Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Every town has firms that focus on startups – find them.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Introduction This post originally appeared in the “ Ask the Attorney ” column I am writing for VentureBeat ; it is part of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets. The Investors’ Right to Walk VC Term Sheets Are Non-Binding. VC Term Sheets Are Conditional.

Term Sheet 76

Term Sheet Due Diligence Liquidation Preference Redemption 76

View from Seed

MAY 17, 2019

There are two distinct chapters to venture fundraising – the first is entrepreneurs pitching their startup to multiple firms to generate interest and ultimately secure a term sheet; then, the period after a term sheet has been signed progressing to close.

Term Sheet 149

Term Sheet Reputation Security Conversion 149

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 27, 2014

My father eventually decided on Santa Clara (Saratoga, more specifically), and so I grew up in the shadows of the orchards of Cupertino and the nondescript concrete startup boxes of Santa Clara. Encyclopedic knowledge of term sheets and startup buzzwords can be quickly learned, trained, and packaged.

Los Angeles 138

Los Angeles Southern California Silicon Valley Technical Review 138

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

During the final pre-term sheet due diligence we discovered that the CEO had had a felony arrest for a significant crime that he hadn’t disclosed to us. So consider integrity on my personal list of attributes required to raise money from a reputable, early-stage VC. any guesses what the image is from?).

Technical Review 284

Technical Review Due Diligence Entrepreneur Early Stage 284

Diego Basch

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

I read this story yesterday about a failed startup acquisition. It’s one of the big nightmares of an entrepreneur: Big Company shows interest in Startup. Startup day-to-day is disrupted during the lengthy acquisition process. Startup is now much worse off than before: less money, low morale.

Term Sheet 56

Term Sheet Redemption Acquisition Reputation 56

View from Seed

MAY 31, 2023

raising $1M in venture funding for a startup that was liquidated 2. All of them were in the process of re-founding or were already operating their next startup. Inspired by Mike’s reflection, and to better understand an entrepreneur’s perspective, I set out to have conversations of my own with founders who have completed the rebound.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Cofounder Term Sheet Founder 156

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 21, 2023

Because you’ve still only got a handful of people on your team and you’re doing nine jobs—none of which involves creating enough reputation and industry notoriety to get on the radar of an investor quite yet. There’s a term sheet. was a term sheet. If they don’t like it, they can give you a better term sheet.”

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Term Sheet Database Option Pool 78

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2012

A few angel investors have slipped or fallen from their lofty perch, so entrepreneurs must take great care to validate the character and reputation of every prospective investor. If the term sheet process turns to pure torture, it may be time to respectfully bow out. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal.

Angel Investor 281

Angel Investor Term Sheet Entrepreneur Due Diligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2013

A few angel investors have slipped or fallen from their lofty perch, so entrepreneurs must take great care to validate the character and reputation of every prospective investor. If the term sheet process turns to pure torture, it may be time to respectfully bow out. entrepreneur startup investor angels business'

Angel Investor 263

Angel Investor Term Sheet Due Diligence Early Stage 263

View from Seed

MARCH 12, 2015

Here at NextView, we (like all good VCs) encourage founders to ask questions they may have of us, but it’s just the nature of the interaction: We spend the majority of the time talking about the founders’ startup, not the VC firm. Talk to Your Startup Friends. So how can entrepreneurs do research on us VCs?

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Cofounder SEC Portfolio 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2010

A few angel investors have slipped or fallen from their lofty perch, so entrepreneurs must take great care to validate the character and reputation of every prospective investor. If the term sheet process turns to pure torture, it may be time to respectfully bow out. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal.

Angel Investor 244

Angel Investor Term Sheet Due Diligence Early Stage 244

David Cohen

MARCH 18, 2019

If they want to invest, they’re going to want to lead and will throw out a term sheet. The person you’re asking doesn’t want the extra responsibility, the extra work, nor the extra risk to their reputation. Let them know they’re wanted. You never have to ask them to be your “lead investor.”

Lead Investor 129

Lead Investor Term Sheet Seed Stage Venture Capital 129

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 26, 2011

He and I have worked together on the Startup Visa initiative. I generally try and stay away from topics like "how to raise VC" or "how to sell your company" because the startup landscape is already saturated with tips and tricks. And reading a term sheet has all the entertainment value of watching dried paint get even drier.

Antidilution 148

Antidilution Term Sheet Silicon Valley Widget 148

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. It shows a lack of interest.

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

View from Seed

MAY 12, 2015

Start with the firms of whatever city you’re in that have a history of investing in the stage and sector of your startup, then augment with additional firms outside your home geography which may have a strong particular fit with your company. ultimately, a term sheet) when pitching any given firm? Always think about fit.

Partner 120

Partner Term Sheet Reputation Deal Flow 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. I recently had coffee with a young friend who just finished his first startup. He shut down his company gracefully and even thought it must have felt like a crap sandwich doing so I’ll bet his reputation is still solid with his backers. But he learned.

