Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Angel Investor 313

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 313

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 12, 2010

Is there a bubble going on in seed investing? Seed stage industry was left for dead over the last decade as VC investors moved later and later as they became risk-averse. A recent study said seed stage valuations have been quite static recently. Dan: Maybe in the future, but not now.

Seed Stage 232

Seed Stage Valuation Private Equity Venture Capital 232

Gust

DECEMBER 28, 2011

In the “good old days,” angels invested in seed-stage startups and teed up promising companies for subsequent venture capital financing. If the company was successful, this quickly led to an IPO – a very happy ending for the entrepreneur, the angels, and the venture capitalists. My, my…how the world has changed.

IPO 153

IPO Venture Capital Entrepreneur Angel Investor 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Angel Investor 370

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 370

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

From those founders, we are aware that FC takes their mission “to be the most aligned fund to founders at the seed stage” very seriously. Not only are the downsides of overcapitalization problematic for founders, but FC also examined overcapitalization in upside scenarios by studying the data from the last five years of tech IPOs.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Many angels and some seed funds will get burned – In good times it’s great to be an angel or seed investor. You invest low amounts of capital and the company gets to IPO (96-99) or trade sale (05-08) without raising too much capital and certainly not on punishing terms. But in bad economies many angels get burned.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 18, 2012

1) Expect the angel and seed stage market to continue to stay hot. Newly wealthy Facebookers will likely contribute massively to early stage companies, which means building relationships with companies early and actually rolling up sleeves to add value will be a must for investors. If you're just money, you are toast.

IPO 115

IPO Seed Stage Early Stage Green 115

Agile VC

MARCH 8, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. Tech IPOs Are Back – So Now What? Three of the five “blockbuster” tech IPOs I predicted have happened (LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga) and the biggest of all (Facebook) has filed and will likely go public within the next 90 days. What’s the impact for early-stage startups?

IPO 100

IPO Silicon Valley Revenue Seed Stage 100

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Now that Google’s acquisition of ITA is closed, following lenghty FTC review, it would appear Kayak is poised to proceed with their IPO in the coming months. =. Quinstreet priced at $15.00/sh

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 27, 2014

I think that later stage valuations are frothy (for reasons I explain below) while earlier stage valuations are starting to stabilize from previous highs (with the exception of the superstar serial entrepreneur) - turns out scaling in a sea of competition (both startup and entrenched) is not so easy. Or so it seems. Which leads to….

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Valuation Venture Capital Investment Bankers 63

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. And I’ve been fortunate enough to witness their startups scale from ideas to $1B+ businesses (and even an IPO in the case of Poshmark).

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

Hippoland

DECEMBER 15, 2015

(Note: these are my opinions and not my employer’s): 1) Raising seed capital from VCs who invest in all stages will become challenging. Investors who invest at all stages are increasingly reserving more capital for follow-on to keep their existing portfolio companies afloat longer. It will be business as usual for you.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Angel Investor Bootstrapping Startup 48

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Google is still a private company (their IPO was Aug 2004). I certainly bear no ill will to the various firms that ultimately passed on our fundraise… as a seed stage VC myself now I can appreciate how hard it is evaluating companies at the earliest stages of development. That one didn’t end terribly well.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

Agile VC

MARCH 13, 2012

And at PayPal we were hit with a couple patent disputes while in the midst of our IPO process. With Facebook in the late innings of its IPO process, Yahoo! in court if necessary even if it meant delaying their IPO slightly. So put in the context of Facebook’s IPO process and a new Yahoo! execs involved.

IP 100

IP IPO Social Network Silicon Valley 100

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. Facebook S-1: The Most Anticipated IPO in a Decade. Here’s my first look at Facebook viewed through the lens of their IPO filing. Plus Facebook has ample cash on hand today and will get a huge slug more from the IPO. How To Think About The Future. February 2, 2012. Read More ».

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

This strangely may come even more quickly in the more successful funds, because any funds (ours included) who still hold some public stock from a recent IPO will likely be seeing write-downs sooner due to the immediacy and transparency of public stocks being repriced. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

And because they are so much larger by the time they go public (think: Facebook $104 billion, Twitter $18 billion, Alibaba > $200 billion) the private value of the most successful companies pre-IPO is more more valuable than it ever was. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs. Why prorata rights are being guarded by VCs.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

A fund size of $100 million – $200 million is likely to either be an A round investor or “stage agnostic&#. A round investor implies they are the “first institutional money in the deal.&# GRP Partners is stage agnostic. Why does vintage matter to you?

