Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Lead investors are few. Leads that are true force-multipliers are exceedingly rare. Although seed funding has exploded since we started Nextview, we continue to hear the refrain from founders that there are tons of investors that will pile-in on a round that is coming together, but that lead investors are few and far between.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

As the former CEO of a professional expert network , I’m a firm believer in the value of speedy access to relevant experts. I was excited to see that GLG (formerly Gerson Lehrman Group), the industry leader, is now offering a professional network service geared to the needs of the startup community: GLG Share.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

Gust

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

As such, your public profile should include everything non-confidential about your business that may attract the interest of potential investors, and your private profile should contain complete, accurate information about all the details of the business that will lead investors to request an in-person meeting with you.

Angel Groups 159

Angel Groups Elevator Pitch Software Review Deal Flow 159

YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2020

Most startups will need a viable product and proof of credibility before they can expect early-stage investors to really bite. The most common fundraising mistake I see is when early stage entrepreneurs focus all their attention on trying to secure a $1 million check from a lead investor. How to Secure Money to Ensure Success.

Early Stage 165

Early Stage Security Angel Investor Lead Investor 165

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

How quickly would deals move through the funnel, what new checks and balances were required to arrive at an outcome, and how could founders effectively build momentum to help investors develop confidence during the fundraising process? VCs have sourced from known founders and trusted networks to curb risk.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 18, 2017

The opening keynote session will define directions on Aligning the Role of Government Policymakers, Incumbent Banks, FinTech Innovators, Investors, Multilateral Agencies, MNOs and the Private Sector to Create a Dynamic Ecosystem for FinTech in Africa.

Africa 66

Africa Ethiopia Elevator Pitch Technical Review 66

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

First, AngelList Invest is available to any company on AngelList that has a top-tier lead investor. And the lead investor has to be putting in at least $100,000 in capital, says Ravikant. Life360, A Family Networking App With More. Using today’s data on AngelList, that includes 300 startups. HTC One Review.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

Just like professional investors wait for friends and family to go first, friends will wait for you to show “skin in the game.” A startup founder that is not the “lead investor” in time and money should not expect anyone else to jump in front and lead the way. Demonstrate your own financial commitment and progress.

Elevator Pitch 151

Elevator Pitch Exit Strategy Angel Investor Equity 151

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 27, 2023

This person conducts regular one-on-one meetings with the chairman and lead investor. This method allows us to delve deep into the intricacies of our operations and the ergonomic industry, leading to well-informed decisions and a competitive edge in the market. #6-

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Australia Lead Investor Management 105

A Crowded Space

OCTOBER 3, 2018

Very shortly after I joined, Greg Gretsch (now my partner at Jackson Square Ventures) co-led oDesk’s Series A along with Venky Ganesan (partner at Menlo Ventures and lead investor in Rev.com). The correct answer is to closely manage the overall network – promote the good people and kick out the bad people.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Bangladesh Ukraine Philippines 60

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

What there isn’t a whole lot of: Early stage investors with institutional lead check experience (and a small support team, large networks, etc), who are investing their own capital, in a flexible manner, and then working post-investment to provide additional ongoing support. This is Homebrew Forever.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

How competitive is your company going to be in the race to recruit the best women on the market (women—the segment of the talent market who hold the majority of new college degrees) when your lead investor is a top donor to an anti-choice org? I’m not saying there’s equal access to networks of capital. Let’s not discount this.

Cap Table 167

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 167

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

At Virgin Mobile USA, Mari led early initiatives in mobile commerce, social networking and advertising. Corporate venture funds are often referred to as ‘strategic’ investors because of the unique benefits they bring to the table. Corporate VCs open the door to their parent companies and are well networked in their industries.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

www.readwriteweb.com

MARCH 7, 2011

Before AngelList, investment dealflow was private and networks revolved around a few connected angels and VC?s. Since the angel network was created, transparent angel investing has exploded and entrepreneurs from any background can get funded. The startups and investors can do the round however they like. To my surprise, VC?

Technical Review 50

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Angel Investor 50

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2012

Silverton Partners was the lead investor and is joined by a group of new venture and corporate investors including Webb Investment Network, the investment fund of former eBay COO Maynard Webb, and several private investors including Asana executive Kenny Van Zant; bringing total financing to $4.1M.

Lead Investor 67

Lead Investor Analytics Cloud Finance 67

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 20, 2014

As the lead investor in the company''s seed round, you''d think I''d be really bullish about the connected home, especially after their record Indiegogo pre-sale netted them almost $2 million in purchases. It came up at the Canary board meeting the other day.

Venture Capital 116

Venture Capital Cloud Internet Web 116

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2022

What we were really building was the first professional network for all of the $10T construction industry. The needs of the lead investor for ownership? A round that is most accommodating for the existing investors while allowing you to get new people involved? If done right, the opportunity was enormous. Pretty cool!

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Founder Acquisition Startup 89

David Teten

JULY 12, 2017

Many VCs and family offices market themselves based on their network, internal resources, and other levers to accelerate value creation. . Hence, if Sequoia is the lead and the valuation is reasonable, it’s near 100% chance. Fundraising is burdensome. If I can reduce a portfolio company’s time burden, I create value for them.

