Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

Reaching a decision between the above two options is a post for another day, but when entrepreneurs select the latter route, they are then faced with the daunting task of navigating the murky waters of the myriad of firms who at least market themselves as active seed venture capital investors.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Genuine VC

JANUARY 23, 2012

At NextView Ventures, we have a number of companies in our portfolio which are “marketplace” businesses, where buyers and sellers meet to exchange a good or service. Brute force a mini-market and expand. And along the way we’ve met with or observed a larger number of seed-stage startups attempting to start them.

Engineer 201

Engineer Vertical Portfolio Seed Stage 201

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2014

Jay joins us from HubSpot, where he was a senior manager on the marketing team, specifically leading the blog and content strategy. This is a major step forward for NextView as we continue to focus on helping our existing portfolio, as well as proactively contribute to the larger Boston (and New York) entrepreneurial community.

Boston 123

Boston Early Stage Portfolio Cofounder 123

Genuine VC

MAY 5, 2015

Today, I’m thrilled to publicly announce NextView’s Talent Exchange, a program helping both top talent and NextView-backed startups connect with each other more easily, beginning with Boston companies (which make up just over half our portfolio). Below, I’ll quickly explain the genesis of this initiative and share a few more key details.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Startup Boston Seed Stage 100

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

Looking at a smaller dataset of our NextView portfolio companies, we too see a higher “graduation-rate” of Seed to A when there is a larger VC which participates in the seed round. Again, we’ve seen all of these multiple scenarios play out within our own NextView portfolio. Better to be safe than sorry.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Part of the benefit of a generalized MBA program is developing a broad fundamental skillset across many areas of functional expertise, from finance to marketing, and everything in between. Master the coursework basics, but then develop soft-skills rather than specialized ones. take Interpersonal Dynamics not Global Financial Reporting.)

Cofounder 256

Cofounder Portfolio Venture Capital Reputation 256

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

The five conditions for a Series A financing which he enumerated are: a core team ready to scale, demonstrable market size, repeatable cost effective customer acquisition, metric momentum, and plausible monetization. The strategy here is to foster product development and marketing which creates overall (semi-)organic user momentum.

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Genuine VC

JUNE 18, 2013

For us at NextView Ventures , we see this transitioning happening first-hand in our portfolio. Micah Adler , Founder of Fiksu , Boston’s white-hot mobile app marketing startup. I’ll leave that to the analysts. And more analysts. And our friends over at HubSpot. Not just in our “mobile-first” companies, but all of them.

Mobile 131

Mobile Web Boston Distribution 131

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

We’ve observed it repeatedly in our portfolio as Founder/CEOs seek additional rounds of financing: the engaged skeptics just never quite get there, but the entrepreneurs who cast the nets wide enough find someone who believes. or reasons which can’t be addressed (founding team DNA, market size perception, etc.).

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143

Genuine VC

JULY 8, 2010

I am excited to remain on the Board of Directors for Venrock’s portfolio company BlogHer. The three of us believe that there is a compelling market opportunity on the east coast for a new seed-stage venture capital firm for founders starting internet-enabled businesses.

Silicon Valley 154

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Cofounder Venture Capital 154

Genuine VC

JANUARY 15, 2015

Of key importance, which we emphasize with our NextView portfolio companies when they’re out raising their Series A, is to run the conversations in parallel rather than serially. The best litmus test to suss out whether or not a potential come-from-behind investor is worth paying attention to is if they’re “doing work.”

Lead Investor 100

Lead Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital Portfolio 100

Genuine VC

JANUARY 17, 2011

Today we are officially launching our firm , NextView Ventures, announcing our first nine portfolio company investments , and recognizing the additional people who are working with us. Now six months later, we’re ready to lift the covers on what we’re doing (although there have been a few previews ).

Seed Stage 125

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage New York 125

Genuine VC

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

The user experience provides for the enhanced discovery of skilled artists, the browsing of example items within a maker’s portfolio, the ability to receive numerous proposals from many talented craftspeople for their potential piece, and the trust in a payment process intermediated by the CustomMade as a fair and independent third-party.

Web 134

Web Portfolio Security Engineer 134

Genuine VC

JULY 26, 2010

While traditional VCs sometimes have a love/hate relationship with their syndicate partners (often depending on how well their mutual portfolio companies are performing), it seems as though in the Micro VC arena all of the players speak and act like best friends. What’s the reasoning for all of this chummy behavior?

Syndicate 128

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence Seed Stage 128

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

These founders surely have a degree of gut feel about how the future will unfold, but more importantly they’re in tune to be flexible to changing market conditions, feedback from customers, and reactions from competitors. Just like missiles, some entrepreneurs follow heat.

Founder 138

Founder Early Stage Portfolio Entrepreneur 138

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Second, unless the company is a truly break-out win that supports an entirely new venture firm coming in to buy an additional 20% in the Series B, (in this current market especially) Series B rounds are quite frequently done by insiders even when the startup is progressing.

Valuation 154

Valuation LP Boston Partner 154

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

These founders surely have a degree of gut feel about how the future will unfold, but more importantly they’re in tune to be flexible to changing market conditions, feedback from customers, and reactions from competitors. Just like missiles, some entrepreneurs follow heat.

Founder 100

Founder Early Stage Portfolio Entrepreneur 100

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

Plus, VCs often will have met the Founder/CEOs of many of a particular startup’s competitors, so they’ll have an even richer understand of the market landscape. So most of your calculus in selecting the right startup role should involve understanding the company’s market and business plan in executing toward a grand vision.

Startup 146

Startup Burn Rate Technical Review Down Round 146

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

To make money, VCs should aim to have meaningful target ownership in their portfolio investments, but 20% is by no means some kind of magic number. The impact of a single investment on a fund depends on ownership percentage, as well as the fund size and the portfolio size (i.e. And it manifests itself in pernicious ways.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

Genuine VC

MARCH 18, 2014

Fairly often entrepreneurs will pitch investing in their seed-stage company, and it starts sounding great… interesting market… great team… notable early traction… until we arrive at the financials + fundraising slide and the projections state that this round of Seed financing is planned to be their last.

Seed Stage 202

Seed Stage Dividend Finance Portfolio 202

Genuine VC

JULY 1, 2014

But in the particular case of our portfolio company TapCommerce , which yesterday announced its acquisition by Twitter a mere two years after the company’s founding ( more details ), there have been some key lessons which I’ll meaningfully take away from my experience in working with Brian Long , Samir Mirza , and Andrew Jones.

Founder 142

Founder Syndicate Syndication Mobile 142

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

These firms are caught in the middle without much taste, just like Genesee in the beer market. But if the VC market is really resembling the beer market, what does that mean for the customers, entrepreneurs? They’ll certainly know the ecosystem and be able to share learnings and network across the portfolio.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Seed Stage Entrepreneur LP 150