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

I can’t say it much simpler than this: “What if I took some of the worst, most egregious terms in a standard term sheet and made them the defacto standard in most convertible debt deals? Let me explain it more clearly in equity terms. Some thoughts on raising angel money. That’s right.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

And they should be; the feeding frenzy in the innovation economy is in some cases because startups are eating the lunch of more established companies. Corporate venture groups are making it easier for startups to access this talent by setting up learning and co-working spaces on their premises.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I believe these VC funds have suffered some amount of reputation fall out. We used the Y Combinator open source term sheet. We signed the term sheet within 48 hours and had funded in under 2 weeks. Great reputation. If you accept my terms you’re done. They elected to sign my term sheet.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

Seed investors trip over themselves to get a look at the latest YCombinator deals and the entreprenuers in the hottest companies are in the drivers seat on terms. Unfortunately, that’s really not the case for most startups. The investor water cooler occasionally falls victim to reputation racketeering. It’s a bit like dating.

Equity 104

Equity Term Sheet Seed Stage Angel Investor 104

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

They are people who are persuasive (see point 3 below), who compile relevant facts and who are willing to put their reputations on the line to get a deal done. And frankly if you do get a term sheet one day these are the people you’ll be working with so the more you know them (and their reputation) the better.

Partner 308

Partner Term Sheet Sales Portfolio 308

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A 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. Few startups get it quite right. 1 ] A startups life will be more complicated, legally, if any of theinvestors arent accredited.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2021

On the other hand, when negotiating a financing for your company, you should never present your term sheet first. Remember, your lawyer is a reflection of you, so check their reputation and style, as well as their win-loss record. Always wait for the investor to play his hand. Next, make sure you listen more than you talk.

Term Sheet 328

Term Sheet Bootstrapping Finance Startup 328

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

He lamented that if the meetings with this venture firm soon led to a term sheet, he’ll be faced with a tough problem of a binary decision – take whatever they offer him (which was likely too much money for what the company needs now at not a great price) or risk losing any funding options. Fair enough.

Early Stage 123

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 123

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

The Truth About Building Startups from msuster. As a startup founder you rarely have much money in your bank accounts. I recently had coffee with a young friend who just finished his first startup. But why don’t you just give me the damn term sheet you promised so I can trust you even more. Entrepreneurshit.

Monaco 122

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 122

Genuine VC

MARCH 25, 2010

He lamented that if the meetings with this venture firm soon led to a term sheet, he’ll be faced with a tough problem of a binary decision – take whatever they offer him (which was likely too much money for what the company needs now at not a great price) or risk losing any funding options. Fair enough.

Early Stage 121

Early Stage Venture Capital Term Sheet Conversion 121

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Company B had already lined up a significant funding round ($20 million) from some of the most elite VCs on Sand Hill Road but hadn’t signed the term sheet. My gut says that she came 70% as a spoiler for Company A and 30% because GRP has a great reputation in this space.

Entrepreneur 296

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Term Sheet France 296

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Startups in NextView’s portfolio frequently receive inbound interest from other VC investors who are intrigued about what they’re doing, and I often talk with other early-stage entrepreneurs how to approach similar situations. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC.

Early Stage 100

Early Stage Syndicate Syndication Silicon Valley 100

Rob Go

JULY 17, 2014

As former operators and product-oriented entrepreneurs, Dave, Lee, and I tend to think of our firm as a startup company and our approach to investing as our product. 2) Is your reputation in the market such that great people will want to work with you? 1) How is the portfolio performing? Does our strategy still resonate?

Seed Stage 69

Seed Stage Early Stage Due Diligence Liquidity Event 69

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 23, 2015

Although the way we spend our days are different than the teams we’ve backed, Homebrew started in Jan 2013 with the goal of feeling like a startup, just one which writes checks instead of code. 3 is the most important – all goodness as an investor at our stage starts with a great reputation among founders.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Term Sheet Metrics .Net 48

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

It has many stylistic errors — and a few substantive ones, too — that I would now change having learned more, but I realized that it still provides useful insights for entrepreneurs and startup participants outside of the Greylock network, particularly across three areas of interest: how entrepreneurs should approach the pitch process.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

As the bull market raged on from 2015 to 2022, it became quite trendy for venture capitalists to wave the requirement for an annual audit which is embedded in almost every standard Series A term sheet. Silicon Valley (and most large US cities) are full of lawyers who have ample startup experience. Without naming names, some U.S.

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Non-Compete Government Delaware 113

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.” Next came Rolfe Winkler’s deep dive “ Highly Valued Startup Zenefits Runs Into Turbulence. ”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 22, 2018

Let them know exactly why you're turning them down and what they can do to improve their pitch--lest they think you're simply not funding them for who they are, which can be super discouraging for them and create a bad reputation for you. I offered a term sheet to lead a $1.6mm financing. Overly simplistic?

Founder 100

Founder Conversion Naming Term Sheet 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2019

On the other hand, when negotiating a financing for your company, you should never present your term sheet first. Remember, your lawyer is a reflection of you, so check their reputation and style, as well as their win-loss record. Always wait for the investor to play his hand. Next, make sure you listen more than you talk.

Term Sheet 201

Term Sheet Bootstrapping Finance Reputation 201

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2011

On the other hand, when negotiating a financing for your company, you should never present your term sheet first. Remember, your lawyer is a reflection of you, so check their reputation and style, as well as their win-loss record. Always wait for the investor to play his hand. Next, make sure you listen more than you talk.

Term Sheet 232

Term Sheet Bootstrapping Finance Startup 232