jackson, founder of Worthworm. Its not the most game changing of ideas, sending hello via the word Yo to your contacts, but it has clearly sparked the interest of a particular market and group of investors. Looking back to its origins you find it began with just $20,000 in seed money.

Angel Investor 217

Angel Investor Seed Money LLC Bootstrapping 217

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search. We thought we’d take our plan and go raise seed money. We can’t raise money knowing our plan is wrong.”. asked the founder who had spent the time crafting the perfect plan. “On Here’s why.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

The Next Web

JULY 27, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Aaron Pitman , an angel investor and founder and partner of RA Domain Capital. But, for startup founders looking to create a company built to last, is Kickstarter really the way to go? He quit his job to fulfill his orders and imagined starting a great new business from the seed money.

Seed Money 130

Seed Money Massachusetts Equity Campaign 130

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

The most successful entrepreneurs are those with multiple real-life experiences, who have personal exposure to markets where opportunities are being left on the table. Most schools have business plan competitions, and even give out seed money to winners. Tags: entrepreneur startup degree founder business. Marty Zwilling.

Seed Money 225

Seed Money Social Network Networking Business Plan 225

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. You’d imagine that every founder was getting rich. Actually, positive outcomes for founders are quite rare. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. It’s not.

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 20, 2014

I’m reproducing in full here because it’s a great explanation of our solo-founder hypothesis and how we work more generally. Are you a solo founder with an idea? Snaptrip started as an idea, an excel spreadsheet and a passionate founder called Matt. THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN FOUNDER AND TEAM. USER RESEARCH.

Cofounder 95

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 95

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. I began asking around who the likely investors were for such a market. Often seed investors will step off the board when A or B round investors get involved and this is important because otherwise entrepreneurs can end up with unwieldy VC-heavy boards.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 4, 2016

by Bedros Keuilian, founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp. I need to admit to a personal bias right up front: I am not the biggest fan of borrowing seed money. In fact, when I founded Fit Body Boot Camp , I never took a single of cent of seed money, mainly because I wanted to maintain total control of my vision.

Seed Money 100

Seed Money Partner Audience Founder 100

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

With the influx of seed money, much has been written about the fact that start-ups that are taking far more funding than they need. However, as an investor watching my portfolio companies and other start-ups in the market, I can see how large rounds negatively impact the culture of budding business.

Guerilla 91

Guerilla Seed Money Vertical Early Stage 91

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

I think the issue was mostly framed initially by Chris Dixon in his article The Problem with Taking Seed Money from Big VC s. The fact that I invest less just means the company is earlier stage and needed/wanted less or without a product/market fit we weren’t yet prepared to invest more heavily. the $190 million).

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

Rob Go

MARCH 10, 2012

My friend Jordan Cooper wrote an interesting post a few days ago about some of his predictions of the venture market in 2012. Really smart people end up writing thoughtful posts on the future of the venture market pretty much every year – and I often agree with many of them like I do Jordan’s. Syndicate diversification.

Seed Stage 49

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Marketing 49

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Very, very few markets have room for only one player. Quite early on, you will be able to differentiate yourself – and having competitors help you grow the market can actually be a good thing. But it’s probably wise to be more secretive in some vertical markets: [link]. [link] Kristian Dupont. I agree completely.

Stealth 68

Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

Chris Dixon provided some commentary on Twitter that he believes I missed “the most important point about fund size.&# He’s specifically referring to his point of view that entrepreneurs shouldn’t take seed money from “big VC’s&# (he defines them as > $100 million). You raised angel money.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

Every model has a happy outcome when a founder is trying to convince himself or herself, a team, an investor, or even a spouse that the venture ahead is a good idea. There are about 32 million left-handers in the US, you have a special product for them, and surely you can get just 5% of that market and have 1.6 million customers.

Valuation 48

Valuation Forecast Seed Money Business Model 48

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. You’d imagine that every founder was getting rich. Actually, positive outcomes for founders are quite rare. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. And so it goes again. Go figure.

Monaco 122

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 122

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

A few years ago it became fashionable for large VC’s to do seed funding. With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. What gives? Am I a hypocrite? They have a large-ish fund.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 23, 2018

They can’t rely on existing markets or customer awareness to help generate interest. This means that products in this category need to launch with a robust marketing plan. While it’s true that you sometimes need to spend money to make money, the amount of money you need to spend is where things get murkier.

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Startup Seattle Social Media 69

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 23, 2015

The private market is pretty efficient that way--and to look at it otherwise is to reinforce the notion that everyone trying to start something, instead of joining the teams with the best ideas is a good thing for the market. in seed money instead of $1.5M You''re ending up at a post-money valuation of $10mm versus $5mm.

Post-Money Valuation 60

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Seed Money 60

Ben's Blog

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

We want to be in business with the best entrepreneurs going after the biggest markets and we do not care whether they need seed money, venture money or growth money. When you are raising seed money, you need an investor who can help you grow. Isn’t smaller better?

Seed Money 78

Seed Money Venture Capital Angel Investor Partner 78

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

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. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have. What about in the public markets?

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Austin Startup

APRIL 23, 2010

With seed money recently going into Workstreamer, Spredfast , Manuel Rosso’s new venture, Scott Harmon’s new venture, and it’s community outreach office hours programs, I would say that Austin Ventures is still interested in the early stage. But the financial markets have definitely raised the bar.

Intellectual Property 79

Intellectual Property Austin Early Stage Agile 79

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

Also, in a market where a bunch of high-flyers are crumbling, investors are more deliberate and less enamored by pure top line metrics. This is especially true in markets that are out of favor or unsexy (or where investors feel out of their comfort zone). This strategy can also fail because the goal line might move. $1M

Product 28

Product Seed Stage Seed Money Metrics 28

Rob Go

JANUARY 20, 2015

As a team, we’ve been thinking about what has been going on in the seed market in recent years. Answer first: we think that the seed market has settled somewhat, so charts like these don’t really cause much alarm but are generally consistent with what we’ve been seeing. So, what does this mean for founders?

Early Stage 28

Early Stage Seed Stage Finance Seed Money 28

Rob Go

MARCH 20, 2013

What can founders do in advance to make the trough as shallow as possible? . First, the first time products hit the market and it’s clear you don’t have 100% product market fit. Is it possible to take seed money and not go for the Series A, etc, and just earn revenue? Rob Go] This is a great question!

Bootstrapping 46

Bootstrapping Finance Dividend Vesting 46