Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

We also know many of the entrepreneurs in their portfolio. 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. If you look at the Founder Collective portfolio , you’ll see many well-recognized companies that they invested in at the very first round.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest. Large regionally based early stage funds have mostly failed.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 19, 2015

In the words of an alum from the 2006 cohort: Companies are joining YC at a much later stage. Now that the YC portfolio is worth over $30bn (a number they put on their homepage ) acquihires don’t move the needle. That marks a shift in the YC investment strategy which used to focus on younger businesses.

Later Stage 60

Later Stage Private Equity Venture Capital Valuation 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. The more they know your strategic objectives the more laterally they can act on your behalf in key situations. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

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. These sectors generally leverage the Internet or software in a fundamental way.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 9, 2022

I’ve been asked by portfolio companies and plenty of others about how they should be changing their strategy given the stock market pullback and what they’ve been hearing on “VC twitter”. Ok, so if you’re a fundable company, you’re a fundable company—great big market, relevant team, solid plan. The incentive is too strong.

Stock 97

Stock Marketing Valuation Later Stage 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2015

If you didn’t notice that the stock markets in the US dropped nearly 4% today (after falling last Thursday and Friday) then you were probably completely off-the-grid and on vacation. And by this I assume he meant that “market prognosticator twitter” was vomitous. It was a nerve racking morning. Neither do I.

Stock 150

Stock Finance Marketing Valuation 150

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Her work included heading Nokia’s location-based services business and app portfolio for emerging markets, which she built from a back-of-a-napkin idea to a 100-person organization with over 10 million users. It comes as no surprise as technology today enables companies to prove product-market fit much earlier in their lifecycles.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

Some wait 5-7 years but usually this is because it’s proving more difficult to raise a new fund due to market conditions or the lack of returns in their current fund. In an early stage deal that fund might reserve 2x their initial investment or if it’s a larger round or later stage they might reserve 1x.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

VC Adventure

MARCH 17, 2022

With the markets down significantly, financings (at least at the later stages) slowing down, and inflation and interest rates on the rise, perhaps now is a good time to talk about your burn rate. Hopefully, you took advantage of the robust financing markets of the past few years to put some money on your balance sheet.

Balance Sheet 121

Balance Sheet Burn Rate Valuation Metrics 121

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

We both agree that the later-stage valuations are being driven up to a point that feels irrationally priced [he uses b-round SaaS valuations as an example and I am willing to be even more broad based]. The only point we didn’t seem totally aligned on was what we happening to the “middle of the VC market.”

Valuation 309

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Later Stage Non-Compete 309

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

How much is it worth investing in cultivating and enforcing an IP portfolio ? Later stage companies have some additional concerns: What favorable impact could IP have for PR, marketing and investor relations purposes, or as an attraction to potential acquirors? Easier said than done!)

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2016

This is a major reason NextView offers its portfolio startups free sessions with talent specialists — former in-house recruiters with experience at high-growth tech companies who are able to improve a founding team’s hiring process and efficacy early on.). Scaling Mode (~20 to 100+).

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Startup Early Stage 120

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

The region’s other strong VC presence resides in Japan, which has the typical Japanese model of a few large firms dominating the market. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Valuations are based more on typical later-stage type of metrics.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

As is true today, there was a requirement that options be priced at or above the “fair market value” of the underlying stock (otherwise there would be tax consequences to the optionee and sometimes to the company as well). I thought it would be worth taking a look at the data across the Foundry portfolio. I was wrong.

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Will Quist did a great job of explaining this market rhetoric in this thread. The three-question framework goes as such: Q: How much tech-related market cap will be created in the next 10-20 years? So, on one hand, the market see ms like a total frenzy these days. However, I am not sure that is the case with VC.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I’ve written on the expert network industry a fair amount in the past: see How to Earn More Consulting Revenue from Expert Networks and How Executives Can Work with Private Equity and Venture Capital Portfolio Companies. We’re not mainly for B2B companies or later stage companies or anything like that.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

View from Seed

JUNE 5, 2018

Last week, we hosted our very first portfolio-only Hiring Bootcamp in NYC, led by NextView’s talent advisor Kristen Caldwell. The quest for building such hiring machine is universal across companies at various stages. 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

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Will Quist did a great job of explaining this market rhetoric in this thread. The three-question framework goes as such: Q: How much tech-related market cap will be created in the next 10-20 years? So, on one hand, the market see ms like a total frenzy these days. However, I am not sure that is the case with VC.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 10, 2014

The number of large, “later stage” financings are remarkable – both in size and velocity. The number of companies I’ve heard of (mostly outside our portfolio) who are “getting ready to raise money in Q1″ is a very long list. We had several close last month and have some more in process.

