Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. And we’re lucky because they deliver many of the great products, services and content that we consume in our lives every day.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

YoungUpstarts

JULY 17, 2020

by Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-Founder of Babyscripts. Contributing seed money to an employee’s HSA or 401K, or instituting a match program for contributions, can encourage employees to save. In the rapidly changing climate of a pandemic world, corporations have had to radically rethink their strategies for survival.

Startup 287

Startup Wisconsin Stock Options Dividend 287

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 14, 2016

At the same time, seed money is still abundant due to the proliferation of micro VC over the past few years. The challenge here is that founders – having an easy time raising their seed rounds and maybe Series A – can be lulled into thinking that each subsequent round will be just as easy.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio Valuation 60

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

If you’re running a business without products currently deployed, it can be difficult to negotiate with investors in good faith. How can either of you confidently give a valuation of a business that doesn’t make money? Usually, a product they can see, use, or touch will not be enough. More Leverage.

Startup 130

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 130

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

I’m supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company? Let’s assume $2 million in seed money. ” Mark – doesn’t the acquiring company mostly care about the super innovative founders?

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

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. You just don’t have time or money to worry about making things clean now.

Equity 48

Equity Convertible Security Silicon Valley Technical Review 48

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 14, 2014

by Catherine Hoke, founder and CEO of Defy Ventures. The now successful CEO and founder of Brown Butter New York, a company that produces high-end cooking butter, was once a court-described “menace to society” whose life was overrun by drugs, gang-related assault, and armed robbery. How to Position Yourself for Funding.

Bootstrapping 249

Bootstrapping Startup Seed Money New York 249

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

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

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

If you’re running a business without products currently deployed, it can be difficult to negotiate with investors in good faith. How can either of you confidently give a valuation of a business that doesn’t make money? Usually, a product they can see, use, or touch will not be enough. More Leverage.

Startup 78

Startup Revenue Cofounder Angel Investor 78

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 7, 2017

For what they bring to the table, startups are indeed changing the economic landscape in ways that extend to job generation, innovation of products and services, and equal distribution of opportunities among businesses. Things You Need to Know About Starting a Startup Business. Rationale for Startup Investments. Private Equity Firms.

Private Equity 159

Private Equity Startup Incubator Social Network 159

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

Option 2 is to focus on product (and proof points more broadly). The product and proof strategy might also fail at the series A. But… I think the best way to build a great business is to focus on product and proof. Some founders are able to do this, but most end up struggling, or doing it way too late.

Product 28

Product Seed Stage Seed Money Metrics 28

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

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. I raised $500k in seed money to start the company.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

Up and Running

MAY 30, 2018

My first company, Digital-Tutors , grew from a startup in my living room with $54 of my own seed money into a multi-million-dollar business with customers around the world. I was proud of the fact that we never used any outside investment money to grow the company. The day’s productivity was shot. You’re not alone.

Startup 107

Startup Seed Money Employee Conversion 107

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. —————————-.

Cofounder 95

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 95

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

I was out to raise my first seed money in my second startup of $500,000. Firms like Baseline, Felicis, ff Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle, HomeBrew, IA Ventures, K9, Lowercase, NextView, Resolute, Rincon, Crosscut and the countless other great firms we all now know didn’t exist.

Seed Stage 150

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

By John Williams Fast Company magazine recently reported that PayPal founder Paul Thiel is giving away $100,000 to twenty-four young men and women to finance startup businesses. But when your only capital is your hard-earned seed money, every penny that goes out will be scrutinized painfully. You can keep overhead low.

Sweat Equity 231

Sweat Equity Startup Angel Investor Seed Money 231

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.

Post-Money Valuation 298

Post-Money Valuation Term Sheet Warrant Partner 298

cdixon.org

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built. You’ll gauge people’s excitement level for the product and for various features. You are building awareness around your product and, presumably, persuading others of its value. link] What’s the right amount of seed money to raise?

Stealth 68

Stealth Startup NDA Cofounder 68

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 28, 2014

This week, we present legendary angel investor Ron Conway (commonly referred to as the “ Godfather of Silicon Valley ”) and Marc Andreessen , a brilliant entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Is this person rifle-focused and obsessed by the product?’” –Ron Conway (at 1:17).

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Venture Capital 67

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

He is also the founder of Hallspot , a new social networking site exclusively for college students that has raised hundreds of thousands in seed money and will launch on September 27 at Thorne’s alma mater, where more than 6,000 students have pre-registered for the service. Haha, quite a few. 34 is a lot!

Social Network 82

Social Network Oregon Programming Cofounder 82

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

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 23, 2018

Many successful products and services share the origin story of “I needed something like this, so I built it.”. A challenge that some entrepreneurs don’t consider is that innovative, never-before-seen products and services often stand alone. This means that products in this category need to launch with a robust marketing plan.

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Startup Seattle Social Media 69

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. We believe in great entrepreneurs and the products and companies they build. As a matter of core philosophy, we invest in companies not stages.

Seed Money 78

Seed Money Venture Capital Angel Investor Partner 78

Austin Startup

APRIL 23, 2010

I’ve been one of the beta testers for the past six weeks or so, and the product has grown and changed significantly in that short period of time. Suaad Sait has joined the team, the former founder and CEO of Reachforce, and previously an executive with Pervasive, Motive, Ventix, and Dazel.

Intellectual Property 79

Intellectual Property Austin Early Stage Agile 79

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Many very successful, non-technology companies have also been products of venture capital, including Home Depot, Starbucks, and Staples. 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

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

Rob Go

JANUARY 20, 2015

But because of the capital efficiency of building and launching software products, what these companies are able to achieve prior to a seed round is pretty broad. Internally, we talk about he “broadening definition of seed”. Seed rounds can look like a company that is pre-product or has an early product prototype.

Early Stage 28

Early Stage Seed Stage Finance Seed Money 28

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

And since a startup thatsucceeds ordinarily makes its founders rich, that implies gettingrich is doable too. A lot ofwould-be startup founders think the key to the whole process is theinitial idea, and from that point all you have to do is execute.Venture capitalists know better. Ideally you want between two and four founders.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Seeing Both Sides

MARCH 2, 2011

Here were some of the takeaways I had from the class discussion framed around three major questions I posed to the students: 1) Why did foursquare succeed as compared to the same founder (Dennis) in a similar venture (Dodgeball) in a different era and as compared to other teams pursuing LBS services in the same era? . Monetization.

API 44

API Valuation Lean Burn Rate 44

Rob Go

MARCH 10, 2012

There may be little swings one way or another when markets are stronger or weaker, but for the most part, our valuation band is pretty tight (controlling for company characteristics like product maturity, quality of team, etc). As an investor, I’m building a portfolio, but a founder has a portfolio of one.

Seed Stage 49

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Marketing 49

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. I think it would help founders to understand funding better—notjust the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. Few startups get it quite right.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

So for this first post, here’s the best advice I can give you: join an awesome founding team and get your product out the door ASAP. 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. I need money for the servers. No raising money.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84