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2018

Good for the founders and good for the investors. Connections and Exits: often independent directors have networks that can be incredibly helpful connecting the startup to others in the industry/sector. A good outside director will be happy to be in the middle and bring balance. Think of top level customer relationships.

Stock Options 40

Stock Options Salary Lead Investor Founder 40

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

This gave me an idea: I could help many more entrepreneurs by making the deck available not just to the Greylock network of entrepreneurs, but to everyone. Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. The graphic we chose emphasizes that it is a network of people. Why is it valuable?

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

There are essentially two distinct basic strategies for startup entrepreneurs to raise a seed round of capital: Subscription approach – An entrepreneur sets a structure (usually a convertible note) and recruits individual angel investors who subscribe to the round, all without a term-driving lead investor.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

This is kind of the equivalent of “I’m in as long as you have a lead” but sounds a lot better. Find a lead investor: These are funds that are willing to stick their neck out and be the first “yes” and issue a term sheet. There are ways to do this without a lead, but I’ll ignore that for now. Feel free to call them”.

Term Sheet 73

Term Sheet Due Diligence Valuation Seed Stage 73

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2010

and FashInvest invite the online fashion community to present their startups to the audience and special feedback panel consisting of leading investors in the space. RSVP: [link] 6:00PM Fashion 2.0: Startups Showcase Fashion 2.0 what is changing/what isn't -- what are we willing to bet on, and where are the wildcards.

Community 60

Community Cofounder Venture Capital Social Network 60

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

StoredIQ , a leading provider of Intelligent Information Management solutions for eDiscovery, records and compliance management, today announced that it has closed $10 million in new investment financing and expanded its management team in preparation for accelerated growth.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

While this may certainly be the case with unsophisticated angels (much less of these now) or in cases with no lead investor, Id argue the opposite. In my experience, venture investors are more focused on percentage ownership, which obviously requires a trade-off with the amount invested and valuation. ► January. (1).

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

This was the year 2000 and the idea was that Metapa would allow any company to send any media asset over any content delivery network and our service would automatically transform the asset for viewing anywhere. We bought that company in 2003 and invested some more capital. This is also when we had to stare at the abyss for the third time.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Architecture Open Source Database 109

BeyondVC

JULY 7, 2010

This was the year 2000 and the idea was that Metapa would allow any company to send any media asset over any content delivery network and our service would automatically transform the asset for viewing anywhere. We bought that company in 2003 and invested some more capital.

Portfolio 109

Portfolio Open Source Architecture Database 109

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 26, 2021

One of the things a financing round brings is an opportunity to strengthen the startup’s overall network. This is one of the reasons why the best practice for a startup is to raise investment rounds from different lead investors rather than simply doing internal rounds, even if an internal round requires less work.

Startup 36

Startup Equity Early Stage Green 36

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

But there wasn’t always a clear lead investor that really rolled up her sleeves to work with a company. Today, with one or two core investors, the breadth of support that a founder gets is more limited, but the funds that are leading should be more focused on your success.

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

Howard Lindzon is Co-Founder and CEO of StockTwits, a social network for traders and investors to share real-time ideas and information. Michael was the lead research analyst for the IPOs of Internet companies like UUNET, Yahoo!, He was an Institutional Investor ranked analyst for several years.

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

Rob Go

JANUARY 9, 2012

Introduced by co-investor: 3. Typically, we meet companies through our network of entrepreneurs and co-investors. Our main requirement is that there is a strong lead. We have a bias towards leading or co-leading rounds, but will also participate in rounds facilitated by like-minded lead investors.

Portfolio 46

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Cofounder 46

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 17, 2023

Similarly, founders of these companies are looking for lead investors who can de-risk their path forward. Being a pure generalist VC makes it very difficult to convince savvy founders that you have the industry relationships, relevant pattern-matching, and density of experience to be their best lead investor.

Early Stage 86

Early Stage Lead Investor Matching Software 86

Rob Go

AUGUST 9, 2016

Entrepreneurs are typically only choosing one lead investor and board member per round. Leverage your own network to the extent you are able to get a decent picture of what it’s like to work with a potential investor. The stakes are a lot higher, so you’d think the referencing effort would be greater.

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Due Diligence Lead Investor Portfolio 28

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Unless you have an incredible network, don’t think the opportunities that just show up in your inbox are likely to be very good. Favor investment rounds with strong leads that haven’t raised millions of dollars before you. There are a lot of options to expand your deal sourcing, like AngelList, syndicates, angel groups, etc.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 26, 2015

Unless you have an incredible network, don’t think the opportunities that just show up in your inbox are likely to be very good. Favor investment rounds with strong leads that haven’t raised millions of dollars before you. There are a lot of options to expand your deal sourcing, like AngelList, syndicates, angel groups, etc.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Angel Investor Software Review Silicon Valley 120

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

But in practice, these phenomena create a tremendous volume of startups, which investors then have to filter. Most investors rely on their network of colleagues and service providers to source investments. The funds with more traditional origination are primarily focused on their local venture center network.

Private Equity 114

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Equity 114

Gust

AUGUST 6, 2014

Other investors will be invited to put in money on the same terms as the lead investor (and thus, as part of the same round.). A network of other investors to whom they can introduce the company. Deep pockets (that is, plenty of more cash reserved for follow on rounds).

Term Sheet 170

Term Sheet Lead Investor Preferred Stock Common Stock 170