Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. In fact, far better if you haven’t raised venture capital. Never cold.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Term Sheet Valuation Stock Options 282

VC Adventure

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

If you’re trying to break into venture the news, in general, is good (the two charts below were pulled from a great post by Eric Feng on the state of the VC market from late last year). So the venture landscape has changed quite a bit since my first post on breaking into venture almost 15 years ago.

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital Seed Stage Angel Groups Portfolio 103

View from Seed

APRIL 6, 2021

You have a deep desire to learn the venture capital business and are ready to hustle to meet the next great founder. NextView is a thematic, seed-stage VC firm focused on the Everyday Economy with $200M+ of committed capital under management. You are a self-starter and enjoy approaching work independently without much direction.

Technical Review 317

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage Cofounder 317

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

That said, we’re in an opaque industry compared with the public markets, and having the real scoop about what’s going on at a private company, and who are raising now, will be a meaningful edge for a long time. Some VCs have identified a number of new advantages that distinguish them in the marketplace: – Portfolio acceleration.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . A standalone fund can arguably take more risk with a view to its portfolio’s overall performance.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. The extreme example of this are algorithmic investors in the public markets, who design algorithms which trade on the designer’s behalf, as opposed to making trading decisions directly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. ” At present, Version One Ventures portfolio includes startups from all over the United States and Canada.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

View from Seed

JANUARY 11, 2021

Noting our own experience, we questioned whether the fast proliferation of virtual interaction introduced by the COVID-19 crisis had changed investor decision-making more broadly across the venture capital industry. Following initial decision paralysis, many venture capitalists have returned to pace.

Venture Capital 350

Venture Capital Cofounder Early Stage Seed Stage 350

Up and Running

MARCH 11, 2015

Jason does an excellent job explaining the math behind more complex subscription forecasting, but also touches on topics like marketing and company culture. Probably the grand-daddy of VC blogs, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson has been posting every day since 2003. Interested in venture capital investment?

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Silicon Valley Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. As an industry we’re not always as good as we could be about our own “creative destruction” to create the tomorrow of venture capital. And all the platform stuff. What’s he doing?

Partner 361

Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

VC Cafe

AUGUST 11, 2022

A couple of weeks ago I was did a fireside chat with Alon Grinshpoon, founder and CEO of Echo3D , a CDN and CMS for 3D content in the cloud and a Remagine Ventures portfolio company, as part of an entrepreneurial finance MBA class in Tel Aviv University. Imagine we’re all vendors in a food market selling donuts.

Founder 187

Founder Term Sheet Cofounder Venture Capital 187

VC Cafe

MAY 29, 2022

Building on my post on ‘ Advice for startups in a downturn (May 2022 edition) ‘, this week I continued to follow with interest the impact of the current correction on startups and venture capital, particularly in early stage. How much of the slowdown in venture capital is real vs. ‘doom and gloom’ headlines.

Venture Capital 183

Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation Startup 183

View from Seed

JULY 6, 2020

You have a deep desire to learn the venture capital business and are ready to hustle to meet the next great founder. . We are proud seed investors of over 90 portfolio companies over the last decade, including TripleLift, Grove Collaborative, Attentive, Dia&Co, MealPal, Troops, and Code Climate. . You are hungry.

Technical Review 257

Technical Review Software Review Hiring Seed Stage 257

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Dave’s a great guy with a good sense of humor and a broad knowledge of the market, which is why I was excited that he could be on the show. Investors: August Capital (David Hornik) (lead) with existing investors Charles River Ventures. It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 25, 2015

In January, Jerry Neumann wrote a long and detailed analysis of his view of the VC industry in the 1980’s titled Heat Death: Venture Capital in the 1980’s. Secondly, the driver of returns for the funds raised in 1978 – 1981 was not their underlying portfolios, at what stage, or in what industries they were built.

Venture Capital 70

Venture Capital SBIC Technical Review Silicon Valley 70

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

Venture Capital 328

Venture Capital Technical Review Seed Stage IPO 328

VC Adventure

JUNE 14, 2022

Companies looking to raise money turn to venture capital for a variety of reasons. Top among them is generally access to capital, but often on the list is the hope that raising capital from experienced (and well-networked) investors will have other positive impacts on their business.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Due Diligence Portfolio Venture Capital 150

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

One or two of the best companies may continue to appreciate, but most of a VC’s portfolio has probably been realized, written off, or has maxed out its value. The longer the portfolio maintains the same value without distributing back cash, the worse the fund’s ultimate IRR. How Have the More Recent Vintages Performed?

