SiliconHills

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Austin-based Perigon has closed on a $5 million seed stage round of financing led by LiveOak Venture Partners. Josh Rickel, co-founder, said the company plans to use the money to hire key employees and further develop its technology.

Austin 71

Austin Seed Stage Cofounder Finance 71

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

And from my perspective as an engaged seed stage venture investor, this makes them unfundable. Mark Suster has similar advice in Hiring at a Startup? So why do inexperienced (as entrepreneurs), ultra-skilled CTOs fall into the trap of engaging a business partner too early?

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Founder 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

Who should you hire? Plus, in such a connected world, at the seed stage, the "outside" bar is low--a good article, review, demo can be a difference maker and get you on the right radars. Many startups outsource visual design work, and instead of hiring that designer, hire a second developer.

PR 160

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 160

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

In 2019, we’ll be doubling down on this effort as we are hiring a GM for our CXO Advisory Board & Network ( job description here ). Amara’s Law : “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”. Ed Sim, Boldstart Ventures. Enterprise Tech in 2019.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

In the early 80’s he left academia to work on venture capital investing with Jim Simons, Renaissance Technologies. They chose the name First Round Capital because they thought capital would be deployed most efficiently at smaller seed stage rounds considering the cost to build an internet business had come down drastically.

Pre-Money Valuation 284

Pre-Money Valuation Technical Review Cofounder Cram Down 284

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement. IBM didn’t actually have that technology. Example 1: The IBM Speech-to-Text Pretotype. Another success.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

David Teten

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Whenever we hire someone new to join Versatile VC , I tell them: Welcome! VCs eating their own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments in private companies. VCs eating their own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments in private companies. How students can help VC firms.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Seed Stage 78

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

tldr: instead of choosing between in-person or remote, your seed stage company (or team) should be more hybrid, tied to the type/phase of project going on. Orum is a NYC-based financial technology company that makes money move fast. Experienced leadership, well-funded, and hiring in engineering, product and operations.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Seed Stage Startup Software 146

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator is hiring for these positions, so make sure to apply now. The Assistant Director will also help host the Texas Wireless Summit , the Wireless Seed Stage Forum and the Entrepreneur Lounge at SXSW (this alone is worth it). ATI On Campus “Assistant Director&#.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Intellectual Property Incubator Due Diligence 70

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

And, there’s a good reason why; it includes back-to-back essays on mobile, high-growth startups and technology. As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. It’s one of my favorites on this list. Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewchen. Sam Altman.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). The rush to hire results in a relaxation of “hire only A players rule.”

Venture Capital 117

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 117

K9 Ventures

JUNE 12, 2012

While it it may not feel that way, the data suggest that there is indeed too much capital in the system — especially so at the seed stage, with more and more individuals and larger funds trying to invest in companies at this stage.). The rush to hire results in a relaxation of “hire only A players rule.”

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Founder Seed Stage 105

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

These companies have a long way to go until global dominance in many cases, but they are all growing, hiring, and strengthening the local community right now. Want hardcore futuristic technology? Want businesses with massive reach and international presence? A handful of industry-focused funds have also burst onto the scene.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

A tech bubble is the rapid inflation in the valuation of public and private technology companies that exceeds their fundamental value by a large margin. Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation.

Silicon Valley 330

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 330

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Home About Press IA Capital Partners Archives After 17 years in M&A, Derivatives and Trading, Im spending my time with young entrepreneurs in and around financial technology and digital media. Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Startups here are primarily in what they call the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) segment. Not only does Zhongguancun have Chinese startups, but global technology companies (Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Oracle, BEA, Alcatel Lucent, Google) all have offices here or elsewhere in Beijing.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 271

Ben's Blog

JANUARY 31, 2012

They may know key reporters, but not know executives you would want to hire. We’ve built relationships with over 4,000 engineers, designers and product managers, and we’ve made more than 1,300 introductions to our portfolio companies, resulting in 130 hires within the portfolio. They might know executives, but not engineers.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Portfolio Cofounder Partner 78

adamac.blogspot.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Adam MacBeth Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10 Startup Red Flags Ive worked on a number of startups: from seed-stage through IPO, as a founder, employee, advisor, and consultant, as well as evaluating a bunch from the outside, so Ive seen my share of screw-ups. Just using technology isnt enough (who doesnt have a website these days?)

