View from Seed

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

In general, VC decision-making can feel like a black box, which can be frustrating for founders who are trying to manage their fundraising process and timeline. Regardless, your singular goal is typically to drive towards a “Partner Meeting” where you can pitch the story and vision to the entire investment team.

Partner 196

Partner Seed Stage Restful Differentiation 196

View from Seed

JANUARY 6, 2021

When a company is pitching a VC, there is typically one partner who is the advocate for the deal and is shepherding the process. When I’m shepherding a company through our process, founders sometimes ask me to point out the things that are of particular importance to the folks on our team.

Partner 180

Partner Distribution Founder Acquisition 180

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm. It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. Patience is a virtue.

IRR 156

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 156

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. For investors and founders, the next several years are going to be very different. Pre-seeds will be tougher as investors gravitate more towards proven founders or folks within their existing networks.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

View from Seed

MARCH 1, 2016

The same metaphor is true for modern, “legacy” businesses — most businesses that exist today have co-evolved against one another in a careful dance of suppliers, distributors, competitors, and partners. Trying to recruit a co-founder or key-employee? Enter the Kudzu. Be a hero, be the kudzu, call the shot, and frame the theory.

Founder 120

Founder Technical Review Cofounder Non-Compete 120

View from Seed

MARCH 4, 2020

At a firm level, I think that getting multiple partners on the list is a great milestone as well. In 2009 Bessemer had the most Midas List partners with 6 investors. Name brand firms like Benchmark, Sequoia, and NEA had 4+ partners on the list. The number of firms with multiple midas list partners was 16.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital China Technical Review Africa 313

View from Seed

AUGUST 17, 2021

A few weeks ago, we hosted a small dinner for a number of portfolio company founders, LP’s, and friends of the firm. It’s by far the longest time I’ve spent working on any one thing, and I feel very blessed to have been able to work with my partners, colleagues, founders, and collaborators. Patience is a virtue.

IRR 136

IRR Dilution Founder Portfolio 136

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

You have 5-10 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, and/or investor. You have a deep desire to hone your skills as a venture capitalist and are ready to hustle to meet the next great founder. You have a strong network in the NYC startup ecosystem that is additive to our team. You are hungry.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review North America Seed Stage Bandwidth 156

View from Seed

MAY 24, 2021

You have 4-6 years of professional experience as a technology operator, founder, or investor in New York. You have a deep desire to learn the venture capital business and are ready to hustle to meet the next great founder. However, you will serve as a co-pilot on deals with all four partners, across the geographies we cover.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage Cofounder 120

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

We are looking to bring on board a versatile new team member to support the varied internal operations of the firm as well as collaborate with the partners on our external programs and communications with the broader entrepreneurial community. Check out our blog for how we think about company building and investing. .

Operations 227

Operations Hiring Seed Stage Software Review 227

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

7 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in VC Pitches and How to Fix Them “Different partners in a VC firm are different. Doing Reference Checks on VCs “Try to speak to at least one founder that the investor has worked with in a failed investment. ” (Lee Hower). ” (David Beisel). This is not always easy to do.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

View from Seed

MAY 14, 2019

A number of blog posts recently have mentioned this, but we seem to be experiencing a rise in repeat founders starting new businesses and raising seed capital. We’re also seeing a wave of folks who were not founders, but were star players among the first 25 folks at a unicorn company also starting new companies.

Founder 256

Founder Agile Cofounder Seed Capital 256

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. And as my partner Rob Go likes to say, “Time kills all deals.”).

Valuation 336

Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

The objection goes something like this: “yes, I can see rookie founders turning to you for a seed round. But won’t all good founders go to established firms that raise series A’s out of the gate?”. And quite a few founders make the choice to do YC first rather than raise a traditional seed or pre-seed round.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

View from Seed

MARCH 11, 2020

When a founder is raising money, he/she should expect that any serious investor will conduct some level of due diligence before getting to yes. Due diligence may seem like a drag, but partnering with an investor is a serious commitment, and you want to make sure that whoever you work with has built real conviction about you and your company.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Seed Stage 279

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2020

Their focus is on talking to founders to understand what their specific business needs are in the immediate future and the coming months. Those companies are the ones that we don’t really worry about and are in the best position that you can be in as a founder right now. Company B wanted to raise capital in 2020.

Partner 156

Partner Marketing Portfolio Early Stage 156

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Instead, it’s more of a Manifesto about the core beliefs that shape our strategy. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

JULY 31, 2014

Two weeks ago, my partners and I here at NextView Ventures announced our second fund. As my partner Rob Go has written , our goal is to invest half in consumer web and mobile and half in business-focused ventures. Our goal at NextView is to help founders give their companies the best possible start.

Seed Stage 272

Seed Stage B2C Technical Review Disintermediation 272

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Forum co-founders Rajiv Kumar MD and Lee Pichette, both very experienced founders and startup execs. You can hear from them directly as to why they started Forum and why it’s important to them to build this company today.

