View from Seed

DECEMBER 6, 2018

And seed VCs, especially as new firms were being established, were eager to encourage their portfolio startups to plant that flag in the ground publicly. It seemed like every other TechCrunch post was announcing a startups’s new seed financing round. Fast forward and that situation has now dramatically changed.

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Seed Stage Stealth Seed Capital Later Stage 201

View from Seed

JANUARY 28, 2015

In the last six months, we’ve been asked and answered several key questions about seed-stage startups and raising seed capital. All we do is seed — we focus on it, we want to be the best seed partner, and we obsess over helping startups through that first, formative 18-24 month period.

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Seed Stage Seed Capital IPO Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

On the other hand, the best firms have developed strategies to capture more value while their best portfolio companies stay private. In reality the “private capital market” now really consists of three distinct markets: Seed capital (the start), Venture capital (scale or bust) and Growth Capital (private IPOs).

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital IPO Mezzanine Early Stage 292

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 11, 2021

Which leads us to the fundamental difference between, say, a small self-funded online therapy practice and one that has taken millions of dollars in seed capital: the latter can acquire a larger number of patients much faster using investment dollars for both customer acquisition and to subsidize the economics of serving those clients.

Startup 124

Startup Venture Capital Seed Capital Software 124

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

If you hit one or two right, you can make a fortune in seed. And if you don’t hit one or two right, you end up with a mediocre portfolio. The seed “territory” is critical, indeed, and now that folks realize how important it is, there is a fight for that turf. But those bets take a long time to get liquid.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 28, 2017

Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer — more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. Need for growth capital. A company that can successfully raise money in an ICO may never need venture capital again.

Early Stage 20

Early Stage Equity Venture Capital Government 20

Genuine VC

MARCH 24, 2014

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

VC Adventure

APRIL 22, 2014

Here are what I think are the 4 keys to a successful angel investment strategy: 1) Take a portfolio view of angel investing- put aside a pool of money and plan to make 10 or more investments. Your job is to put in seed capital. The company’s job is to grow the business and find new capital. You should be in love.

Seed Capital 93

Seed Capital Portfolio Startup Marketing 93

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. The Renminbi funds have fewer restrictions on what industries the fund can invest in, less regulatory oversight and access to listing a portfolio company in China.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

View from Seed

OCTOBER 21, 2014

As the seed-stage startup fundraise process has received more transparency in recent years, ranging from published advice on how to raise seed capital to increased availability through AngelList, Funders Club, and various accelerator programs, I’ve noticed another trend emerging. There’s No Black or White.

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Valuation Founder Seed Stage Angel Investor 336

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. The Renminbi funds have fewer restrictions on what industries the fund can invest in, less regulatory oversight and access to listing a portfolio company in China.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

VC Adventure

APRIL 22, 2014

Here are what I think are the 4 keys to a successful angel investment strategy: 1) Take a portfolio view of angel investing- put aside a pool of money and plan to make 10 or more investments. Your job is to put in seed capital. The company’s job is to grow the business and find new capital. You should be in love.

Seed Capital 48

Seed Capital Portfolio Startup Marketing 48

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 6, 2019

I’ve come down to Argentina with my friend and portfolio company CEO, Wences Casares , the founder of Xapo. Wences and I have served on the board of Endeavor together, which enables high impact entrepreneurship around the world. My quintessential teacher here is Wences.

Argentina 36

Argentina Global Silicon Valley South America 36

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Today, NextView Ventures is excited to release a pillar project in our Growth Guides series: pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. For context, last year, based on questions from our existing portfolio, we launched two board deck templates for seed-stage startups. What makes a great pitch deck ?

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Seed Stage Startup Seed Capital Audience 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The best case I’ve seen is our portfolio company Osmo who had already built the product but used crowd-funding to handle inventory management, supply-chain logistics and perfecting the final version of the product. Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital.

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PR Venture Capital Hiring Seed Capital 319

Hippoland

DECEMBER 15, 2015

In late 2008, I was about to turn in my 2 week resignation at Google to start a company when Sequoia sent out a presentation to their portfolio companies. 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.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Angel Investor Bootstrapping Startup 48

Business Plan Blog

JANUARY 2, 2014

Meanwhile, Angel groups can benefit from gathering additional partners and co-investors, recruiting and engaging new local angers, seeing new deal flow, and giving first look to a broader network of accredited investors to help close out portfolio deals. Download our free Raising Capital from Angel Investors eBook. Want To Learn More?

