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. Thirteen of these 15 companies were seeded pre-revenue, and many were at concept stage or had rudimentary early products. 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

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder Seed Stage Revenue Acquisition 156

View from Seed

JULY 7, 2015

I recently sat down with the remarkably thoughtful (and insanely scrappy) Patrick Campbell , co-founder and CEO of Price Intelligently. How to price a software product correctly to maximize revenue and avoid leaving money on the table early on. Think of their solutions as a combo MBA and VP of Product Strategy that scales.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Founder Boston Cofounder 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 3, 2021

As seed stage investors here at NextView Ventures , we have the privilege of working with a wide profile of founders at the company conception stage — from early-career first time entrepreneurs , to seasoned execs turned founders , to repeat successful entrepreneurs.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Seed Stage Portfolio Revenue 136

View from Seed

MAY 21, 2020

So a lot of Founders can weave a tale of the promise of what could be created rather than what has been created. So given the reality of what’s happened in the past, what’s a founder to do? . We hit an clear inflection point in our revenue trajectory 14 months ago when we radically changed our marketing positioning”. “$1M

Seed Stage 274

Seed Stage Finance Lean Revenue 274

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2022

Founder: Stelios Kapandais. SK: nudgem helps eCommerce retailers grow their businesses more profitably, by combating rising advertising costs and increasing revenue through personalization. . Get to know the founders. RH: Hello founder! RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder?

eCommerce 156

eCommerce Greece Early Stage SMS 156

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

This is a guest post from Rob May , a co-founder and CEO of Backupify , which raised $19.5M Rob,” he said, “no offense, but you aren’t going to get a world class, been-there-done-that CEO into a company with less than $1 million in revenue. Hang out with other founders and CEOs. and sold to Datto in late 2014.

Founder 120

Founder Startup Cofounder Business Model 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

One of the results of this change is that Founders now approach Series A funds with increasingly varied histories. A company with $250K monthly recurring revenue which took 4 years and $5.5M A seed extension has ceased to be the equivalent of scarlet letter, and instead has become commonplace. The bar for Series A has moved.

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

” Founders must address distribution in their pitches both overtly and succinctly. Additionally, if you’re talking to VCs, it’s implied that you’re thinking big and thinking about a large acquisition or IPO, as well as generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Accidental VC'

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

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. As I hit the ground running, I’m cognizant that this is a time of uncertainty and turbulence for founders and investors alike.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy. Business model?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

I sent a tweet out last week that elicited quite a few responses from both founders and investors: seed funds that don’t invest pre-traction =. — For very well known founders, a series A can happen well before traction. But for less well known founders, a series A requires pretty significant revenue, growth, and retention metrics.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cofounder Retention Founder 331

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

At NextView we invest across the spectrum of seed stage companies so roughly 1/3rd of the companies we invest in are pre-product, roughly 1/3rd are post-product but pre-revenue, and perhaps 1/3rd have some very early revenue. You’re obviously not showing charts of user growth, number of customers, or revenue.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

View from Seed

JULY 8, 2021

Today Lula announced its $18M funding round led by Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures. We couldn’t be more thrilled for co-founders Michael and Matthew for this next phase of building the business with substantial additional backing. I first met the Lula co-founders in Boston about 2 1/2 years ago, at the very end of 2018.

API 156

API Miami Cofounder Boston 156

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Of the NextView-backed founders have have tried to raise this round, over 70% have done so (compared to a mean success rate in the industry of around 27%, according to some sources ). Higher founder salaries, which some investors view as a sign of being less hungry or aggressive, did not affect how quickly a startup raised its Series A.

Syndicate 333

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Startup 333

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

The invite-only event was attended by 300 of the area’s best tech leaders, founders, product managers, designers, developers, investors, engineers, salesmen and women, and more, all of whom are hard at work in consumer tech. The other pillar company CEO to speak closed the Summit — Niraj Shah, Co-founder and CEO of Wayfair: .

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

View from Seed

JULY 22, 2020

Proven founders? Traction is always a hotly debated attribute for founders and investors. Every time a founder tells me that they are not focused on traction, I pause for a second to really pressure-test that belief. But that’s exactly the kind of problem you want to have as a founder. Painful problem? Fast growth?

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Retention PR Founder 254

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

But during this period, many founders and investors do prize growth above most everything else. Year over year revenue growth rates are measured in multiples not percentages. Secondary transaction liquidity also starts to become a reality for founders and early investors. On paper, VC portfolios perform well.

IPO 202

IPO Early Stage Cofounder B2C 202

View from Seed

MARCH 15, 2017

Internally, the scarcity of tangible business metrics – product usage or revenue multiples for example – can make an investment decision feel daunting. Founders’ employ intuition and rapid reaction to their market(s) to pivot and evolve their model. VC evaluation of seed-stage startups can seem arbitrary or imitative at times.

