Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. Do your research.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months. Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. Other VCs use Klout * to identify relevant influencers who can evangelize their ideas and Contently * or Social Native (HOF Capital company) to create relevant content.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? It was 1991.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 5, 2023

Tightening of monetary policies has led to skyrocketing interest rates as central banks try to manage rampant running inflation, supply chain issues persist despite the fact that the pandemic is now in the rearview — and venture capital funding has looked to dry up almost overnight. Do Not Fear! This is an Opportunity!

South Africa 136

South Africa New York City San Francisco Technical Review 136

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. A deep dive into the Foundry Group investment philosophy including an interesting discussion of their investing Themes. “… our lens is: Internet Software Companies anywhere in the U.S.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 30, 2016

It seemed as though venture capitalists were throwing money at any Internet idea they could find – no business plan required. Our idea was to build a dial-up Internet service to compete with AOL, MindSpring and EarthLink. We had no experience in running an Internet filtering software business, but this didn’t concern us.

Software Review 188

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 188

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

According to a Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with 90% of new ventures that don't attract investors failing within the first three years. If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months. Apply for contests and business grants.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

According to a Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don''t attract investors failing within the first three years. If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

YoungUpstarts

JULY 16, 2019

Positions for software development and data science continue to expand throughout the industry. These are software engineers, business analysts, project managers, graphic designers, and web developers. Calgary employers found software developer and engineer as the most in demand. million in venture capital to move.

Canada 149

Canada Hiring Artificial Inteligence Software Developers 149

www.geekwire.com

JULY 10, 2012

VENTURE CAPITAL. You are here: Home / Startups / Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. Bad returns be damned: Venture capital fundraising jumps 31 percent in U.S. Filed Under: Startups , Tech Tagged With: Madrona , Startups , Tech , Venture capital.

Venture Capital 42

Venture Capital Seattle Cofounder Software Engineering 42

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

The new hot topic for entrepreneurs the last couple of years is crowd funding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. Software crowd sourcing. Of course, this might also lead to investors, partners, and licensing opportunities.

Intellectual Property 247

Intellectual Property SEC Venture Capital Equity 247

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. 70% of Chinese Internet users are under 30. business models. New Rules for China.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2012

The new hot topic for entrepreneurs these days is crowd funding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. Software crowd sourcing. Sites like GeniusCrowd get your ideas off the shelf, and give you the wisdom of the crowds.

Intellectual Property 242

Intellectual Property Venture Capital Angel Investor Equity 242

The Equity Kicker

JULY 30, 2013

Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger wrote a post yesterday about the disruption of venture capital which lists the changes afoot: Information about VCs on the internet. Online access to VCs - over the last 5 years or so it has become possible to build relationships with VCs over the internet.

Venture Capital 144

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Early Stage Angel Investor 144

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog. The Original Post (after the jump): Venture Capital, By Mark Suster (December 2nd, 2006). I don’t plan to write the authoritative venture capital blog, just some anecdotes.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

645 Ventures 645 Ventures makes deeply-researched investments in institutional Seed to Series A rounds for exceptional companies who demonstrate stellar early results in the areas of market validation, product differentiation, team strength, and brand narrative.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Internet scale. Have easy access to capital by investors who are committed to building businesses at Interent scale. The first company represents a normal software company that sells its products directly (either via sales staff or directly off of the internet). They raised $5 million in venture capital to fund growth.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Version One Ventures

APRIL 30, 2013

As a result, most venture capitalists are reluctant to touch hardware projects, opting for the lower costs and smaller risks of software. While my portfolio is primarily centered around consumer internet as well as enterprise SaaS startups, I typically talk to two to three hardware startups each week. Patents versus traction.

Venture Capital 128

Venture Capital Software Review Incubator Startup 128

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 13, 2015

All the articles about how capital efficient businesses were a result of AWS, better software development tools, easier starting points, better scaling technologies, and lots of other things. Do you remember when it was “all software, all the time?” Internet of Things wasn’t yet a buzzword.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital Software Developers Software Development Equity 70

VC Cafe

AUGUST 2, 2022

think about the entrepreneurs that started in the early days of the Internet, mobile, crypto, VR and yes… now Metaverse. If nothing else, it shows how many billions Meta is willing to commit in order to advance Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of the Internet. Here we go! Epic Games. Fortnite generated $5.8

IP 206

IP Cofounder Valuation Acquisition 206

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death. Software apps that once required a 10-person team can now be done with the Lean Development methodology by two people in a couple of months. Apply for contests and business grants.

Product Development 177

Product Development Cost Developer Product 177

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

What is perhaps different from other regions is that we have large indigenous aerospace industry and a big high-tech import/export trade as opposed to a lot of software companies. Given how efficient markets are when a large market like LA starts to blossom it attracts capital pretty quickly. He built & sold iMall in Internet 1.0

Los Angeles 376

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Seattle 376

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. 70% of Chinese Internet users are under 30. business models. New Rules for China.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Funding for commercial product prototypes is still R&D in the eyes of venture capital investors, but in business areas with large opportunities, this activity will catch the eyes of specialized angel investors. Commercial product prototypes.

Angel Investor 256

Angel Investor Early Stage Incubator Government 256

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

The post is a great one, and it raises something I've been thinking a bit about lately, which is whether the lean start-up approach to building start-ups can be applied to industries beyond Internet/software. The case studies will go beyond Internet/software start-ups in exploring how other sectors can apply lean start-up theory.

Venture Capital 37

Venture Capital Lean Technical Review Software Review 37

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

According to a classic Gompers and Lerner study, the challenge is very real, with a majority of new ventures that don't attract investors failing within the first three years. If your offering is exciting enough, you may get millions in small amounts from other people on the Internet to help you fly high over the valley of death.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 120

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2018

The sale of software isn’t subject to sales tax.”. internet-based businesses with interstate sales) is becoming increasingly popular by states and increasingly burdensome for taxpayers. Our product is delivered electronically; sales tax doesn’t apply to us.”. “We Additionally, changing legislation with regard to remote sellers (e.g.,

South Dakota 138

South Dakota North Dakota Wyoming United States 138

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

it is also the title of a fabulous book from Internet 1.0 This is why investors really like SaaS software companies where you have recurring revenue and your largest customer accounts for < 5% of your revenue and your renewals rates are > 90%. On the other hand, exits at lower prices are easier with these providers of capital.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 19, 2012

The other day I wrote a post about the lack of Enterprise Software disruption coming out of NYC —and a lot of people responded that I wasn’t citing Buddy Media. When I looked at the site, it had the term “Social Enterprise Software” written all over it. Social Media Software. Facebook Pages.

Software 105

Software Media Social Media Advertising 105

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

According to the Angel Capital Association: Angels (private money) invest in 55,000 startups each year versus 1,500 companies by VC (venture capital) funding. Your dentist may want to invest in your new software, but she doesn’t know what SaaS is, and Software as a Service doesn’t help her, either.

Angel Investor 159

Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review Accredited Investor 159

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

We’re now in the second Internet bubble. Software companies had to buy specialized computers and license expensive software. Filed under: Technology , Venture Capital. Carpe Diem. The rules for making money are different in a bubble than in normal times. You have to deliver.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Funding for commercial product prototypes is still R&D in the eyes of venture capital investors, but in business areas with large opportunities, this activity will catch the eyes of specialized angel investors. Commercial product prototypes.

Early Stage 412

Early Stage Angel Investor Incubator Government 412