View from Seed

MARCH 8, 2016

Jesse recently sat down with NextView (I assume he was sitting anyway — we spoke on the phone) to talk seed-stage company branding, building a startup identity, and some of the most common mistakes founders make when establishing a name for their companies. You can absolutely launch lean and scrappy.

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Seed Stage Conversion Startup PR 120

View from Seed

MAY 21, 2020

In some respects, one of the often non-intuitive privileges of a seed stage fundraising process is that the company is so new. The reality is that when fundraising for a successive financing round along the seed stage continuum , all startups are graded on a curve based on the amount of time and capital which has gone into the company.

Seed Stage 274

Seed Stage Finance Lean Revenue 274

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. I've been in venture now twice.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

And thanks to Ann Miura-Ko of Floodgate (my first Lean LaunchPad co-instructor) for her suggestions. Pre-seed Round of Funding. In the pre-seed stage, a startup is searching for product/market fit. Funding: Startups typically raise anywhere from $100K to $750,000 in pre-seed. Seed Round of Funding.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

View from Seed

OCTOBER 14, 2021

We are high-conviction, hands-on seed stage investors. We will continue to be hands-on, high-conviction seed stage investors. And as someone coming in at the ten-year mark, I can objectively say that this mantra, this north star, this guiding principle, has worked, and it has worked really well. .

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Seed Stage Portfolio Curation Vertical 194

Austin Startup

MAY 11, 2017

Aligned Partners offers our portfolio companies world-class venture capital expertise while enabling founders to start lean and stay lean all the way through their growth. A New Kind of Venture Firm AutoChrome Autochrome is an inception and seed stage venture capital fund.

Private Equity 48

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage 48

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

He’s dubbed the approach “ pretotyping ,” and it shares many of the same principles as both its similar-sounding (if later-stage) cousin, prototyping, as well as the more well-known lean startup movement. NextView Ventures: For those who might be unfamiliar, what is this concept of pretotyping?

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 5, 2013

About half our investments are in companies at true startup stage – i.e. founder + idea, nothing built – and half are in slightly more mature companies, up to late seed stage when there are maybe 5-10 people in the company.

Partner 117

Partner Software Review eCommerce Due Diligence 117

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

For that reason, at pre-seed and seed stage, it is not uncommon for *true* employee hires to actually be earning more, from a cash perspective, than the founder CEO; obviously with substantially lower equity ownership. Employment laws and taxes are not a place to move fast and break things.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

If you have good experience then the VC will be leaning forward for the rest of the presentation. Mostly by early stage investors talking about getting smaller exits. But whether you’re talking with micro VCs, seed stage investors or series A,B investors they all want to believe that your company CAN be big one day.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Lean startup. Super Angels.

Early Stage 231

Early Stage Seed Stage Angel Investor Silicon Valley 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Staying “lean&# is not an option. Many angels and some seed funds will get burned – In good times it’s great to be an angel or seed investor. So angel and seed stage investors’ returns will be dependent on good times continuing or on the ability of their portfolio companies to get financed.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Lean startup. Super Angels.

Early Stage 253

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 253

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

MARCH 30, 2018

The fundraising landscape in 2018 for pre-seed and seed-stage companies has changed a lot even in just the first few months of this year. These days, many investors are very much leaning towards funding protocols with potential strong tech over apps. This year has been crazy in the fundraising landscape.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Convertible Security 48

Hippoland

MARCH 30, 2018

The fundraising landscape in 2018 for pre-seed and seed-stage companies has changed a lot even in just the first few months of this year. These days, many investors are very much leaning towards funding protocols with potential strong tech over apps. This year has been crazy in the fundraising landscape.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Convertible Security 48

Steve Blank

MAY 12, 2015

After seeing the results of 500+ teams through the I-Corps, the NSF now offers all teams who’ve received government funding to start a company an introduction to building a Lean Startup. SBIR/STTR Program and Startup Seed Funding. The SBIR/STTR program represents a critical source of seed funding for U.S. Eleven U.S.

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SBIR Maryland Lean Seed Stage 120

Gust

JULY 8, 2012

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Seed-stage means promising companies that don’t yet have a revenue stream, and may not yet have a proof of concept. Lean startup. Super Angels.

Early Stage 177

Early Stage Finance Seed Stage Entrepreneur 177

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

As a further mimic of its host city, New York tech stands tall and stubborn, with a never-say-die presence through flush times and lean. And it was these conversations that I believe led to the team’s decision to add their own stubborn presence to stand up for seed-stage startups in NYC … me. Thanks for taking a look.