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced. More on that later.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

VC Cafe

MAY 18, 2023

So, without further ado, I present to you the Ten Commandments of Being a Great Venture Capital Investor. Look beyond the spreadsheet and into the team, the product, and the market. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Portfolio : Be honest about the performance of your investments. Thou shalt be patient.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Due Diligence Exit Strategy Deal Flow 78

David Teten

JULY 25, 2017

As I’ve worked to build out HOF Capital ’s portfolio acceleration platform , the #1 question I think about is: how do we scalably support our companies? Many VCs offer (or strive to offer) a bundle of levers and support structures to help their portfolio companies. We have lower AUM, therefore lower management fees.

Portfolio 60

Portfolio Technical Review Private Equity Database 60

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. Why do they invest in venture capital? We raised $280 million.

Las Vegas 396

Las Vegas St. Louis Southern California San Diego 396

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

But in the grand scheme of things, 10 years is a blip, and one that had a continuous bull market in tech. It turns out capital is not a weapon, especially in the early stages of building a business, and even experienced founders who can raise huge sums often realize this and right-size their asks. There are a few reasons.

Dilution 399

Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Real estate has long been considered a sound investment, and has become even more popular in recent years as historical data has shown the market’s relatively low volatility. On the other side of the spectrum, the idea of finding a unicorn has attracted many investors toward the much riskier venture capital and emerging technologies.

Private Equity 129

Private Equity Equity Technical Review Software Review 129

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

But even at the Partner-level, the amount of transition in Venture Capital is much more than you perhaps would expect… especially in a business which should have a long term orientation with portfolio investment-hold periods and Partnerships lasting more than a decade. So why is there so much turnover in Venture Capital?

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. It’s A Marketing Problem. We Have a Marketing Problem. “So

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2017

Venture Capitalism is changing. As an industry, VC essentially acts as a broker between investment banks, who can’t invest in risky startups due to laws on loan interest, and entrepreneurs who desperately need capital. Startups should leverage these changes in venture capital to their advantage. Extinct by example?

Venture Capital 193

Venture Capital Technical Review Kenya Startup 193

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

View from Seed

MAY 24, 2021

You have a deep desire to learn the venture capital business and are ready to hustle to meet the next great founder. NextView is a thematic, seed-stage VC firm focused on the Everyday Economy with $200M+ of committed capital under management. You are a self-starter and enjoy approaching work independently without much direction.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage Cofounder 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

That’s on average the time venture capital investors spend on a pre-seed pitch deck, according to the latest Dropbox/Docsend funding research report. Market size Team Traction Competition – be honest and knowledgeable about your competitive landscape Business model/ financials The Ask – how much are you raising?

Technical Review 166

Technical Review Early Stage Cofounder Portfolio 166

David Teten

APRIL 6, 2015

It also shows market white space for the smart entrepreneur. All venture capital and NIH funding data for CY 2010 – 2014 in USA. They’re not usually trained in psychology, marketing, business, or economics. The data is painful. Obesity alone was responsible for 9.1% of US annual medical costs in 2008, compared with 6.5%

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Technical Review Non-Compete Philadelphia 60

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

Perhaps the biggest piece of new news is that after 17 years of operations we’ve changed our name from GRP Partners to Upfront Ventures. Well, the venture capital industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years … and we have too. Our portfolio companies value us as sparring partners. What’s up with that?

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). On the surface the narratives have been.

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

David Teten

MAY 20, 2016

My colleague Sebastian Soler, software engineer at ff Venture Capital, is leading the launch of a new Meetup with me. Our meetup is focused on how to use technology to enhance investing in private markets, including VC, growth, buyout, and distressed. I asked him to write a guest post: Hi!

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Cap Table Venture Capital 113

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Venture Capitalists who are serious about turning their firms into more than one-fund wonders may want to have their associates actually start and run a company for a year. Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.) Here’s why. ——-.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

ReadWriteStart

JULY 26, 2022

Many shutdowns and market dry-ups resulted in domestic dependency that narrowed down where products could be found. Small and medium businesses get direct exposure to international customers and seem to be coming out as the winners in the chemical market game. At first, there were just chemical marketplaces in the Chinese market.

Germany 175

Germany San Jose Technical Review India 175