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. I made over a dozen angel investments and a few investments in VC funds as an LP, expanding my focus to new geographies, sectors, and stages.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. Of the Inc. 5000 companies, only 6.5%

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Babbling VC

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Fortunately, for those of us in the market long enough, it's actually good news. For those of you not in the know, they are one of the largest limited partners ( LP's : investors in venture capital funds) in Europe and are basically in almost all the funds throughout the market. This for me is a no-brainer.

LP 82

LP Europe Germany Venture Capital 82

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 Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI, excluding real estate) skyrocketed in 2016 as Chinese investors seek diversification out of their domestic markets.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 14, 2017

It was a conscious decision to maintain the fund size at the same level, despite both market pressure (larger rounds at earlier stages) and demand pressure (lots of LP money entering the stage) to raise a larger fund. I would like to thank all the limited partners who entrust me and K9 to invest their capital.

Technology 96

Technology LP San Francisco Portfolio 96

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I spent time today negotiating it with him and getting my partners bought into some changes. Separately, in the morning I called a seed-stage investor in NY and talked to him about investing in one of my companies. We call these investors “LPs” for limited partners. I had lunch with an LP.

Email 314

Email Product Term Sheet Portfolio 314

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 23, 2015

Scott Maxwell of OpenView Partners had an awesome post up this morning titled The Truth About VC Value-Add. The next person on the list of supporters is Scott Maxwell at OpenView Venture Partners. A year or two later they had less than 3% market share on mobile. Go read it – I’ll still be here when you get back.

Advisory Board 70

Advisory Board Venture Capital LP Seed Stage 70

Bryce Dot VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

When we set out to raise our first fund in 2005, we began a nearly two year journey involving enormous amounts of educating the market on what a seed fund was and why we felt there was such a compelling opportunity to build a new firm solely focused on this breed of cash efficient startups that make our model work.

Seed Stage 61

Seed Stage LP Incubator Venture Capital 61

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 30, 2015

One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. so that's what I said my exits would be as a seed stage fund. I've never heard any limited partner ask me if I can generate a better return than their Series A funds.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Pre-Money Valuation IRR Valuation 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

This will continue while we’re in a tech bull market and I predict will wane when we’re not. With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. In a bull market many players see drift in their activities.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

Yes, the concentration of entrepreneurial founding and management talent is here in the Bay Area, but so too is lots of private money, more and more large platforms which continue to grow in market share. Will the next company to raise $100M in financing just poach from decent seed-stage companies and pay triple the amount to lock up talent?

San Francisco 116

San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

Many of us in the seed stage ecosystem have noticed a shift in the way seed rounds are coming together. Historically, seed rounds were syndicated among several different firms. Today, we are seeing less syndication of seed rounds and sharper elbows among many of the funds in the market.

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

I hypothesized that, “Perhaps a contrarian statement in this environment: but even though there’s been a dip in fund size due to broad economic factors and LP appetite, it wouldn’t surprise me if the truly top firms raise even larger funds over the coming decade.” What’s pouring = individual partners matter.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Seed Stage Entrepreneur LP 150

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

The modal VC thesis is: “We invest in great teams addressing large markets with disruptive solutions” Who invests in lousy teams addressing tiny markets with outdated solutions? For example, Point Nine Capital focuses on B2B SaaS and marketplaces at the seed stage, across many industries.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78