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Seed Stage New York New York City Startup 120

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Eric Ries of The Lean Startup has called Andrew Chen’s blog “one of the best entrepreneurship blogs of all time.” As president of Y Combinator, the hugely successful seed-stage investor/accelerator, Sam Altman has a lot of knowledge to share. andrewchen.co. Follow Paul on Twitter @paulg. Sam Altman.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

When you’ve got two people on the team and you’re going super lean in the early stages, usually your best bet is to have a customer experience person and a builder. Plus, in such a connected world, at the seed stage, the "outside" bar is low--a good article, review, demo can be a difference maker and get you on the right radars.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). Those who didn’t have a product or much of a product used a concierge model of sorts ala Lean Startup philosophy to start running their business. So if an investor isn’t onboard, just move on quickly.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Etc… At the pre-seed stage, a big way to stand out is if you have a V3 statement (as opposed to a V1 statement). Those who didn’t have a product or much of a product used a concierge model of sorts ala Lean Startup philosophy to start running their business. So if an investor isn’t onboard, just move on quickly.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers. If they don’t, there are a new breed of lean startups who understand this deep in the bones ready to take their place. 12comments: Dougvs said.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

According to all of the blogosphere chatter over the past month, seed-funded internet startups are entering this year gearing up for the now-near-infamous Series A Crunch. to become not just ramen-profitable, but sustainably profitable. In the end, just as always: startups are risky and a majority of them do not survive.

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Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Because of both lean startup principles and a thriving community of pay-it-forward individuals, we can all now build a little, learn a little, and then repeat. One of the best and most positive movements proliferating around the tech community is what Product Hunt founder and CEO Ryan Hoover calls “building in public.”

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Seed Capital Syndicate Syndication 120

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 24, 2018

We concentrate our time with companies, entering at seed stage and working with them most proactively until ~Series B – in this case that’s when I stepped off of BC’s Board into an Observer role. BC sits in Homebrew I, a 20 company fund of $35m with initial investments made 2013 – 2015.

Cap Table 96

Cap Table Seed Stage Acquisition Vertical 96

Scott Edward Walker

JULY 25, 2013

The ‘lean startup’ philosophy makes a lot of sense at the beginning of the company when you’re trying to get to product-market fit.” (at I think that the ‘lean startup’ philosophy is essentially to startups what relativity was to physics.” (at (at 11:56). Usually to change the world you need to hit the market with force.” (at

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Lean IP 74

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

All of this innovation is awesome and there have even been new online tools such as AngelList to help entrepreneurs raise money more easily from angels or early-stage funds. They should start “lean.&# I believe that most companies can exist in the experimentation mode for 3-4 years.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

David Teten

JUNE 5, 2015

New York, NY — The Teten Family is proud to announce that we just finalized our investment in a seed-stage startup, temporarily operating under the name “NewBo” or “Peanut”. Newbo is a lean startup. We are now looking for a dot-com domain name for our corporate website. Currently, at 6 lbs.

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Due Diligence Seed Stage Startup Incubator 60

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

As a result of a convergence of many factors (lean startup methodology, broadband & smartphone penetration, social web, cloud computing, etc), breakout startups are clearly getting scale faster than they used to. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010. Read More ».

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Hunter Walker

APRIL 20, 2018

Like we do at the seed stage, USV almost always plays the role of “ lead investor.” We’re not a “stay on the Board until the end” firm but we are atypical for seed stage funds who more typically don’t take Board responsibilities and step off at the A.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Lead Investor Portfolio Reputation 48

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

Dan: Jason, we’re certainly leaning more towards what you said. So VCs invest in different stages. You have seed stage, A round, B round, C round, D round. You’ve bootstrapped a company, so you can see all those things, and you’re skeptical of the VC side. What Vcs are investing?

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. We’ll look at the model stage-by-stage. Product Development In stage two, product development, everyone stops talking and starts working.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2010

He suggests that entrepreneurs place their biographical information early in their pitch so that investors may be "leaning forward for the rest of the presentation.". Whether you're talking with micro VCs, seed stage investors or series A,B investors they all want to believe that your company CAN be big one day," he says.

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Startup Acquisition Lean 131

Rob Go

MAY 2, 2016

Actually, the average in the first half of the fund was quite a bit lower, but during this period (2011–2014) there was a pretty dramatic rise in seed stage valuations overall. As a result, the average round size increased meaningfully for the seed stage segment overall. $3M

Seed Stage 28

Seed Stage Dilution Valuation Seed Capital 28