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. Follow the money.

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. To that end I’m really excited to share that Nick Kim has joined Upfront as a Partner based out of our LA offices. Please follow him & welcome him to Upfront!!

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

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

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. Will our strategy change now that we have 40% more capital? . We raised $280 million.

Las Vegas 396

Las Vegas St. Louis Southern California San Diego 396

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MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Current round: $35mm in Series C (extension of Series B at higher valuation) from General Atlantic, Matrix Partners. OTHER DEALS: 1. Total raised: $15.0mm.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

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MAY 24, 2018

VC Partnerships Start by understanding how many partners are at the firm you are approaching. It’s pretty easy since nearly every VC lists its partners on the website. Some firms are trickier since they artificially call everybody “partner” but they’re not all “investment partners.” How many partners are there?

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Term Sheet 314

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

It was only a year ago that many in the Venture Capital industry were predicting that “winter was coming” and to be fair the author of this post was chief amongst them. While this it total FDI as opposed to just venture, it should give you an indication of the international trend. Baidu alone raised $3.2

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Saudi Arabia Kuwait Burn Rate 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had really positive experiences such as working with Greg Gretsch at Sigma Partners where he championed us to a partners’ meeting where we sort of got crucified. We made changes and Greg was a gentleman throughout the process rather than berating us for our performance (it was our first partners’ meeting).

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

just having a sparring partner with a vested interest in your success can be useful. Others may not have the experience you want and they fill up a seat that makes retaining founder control more difficult if you ultimately raise large rounds of venture capital in the future. What happens at the A-round of venture capital?

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

After years of trying to persuade Kara Nortman to become a partner at Upfront Ventures I can officially announce now that she’s joined us effective immediately. It is rare to find somebody who matches exactly what I’m looking for in a partner so when you find it you act: Academic rigor (Princeton undergrad, Stanford MBA).

Partner 408

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles Baltimore 408

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2016

And if you do happen to be lucky and find the right mountain to climb, if you find that you’ve started ascending the peak before others have found the right trail — then venture capital is for you. But you need to understand venture economics. And unless they have enormous outcomes it’s nearly impossible to hit this goal.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital San Francisco Startup Limited Partner 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened?

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

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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). But it still takes VC to scale a business (thus large capital into industry winners like Uber, Airbnb, SnapChat, etc).

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. In 2010 somebody posed the question on Quora, “Is Mark Suster a Successful Venture Capitalist?” That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. 5 years ago.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

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JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. 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. Let’s start with the fund.

Los Angeles 343

Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 343

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SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! It’s ok to raise venture capital and try to build a monster business.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

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APRIL 13, 2011

Yeah, that was when I changed for me…” “…there was so much positive feedback on demystifying this one element of venture capital. And especially if you are dealing with early stage firms where partners might have different areas of specialization but they might have a lot of connective tissue across things. was starting.

Technical Review 288

Technical Review Venture Capital Silicon Valley Software Review 288

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. Here’s my advice: Don’t reveal your “skeletons&# in the first meeting but you need to tell your sponsoring partner before the full partner meeting. In this particular case – I’m right. I don’t think so.

Technical Review 311

Technical Review Venture Capital Due Diligence Partner 311

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. This is exactly the brand that GRP Partners wants to embody. We knew he had to be an investment partner. We settled on Venture Partner as is now being reported and also picked up here.

Partner 360

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles San Francisco 360

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Investors: Foundation Capital (lead), with existing investors: Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners. Investors: FirstMark Capital (Amish Jani)(lead), with existing investors: Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Reid Hoffman.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Social Network Angel Investor Chad 265

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SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

I am thrilled to announce that we have added Hamet Watt as a Partner at Upfront Ventures. But as sweet as that success has been (we invested pre-revenue in a small team) today my even more important news was the further expansion of our partner ranks. We have been on a drive to add more operational partners.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I’m not even talking about your 12-page Powerpoint presentation that you need to raise venture capital or to talk with potential biz dev partners.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

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APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. Box.net ( raised $15 million led by Scale Venture Partners and included DFJ and USVP. Talked about the roles of partners, venture partners, associates and principals in a VC. -

Venture Capital 232

Venture Capital IPO Valuation Deal Flow 232

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Raising Venture Capital Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Dividend 289

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? What Does this Mean for a Venture Capital Firm?

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

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APRIL 2, 2010

This is part of my series on Understanding Venture Capital. And funds also have investments from the partners of the firm. For example, my firm, GRP Partners, has a $200 million fund that was closed in March 2009 and we have 4 investment partners. So VCs often raise money every 3-5 years if they can.

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Early Stage Software Review 269

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2010

GRP Partners is looking to hire two analysts (maybe even three) to join our practice in Los Angeles. And none of our partners actually worked for any of these firms. I’m already 2 weeks late in writing this blog post as my partners keep reminding me. It’s often a combination of luck, relationships & timing.

Los Angeles 290

Los Angeles Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 290

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing Raising Venture Capital (VC) series. When people refer to a strategic investor they are usually talking about an investor that comes from the industry you serve as opposed to an independent venture capital investor. The reality is that their core business is not venture capital.

Strategic Investors 279

Strategic Investors Venture Capital Due Diligence Early Stage 279

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JULY 16, 2010

The VC industry grew dramatically as a result of the Internet bubble - Before the Internet bubble the people who invested in VC funds (called LPs or Limited Partners) put about $50 billion into the industry and by 2001 this had grown precipitously to around $250 billion. Partners leave the industry. Here’s my take: 1.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

The biggest difference I cite is that Venture Capital often feels like an “individual sport” while startups are a “team sport.” I mention all of this because this has been a journey that we at Upfront Ventures have thought a lot about over the years. It was more hedge fund than venture capital.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Jordan Los Angeles Technical Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Actually, it came through an introduction from our friends at Partners Group who knew that the company was raising capital. The fact that Seedling had never raised venture capital made the deal 10x easier and the fact that they were going to be raising money on their own meant that the VCs had an important role to play.

Merger 296

Merger Southern California eCommerce New Zealand 296

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DECEMBER 7, 2014

In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). And that perhaps some of the past actions could also involve mistakes you have made.

Software Review 341

Software Review Customer Technical Review LP 341

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

My job as a VC isn’t to beat myself up or any other partner up for the one deal we didn’t do. . $12m on a $60m for an early-stage business is a not a bet that most LA firms could or would take. I don’t feel badly about that — there are hundreds of other bets like that which don’t pay off. Any other angle is just sour grapes.

IPO 214

IPO Los Angeles Technical Review Silicon Valley 214

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Venture Capital is a tricky industry. And rather than a small group of our partners and associates all thinking it’s a good idea we don’t mind if there is strong internal debate and at Upfront there often is. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea.

Technical Review 362

Technical Review America Partner United States 362

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Traction can simply mean showing that you’re making progress with customers, product development, channel partners, initial revenue as a proof point, attracting well-known angel investors, winning industry awards / recognition. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital. Neither is the norm.

Technical Review 309

Technical Review Term Sheet Venture Capital Revenue 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. In the Early Days.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Union Square Ventures (USV) has been one of the most successful venture capital firms of the past 10–15 years and continues to be a leader in our industry. Lindel is no stranger to thorny venture capital issues — he was arguably amongst the most successful LPs of his generation. Maybe that’s USV, too.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161