Technical Review 41

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup 41

Genuine VC

MAY 5, 2015

At NextView Ventures, we’re hyper-focused on the seed stage, and since starting the firm, we’ve heard repeatedly and consistently from founders that a primary challenge they face during that stage is hiring. And their feedback isn’t about hiring in general, nor is about hiring senior executives.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Startup Boston Seed Stage 100

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

In fact, when I announced K9 Ventures III in August 2017, the term Pre-Seed was part of the headline for that announcement: Announcing K9 Ventures III, L.P. – A $42M technology-focused Pre-Seed fund. Q: What characteristics does a company need to have to qualify for Pre-Seed funding? That’s the beautiful part.

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Startups here are primarily in what they call the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) segment. Not only does Zhongguancun have Chinese startups, but global technology companies (Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Oracle, BEA, Alcatel Lucent, Google) all have offices here or elsewhere in Beijing.

Silicon Valley 163

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 163

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. Here’s what we learned… Hire a Missionary. Adam Brod , VP of Technology and Engineering, BookBub. Ben Rubin , Co-founder & CEO, 10% Happier.

Founder 120

Founder Seed Stage Cofounder Boston 120

David Teten

APRIL 6, 2015

“Our process hasn’t changed; if anything we remain even more focused on investing at the seed stage, typically at valuations below $5m pre-money. It’s a great time to start a technology company right now; the cost of starting a company has trended down to the cost of being unemployed. What worries you in tech?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Stealth Seed Stage Bandwidth 60

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 6, 2014

My personal policy is to get the idea going, make it sustainable, hire passionate and experienced managers to take my place, then move on to the next challenge. Traditional VCs used to just write checks for new ideas, but then ran away from seed-stage risk after the last tech bubble burst.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Business Model Silicon Valley Coder 154

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

It was adopted by the consumer packaged goods industry in the 1950s and spread to the technology business in the last quarter of the twentieth century. We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Product Development In stage two, product development, everyone stops talking and starts working.

Silicon Valley 266

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 266

Agile VC

JANUARY 18, 2012

1) Creating an Organization from the Ground Up - Picking co-founders and then later hiring other great folks is always tough, but founding entrepreneurs get to choose their colleagues and together create an organization and culture of their own. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Cofounder Silicon Valley Seed Stage 100

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If the reason is the need for an initial idea, a specific skillset, time to develop a potential customer network, etc - then the right answer is to find a role and company which fits that description so that after a few short years you’re ready… usually that’s not a seed-stage startup.

Startup 241

Startup Later Stage Angel Financing Seed Stage 241

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. But the same technologies that make life difficult for traditional marketers also offer them unprecedented new opportunities.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

I’ve had a couple conversations with other investors recently around what a seed stage company needs to achieve to raise a series A. You probably are quicker to build technology vs throwing bodies at a problem. Option 2 is to focus on product (and proof points more broadly). 3 years if needed.

Product 28

Product Seed Stage Seed Money Metrics 28

Rob Go

MARCH 2, 2013

I notice this quite a lot with seed stage companies. Employees fatigue, early business assumptions fail, competitors become aggressive, bad hires start to hurt. I know that starting a venture capital firm is fairly different from starting a technology company. It smooths out the roller-coaster.

Cofounder 66

Cofounder Seed Stage Early Stage Partner 66

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What are your unique insights about technology, economics, change in market, etc. Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit. Goal/Time: By the end of the pre-seed stage the company ought to have evidence that it has found product/market fit.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Its not what people learn in classes at MIT and Stanford that has made technology companiesspring up around them. In a technology startup, which most startups are, the foundersshould include technical people. This doesnt work well.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Technology Venture Investors [Silicon Valley] –> Claim to fame… sole VC investor in Microsoft, which turned out ok. You either start trying to invest in stuff you know less well or you hire a bunch of other partners who you hope know that stuff better than you. Can’t wait for the next part. Read More ».

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2020

Most people I think at least in the technology community know you as the inventor of Soylent and the company by the same name. It seemed like it was a field that was held back a lot mostly by people misunderstanding the technology or sloppy use of the technology. The technology is called, "Lateral flow assay."

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Software Review Finance Technology 68

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Angels whove made money in technology are preferable,for two reasons: they understand your situation, and theyre asource of contacts and advice. So seed investors usually care lessabout the idea than the people. This is true of all venture funding,but especially so in the seed stage. Whendel.icio.us

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76