View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

Traction is a biweekly podcast where founders share the creative or unusual things they did during the seed stage to make early progress. Everyone knows startups should do scrappy things that “don’t scale” — this show explores what those things actually are. You can subscribe here. TractionPodcast.

Framework 120

Framework Cofounder Seed Stage B2C 120

Rob Go

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. We are first and foremost pre-traction investors. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata investments rights given investors the right to invest in your future fund-raising rounds and maintain their ownership % in your company as your company grows and raises more capital. What would you do as an LP fund if you backed a seed-stage GP who had a position in Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Excuse the typos.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

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. VCs who understood the ubiquity, pervasiveness and ultimate profitability of these startups doubled-down on their investments.

Silicon Valley 330

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 330

Rob Go

OCTOBER 14, 2012

NextView is our startup, and I often reflect on how things are going and what we could do better. Early Progress: Performance is a difficult thing to measure as a seed stage fund given the time horizons and the fickleness of private company valuations. They have great ambitions and golazo , but we are all still finding our way.

New Hampshire 50

New Hampshire Croatia Omaha Portfolio 50

K9 Ventures

MAY 14, 2011

The companies go through a 3-6 month long startup bootcamp and then typically try to raise angel/seed funding. Angels : Angels are individual investors, who are investing their own capital and doing so on a part-time basis. There are too many angels and an even higher number of wannabe-angels.

Preferred Stock 125

Preferred Stock Seed Stage Incubator Early Stage 125

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. We’re thrilled to have among our limited partners a select group of individuals from the startup ecosystem as well as several large institutional investors (including a university endowment, a corporate pension fund, and a multi-family office).

LP 100

LP Seed Stage Silicon Valley Limited Partner 100

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Non-institutional Leads. I’ve seen a few cases now where a number of very high-quality institutional investors were interested in investing in a company at valuation, but a non-institutional investor was willing to set terms 1.5 – 2X higher than that valuation. But those are short lived.

Cram Down 66

Cram Down Institutional Investors Dilution Seed Stage 66

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

We also now have a dedicated page for exploring our platform of resources focused on helping startups gain traction, found here. We take board seats and want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with founders at the seed stage to try to make the biggest possible impact. – We are seed investors. Who Are We?

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Startup Portfolio Institutional Investors 120

K9 Ventures

MARCH 23, 2011

There has been a lot of noise in the Valley lately about how most seed stage deals are now being done as convertible notes. To the contrary, a *good* board (at least in the early stages) acts as the CEO’s personal shrink. I loved Ted Wang ‘s post on why Series Seed documents are better than capped convertible notes.

Pre-Money Valuation 132

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Liquidation Preference 132

ithacaVC

APRIL 5, 2011

One rule of simple cap tables is to issue “normal” stock to founders (common stock only) and investors (typically preferred stock, but sometimes common stock to early friends and family). A real institutional investor wants to invest $XX,000 in his company.

Common Stock 45

Common Stock Stock Cap Table Preferred Stock 45

Rob Go

JANUARY 7, 2013

We focus on investing in seed stage companies. We almost always invest in the first round of institutional capital for these companies, in rounds that range from approximately $500K – $2M. But we behave pretty much exactly the same way in those companies as we do when we are the lead and only institutional investor.

Portfolio 49

Portfolio Seed Stage Cofounder B2B 49

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

VC investors rely heavily on referrals, but what should a non US startup do when looking to raise funding in Silicon Valley? I found a question on Quora that relates to European startups, but found that some of the advice may be very relevant to Israeli startups as well. And what do the investors think?

Silicon Valley 104

Silicon Valley Startup Seed Stage Delaware 104

Austin Startup

MAY 17, 2017

It’s pretty well known that startups usually undergo a meaningful change in Board composition at their Series A round. At a minimum, the lead investor(s) of the round get Board seats; although they shouldn’t get Board control. Less has been written about what startup boards tend to look like before a Series A round.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Startup Cap Table Angel Investor 48

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Equity crowdfunding is likely to work more effectively for startups that require single rounds of thousands and plan to operate as a growing concern, rather than those requiring multiple rounds of millions in startup capital with goals of being acquired or going public via IPO. What kind of business is being launched?

Equity 100

Equity United Kingdom Cap Table Oklahoma 100

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 21, 2014

17 core investments have been made, I’d say our investment model was, and continues to be, consistent with the type of firm we want to build but if you’re not constantly evaluating how to get better and serve entrepreneurs, you won’t last very long in the early stage venture business.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 102

Rob Go

OCTOBER 22, 2015

We also now have a dedicated page for exploring our platform of resources focused on helping startups gain traction, found here. We take board seats and want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with founders at the seed stage to try to make the biggest possible impact. – We are seed investors. Who Are We?

Seed Stage 28

Seed Stage Portfolio Institutional Investors Later Stage 28

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

I was surprised to find that it has been more than two years since my post summarizing the state of the seed stage market, and trying to bring a balanced view on the rise of Super Angels and Micro-VC’s. The venture capital market continues to be in transition, and a lot of changes have occurred in the early stages of the market.

Seed Stage 55

Seed Stage Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Early Stage 55

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

As such, you should make sure to think of the proposals as an investor and get a reasonable term sheet. Please note: I am not an institutional investor and I am not a consultant although I occasionally dabble/consult in projects I find particularly interesting. Four Startups in Four Weeks - Suicide by MVP (9). Categories.

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41