Later Stage 142

Later Stage Syndicate Syndication Portfolio 142

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. So I started introducing him to portfolio companies. I love learning so this is a great process. Watch this space.

Partner 360

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles San Francisco 360

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

It’s a marketing deck and nothing in it should reveal some “secret sauce” that your competitors could magically copy and destroy you. Another great strategy is to ask to meet with some of their portfolio companies if you think your tech would be relevant to them as potential customers. Compelling. Poppycock. Don’t send these?—?go

Portfolio 261

Portfolio IP Later Stage Email 261

Austin Startup

JULY 29, 2018

It doesn’t make any sense to pitch a later stage, “growth” investor with your seed stage idea just like it doesn’t make much sense to pitch a new tech startup to an investor who only does oil & gas. They rationalize it with portfolio theory but almost everyone I know does it because they really enjoy it.

Angel Investor 59

Angel Investor Technical Review Los Angeles Seed Stage 59

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

The consensus is definitely negative, but one thing that has buoyed my optimism about the prospects for our portfolio is the number of new funds raised in London recently. There’s been a lot of talk recently about what will happen to startup financing in 2016, including here on this blog.

Marketing 60

Marketing Institutional Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 60

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 23, 2019

For later-stage start-ups, it’s always advisable to have a Plan B on how to get to profitability with existing cash in case funding markets dry up. The most important thing you can do is to build the best product that your customers love and hence, will be more likely to pay for no matter what the economic realities are.

Burn Rate 90

Burn Rate Later Stage China Venture Capital 90

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. During the Q&A I was asked about how I make investment decisions in early-stage businesses. Early stage.

Early Stage 254

Early Stage Non-Compete LP Later Stage 254

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

At Flybridge, we are wading into this uncharted territory as a result of one of our portfolio companies, Enigma , staging an ICO in the coming weeks. Early stage entrepreneurs will also still likely value experienced advice on company-building from seasoned venture capitalists. Fuzzy Governance.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

At Flybridge, we are wading into this uncharted territory as a result of one of our portfolio companies, Enigma , staging an ICO in the coming weeks. Early stage entrepreneurs will also still likely value experienced advice on company-building from seasoned venture capitalists. Fuzzy Governance.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Dave’s a great guy with a good sense of humor and a broad knowledge of the market, which is why I was excited that he could be on the show. It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns. They focus on trying to drive engagbranded social media marketing campaigns (e.g. 4mm in Series A.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The second wave of technology investors were Chinese banks, who provided the majority of the later stage investments in the Torch Program. By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. Like the U.S.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. But these data points are often lagging indicators and perhaps a better barometer of the future would be to gather data on VC perceptions in the market right now.

LP 150

LP Valuation Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 150

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

BUT (and you knew there was a but here given the post title…) it’s a poor way to compare the relative performance of funds early, and even into the mid/later, stages of a fund’s life. A few examples: In an up market, IRR values quick capital deployment. This is a mistake.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

If I was to guess, the demographics of people pitching me are reflective of two things—what my own network looks like and what my portfolio looks like. Given that I have a more diverse portfolio than most I would say that on average my gender pitch split is perhaps about 50/50. Is the market being unfair?

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Cofounder Deal Flow Later Stage 162

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 15, 2019

Your job description for hiring at this stage should focus on general capabilities. At later stages, you start hiring for specialists. For example, if you want to hire your first marketing person, it could be someone that is really good at demand generation marketing or somebody who is really good at product marketing.

Hiring 118

Hiring Later Stage Early Stage Portfolio 118

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Instead, that’s the sort of pre-series-A investment where companies or founders have visions of where they think there are underserved market needs, and they’re coming up with something super excited to try to solve that. . We come in after a product has landed and found product market fit and has some escape velocity.

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132