Genuine VC

JULY 10, 2012

There are essentially two distinct basic strategies for startup entrepreneurs to raise a seed round of capital: Subscription approach – An entrepreneur sets a structure (usually a convertible note) and recruits individual angel investors who subscribe to the round, all without a term-driving lead investor.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Portfolio 207

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Whether a startup’s initial Seed round is comprised of individual angels, seed-focused funds, larger VCs , or some combination of the three, when it’s time for the entrepreneur to raise a true Series A round, of course the goal is run a process to “optimize” it.

Valuation 154

Valuation LP Boston Partner 154

Genuine VC

JANUARY 13, 2014

Partners who would be interested in a potential investment are distracted by other new investments, portfolio companies, and personal matters. And that’s assuming a particular partner & firm is sincerely interested… it can take a number of meetings for them and especially the entrepreneur to truly suss that conclusion out.

Term Sheet 206

Term Sheet Venture Capital Valuation Portfolio 206

Genuine VC

JULY 9, 2013

Although these startups are very diverse businesses themselves, they face similar requirements (especially in that they’re currently all in the seed to Series B range of company stage). We would have loved to have it when we were getting started.”

Early Stage 246

Early Stage Boston Portfolio Silicon Valley 246

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

A couple years ago, my partner Lee penned a blog post about the milestone benchmarks for startups raising a Series A round of financing. There really isn’t a hard and fast prescription for start-ups to follow after they’ve raised their Seed round, so what’s a startup to do? Just plow ahead blindly and hope for the best?

Seed Capital 212

Seed Capital Metrics Cofounder Revenue 212

Genuine VC

JULY 30, 2012

Sharing these expectations early in potential lead investor discussions fundamentally qualifies the conversations, but it also runs the risk of prematurely losing a potential financing partner or reducing options to maximize a financing process outcome. It’s like opening a job interview by sharing salary requirements.

Valuation 136

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Syndicate 136

Genuine VC

AUGUST 3, 2012

The company’s familiarity is along what we consider to be the three most important criteria for an investment in a seed-stage startup – team, market, and product: Team – Two of the co-founders were well-known to the NextView partnership years before a line of code was even written.

Seed Stage 199

Seed Stage Cofounder Portfolio Curation 199

Genuine VC

JUNE 27, 2012

Eggs Benedict – VC partner who just had a monster exit and is in the mood to celebrate. Along the way, I’ve noticed that there’s a pattern to what VCs order which shows what kind of VC he is.

Portfolio 248

Portfolio Venture Capital Networking Conversion 248

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Like a lot of students, I went into business school a decade ago with a set plan to start a company coming straight after graduation in co-founding an internet startup (… again ). MBAs are notorious for sheep-herding towards a particular category of startups (recently, daily deals and online new e-retailing).

Cofounder 256

Cofounder Portfolio Venture Capital Reputation 256

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. They will have the ability to “see” the opportunity that the startup is going after unlike anyone else, save the entrepreneur because they inherently get the space.

Angel Investor 257

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 257

Genuine VC

MARCH 16, 2015

A couple weeks ago my colleague Dimitri Dadiomov published a post on NextView’s “View From Seed” blog which answered the question “Should we take Harvard MBAs Seriously as Startup Founders?” From the group, over 260 founders have launched around 90 startups, raising more than $2.5B in capital.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Stealth Warrant Venture Capital 100

Genuine VC

APRIL 12, 2012

We have and will continue to fund young entrepreneurs in their twenties – and as my partner Rob Go likes to say, we’re proud of it. Subtly behind that question is often one about the experience-level of the founders. The answer, however, doesn’t fit into a neat soundbite.

Vertical 144

Vertical Portfolio Search Internet 144

Genuine VC

JANUARY 22, 2014

My partner Rob wrote bit more on his blog about our motivations for adding our first new team member at NextView Ventures — a Director of Platform and Community. Active contributor to the Boston entrepreneurial community with extensive network across technology startups.

Community 113

Community Boston Seed Stage Venture Capital 113

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

All five of them (Authentic, Blank Canvas, Golazo, Invited Guest, & Tribe) we’ve listed on our website since it went live a little more than a year ago, and my partners in recent blog posts have discussed in more detail two qualities of our Ethos, Invited Guest and Golazo. At NextView, we aim to be on the far end of the latter side.

Portfolio 114

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 114

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

My partners and I at NextView talk a lot about how fundraising is about finding the true believers rather than convincing the skeptics. You’ve heard feedback that your startup is being perceived as “yet-another-XYZ” company (even if that perception is genuinely unfair). The company has spoken with literally multiple dozens of VC firms.

Search 143

Search Seed Stage Forecast .Net 143

Genuine VC

JULY 26, 2010

One or two players decide (sometimes rather quickly) to make a seed-stage investment in a new startup, and as a round comes together they invite in a number of their Micro VC and angel cohorts. When a Micro VC is working from a relatively smaller pool of capital (usually less than $25M per partner), it would prefer to spread risk out further.