Angel Groups 51

Angel Groups Accredited Investor Angel Investor Due Diligence 51

thebarefootvc

MARCH 8, 2012

While the seed capital gap has closed, there are still only a handful of venture capital firms here in NYC investing in the crucial Series A/B rounds. In contrast, many Silicon Valley funds are large with much capital to put to work (which is why we are seeing them lead NYC deals at these stages).

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Ghana Venture Capital India 69

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Another thing I noticed was that I was now referring companies that I had invested in at a “pre-seed” (capitalization intentional) stage over to folks who would previously be considered my peer venture funds doing Seed-stage investments. Your early stage investment portfolio may no longer really be early stage.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

The rounds were conducted from 2008 to 2010, starting from seed capital. These results were obtained after the following rounds of financing of more than 1000 technology companies in the United States. Only 46% of these companies were able to raise enough for the second round of financing.

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Venture Capital Cofounder Finance United States 77

Growthink Blog

MAY 23, 2011

With this seed capital – more often than not totaling between $100,000 and $1,000,000 - the company accomplishes a number of key technical milestones, gets a beta customer or two, and then goes on a "road show" to venture capitalists around the country for capital to “scale” the business. Venture capitalists Cut Tough Deals.

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Angel Investor Venture Capital Sweat Equity Cram Down 112

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. The bar for Series A has moved. How much time has elapsed since company founding.

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Seed Stage Post-Money Valuation Valuation Startup 136

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

So I recently re-shared a 2019 blog post where I’d basically advised founders who’ve raised seed capital to worry less about “how will I raise the next round” and more about “how will I execute my plan?” Highlighted Homebrew Portfolio Jobs. and @isadwatson. Notes and More. Thank you for voting! Things I’m Enjoying.

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Founder Cofounder Metrics Technical Review 124

Software By Rob

JANUARY 8, 2019

We are happy to speak with you at any revenue level, but somewhere in the $150k-range is when founders may start to look for seed capital. We need a structure that allows our investors to get a fair return without the potential of finding a unicorn in the portfolio (otherwise investors will simply stop backing companies like yours).

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Valuation Seed Capital Revenue 46

Rob Go

MAY 2, 2016

One reason is that smaller seeds lead to more speed before PMF. This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s something I’ve seen in our own portfolio. I think this is because smaller seeds lead to smaller teams. But as valuations are becoming more rational, big seed rounds are increasingly more and more dilutive.

Seed Stage 28

Seed Stage Dilution Valuation Seed Capital 28

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Raising Seed Capital – crowdspring.co/MX18CE. don’t return investors’ capital” – crowdspring.co/1dhuwIO. 10 Portfolio Websites that Will Make You Say Wow | 1stwebdesigner – crowdspring.co/1fdEoaA. 10 Portfolio Websites that Will Make You Say Wow | 1stwebdesigner – crowdspring.co/1fdEoaA.

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

One of the things we frequently discuss with founders is how to interpret and manage their dialogue with VCs when raising capital. We’ve written before on how to research partners , how to pitch the right investor at a given firm, and how to raise seed capital , generally speaking.

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Term Sheet Due Diligence Seed Stage Seed Capital 120

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Only a few funds have really found ways to create meaningful leverage for themselves as they scale and build large portfolios over time. The second issue is that many seed funds have expanded their teams to address capacity constraints. Groups like 500 Startups, and SV Angel continue to build very large portfolios.

Seed Stage 55

Seed Stage Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Early Stage 55

VC Cafe

JULY 5, 2010

A s venture funds struggle to raise money in Israel, seed capital, one of the earliest and riskiest stages of investment, is becoming harder and harder to secure. Secondly, we are selling a fixed investment product – a fixed number of investors, a fixed buy-in and a fixed number of portfolio companies.

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Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage 106

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Kapor Capital’s expansive portfolio includes Bit.ly Brad Feld: Feld is co-founder and managing director of Foundry Group, a Boulder, Colorado venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. He also sits on the board of the Mozilla Foundation and created Second Life.

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Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

Their business models are, in many cases, focused on outlier exits within the portfolio. Note that many were included in our pitch deck templates for raising seed capital. This is important partly because of the very nature of pitching VCs. You can find those here. ).

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Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Researchers divided the portfolio companies into six stages and startups are still operating a loss in each of the first four. Those categories represent roughly 84% of all portfolio companies. One independent expert on the VC industry told me recently that there really is no “venture capital” today, only “continuation capital.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62