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

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. The Linked-in IPO valued the company at $8.9 It sent a signal that there is an irrational demand for tech IPOs.

Silicon Valley 328

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 328

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Huge funding gap appears for seed stage companies as seed stage VC firms look for series A traction and accelerators look for seed stage traction. IPO markets goes gangbusters for the first 6 month until a huge slow down in the second half.

Seed Stage 84

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 84

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 In case you’re keeping score at home — that’s approximately the size of 65 US seed-stage funds managed by one company. Ok, Suster.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Seed-stage compatible: Like traditional equity VC investors, Flexible VCs accomodate early-stage investment risk within their portfolios better than a traditional RBI funder. Volatile, uncapped.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Gust

SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

Precisely because seed stage investments in private startup companies are NOT Warren Buffet’s types of investments. As such, the returns on an early stage portfolio typically come from only one or two investments out of every ten.

Exit Strategy 116

Exit Strategy Seed Stage Early Stage Carried Interest 116

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Additionally, funds such as Foundry Group and Google Ventures have taken their own approaches – the former creating a separate early stage entity , the latter encouraging their seed stage partners to create standalone personal syndicates. Or have different liquidity assumptions beyond acquire or IPO.

Syndicate 99

Syndicate Syndication South America Seed Stage 99

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 1, 2014

Huge funding gap appears for seed stage companies as seed stage VC firms look for series A traction and accelerators look for seed stage traction. IPO markets goes gangbusters for the first 6 month until a huge slow down in the second half.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Early Stage Distribution Bootstrapping 60

Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2014

But in my experience, most later stage investors are focused on a smaller absolute return as a threshold – usually in the 3x to 5x range. So, let’s zone this in on an early stage discussion. Should the question “how can this be a $1 billion company” be a useful to question at the seed stage?

Later Stage 195

Later Stage Early Stage Valuation Seed Stage 195

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

A Seed round today — like the Series A round of yesteryear — requires some kind of traction or product. In contrast, you *don’t* need much to qualify as a Pre-Seed stage company. Pre-Seed investors should *not* be looking for any kind of traction. Q: How are most Pre-Seed deals structured?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

So Groupon obviously filed their S-1 the other day to formally being the IPO process. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Groupon’s S-1: From Zero to Like… Billions in 30 Months. June 5, 2011. Pingback: Iphone Android App.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

Angel investors often act differently than VCs, and the fact that VCs abandoned seed-stage investing doesn’t necessarily mean they did so because seed investments are inherently less compelling. (A A little less than one-third of IPOs are of venture capital-backed firms. Let’s take a look at the actual data.

Angel Investor 152

Angel Investor Venture Capital Seed Stage Silicon Valley 152

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

Investors call this the seed stage , where money is required to build a market and a real product. The new investors you need at this stage are investment bankers, private equity, or competitors, to buy you out via merger or acquisition (M&A), or to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

Campus Entrepreneurship

MARCH 9, 2012

” “Young people have always wanted to change the world,” says Hugo Van Vuuren, a founding partner at the Experiment Fund (xFund), a new seed-stage investor housed at Harvard’s Graduate School of Engineering. ” via Dylan Reid: As Facebook IPO Nears, Universities Take Aim at Student Startups.

IPO 42

IPO Coder Seed Stage Startup 42

Startup Company Lawyer

AUGUST 31, 2012

” The theory is that the number of seed stage Series A deals led by venture capital firms is decreasing, meaning that it will be difficult for startups to raise a new round of financing. As a result of this risk, some people like Adeo Ressi, have declared that 2011 will be the “ year of the startup default.”

Convertible Security 73

Convertible Security Equity Security Preferred Stock 73

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

One of the most recent success story is the IPO of QIWI plc on the NASDAQ in May 2013. Since the date of the IPO, the company has tripled in size. Much of the slack at seed stage funding is taken up by the Russian state. One only has to look at some of the recent successful exits of several Russian VC firms.

Russia 140

Russia Europe Government Vertical 140

Hunter Walker

MARCH 8, 2014

We tend to think much more highly of the folks who were “pre IPO” or “pre acquisition” than those who might have joined the team right after. Now you might think it’s strange that a VC who runs a seed stage fund is telling new grads to join larger startups.

Liquidity Event 134

Liquidity Event Early Stage Seed Stage Startup 134