typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. At Viaweb we got our first $10,000 ofseed money from our friend Julian, but he was sufficiently richthat its hard to say whether he should be classified as a friendor angel. MORE >>

Community is more powerful than money or technology » August 11, 2007 How much equity for investors and employees? Should I take Angel or VC money? How much money should I raise? The entrepreneur expects the company to be worth many times this valuation and so does the investor. How much money should I take? MORE >>

You need three things to create a successful startup: to start withgood people, to make something customers actually want, and to spendas little money as possible. The way a startup makes money is to offer people bettertechnology than they have now. Andyet theres a lot of money at stake. This money isnt revenue. Well, no. MORE >>

Valuation is an important aspect of VC deal terms, and a major determinant of your ultimate outcome.  I unexpectedly found that it was more helpful to think about the company valuation as an output variable in the fund-raising equation.  The net effect was more money raised, higher valuation and the same percentage of equity sold.  MORE >>

Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I’d like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money.  . So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing.  . Sub-$2M pre-money, it is better to bootstrap. MORE >>