View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. At NextView, for instance, one of our more popular posts centers on atypical seed rounds to know. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. What are some pros and cons?

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Over the past five years, we’ve witnessed an Atomization of the Seed Stage. Early fundraising is no longer a one-and-done fundraise of a single round of Seed capital subsequently followed by a Series A 12–18 months later. Seed stage startups are now graded on a curve. raise $1.8M

Seed Stage 136

Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Both companies generate direct revenue from their platform in the form of a revenue share / platform tax (typically 30%) on software and digital goods sold through the respective platforms. Apple generated nearly $130B in revenue in 2011.

Java 170

Java Flash Software Azure 170

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. Limited Partners or LPs (the people who invest into VC funds) have taken notice as 2014 is by all accounts the busiest year for LPs since the Great Recession began. The “big boom” in startup financing started around March 2009?—?more more than 5 years ago?—?and

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

AUGUST 19, 2021

Elizabeth Yin is the co-founder and General Partner of a venture capital firm that, and I quote from their website, invests in “hilariously early startups” Hustle Fund typically invests $25,000 as a starting point into startups that have yet to show any revenues.

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Founder Partner Venture Capital Cofounder 98

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.

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Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

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

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We had another solid year filled with learning, growth, laughter, and new projects and partners. Thanks to all of the amazing founders, advisors, co-investors, corporate partners, and others that helped make 2018 an amazing year. Welcome to our annual boldstart recap and enterprise predictions letter. First check to Series B?—?congrats

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. That’s money that fuels our startup ecosystems. Another Area of Concern is in the Seed Investor Class.

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Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

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.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 232

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 232

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. How They Make Money: Majority of Kayak’s revenue actually comes from advertising on their site (55%), not lead generation or referral fees to travel suppliers as you might think (more on this below). Distribution revenue is CPC and CPA. .

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

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

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. However, our overall goal is to invest in the full spectrum of seed. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early.

North America 36

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 36

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

Angel Investor 184

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers Private Equity 184

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

Matching 120

Matching Angel Investor Intellectual Property Investment Bankers 120

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.

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Seed Stage Retention Restful Valuation 166

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 22, 2012

You have a million things to get done at your startup, yet you only have a handful of people to do them. What is the Minimum Viable Team, if you will, for a startup? I can break down all the things a startup needs to do into three ideal people. Now we’re down to nine core business functions on a small startup team.

PR 144

PR Technical Review Seed Stage Design 144

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

– a seed-stage fund. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. Direct Revenue : The company must have a direct revenue model. I would like to take a moment to thank K9′s Limited Partners for their support of this first fund.

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Seed Stage San Francisco IP Portfolio 61

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. Which each stage of your growth, your valuation is moving up along the way.

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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.

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Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Valuation 166

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”? especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? And why do we still sometimes hear about pre-seed rounds that look more like a series A in pricing and size? Defining the pre-seed round It’s futile to look for ‘one true’ definition.

Valuation 186

Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

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

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

Most impressively, there seems to be a thriving startup of every flavor, with many more joining the list of Pillar Startups on the Guide in 2016 compared to 2015. Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year. To name a few: 1.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Direct Revenue : The company must have a way of getting direct revenue from its customers (“I deliver value to you, you pay me”).

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

K9 Ventures

JULY 19, 2012

which was a $6.25M fund designed to be deployed over 3-4 years, making initial investments between $100K – $250K in concept and seed stage technology companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Direct Revenue : The company must have a way of getting direct revenue from its customers (“I deliver value to you, you pay me”).

Technology 132

Technology Seed Stage San Francisco Limited Partner 132

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC funds) called Fort Washington. They’ve been a long-term investor in our fund – GRP Partners – and it was important to me to spend time with them in their home market and meet the people with whom they deal locally. In that sense it felt very LA.

Houston 364

Houston Dallas Los Angeles Chicago 364

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 21, 2016

We’re all happy in the Forward Partners office this morning because one of our partner companies has just sent an update showing they’ve been growing at 30% per week for the last fourteen weeks. But it got me thinking about the trade off between short term clarity and long term upside in seed stage investing.

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Seed Stage Venture Capital eCommerce Partner 60

Agile VC

AUGUST 22, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Odds Are, Your Startup Probably Isn’t a Platform. I have the great privilege of meeting lots of entrepreneurs every day and hearing about the startups they’re building. But the reality is that most software-based startups aren’t really platforms. Not Dropbox.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Startup Syndicate 113

Agile VC

JANUARY 27, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Something has clearly changed within the last 5-6 years in terms of the speed with which monster startups are created in the software and internet space. Multi-billion dollar valuations for late stage startups like Dropbox, et al. Are Google-Scale Outcomes More Frequent?

Hockey Stick 113

Hockey Stick Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 113

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. I wanted to touch on ‘golazo’ as it’s my fault we use this strange verbiage, but also a critical element we look for in all the startups we invest in. Simply put… startups that have golazo potential. February 7, 2012.

South Korea 124

South Korea Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate 124

The Equity Kicker

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Some very early stage investors go as far as to say that for them team is everything. At Forward Partners we don’t go that far. With seed stage investments and later it’s usually obvious how value will be created – by maintaining current growth in revenues or engagement.

Seed Stage 60

Seed Stage Later Stage Early Stage Partner 60

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

In this post, I wanted to deconstruct the various pieces of the flywheel that drives the Creator Economy, as well as the challenges, and opportunities for startups in this space. Source: A16Z, 1,000 true fans? The new Creators. ” Eric Feng. There’s always going to be a tension between the creator and the platform.

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Aggregator Vertical Audience Seed Stage 207

Agile VC

JANUARY 12, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Good investors try to be clear in terms of what they look for in terms of progress and milestones of the startups they invest in. As I’ve stated before, I’m a big believer in being deliberate and explicit in startup fundraising.

Seed Stage 100

Seed Stage Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 100

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. While in law school, my partner, Leigh, and I had a concept for a law firm that did more than just “law.” We have a number of startups (or pre-startups) that we are helping get launched.

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Los Angeles Southern California Startup SEO 150

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

So fundraising time needs to be taken into account, as well as potential offsetting of expenses by revenue, though here, the most conservative of estimates is best. I suspect that the 18-month rule originated because that’s the approximate average time it takes for startups to reach an important value-inflection milestone.

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Seed Capital Seed Stage Demand Finance 120

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

When Homebrew launched two years ago, Satya and I knew that smart hardware was going to be important to our Bottom Up Economy thesis but also that neither of us yet had meaningful experience working alongside the best hardware entrepreneurs at the seed stage where we invest.

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Seed Stage Cofounder Incubator Leadership 48