Eric Ries: @ericries Ries is the brainchild of the "Lean Startup" movement and the author of the blog Startup Lessons Learned. His tweets typically focus on bootstrapping, funding, pivoting, and the art of staying "lean." Want to freshen up your stream? Looking for inspiration in 2012? Why not refresh your Twitter feed? MORE >>

Should you have a board seat for seed investors? Does a small seed round need protective provisions? Before you raise a seed round, you need a product in the marketplace. Use customer development and lean startup techniques to get to market with less. What are the different types of seed stage investors? MORE >>

This post explains how to raise a seed round with no lead, no fixed amount, and a fluid closing date. Mass syndication is a single continuous seed round and I think it’s the state of the art in continuous fundraising. Should you have a board seat for seed investors? Does a small seed round need protective provisions? MORE >>

But equally some partners joined firms in 2000 and have still never seed any upside in cash since their funds haven’t yet returned the initial capital [note: VC funds usually return all of the capital that they raised first and then share 20% of the profits above this hurdle]. Staying “lean&# is not an option. And so on. MORE >>

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This person had been introduced to me several times by angels and I was told that I’d be the perfect seed investor. MORE >>