Cofounder 218

Cofounder Acquisition Hosting Partner 218

View from Seed

OCTOBER 31, 2018

When I first met Properly’s co-founder/CEO Ben Kubic , I was immediately drawn to his vision of leveraging technology to completely redesign the home selling process and his execution horsepower. We firmly believe that the Properly process is how the home-selling process should be; fast, hassle-free, and based on real-time market analysis.”.

Atlanta 159

Atlanta Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 159

View from Seed

JANUARY 27, 2021

We believe that this fund is the perfect size for us to be the best possible partners to early-stage entrepreneurs today. What hasn’t changed is that our heart lies in working with founders to find product/market fit and to begin to grow. This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of the founding of NextView.

LP 411

LP Early Stage Seed Stage Venture Capital 411

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

After 12 years of hearing startup pitches, my favorite first 5 minutes came from John Katzman, the founder of 2U. He was a repeat founder looking to do something ambitious, but he was months away from launch, raising $5M out of the gate. What does your company actually do? Often, this happens because of one of two reasons.

Southern California 159

Southern California Phoenix Technical Review Seed Stage 159

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

At the seed stage and as companies scale, helping the founders I work with identify and reach their goals, personally and professionally, gives me energy and purpose. I became certified as a professional coach through the Hudson Institute of Coaching to be a more mindful and effective partner on a founder’s journey.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

View from Seed

MAY 12, 2015

Yet once the right firms are identified, I believe that the tougher challenge is to determine which partner at these firms to approach. Most firms have anywhere from a couple to up to a dozen or more partners listed on their websites. Are you a founder of an ecommerce startup? How do you optimize your chance of success (i.e.

Partner 120

Partner Term Sheet Reputation Deal Flow 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

The sudden arrival of the global pandemic has shifted the playbook for founders and venture capitalists. As high-conviction, seed stage investors, we are inherently relationship-driven, and we value meeting exceptional founders face-to-face. I can have a wider reach and a higher volume of 30 minute meetings with founders.”.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2024

This is why our firm is quite multi-disciplinary, and why my Partners and I often lead investments in overlapping areas. Our goal is to get to know the most talented founders and aspiring future founders as early as possible, and find ways to partner with them over many years and perhaps multiple companies.

Vertical 194

Vertical Cloud Software Technology 194

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

There is a well-known trope that choosing a VC to partner with is like marriage. I know many VC’s that are amazing partners to founders in thick and thin. But their reputation with founders that pitch them is mixed. You can even seek out founders that can talk about how the investor acted when things went badly!

Founder 280

Founder Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 280

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

At this point, the investor and the entrepreneur work together to develop their perfect list of potential partners, and then do targeted outreach to try to bring this investor into the round. In other words, by the time the term sheet is signed, everyone else in the syndicate is already known and have been talking to the founder already.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

View from Seed

JANUARY 10, 2022

We’ve also proven that giving new, underrepresented, and geographically diverse founders a dedicated, hands-on chance leads to follow-on funding and additional accelerator success across the board. What happens when you give new, underrepresented, and geographically diverse founders a real chance during a time of economic uncertainty? .

San Diego 156

San Diego San Francisco Alabama Valuation 156

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

During the course of a fundraise, founders are likely to encounter a few questions from VC’s that seem awkward or even a bit unfair. These are questions that usually don’t have anything to do with the business itself, but center around the dynamics of the round or maybe the motivations of the founders.

Term Sheet 364

Term Sheet Burn Rate Founder Partner 364

View from Seed

OCTOBER 14, 2021

As someone relatively new to the VC space, I was particularly struck by the partners’ collective reflections regarding what has changed and what has remained the same. Over the past ten years, the partners have published some truly incredible pieces, and my goal was to create a blog page that did this content justice. Check it out! .

Seed Stage 296

Seed Stage Portfolio Curation Vertical 296

View from Seed

OCTOBER 13, 2021

We are also excited that this is now the third company from our first Accelerator cohort that has gone on to raise a large seed or Series A, joining Lula ( series A led by Founders Fund ), and Shelflife ( Seed round led by Kindred ).

Cofounder 223

Cofounder Programming Founder Partner 223

View from Seed

OCTOBER 13, 2021

We are also excited that this is now the third company from our first Accelerator cohort that has gone on to raise a large seed or Series A, joining Lula ( series A led by Founders Fund ), and Shelflife ( Seed round led by Kindred ).

Cofounder 227

Cofounder Programming Founder Partner 227

View from Seed

JANUARY 30, 2020

But assuming success, a moment will come when a founder will have multiple funding options. Partnering with an investor and/or board member is very long term commitment, and I’m always surprised by how little diligence founders do prior to signing up for what could be a 10+ year collaboration. Raising money is super hard.

Due Diligence 195

Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet Finance 195

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2021

In my experience founders usually fall into one of three types: mercenaries, missionaries, and crusaders. In fact we’ve backed founders I’d categorize as all three types here at NextView. But sometimes they’re the founders most motivated to build a successful company. The Mercenary.

Detroit 367

Detroit SEC Founder Affiliate 367

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 In any professional service industry, there is natural shuffling in the junior roles, as the race up the pyramid towards a Partner title is like musical chairs.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204