Due Diligence 265

Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

View from Seed

JULY 8, 2021

Today Lula announced its $18M funding round led by Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures. We couldn’t be more thrilled for co-founders Michael and Matthew for this next phase of building the business with substantial additional backing. I first met the Lula co-founders in Boston about 2 1/2 years ago, at the very end of 2018.

API 120

API Miami Cofounder Boston 120

View from Seed

MAY 16, 2019

One of the key questions for me was how might Slack stack up against other great SaaS companies when it comes to average revenue per user (ARPU), and how ARPU and total addressable market (TAM) might drive Slack’s long run market cap. Revenue growth rate of 82% year over year. 10M+ daily active users (DAUs). So Slack generated $1.43

Lock-up Period 168

Lock-up Period Retention Azure .Net 168

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Josh Porter is the founder of What to Wear Daily , a service that helps you prepare for your day. He is best-known as the creator of 52 Weeks of UX and was also head of UX at HubSpot, by way of being co-founder of Performable (acquired in 2011). Any success (growth, revenue, or profits) we have will follow from that.

Design 330

Design Product Cofounder Boston 330

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Five years ago, TapCommerce CEO & Co-Founder Brian Long had a vision of helping brands deliver customers, revenue, and ROI across mobile devices. Brian was joined by his remarkably talented co-founder Andrew Jones. The parallels to five years ago are striking.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder SMS Channel Mobile 136

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Given the common challenges encountered by founders as they navigate through this hiring decision, I thought I’d outline some of my thoughts below that can hopefully serve as a simple framework when it comes to making the first Analytics hire at your startup. Many founders confuse the two as they both involve lots of numbers.

Analytics 149

Analytics Hiring SQL Forecast 149

View from Seed

OCTOBER 10, 2017

She joined the company when it was about 20 people at their NY headquarters, helped the company scale revenue 25X in 3.5 She had previously held roles at Fab.com as well as being the founder and CEO of a seed-funded company in the food and beverage space. Melody was instrumental to the hyper-growth phase of Blue Apron.

New York 120

New York Cofounder IPO Early Stage 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Many founders have to turn to brute force to figure it out, even when they themselves don’t have practitioner product management experience. So, what are the things founders can learn to do well BEFORE they can hire a great first product hire to make sure the company stays focused and iterates fast?

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

This was back in January 2012, a simpler time… when there was only one kind of seed round, when Series A firms invested pre-revenue, etc. 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. No, this is not some waxing nostalgic post.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Differentiation Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Having a slide on key questions to refer back to demonstrates and signals that you as the Founder have critically thought about all aspects of your business, not just haphazardly created a top-level pitch deck.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

View from Seed

APRIL 13, 2016

Oli Gardner is the co-founder of Unbounce, a platform that helps you build, test, and optimize landing pages to convert customers. Follow Oli at twitter.com/oligardner and visit unbounce.com to learn more.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Demand Revenue 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

This is what I’d recommend for founders that are raising a more mature seed or series A that has at least early signs of Product/Market Fit. When I’ve seen demo day presentations, founders generally weave a story about the problem and market, and close with something like “we are the right team to do this”. Put the team slide first.

Metrics 120

Metrics Early Stage Distribution Audience 120

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. I was starting to think that I was invincible, infallible, that I had the magic touch … but, as it turns out, amazingly innovative products don’t necessarily produce amazing revenue. Engineers and even marketers proudly claim to be “full stack.”

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

The reality is that every startup idea is pre-dated by dozens if not hundreds of other, very credible founders that came before you and were unable to capitalize. There are a number of companies out there that have grown to substantial revenue, but ended up failing to create robust, valuable long term assets.

Seed Stage 159

Seed Stage eCommerce Restful Matching 159

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

The cliff notes behind the idea is that what used to be considered a series A is now actually a seed round because… Capital efficiency allows founders to get further with less. Over a third of our investments happen pre-product (so by definition, before PMF), and two-thirds are pre-revenue. Some seed funds are investing later.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

We’ll talk to founders as well as executives, investors, and journalists, all of whom did something smart or sneaky or downright brilliant to go from zero to one in an important area of their business. Yes, there are other tech podcasts out there that do a great job talking about industry trends, strategy, and founders’ stories.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

To illustrate with a simple example, take Startup A which takes five years to reach $200K in monthly revenue and compare it to Startup B which took one year to reach $100K in monthly revenue. Traction is graded on a curve , just like in high school. First, the contour. On absolute terms, Startup A is twice as large.

Metrics 120

Metrics Revenue Partner Finance 120

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

I’d also question a founder who asks his or her investors to comment falsely on something — that puts the investor in an awkward spot. Luckily, our founders are all incredibly high integrity people, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. For ecommerce: >$500K revenue/month. For SaaS: At least $100K in MRR.

Boston 120

Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120