View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. As Rob Go wrote , board decks and board meetings can waste loads of time at the seed stage.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

View from Seed

MARCH 15, 2017

VC evaluation of seed-stage startups can seem arbitrary or imitative at times. Internally, the scarcity of tangible business metrics – product usage or revenue multiples for example – can make an investment decision feel daunting. Any seed stage company’s strategy is a constant work-in-progress.

Due Diligence 265

Due Diligence Seed Stage Portfolio Metrics 265

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. Now it’s time to set the stage with the early traction you have. Seed stage VCs are realistic about how much traction a very raw company might have. A) Pre-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

If you’re in the tech startup industry today, you get the sense that every one of your peers wants to take on the entire world. ” Startups launched around seemingly mundane, insular problems glow about their abilities to change the world. ” So I left Google to do another startup, Agitar Software.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

BeyondVC

JANUARY 29, 2017

It is truly an art form when it comes to striking that steady balance between developer and community love versus generating revenue and potentially alienating those who supported you. This is also an important question as it relates to fundraising for dev-focused startups. Optimizing for Price at Seed Stage is a Mistake.

Revenue 60

Revenue Developer Open Source Seed Stage 60

Hippoland

DECEMBER 15, 2015

From my purview at 500 Startups in talking with many seed investors – both angels and VCs – this is what I predict will happen in 2016. Note: these are my opinions and not my employer’s): 1) Raising seed capital from VCs who invest in all stages will become challenging. Image credit: Giphy.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Angel Investor Bootstrapping Startup 48

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Almost two years ago, in a private/closed meeting with K9 Ventures’ LPs only, I claimed that: What was being referred to in the press as the “Series A Crunch” was not because fewer Series A deals were being done, but because there were too many Seed deals being done. Seed stage was super tough. Pre-Seed is the New Seed.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

*This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch. A few potential slides which can be included in the Appendix: Exit Analysis: Not always as important during the early startup stage since an exit event is presumably in the distance away.

Seed Stage 166

Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. Where you are in your stage of development is a key driver in determining valuation. Sophomores are beta site to full production site with initial users (seed stage angels—raise $500K to $1MM).

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Genuine VC

MAY 29, 2014

It’s been five years now since large VC ‘signaling’ entered the seed stage entrepreneur’s lexicon. It seems as though it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the blogosphere, but we see first-hand as entrepreneurs we’re investing in at NextView Ventures work through building their seed round syndicates, it really is a tough issue.

Syndicate 166

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. They’ve grown from nothing to >$2B in revenue in 30 months time, making the company among the fastest growing businesses in the histroy of the world. Financial Snapshot: 2010 Revenue: $713M. in net revenue and passes $0.58

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

It drives up valuations, creates interest in the category among other investors, and in a new space a well funded competitor is usually out there educating audiences about the very problem the startup solves. The bottom line is that being a seed stage founder is mostly a very thankless job.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

Hila Qu joined Mucker’s Tony Yang for an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) conversation about Product-Led Growth (PLG) for Startups to kickoff the 2023 Mucker Growth Series. Hila Qu has been the Head of Growth or VP of Growth at a number of different companies and startups, most notably Acorns and GitLab. should you be focusing on first?

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Agile VC

AUGUST 12, 2011

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. The simple answer is “be able to convince a partnership of smart investors that your startup has a good probability of being a $100M+ revenue company within 5ish years.” How To Think About The Future. August 12, 2011.

Seed Stage 113

Seed Stage Silicon Valley B2B Acquisition 113

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. The problem is that there are no other metrics they can look at to judge the content of a book to know if it’s worth reviewing.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 10, 2017

A follow-up post, titled The Seeds Have Changed: An Epilogue , on June 5, 2015, explained this further: Pre-Seed is the New Seed. If the Micro-VCs are looking for Series A-like metrics, what does a company do when it’s just getting started? Or if the traction is not yet interesting enough to attract a full Seed round?

Seed Stage 82

Seed Stage Finance Later Stage Equity 82

K9 Ventures

APRIL 9, 2014

Instead, it was more of a result of over-funding at the seed stage. There was simply too much money coming in to the seed stage, which increased the supply of companies at the seed stage. Threshold for an IPO is higher Ten years ago, if you had $20M in revenue you were ready to go public.

Mezzanine 134

Mezzanine Seed Stage Early Stage IPO 134

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I recently got together with Aaron Shechet and an early stage startup to discuss the direction the company might want to take. We have a number of startups (or pre-startups) that we are helping get launched. Any thoughts on my recent post Startup Metrics ? Any thoughts on my recent post Startup Metrics ?

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

We expanded to Houston, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles within months, and we were generally doing all the things and seeing all the things that a startup needed to do and see in order to feel good about VC funding prospects. startups with billion-dollar valuations) in recent years. It’s not my goal to bash anyone.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

He has done incredibly well financially on his past two startups, and he’s now building his 3rd company. Then I asked him about his metrics, which are good, but they are were not at series A level. Also, to be clear, pre-seed doesn’t mean that one just thought up an idea yesterday and has done nothing.

Pre-Money Valuation 90

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 90

Women Entrepreneurs Can

MAY 9, 2019

Early on in any startup is more often than not filled with the unknown. There’s a ton of questions, but one thing is for certain: it is thrilling to see your little startup start to come into its own. How can you market on a shoestring budget? How will you reach your target market? Solid Organizational Processes.

Programming 40

Programming Sweat Equity Startup Private Equity 40

Hippoland

JUNE 26, 2016

But, for most companies, it will cover something like this (not necessarily in this order): Problem Solution / Your Product Traction / Your Unit Metrics Team Market Problem - Interestingly, most people glance over this slide. I’m a seed investor – what would I expect? Tl;dr - tout your unit metrics.

Email 91

Email Seed Stage Cofounder Demand 91

Hippoland

AUGUST 31, 2018

He has done incredibly well financially on his past two startups, and he’s now building his 3rd company. Then I asked him about his metrics, which are good, but they are were not at series A level. Also, to be clear, pre-seed doesn’t mean that one just thought up an idea yesterday and has done nothing.

Pre-Money Valuation 48

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Early Stage 48

Agile VC

MARCH 18, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Costolo clearly wants to position Twitter as a complementary part of the media ecosystem (which it is by and large) rather than a competitor, and there remains a chance that Twitter will have other forms of revenue besides ads. March 18, 2012.

Media 113

Media Advertising Silicon Valley Revenue 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Industry change allows the entry of newer players at earlier stages – It doesn’t take as much money to launch a startup anymore. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going. If you invest it in startups you’re a VC professional money manager. We all know that.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

And yes, this post may seem self-serving, since I work at a seed-stage investment fund. Money at a startup is kind of like cash in your wallet—it gets spent. Historically, that was one where the business was clear and there was some initial revenue, even if slight. Drive one key metric. Got some dough? Is it users?

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 5, 2012

Usually financial metrics are pretty sparse at early stages and investors have a hard time giving companies “credit” for steady, linear progress. For seed stage companies, typically, it’s about: Compelling founder(s). Small but accelerating revenue growth (often in the $50K-$100K range monthly).

Business Model 65

Business Model Seed Stage Valuation Vertical 65

grasshopperherder.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

I think it’s difficult, if not impossible, to value a pre-revenue company with any reasonable accuracy. If there is traction, ok…there are some benchmarks and you can look at seed stage funding rounds. Unseen Metrics. Would you invest in a company that didn’t know it’s own metrics?

Sweat Equity 41

Sweat Equity Equity Cofounder Non-Compete 41