Syndicate 128

Syndicate Syndication Due Diligence Seed Stage 128

Genuine VC

JANUARY 17, 2011

Last summer, I along with my partners announced that we were forming a new micro venture capital firm. ” First and foremost, we are dedicated seed-stage investors focused on investments in internet-enabled startups. I’d encourage you to follow both his blog and my partner Rob’s as we share our story.?.

Seed Stage 125

Seed Stage Boston Early Stage New York 125

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. We enter meetings with entrepreneurs not looking for reasons to say no, but rather with the hope of hearing a story which is truly exciting.

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 167

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

All five of them (Authentic, Blank Canvas, Golazo, Invited Guest, & Tribe) we’ve listed on our website since it went live a little more than a year ago, and my partners in recent blog posts have discussed in more detail two qualities of our Ethos, Invited Guest and Golazo. At NextView, we aim to be on the far end of the latter side.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 100

Genuine VC

APRIL 12, 2012

We have and will continue to fund young entrepreneurs in their twenties – and as my partner Rob Go likes to say, we’re proud of it. Subtly behind that question is often one about the experience-level of the founders. The answer, however, doesn’t fit into a neat soundbite.

Vertical 109

Vertical Portfolio Search Internet 109

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

Evaluating a startup as a prospective employee is tough, especially when you compare to VCs. 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. On one hand, of course, you’re joining a startup for the upside.

Startup 146

Startup Burn Rate Technical Review Down Round 146

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

I had coffee with an entrepreneur friend the other day who is in the early stages of putting a company together, and he recounted how his informal conversations with a venture capitalist had quickly escalated into a full partner pitch in just a few weeks. Fair enough.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 123

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

I had coffee with an entrepreneur friend the other day who is in the early stages of putting a company together, and he recounted how his informal conversations with a venture capitalist had quickly escalated into a full partner pitch in just a few weeks. Fair enough.

Early Stage 121

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 121

Genuine VC

MAY 1, 2014

In the intervening years while I pursued a career investing in startups rather than creating them, Josh continued as an entrepreneur starting a handful of companies including early social networking site Sconex, successfully sold to Alloy Media. Back in those Web 1.0

Cofounder 118

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Social Network 118

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2012

Addressing both of those issues can stem from the motivations as to why someone would want to put their hard-earned cash into a risky early-stage startup in the first place. They will have the ability to “see” the opportunity that the startup is going after unlike anyone else, save the entrepreneur because they inherently get the space.

Angel Investor 128

Angel Investor Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 128

Genuine VC

AUGUST 3, 2010

During the seed stage where Micro VCs invest, there are three primary diligence factors: Team and individuals – The information discovery here involves conversations with former coworkers, cofounders, partners, investors, and customers. partners); or a multi-stage, a multi-sector, or a multi-country investment strategy.

Seed Stage 123

Seed Stage Cofounder Metrics Forecast 123

Genuine VC

MARCH 8, 2012

In many situations, a startup pitch just lacks that one additional compelling factor that empowers an investor to take that leap of faith… and it’s challenging to crystallize what’s exactly missing. We enter meetings with entrepreneurs not looking for reasons to say no, but rather with the hope of hearing a story which is truly exciting.

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital Portfolio Conversion Partner 103

Genuine VC

JANUARY 5, 2010

Some are former operators and entrepreneurs, so they’ve experienced both sides of the table; some are career VCs who benefit from the pattern recognition of having been involved in so many startups. At the end of the day, all venture capitalists will tell you that they’re above average. Go ahead – ask one. What do you want from your VC?”

Boston 150

Boston Early Stage Venture Capital Operations 150

Genuine VC

JANUARY 5, 2010

Some are former operators and entrepreneurs, so they’ve experienced both sides of the table; some are career VCs who benefit from the pattern recognition of having been involved in so many startups. At the end of the day, all venture capitalists will tell you that they’re above average. Go ahead – ask one. What do you want from your VC?”

Boston 101

Boston Early Stage Venture Capital Operations 101

Genuine VC

JUNE 6, 2012

If you’re meeting in a VC’s office conference room, and you’re an entrepreneur, then the default assumption is you’re pitching your startup. You wouldn’t expect it, but the rarest of locations for a VC meeting are in a startup’s offices. Who knew startup investors would be so averse to actually visiting startups?

Software Review 125

Software Review Conversion Boston Networking 125

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

This year, though, a local startup called Bridj has been making headlines by taking a fundamentally new approach to thinking about mass transportation. The startup utilizes machine learning algorithms to become smarter as more users enter the system, striving towards the goal of a “living, breathing, and thinking” transportation system.

Artificial Inteligence 129

Artificial Inteligence Boston Algorithm Green 129

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Even the most elementary venture capitalist has the privilege of serving on boards of a number of startups. More importantly, a handful of VCs are indeed truly engaged supportive partners with entrepreneurs in building their businesses. MYTH: Entrepreneurs should avoid larger VCs in seed rounds because of “signaling risk.”

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244