View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

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

MARCH 3, 2015

But even with that webinar’s success, we still had a lot of education to do in order to get people to understand what we did and even how we saw marketing in general, which we needed to do to generate demand and sales. But marketing should always be ahead of sales to alleviate pressure. We got 300.

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

In a recent TED talk , Idealab founder Bill Gross talked about how Airbnb likely wouldn’t have taken off if not for the recession: People were strapped for cash and were therefore more willing to rent a room in their home to a stranger. Like a lot of startup founders, I’m a huge nerd. Make talent a top priority.

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Software Review Sales Cycle 120

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.

Detroit 367

Detroit SEC Founder Affiliate 367

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

The point of sale (POS) industry for online and offline businesses is vast and pretty mature… not to mention, an area we’re familiar with from our prior investments, like Upserve. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 234

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 234

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

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

The point of sale (POS) industry for online and offline businesses is vast and pretty mature… not to mention, an area we’re familiar with from our prior investments, like Upserve. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 202

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 202

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 In 2010, we were recruiting for a Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Backupify, and it was clear that many of the people I was interviewing wanted the CEO role. Hang out with other founders and CEOs.

Founder 120

Founder Startup Cofounder Business Model 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

The point of sale (POS) industry for online and offline businesses is vast and pretty mature… not to mention, an area we’re familiar with from our prior investments, like Upserve. We were excited to get to know Dispense’s co-founder & CEO Kyla Moore earlier this year.

Cofounder 156

Cofounder B2B Early Stage Software 156

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

And so they’re typically not necessary, nor sufficient conditions, to being or even becoming an exceptional Founder. Many common ones are public: charismatic leadership, having a sales-oriented approach, or being strategic about delegating. Some founders actually keep two lists, one of both categories.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Aggregator Matching Founder 194

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 177

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 177

View from Seed

JULY 19, 2022

Founder: Stelios Kapandais. Get to know the founders. RH: Hello founder! RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? SK: I love the fact that every day is different and you get to work on all parts of the business, from Product to Sales and everything in between. . Company: nudgem.

eCommerce 156

eCommerce Greece Early Stage SMS 156

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Isaac Cambron is co-founder and CTO of Zensight.co , whose pre-launch product enables sales reps to find and use their best content to close more deals. Below, he answers questions about developing products from scratch, as well as the difficult technology choices and tradeoffs CTOs must make.

Technology 334

Technology Ruby Startup Engineer 334

View from Seed

JUNE 21, 2022

Founder: Aisling Byrne. Without the sale – a gamified fashion experience using what you have to build a whole nuw wardrobe and reduce fashion pollution. . Get to know the founders. RH: Founders, please introduce yourselves. . RH: What’s your favorite thing about being an early-stage founder? Company: Nuw .

Ireland 156

Ireland Europe Early Stage Founder 156

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 156

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 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.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

JULY 17, 2019

Although you still hear stories of investors that require founders to move to SF, it’s more likely these days that investors see a winning business outside of the Bay Area as a positive, given the costs and competitive pressure in that local market. How should a founder go about it? But doing this takes extra work.

San Francisco 243

San Francisco Cofounder B2B Seed Stage 243

View from Seed

DECEMBER 7, 2020

Most founders know the value of publicity, but earning press can be a massive headache. When I joined NextView Ventures as an investor after building my career as a journalist, I knew that helping founders more effectively engage with reporters would be among my top priorities. I don’t say this to intimidate founders or sound mean.

PR 177

PR Early Stage Founder Differentiation 177

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M We champion founders redesigning the Everyday Economy , and to many, that brings to mind consumer businesses in particular. The Hologram story is near and dear to our hearts here at NextView for a number of reasons.

Chicago 136

Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

View from Seed

JUNE 11, 2019

At this point, founders find themselves in a luxurious situation of being able to build the best possible syndicate. Some founders may end up getting a little paralyzed at this stage because they are trying to optimize too many things at once. It’s not necessary to nail down every element of your syndicate simultaneously.

Syndicate 202

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Lead Investor 202

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

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

At seed-stage startups, especially companies with well-networked founders and investors, finding applicants who can do a job on paper is not overly difficult. To help you more effectively build your early teams, we asked a group of founders to share their favorite interview questions when they build new startup teams.

Founder 120

Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

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. The bottom line is that founders have to understand potential seed and Series A investors. Or a Series A investor will be explicit if they don’t invest at seed stage, and so on.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Early Stage Differentiation Lead Investor 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 23, 2017

They talk about what business development roles actually do for their companies, and when and why a founder would hire someone to lead up the function. This is a deep, nuanced exploration of a job role that doesn’t often fit as neatly into departmental categories as engineering, product, sales, or marketing.

Hiring 120

Hiring Developer Startup Channel 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. And perhaps most importantly, with addition of more capital, how will it be effectively spent to accelerate the business?

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. Before you invest big money on producing 100,000 feet of this line and put it on sale, you should test your assumption. NVV: How do you see a pretotype helping (or hurting) a founder’s ability to raise capital and scale successfully?

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2016

This time, Angus Davis, the founder and CEO of Upserve (fka Swipely) shares stories and tactics around selling to Main Street businesses. As a startup that sells to later adopters of technology or very small businesses, how do you think about product, marketing, and sales?

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Small Business Sales 120

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

However, if the founder can credibly present herself as either the industry or the end user, then the conversation of “I understand how your business works and your pain point,” could be really powerful and shortcut the sales process.

Marketing 156

Marketing Retention Non-Compete Algorithm 156

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

monetizing a large audience or moving from end-user SaaS to enterprise sales). Great companies are often founded by first time founders who don’t seem obviously special. The observation here is that founders of great B2B companies more often than not have some demonstrable track record as operators or entrepreneurs.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

Often, when I speak to very early-stage founders, the conversation around value focuses on achievements. These might include: Bring on a technical co-founder. This is especially true for less experienced founders. Similarly, proving sales friction can sometimes be done with very little actual product built.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

View from Seed

JUNE 5, 2018

We launched the Hiring Bootcamp to equip portfolio founders and hiring managers with the best practices around building a hiring machine , so they can maximize their chances of getting the best talent into the door efficiently. Measure and manage your recruiting effort like a marketing/sales funnel. Metrics, metrics, and metrics!

Hiring 120

Hiring Portfolio Metrics B2C 120

View from Seed

JANUARY 20, 2015

A population of founders, employees, investors, advisors, and others all aligned in trying to build large disruptive businesses is naturally prone to lofty, even over-the-top language. And when and how should founders communicate challenges with their employees, investors, or other stakeholders? How can we put things into context?

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Startup Employee PR 120

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Sales and marketing has been 30%+ basically forever, though undoubtedly Airbnb has enough brand recognition and loyal customers that if you turned off marketing spend then revenue would drop but not to zero. Source: Airbnb S-1. Airbnb’s Secret Sauce. So Where Does Airbnb They Go From Here?

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

View from Seed

MAY 28, 2020

Farmers need to know how much to grow, distributors need to know how much to order and sell to maximize sales and reduce spoilage, restaurants need to order more efficiently, and consumers are demanding more transparency and less waste. Pepper is one of several startups founded to address these problems.

Memphis 256

Memphis Distribution Bankruptcy Operations 256

View from Seed

APRIL 2, 2015

I even had one veteran entrepreneur pull me aside in the office to ask which vector icon best illustrated “more sales.” Now, I recognize that every founder wants their pitch deck and website design to be quality. Just how good should a young company’s various assets look? Does it matter?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Design Startup Early Stage 120